your comments
If you are under 16 please do not disclose your surname.
We try to publish as many comments as we can but unfortunately, due to the volume of comments we receive every day, we cannot guarantee that all comments submitted will be published
Jonathan Morgan, Amersham
Hi Emlyn Edwards (Solihull) - my father John Henry James (Jim) Morgan of Lluest was born in 1929 and was also at Ardwyn School - did you know him?
Mon Aug 31 15:30:05 2009
George w kenyon of aberystwyth
if there is sombody that can remember me please get in touch thank you
Tue Jul 28 09:27:27 2009
Julie Cleaver, Berkshire
There was information that made me think there was similarities in our family history. When I clicked on the link I could not find what I was looking for. Are you related to Thomas Owen born 1871, married to Sara Jane Morgan? Thomas Owen and his father before him were both railway engineers.I forgot to add that I read something about a Mary that was still alive. Well my great aunt Mary just died aged 105yrs are we talking about the same lovely lady?
Mon Jul 27 08:57:52 2009
Paul Daniel Originally from Aber now FL USA
It was nice to see My grandfather and his family are still remembered, I used to go to see the City of Birmingham every week with my dad John Daniel, Nice to see your comments Charlie Downs "Hwyl"Paul
Sun Mar 1 19:53:16 2009
Roland Jenkins, Aberystwyth.
George W kenyon, I'm a Jenkins from 22 high st, next door in No 20 was Anty Alice and Uncle Llew,also my fathers name (Llewellyn) Gwillym died some years ago butDavid lives on Penparcau hill and Lily lives now in Green field st, was Ralf your brother ?
Fri Nov 28 09:46:19 2008
David H. Jones from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
In 1954/55 I worked weekends at Taylor Lloyd's the Chemist delivering medicines, prescriptions and chemicals on the shop bike all over Aber. Among my duties were taking the post and newspapers up to Colonel and Mrs Taylor-Lloyd at breakfast time and taking their Sealyham Terrier Susie for walks on Sunday mornings. Gwyn and Marjorie Martin were very good to me, an impecunious chemistry student!
Mon Jun 9 09:27:43 2008
George W Kenyon Mexborough South Yorkshire
Is there sombody that can remember my uncleLlewWilliams late of 22 High Street aberystwyth he was the father of Gwillym and David williams there sister was Lily I Would like to find out about them
Wed May 7 11:49:51 2008
George W Kenyon Mexborough
I can remember Gwyn Martin when he played on the wing at Aber Football Club. My father was Freddy Kenyon Senior he was trainer and had a stall in the market. And he also had hand cart selling fruit off the pier. Gwyn married Talor Lloyds Lass.
Wed Apr 30 09:25:33 2008
Liam Edwards chamonix france(Llanbadarn)
The book and the photos are great a little before my time but still love them,and of corse the one of my grandad les mills a local fishmonger who was a face from the harbour.
Sun Mar 9 21:12:51 2008
Edward Drinkwater
Hello Ken, Remember my Aunts mentioning that you had visited, always remember students lodging with them, and having to share rooms when I visited. yes remember sea crashing on stormy nights when I slept in attic.
Tue Oct 16 17:02:51 2007
Ann (Jones) Schroeder from Atlanta, Georgia
I am Baden Powell Davies's youngest grandchild. Pat, Baden's youngest daughter was my mother. I don't remember much about GrandDad as I was only 8 when he died. I do remember visiting him every Saturday in Trefechan. I remember he loved his snuff and I used to watch him cook his lobsters in the kitchen. Any stories you have about him would be most appreciated.
Mon Aug 27 18:22:27 2007
Joan Pounds Grimsby
I'm trying to trace a Baden Davies, Mother Sarah or Sarah Jane. Is it the same Baden Davies mentioned
Wed Feb 21 16:49:16 2007
Ken Richards from Toronto
I lodged with the Misses Davis at Prospect Street for three years in the early 1960's. Gwyn Maritin's photograph of High Street evokes those times in that part of town - the terraced houses and the brisk walk up the street and the sound of the waves breaking at South Beach at night.
I visited the Misses D. briefly in the early 1990's with my fidgety daughter who was two at the time. Not much time to catch up with things but glad I went.
Fri Sep 22 09:26:30 2006
Edward Drinkwater Bridgnorth
My mother was born and bred in Aber before moving to Wolverhampton to go into service with Bates the shoe shop owners. My grandfather was castle keeper and deck chair attendant at the castle. My aunts, Ann and Gladys Davis lived in Prospect Street. Gladys worked at Thomas' the haberdashers in the town all her working life. Fond memories of holidays in Aber playing down the harbour and helping on The Pride of The Midlands boat in the summer.
Thu Aug 17 10:34:17 2006
Fred Aber
Gwyn must have been a Genius!!!!!
Not least for finding Sand on the Beach in picture 10.
Tue Mar 28 13:17:54 2006
Emlyn Edwards Solihull
I was born in 1929. At the time my father was ship's cook on a Cardiff Tramp steamer. We were a seafaring family. My Dadcu went to sea as ship's boy in 1862. He was 11 years old at the time. I have a copy of his first ship's articles and others like Bos'n on the Barque "Hope". In 1889 he was a lifeboatman on the famous "Arklow" shout. He spent 50 years at sea both in sail and steam. He was Donkeyman on the Countess of Lisburne and the Grosvenor at the end. He had a fishingboat named Mazeppa. I would love to have known him - a real old salt. Happy days. Hiraeth mawr. I remember with great clarity playing down the harbour (at Aberystwyth) making rafts and going out on them at high tide. No Health and Safety to spoil our fun. I spent most of those pre-war summers "helping" John Evans on Dai "Bach" Jenkins' County of Warwick. Sometimes when my Uncle Jack Johnson was home from running guns to Spain on Billmier's Stanhope or Stangrant, I went out lobstering with him and 'Uncle Baden' on their boat KING GEORGE Vth . When Uncle Jack retired, he had a boat called the Stella. I remember the thrill of going aboard HMS Resolution in the summer of 1939. Ben White was always generous to us urchins, giving us a free ride back to the harbour and witnessing those breathtaking sunsets. No wonder then that when I was old enough to go to sea I went straight from Ardwyn to serve my time with Houlder Brothers on the River Plate meat and grain trade. I did three years of my time before being invalided out. So I never became a Master Mariner. Ah well "Man proposes... God disposes!!! Gwyn's photos are superb - a tribute not only to the harbour but to the man himself. I was a choirboy in St Michael's when we sang at his wedding to Majorie Taylor-Lloyd. There's so much more to say but that's enough for now.
If you'd like to add any more to your memories of Aberystwyth harbour Emlyn, please email us at
wales.mid@bbc.co.uk - Mid Wales Web Team
Mon Mar 13 15:41:34 2006
Alan H. Heaton now in Harrogate
Albert Davies, Fishmonger: This genial legend kept the superb,clinically clean shop at the bottom of Great Darkgate Street. He did more than dive off the Pier. He used to swim from the Pier to Clarach & Pier to the Harbour. I was an Mancunian evacuee 1939/45, my Mother-in-War (yes W) was 'Peggie' S.V.L.James ne Manson, she did the swims with him. 'Aunt' Peggie was Carnival Queen in 1935 & married Llew James(Pearl Assurance). Together with their daughter Pauline, we were at Dinas Terrace & Terry was born just before I left Ardwyn in 1945.
Hi Alan. Thanks for your comments. Would you also like to add your wartime memories to our WW2 mini site? - Mid Wales Web Team.
Tue Feb 14 20:32:47 2006
David Thomas, London.
I was born in Aber in 1942 and grew up there at the time that Gwyn Martin was the pharmacist at Taylor Lloyds Chemist. With his love of photography, Gwyn's favourite trick was to take "occasions" and one in particular was taken of my mother and her dear friend Mary Owen (still alive at 102 living in Aber) gossiping outside his Pharmacy. This photo was then framed and displayed in the shop window as he did with his other "shots" and changed on a weekly basis. I still have a copy of the aforementioned photo. Gwyn was very good at catching the moment so to speak. I also have memories of myself and friends closely watching the launching of the lifeboat at Aber.
Thu Jul 21 15:06:16 2005
Liberté Harries
Charlie Downes speaks of Baden Davies, but what about the others? Uncle Moc bach? Uncle Danny, Pride of the Midlands, I taught myself to swim off the end of the Pride of the Midlands, jumping off in the 50s, Baden's brother can anyone remember his name, summer cries of "trip around the bay". Does anyone else remember Mayflower's icecream on a bicycle with the huge cold tub in front? Really tripping down memory lane and nostalgia avenue here!
Thu Jun 16 12:13:19 2005
Steffan in Monmouth
I am Gwyn Martin's youngest Great Nephew Tom Martin - get in touch through Mamgu.
Thu Jan 27 15:57:17 2005
John Williams, Quainton, Bucks
Stunning photographs of the town I grew up in, so can't wait to get my hands on Gwyn's publication. The South Beach and harbour areas provide some wonderful photo opportunities, particularly during gales and high seas (as I experienced in mid January 2005).
.... oh yes, I went to Ardwyn school with Lindy so knew the Martin family reasonably well.
Tue Jan 25 16:39:48 2005
Charlie Downes from Aberystwyth
I knew Jackie very well and I went to school with his son Michael who tragically died very young. I went out fishing with Jackie on many occasions and he was one of the last people to use the old double ender clinker built rowing boats that were once a very common sight on the shore adjacent to the slipway.
There are so many stories to be told about Jackie but so little time to record them, but I am hoping that one day soon I will find the time to note down all my memories not only of Jackie but many other characters from Aberystwyth.
Sadly we seem to have lost the ablity to identify poeple as Characters in there own right. The individuality seems to have gone now.
Does anyone remember Baden Davies, Evan James Davies, Albert Davies (the fishmonger famed for diving off the underside of the pier) Tosco Brodigan, Happy Agnes, Victor Willis etc?
Read more of Charlie's memories of Jackie JenkinsAn account of a submarine rescue led by Evan Davies
Tue Jan 18 15:14:23 2005
Enid Thomas Oswestry
Yes I knew Gwyn very well. I had a lovely suprise to to recieve the book from Lindy at Christmas. He captures these characters so well. He took a lovely picture of my daughter when she was playing with Lindy of her eating an ice cream. it was dripping down her face. Just wonderful.
Fri Dec 31 08:55:35 2004
Lisa from Aberystwyth
The photos are great, and so is the book, I got a copy today. I also found out that the book is now available online at the lifeboat station's own website. A good cause to support by buying the book.
Fri Dec 17 15:36:51 2004
Tom Martin, London
I am Gwyn's youngest grandchild and I am sure he would be very happy that the money is going towards a cause so close to his heart. Photography was his passion (along with rugby!) and it's great that his excellent work is getting the public recognition it deserves.
Sat Dec 11 18:21:49 2004
Scott Oates from Canberra, Australia
It is a wonderful epitaph to one whose obvious love of life instilled a desire to record moments for the future. It would be wonderful if more in life could be caged with the long term in mind. Someone told me once that 'What we have is not what our parents have left us, rather what we are borrowing from our children.'
Mon Dec 6 14:14:33 2004
Charlie Downes From Aberystwyth
I knew Jackie very well and I went to school with his son Michael who tragically died very young. I went out fishing with Jackie on many occasions and he was one of the last people to use the old double ender clinker built rowing boats that were once a very common sight on the shore adjacent to the slipway. There are so many stories to be told about Jackie but so little time to record them, but I am hoping that one day soon I will find the time to note down all my memories not only of Jackie but many other characters from Aberystwyth.
Sadly we seem to have lost the ablity to identify poeple as Characters in there own right. The individuality seems to have gone now.
Does anyone remember Baden Davies, Evan James Davies, Albert Davies (the fishmonger famed for diving off the underside of the pier) Tosco Brodigan, Happy Agnes, Victor Willis etc?
Thank you very much for your comments Charlie. We'd love to publish your stories about some of Aber's old characters on the website - they sound fascinating. Email us at wales.mid@bbc.co.uk if you'd like to contribute.Mid Wales Web Team
Sun Dec 5 13:02:34 2004
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