The Castle Hotel - Fishguard Square
This prominent building has been occupied by various businesses since at least 1834. For some time prior to this date it is known that the premises, a flourishing hotel and posting establishment, called the Castle Hotel, was run by a Mr Peter Davies.
He seems to have been running it still in 1849 and after that, the next occupant was a medical practitioner, Dr Owen. When Dr Owen left it became a successful grocery store, renamed Castle Stores, which was run for many years by two generations of the same family, Mr. John Griffiths and then his son, Mr W.D Griffiths. In Mr John Griffiths’ time, the window on the the square was a great attraction especially at Christmas time, when the window would be full of boxes of raisins, sultanas and currants and in the centre, large cones of sugar about 30 inches high and 10 inches in diameter. This was chopped up by a cutter before being sold in the required amounts to the customer, and known as loaf or lump sugar. Red apples and oranges made for a colourful display!
Mr W.D Griffiths ran the shop after his father and when he took over Castle Stores he married Miss Mary Llewhelin of Maesgwynne farm. When they retired from the business Mr and Mrs Griffiths went to live in Cardiff to be nearer to some of their children who already lived there.
About 1953, the local depot and showroom of the Electricity board occupied the premises, dealing in a commodity which was unknown in the days when the building was run as a hotel!
In the later 50s and 60s the large premises was a cafe owned by the Conti family ; the cafe was very popular with teenagers and young people because of the “Juke Box”, the first one in Fishguard!
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