"I moved to Llanwddyn from Welshpool in 1948 at the age of 14 and have long been interested in local history. I worked on the undertaking for 20 years. I was Church Treasurer for 34 years and am now secretary. I always sought to raise money to support the church from as wide a field as possible since, in a small community, there are many bodies competing for limited resources.
The Church has previously published three booklets about Lake Vyrnwy which are still in print and available. Two years ago a friend suggested that we should make a DVD.
Quite by chance Roger Jordan, who is Secretary of The Wyre Forest Camcorder Club, and who, with his wife Mary have had a caravan nearby for many years, approached me with exactly the same idea.
It was particularly timely since we have to have the Church rewires and the income from the sales of the DVD will be especially valuable to us at this time. The DVD runs for 65 minutes and is in three sections.
The first uses photographs of of the old village and is an imaginary walk through it mentioning the residents, some of whom are taken from the 1881 census and some from the reminiscences of David Jones', the special constable appointed to the village at the commencement of the works.
You will then hear about some of these characters and their way of life. The emphasis then turns to Liverpool and explains how the growth of the city overwhelmed the limited water resources then available with the consequent outbreaks of disease. How they searched for suitable sites in the Lake District and North Wales before deciding on the upper Vyrnwy valley.
The middle section records the decision to build in masonry rather than building an earth dam thus creating the first high masonry dam in Britain. It describes the opening of the quarry and the building of the Dam but is not so technical as to make it inaccessible to the general public.
The end section is an account of Vyrnwy as seen today by a visitor and is introduced by Mary Jordan. As far as possible current pictures have been interspersed with the pictures of the vally before construction of the dam.
For more information about the dvd or our book of postcards take a look at the website listed on the right of this page.
Article by David Rowlands
your comments
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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
Tony Ford from Oxford
One of my distant relations was killed whilst working on the dam. It is a pity the memorial obelisk to those 44 men who died in its construction is hidden away and poorly maintained.
Thu Oct 8 10:14:32 2009
Jean Briffet from Llangollen
I found it very difficult to stay in the location of the lake...there was a great sadness and heaviness for me. I had to leave. This is why I am researching the lake because I wasn't aware that the village had been flooded and I wondered what was going on!
Tue Jul 28 14:51:39 2009
Peter Cahill, Liverpool
I bought David's DVD at a Visitors Centre near Oswestry on Thursday last. It is a splendid piece of work and he should be congratulated for it.
I wonder if Nonie Murch's father was Arthur Murch who worked for LCWW at their Dale Street offices. I worked in the next office to Arthur Murch when I was 16! He had an assistant called ? Atherton.
Mon May 19 09:12:12 2008
Nonie Murch
My father worked for the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks all his life bar war service. I have some coloured postcards and also Phillips Guide to Lake Vervwy (price 1s6d). If it has any historical use for anyone please let me know.Ii is full of facts and information on the building of Lake Vernwy.
Tue Apr 1 05:27:56 2008
Have you been to Lake Vyrnwy? What do you think of the dam building? Send us your comments.
