Museum shares Bill Saunders' memories of wartime Llangollen

* The late Bill Saunders was stationed in Llangollen while serving with the army in the Second World War.

llanblogger recently reported the death of well-known Llangollen resident Bill Saunders at the age of 99. Here, Llangollen Museum, for which Bill did some valuable work, pays tribute to him.  

They say: "At the Museum we were all very sad to hear about the passing of Bill Saunders. Bill did a lot of valuable work for the Museum, including the recording and photographing of all the memorial inscriptions in the Fron Cemetery.

"We thought that blog readers would be interested to read Bill’s account, written over 20 years ago, of when he came to Llangollen in 1943, when he was stationed at the Bryn Howel and Llangollen during and just after the Second World War."

Bill's recollections ... 

I first came to Llangollen in March 1943 as an apprentice tradesman with the Survey branch of the Royal Engineers. I had joined the army in November 1941 when I was aged 16 and was first stationed at Barton on Sea in Hampshire. In March 1943 we moved to Bryn Howel to be nearer to our parent unit, the Survey Training Centre at Wynnstay, Ruabon. 

Bryn Howel had been requisitioned by the War Office and I was one of the advance party sent  to make the accommodation ready for the rest of the unit. We came up by train, alighted at the Sun Bank halt and walked back along the track to Bryn Howel. 

At this time of course Bryn Howel was still in its original condition as a private house erected by J. C. Edwards and was barely large enough to house around 50 boys and 10 staff plus lecture rooms and the usual offices. Some of the sleeping accommodation was above the stable block. 

Our training as potential cartographers and surveyors consisted of drawing and lettering plus field surveys for which the Vale of Llangollen was eminently suitable. We learnt how to use theodolites to establish trig points on the surrounding hills and then plane tables to plot the map  detail. In addition to our survey training we were subject to the usual military disciplines which included physical training. 

As part of this we formed a gymnastics team which gave displays around the area including one I remember on the old Rec in Llangollen, probably as part of a War Weapons week. We also had a small dance band and in addition to holding dances at Bryn Howel we performed for them in  the Town Hall. I played the trumpet in the band and I looked forward to my break so that I could get down off the stand to dance briefly with my girlfriend (now my wife). Inevitably many friendships formed, particularly with local girls resulting in the fullness of time in several marriages.

The only other army units in the area were a small Royal Artillery unit stationed at Bryntisilio (which operated searchlights I believe) - inevitably known as ‘the Brynti boys’ -  and an Army Medical detachment at The Grange near Plas Newydd where we went for medical attention.

Like most other towns and villages in Britain, Llangollen showed many signs of being involved in the war effort. Most young people had been called up for military service and many of those remaining were ‘doing their bit’ working in factories or in some form of food production. There was the blackout which meant that after dark there was no street lighting nor any lights showing from buildings. 

Food was strictly rationed so the many grocers, butchers and greengrocers in the town had meagre displays and the few cafes which were open could sell little more than cups of tea and baked beans on toast!  Opposite the station in Abbey Road there was a small office of the Ministry of Food which issued ration books. 

The main places of entertainment were the Dorothy  Cinema which gave two performances of the latest films every evening with queues forming on the stairs and the Town Hall where dances were held and concerts given by local artists - such as ‘the oldest vocalist in Llangollen’. 

As mentioned before, Llangollen like most other places in the country participated in the various fund raising weeks such as War Weapons, Dig for Victory, National Savings, Spitfire and Warships  - the resulting plaque for the latter still hangs in the Town Hall. 

The tourist trade was greatly diminished but much of the spare accommodation was taken up evacuees, mainly from Merseyside and also by the staff of Monsanto Chemicals from their headquarters in  London. At weekends there was an influx of servicemen who being stationed at Ruabon, Wrexham and Overton were making their first visit to the Principality. 

However, apart from the name of the town itself and some old sepia postcards in shop windows there was very little sign of Welsh being spoken. One feature which affected visitors was the Sunday closing of public houses. These tended to be men-only affairs into which few women and even fewer children penetrated. 

Pubs were pubs and cafes were cafes and you could drink in one and eat in the other - except on Sundays when visitors had to find the nearest pub over the English border and the locals retired to their various clubs where drink was allowed. The Parish Church and all the chapels were all open of course and well attended. I don’t think that there was a Roman Catholic church in the town as the one in Oak Street took the place of Zans, the hardware store much later.

Petrol was rationed so there were virtually no private vehicles on the road except for those belonging to “essential users” such as doctors etc. As relatively few people owned cars before the war, public transport between the main towns was efficient and taken for granted. Crosville buses ran a half-hourly service to Wrexham and Chester, though the service terminated at the bottom of Wharf Hill as the double decker buses were not allowed over the bridge into the town until many years later. 

The railway station was also very busy with the trains from Barmouth linking up at Ruabon with the Great Western service  from Birkenhead to Paddington. via Birmingham. For shorter journeys walking was the usual mode. From Bryn Howel we would often walk into town along the towpath to save the twopence bus fare or to the summit of the Horseshoe Pass for a Sunday picnic. 

 Although the canal did not carry any traffic at all it was still well maintained. I understand that the railway company who had taken it over many years before had the duty to keep it in working order. The horse-drawn boats which made the trip to the Chain Bridge Hotel were out of action but returned soon after the war. The rowing boats were still available for hire, however.

One feature which would strike many people today was the general shabbiness which prevailed at that time and into the early post-war years. Building maintenance was neglected for lack of workers and materials and the same applies to decoration as hardly any repainting was undertaken and many windows were painted black to assist the blackout. There was a rash of official posters on the lines of “Careless talk costs lives” and “Be like Dad, keep Mum” and painted signs pointing to sources of water for fire fighting in the event of an air raid. This official graffiti was rarely removed but left to fade into shabbiness - some of this attitude continued until the efforts of the Civic Society in the early 1960's. 

There were still many small cottages which lacked most modern amenities. The rather grand looking house where I subsequently lived in Abbey Road lacked electricity, the main rooms were lit by gas and oil lamps were used elsewhere. In 1952 MANWEB installed electric lighting for the princely sum of £25 and power points for £1 each.

The main source of heating in houses was by means of open fires; the coal being supplied from a coal wharf alongside the railway in Abbey Road and during cold weather a pall of smoke hung over the town - this was most noticeable when we were out on the hills during our surveying practice. There was also a small gas production plant in Queen Street adjacent to the Cyflmen stream which supplied coal gas to the town until the advent of North Sea Gas which was piped in around 1963. It was only then that gas-fired central heating became popular and the smoke pollution gradually diminished. 

During my subsequent army service most of my colleagues who had been stationed in Bryn Howel had good memories of the friendliness of the Welsh people and how they had taken them to their hearts. It is for that reason I am sure that we still have a bi-annual reunion at Bryn Howel where 20 to 30 of ‘the lads’ plus their partners gather to reminisce about ‘the good old days’. For how much longer - who knows.

* Bill's funeral will be at St Collen's Church at 1pm on August 15.