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Ponderosa café, a family's story

A mad moment brought me here in the first place. I've been in this part of the world for over fifty years. Our family originated from Brymbo, so we knew the Horseshoe Pass very well and always reckoned that there was great potential up here for somewhere like the Ponderosa.

When we learned that the Ponderosa had gone bankrupt - and it really was, it was almost derelict when we took it over; quite honestly I thought I'd made the biggest mistake of my life because when you get these ideas into your mind, you tend to look through rose coloured glasses, and then you get in, and you find the roof's gone, and it wants rewiring and replumbing and you think 'Oh my goodness! What on earth have I done?'. Anyway, with the help of family and a lot of close friends, we pulled the business round to what we like to think is a very thriving business.

There's been a café, or sort-of café, here since the late 20s or early 30s. In those days, it was only a shack, and was only open during high days and holidays. Then, following its closure during the war years, and its reopening after the war, its structure was beyond repair, and in about the middle fifties, they built the first part of what is now the existing café.

The road has been developed over the years. The main road that runs past the property at the moment- the A542- was not the original road. The old Horseshoe Pass is at the back of the property. But since the opening of the road in the early 20s, and the advent of trips to the coast, with charabangs, coaches, and a big movement of cyclists in those days, I suppose the people who took it on at that time saw a need for some sort of refreshment stop at the top of the mountain, and it's grown since then.

In the thirties, it was just a shack, but as people became more mobile and affluent, then the demand for a bigger and better facility presented itself, and that's what's happened.

What I've tried to do over the years, as we've developed the property, is to take a photograph every few years, not only for the customers, but for our own benefit as well- family history, but also a history of the complex itself. The earliest photograph we've got goes back to about 1935, when the original owner, along with three of his staff, were taken outside the, what we consider to be, recently renovated, shack. Looking at the photograph, it looks like it's been a recently refurbished place, and that they've all congregated together to mark the occasion of the opening of the recently refurbished.. shack! That was Mr Hill, a Llangollen man, who had a café on the bridge at Llangollen at the time. I suppose, being an entrepreneur, he saw fit to try something on top of the Horseshoe Pass, which obviously worked, because there's been a café here ever since.

When we bought the place in the early 80s, we decided we were in for the long term. I'm in my 70s, but I like to kid myself that I'm retired already, because I'm very fortunate that my son runs the café side of things, my daughter runs the gift shop, and myself and my wife pitch in if there's a shortage of staff. Having said that, there's always something to do up here.

Taken from an audio interview for BBC Wales NE Web Team