* At the launch of the book are Old Vicarage owner Bethan Mascarenhas, Town Crier Austin 'Chem' Cheminais and storyteller Fiona Collins.
Front: Joan Fell, 96, Jill Lidgit, 85, Ena Strange, 99, and Iola Roberts, 87.
Lockdown Legends Review
by llanblogger
When you visit a care home for the elderly and see the residents
sitting comfortably in their armchairs it’s easy to get the impression, simply
because they’re now getting on a bit, that they are just normal people who have
lived pretty unexciting lives.
But if you take the trouble to stop and chat with them
you’ll quickly discover that quite a few of them have led lives and had
experiences that are far from mundane.
This is exactly the case with The Old Vicarage in
Llangollen.
And the talks professional storyteller Fiona Collins had
with a group of residents were so downright fascinating that they just had to
be brought together in a book.
Fiona was commissioned by home owner Bethan Mascarenhas and
took the opportunity of lockdown, which meant visitors weren’t allowed in, to don
her PPE and speak at length to them, recording their recollections for the
132-page Lockdown Legends.
Apart from their stories it is lavishly illustrated by
Peter Stevenson and contains a host of their family photos.
One of the contributions comes from Amy Lawton, who was a fiery
red-headed Post Office telephonist at the time of the Second World War.
Poignantly, she recalls putting through calls to houses
that sometimes weren’t there anymore because they’d been destroyed by bombing.
After the war she and her husband of eventually 65 years
quite fancied starting a new life in Canada but their dream was dashed when his
dad refused to allow him to go.
However, the couple made up for it later in life when
they went globe-trotting on frequent foreign holidays. They also lived in many
place during their life together but eventually made their home in Llangollen.
Sad to record that Amy died peacefully at the Old Vic in
August at the grand old age of 99.
Then there’s Bill Gosson who remembers his early years
growing up on Merseyside – and being bombed by the Luftwaffe almost every night
for six or seven months during the war.
His family home was eventually destroyed by a bomb which
fell nearby and killed a number of his neighbours. Bill had to be dug out of
rubble by a rescue party and was evacuated to Llangollen.
Sadly, there was more tragedy in store for him when a
fellow young evacuee drowned on his first day in the area after falling into
the river.
Later in life Bill lived in Scotland where he did up his
own house and, along with his wife, became part of a Scottish country dancing
team.
Ena Strange was born in Liverpool and brought up in
Manchester. She recalled being a sickly child whose family doctor advised her
mother to take her to north Wales to “run with the sheep”.
They took a cottage on Sun Bank, just outside Llangollen,
which she reckons saved her life.
It’s a good thing she became strong because as a teenager
during the war she served as an officer in the National Fire Service dealing with
the dreadful aftermath of bombing raids on Salford Docks.
In December Ena is due to celebrate her 100th
birthday.
In the book we also learn the story of 87-year-old Iola
Roberts, who was born in Acrefair and became a well-known mainstay of many
local organisations including the eisteddfod and the Twenty Club dramatic group.
One of her outstanding early memories is how she began
driving at the tender age of nine.
“My grandfather had the undertaker and building business.
The men in the business taught me to drive in the yard – in the hearse.”
Jill Lidgit, 85, was born in London and, unusually for those
days just, she and a friend hitch-hiked across a Europe that was still
recovering from the war.
They ended up in Italy where she recalls seeing Leonardo’s
The Last Supper at a gallery in Milan, being lucky enough to get tickets to enjoy
a concert by the great soprano Maria Callas, climbing Vesuvius and joining the crowds in St Peter’s Square to
hear the Pope deliver his Easter message.
Many other tales featured in this delightful book are
equally enthralling.
* Lockdown Legends, priced at £9.99, is available from
Courtyard Books who are currently taking pre-orders for a print run with all
proceeds going to the residents’ fund at the Old Vic..
Orders and payments must be made before 2pm on
Monday October 19.
The shop will be open from 10am-2pm, or you can
contact them on the Courtyard Books Llangollen Facebook page, or on
courtyardbooksllangollen@gmail.com
They are able to post worldwide for an extra
postage fee.
