Read Tom's memories on this page or click through his photo tour of memorabilia.

"My family had a shop in the village from 1885 until 1985. My father and mother started the business. They sold clothes - and just about everything else. My father used to say "I'm selling everything but glue to repair broken hearts!".

There were four of us in the shop and we were very busy all day - from eight o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock at night.

In those days, there wasn't any self-service. Anything the customer wanted, we would go and fetch it - and we'd also try and push other goods too!

Nothing came in packets before the war. If you wanted a pound of sugar, we'd weigh it for you. The same was true for tea, butter, lard, and flour.

We'd buy big round cheese in 90 pound boxes and my job as a young boy was to take off the wax. We always said the best cheese came from Canada, called Belleville Brockville. The only currants my dad would buy were Greek Vostissas - they were large juicy currants, the best.

In the 1930s, the goods would often arrive by steamer. They ships would come in from Liverpool to Aberystwyth harbour. From there, they'd be taken by steam train to Strata Florida where they'd be met by a horse and cart for the final leg of the journey to Bont. Lorries came later.

A half a side of pig would be carried in a hessian sack on the train and we'd hang it in the back to be sold as ham or bacon. We'd put pepper on it in the summer to keep the flies away.

Butter would be delivered every fortnight. We didn't have refrigerators for many years but we never seemed to have any problems.

At one time, there were eight grocer shops in the village as well as two blacksmiths, three cobblers, two petrol stations, two bakeries...you could buy anything you wanted here - we were quite self-sufficient as a village. Our shop closed when we retired in 1985 and today, there's just the one shop left in the village." By Tom Lloyd Rees