Mr Basil Davies/ Miss Mona Davies

Mr Basil Davies                                                                             Miss Mona Davies

Basil and Mona's Grandfather lived in the police house Bryn Hyfryd which is located in the village at the junction of High Street and the lane to the farm "Ochr-y-Gop"

He was then the village policeman and in this photograph which was taken at the turn of the century he can be seen standing before the typically rural looking home which did in fact house a functioning prisoner cell. although it is unknown whether or not it was ever used. One of the little girls is Basil and Mona's mother



Bryn Hyfryd

  Basil " Most villagers in those days had their own policeman. Trelawnyd, Dyserth and even Llanasa had one.
The policemen in those days were tough, big men who had to be able to handle themselves and as you can see my grandfather was a broad chap"

Mona and Basil's mother and father went on to farm Ochr-y-Gop, which is one of the grandest farm houses in the village. Apart from Mr Bryn Davies (Chapel House) Basil and Mona are the only two Trelawnyd residents that still live in the house in which they were born.

The Beautiful Ochr-y-Gop (above) before it was obscured by the Maes Offa Bungalows

This family bill from 1921 is the November and December bill covering bread purchased from Siop Newydd (G.O.Griffith)
Note the penny red which was applied as "bill paid"
Hubert Evan's father at the bakery next to the Mostyn Arms probably sold the bread to Siop Newydd



School Children at the village school around the 1940s
Basil is the second boy on the left
The girl in the centre of the group with her smiling head raised is Daphne Jenkins
Pat Bagguley is just behind her to the left ( with all the hair)

 

This fascinating document is an invoice of payment from the point of Ayr mine to Mona and Basil's father for the rather larger sun of twenty Nine pounds/ ten shillings.
The date was 1921 and Basil suspects that it was payment for Haylage for the mine's pit ponies

Basil and Mona highlight a common but hitherto largely unsaid phenomenon from the 1920s and the 1940s, and that was the fact that times were very hard indeed.
"We used to have a a great many tramps turning up at the farm. Men without a home or a job. Many would work on the farm, paint a wall or so for some food and a bed for the night. They used to sleep up in the hay loft where it was warm, but my father always used to demand that if they had a box of matches on them, they would have to hand them over to him...my father would not risk a fire"
Audrey Jones in her testimonial told a story that an old lady from the village Ester Parry, used to come to their family farm (Gop Farm) just to darn socks . Her payment again would be a meal or a bag of potatoes.
   OlwennaHughes recalls that most people had their own piece of land given over to the growing of vegetables. Indeed the allotments for Bonc terrace can be still seen today and have recently been converted back to their allotment roots.  Pat  Bagguley also recalles a local piece of history when around ninety years ago a local man who was down on his luck lived and indeed died in the Dove house of Gop farm ( below)

                    

                                                 Milk delivered by Basil and Mona's Brother Tommy ( known as Tommy Ochr-y-Gop) around 1960. The horse was called Polly.