The Dolagarrog disaster in 1925 affected the whole community and was cause for lamentation for decades. It is still remembered and memorialised. Poem by Wm Owen Davies about Mr Barber, a very lucky tramp. Stories, old photos and memories of Dolgarrog.
THE DOLGARROG DISASTER
On Monday 2 November 1925, after two weeks of heavy rain, a breach in a small gravity dam occurred at the Aluminium Corporation's Llyn Eigiau reservoir, up in the hills near 735 m high Craig Eigiau. This was claimed at the time to have been caused by inadequate foundations and lack of maintenance.
This breach released thousands of gallons of water which flowed down along the course of the Porth Llwyd river to another small reservoir, the Coedty. This reservoir could not contain the extra water and breached also, releasing an even greater quantity of water, possibly some 350 million cubic meters, which carried huge boulders and pieces of pipeline down the mountain through Porth Llwyd hamlet and the village of Dolgarrog a mile below, sweeping houses and villagers away as it went. Sixteen people died.
The water poured like a river down the streets and among the great boulders until the reservoirs were emptied. The church was swept away, its bell tolling as it went. Villagers were swept away, one family clinging to debris and singing hymns as they battled for their lives.
Fortunately many of the villagers were on higher ground at the Assembly Hall for the weekly picture show, and were away from path of the torrent.
Onlookers arrived, and police had to erect a road block to stop them obstructing relief operations. Photographers recorded the scenes of devastation and these were published as postcards at the time. They can now be found on the Internet at www. oldphotos.co.uk/dolgarrog.htm.
The scar that was caused by the disaster can be seen today down the side of the mountain together with the huge boulders it carried with it.
The river has been diverted since then, and flows over the old town.
Margaret Sinnott, her daughter Catherine McKenzie and a granddaughter were all lost, though Mr McKenzie and their two sons were at the picture house when it happened. Margaret Sinnott's body was the last to be recovered.
A seventeen year old survivor told of the church bell tolling as the church was swept away, and of a family clinging to debris, and singing hymns as they were swept along.
THE HATFIELD FAMILY
Albert and Nellie Hatfield from Yorkshire were living in Dolgarrog at the time of the disaster. Albert was working on the dam as an electric linesman. The morning after the disaster Nellie went out to look for Albert, but couldn't find him. She must have feared the worst. However, she met the district nurse, who told Nellie that Albert was all right, but was still helping to search for people.
Gillian Dansby of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, Albert and Nellie's grand-daughter says: 'My Grandma was pregnant with my mother at the time the dam broke. Grandad helped with a lot of the rescue work as he was one of the few men who could swim.'
Above: Albert and Nellie Hatfield in 1923
Albert and Nellie Hatfield were married 9 June 1923 in Batley, West Yorkshire, and not long afterwards they went to live in Dolgarrog. At the time of the disaster Nellie was pregnant, and her daughter Margaret June Hatfield was born in Dolgarrog on 23 April, 1926. They lived at 22 Taylor Avenue, Dolgarrog, for another four or five years. They then moved back to Yorkshire and lived at Thornhill, then Ravensthorpe for a short while. They then moved to Potter Avenue in Lupset.
Above: Nellie Hatfield with her only child, Margaret, while they were living in Dolgarrog.
Margaret met Peter Danby of Wakefield, and married him in 1949. Their two children were Simon John and Gillian Susan Danby. The family emigrated to Canada in 1970 and lived in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Above: The wedding of Margaret Hatfield and Peter Danby in Yorkshire 23 April 1949.
Albert and Nellie lived in Potter Avenue in Lupset until Albert retired. After his retirement the couple moved to Scarborough, Yorkshire where they lived until Nellie's death in 1979 at the age of 78. Margaret, who was an only child, then brought her father, Albert, to live with her family in Canada. He died in 1983 aged 85.
Margaret's daughter, Gillian, says: "My Mum, now 81, and my Dad, 80, now live in Vernon, BC. My Dad was a mechanical engineer and was in charge of many design and construction projects in the grain handling, coal handling and mining industries in British Columbia and across Canada. My Mum was a teacher of the blind and deaf, and also of mentally challenged children and adults. My brother Simon is a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police doghandler and has two children who are grown and married with children of their own. I have spent many years in various fields of health care including Nuclear Medicine and Cytogenetics. I have two children, both in their teens and three stepchildren also in their teens."
Above: Peter and Margaret Danby (nee Hatfield) at their grandson's wedding in 2006.
THE TAYLOR FAMILY
Dorothy Buddug Taylor (formerly Hughes from Llandudno) and her husband Stanley John Taylor were victims, along with their daughter Sylvia Doris Taylor, eighteen months old. Dorothy's father was a journalist with the North Wales Weekly News and the Llandudno Advertiser, and had the unenviable task of reporting on a disaster which had claimed his daughter and her family.
A Frank Kenyon of Rochdale had a share in the family business at The Princess Theatre in Colwyn Bay, and he shot about six minutes worth of film of the disaster, showing the empty dam and the water rushing through the streets. This can now be accessed on the Internet at www. gtj.org.uk/en/filmitems/29132
In April 2004 a memorial project to the victims of the disaster was dedicated at Dolgarrog. A £60,000 memorial trail up to the mountains was constructed along the river and among the boulders, a pathway to explain the tragedy to walkers. Fred Brown, a 93 year old Dolgarrog man, was present to open the project, and was said to be the last of the survivors still living. Fred was 14 when he lost his mother Elizabeth and four year old sister Betty in the flood. He reported that his father and elder sister rescued themselves from the flood waters by crawling over coke wagons.
A few years ago Janet Roberts of Llanrwst knew an old man nearly a hundred years of age who had lived through all this.
Most of the victims are buried in the churchyard at Caerhun.
The small gravity dam was not built across the end of a narrow river valley as one might expect, but stretched over a kilometre along the side of the reservoir. The water leaked under this wall, likely causing an outfall there, scouring soil and stones away from the dam bottom at the site, weakening the base of the dam wall until a whole section gave way, thus releasing the water along the natural course of the Porth Llwyd river. Inadequate foundations were blamed for the leakage. It has been speculated that the water level of the reservoir when in use would have been only three or four metres higher than the lake left behind, and did not itself hold a great quantity of water as reservoirs go. However, when the water leaked out and joined the smaller Coedty reservoir, the excess water caused that dam wall to breach, thus releasing water from both the Llyn Eigiau dam and the Coedty dam itself. A photograph of the Eigiau breach taken at the time shows the massive break in the dam wall. Modern photographs show that the resulting freed rocks have been arranged in a dome-shaped mound near the breach. A second breach may have been created later to ensure the dam does not fill up again. Photographs of the area maybe found on www. geograph.org.uk/
The dam was comparatively new when it failed in 1925. The plant and hydro station started operations in 1907 and 1908 to serve the aluminium reduction works in Dolgarrog. This process requires a great deal of electricity, and would need to be sited near an abundant source of water to turn the generators. The reduction process continued only until 1943, but the factory continued drawing power from the renovated Coedty reservoir to serve the specialist rolling mill which operated thenceforth.
HENRY JOSEPH JACK OF MAENAN MANOR
A Henry Joseph Jack, born Swansea 1869, moved to Maenan Manor, Llanrwst, some time after 1912 and became a councillor, later Chairman of the Caernarvonshire County Council. In 1918 he was Managing Director of the Aluminium Corporation and on the board of the Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway in which it had a controlling interest. He foresaw a good future for the railway in slate transport and tourism, and in 1922 became director of the Snowdon Mountain Railway. In April 1924 he was blamed for its lack of success, and resigned his position. After the Dolgarrog disaster he was blamed for even more, and left for Tunbridge Wells, where he died in 1936 after having changed his name to Henry Jack McInnes.
THE VICTIMS
TAYLOR, Stanley John, 1 Machno Terrace
TAYLOR, Mrs Dorothy Buddug, Wife of Stanley, Daughter of A R Hughes, Llandudno Advertiser
TAYLOR Sylvia Doris, 18 months, daughter of Dorothy and Stanley.
EVANS, Mrs Susan, wife of Mr William Evans 3 Machno Terrace
EVANS, Ceridwen, 5 - found Tuesday morning 3 November near the ferry in Conway Estuary by John Ellis, fisherman, yacht skipper, of Conway.
EVANS, Bessie, 3 - found Tuesday 2.30 pm just below Conway Bridge by Mr John Craven, yacht skipper.
EVANS, Gwen, 4 months. Daughter of William and Susan Evans.
TWYNHAM, William, Tai'r Felin. Washed into Conway River.
TWYNHAM, Jennie, wife of William Twynham
BROWN Mrs Elizabeth, 46, No 1 Bungalow. Married, a mother of 8 children. Body found by P C Smith and some other men half a mile below the works on Tuesday at 3.30 pm.
BROWN, Bessie or Betty, daughter of Elizabeth.
SINNOT, Mrs Margaret, Porthlwyd Cottage. Her dog was found safe lying on the bed upstairs; her house was damaged but standing, but she was swept away.
McKENZIE, Mrs Catherine, of 2 Dolgarrog Cottages, daughter of Mrs Sinnot, and wife of Mr Donald McKenzie, former employee at the works, who was working away from home. They had not seen each other since March. Her body was found by Mr John Roberts of Hendy, Roewen, between 9 and 10 am on Tuesday near the Carbon Factory.
McKENZIE, Mona, 5, daughter of Mrs McKenzie. Found on day of enquiry.
HIGGINS, Mr Henry Victor, 30, childless widower of Sarn Bryn Caled, Welshpool, Linesman, son of Edwin Higgins. Lodging at 2 Machno Terrace.
WILLIAMS, Mrs Mary, 66 yrs, 2 Machno Terrace. Body found near Carbon Factory between 9 and 10 a.m. Tuesday by Owen Jones, Bryn Hyfryd.
SURVIVORS
BROWN, Mr, husband of Elizabeth, No. 1 Bungalow. Water dragged him away from his daughter and carried him down the valley for 500 yards. He was reported to have clung on to an electric pole. This daughter also survived and got to safety in the ruins of the village school; his then 14 year old son Fred when in his nineties said that they both climbed over coke wagons to escape.
EVANS, Mr William, furnace man. Last saw his wife and children at a quarter to six on Monday night
There were also many other survivors.
Furniture and other artefacts were swept down the river to the sea. Much of it was recovered by fishermen, but a great deal was carried out to sea by the strong tide. The font of the church was also salvaged from the water, and a couple of bells were retrieved in due course.
Rowena Evans
For photos of Dolgarrog memorial and old boulders, see www.pbase.com/ruralliving/conwy_valley
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Y CRWYDRYN
Bu rhiniog carreg-las addoldy’r llan
Yn aelwyd ddigymydog, yntau’n brudd
A ymgartrefai’n wanllyd yn y fan
Bob nos, a’r corwynt milain ar ei rudd;
Er nad oedd ganddo gadair, grât na bwrdd,
Na chlustog ond ei bac i orffwys pen,
Hengôt-droi-heibio gadwai’r ias i ffwrdd
A drws addoldy ei barwydydd pren;
Ar noswaith wyllt, ymrwygudd dyfroedd blin
Trwy’r argae gwan a’r hafn, i foddi trum
O bentref hunai trwy gereiniau’r hin,
A’r creigiau’n crensio’r aelwyd fach ddi-rym;
Ond ‘wyllys Duw arbedodd grwydryn llwm
Y noson hon, nad oedd o fewn y cwm.
Gan William Owen Davies
Jean Davies (neé Roberts) explains that the poem is based on a tramp, believed to be a Mr Barber, who regularly slept inside the church porch in Dolgarrog on his travels. This particular night, he chose to move on towards Conwy. That decision saved his life as the church was washed away by the water as it thundered towards the village.
The poem was written by Mrs Davies' late husband.
Mrs Davies' contribution continues below:
MY EARLY DAYS
By JEAN DAVIES (neé ROBERTS)
I was born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, the third daughter of Owen John and Sarah Michell Roberts (neé Jenkins). My father came from Penmon, Anglesey, and mother from Blaenau.
I was about 4 years old when we left Blaenau Ffestiniog to live in Dolgarrog around 1932. My father came to work at the Aluminium Works. I remember my first visit to our home, 26 Gwydr Road. It seemed huge and empty. Obviously the furniture van had not arrived, but we children were very thrilled with the house. It had three bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, a kitchen, pantry, spacious hall, living room and parlour. My father turned our back garden into a productive kitchen garden with fruit and vegetables, with a lawn and flower garden at the front.
Above: 26 Gwydr Road, Dolgarrog. This shows the house and wooden fence, before the road was altered. It iis at the far end of the Gwydr Road colour postcard picture (below, after next story).
I can remember the current road running through Dolgarrog being built, with lorries and steam rollers working hard all day. There existed only a rough track outside our home then, muddy at times with several large stones or boulders visible. The main road was below that, and ran past Tan Y Ffordd farm.
The first infant school I attended was called The Aviary, situated opposite the Royal British Legion Club and up a narrow hill. Turning right, it was on the left. It consisted of only one room. It eventually became our Methodist Sunday School and prayer meeting place. The Band of Hope was also held there.
The older children went to a school called ‘Sillens’, opposite E. B. Jones stores on the main road. I recall using a thin slate to write on with a slate stick when I later attended there. The school property and land no doubt belonged to the Aluminium Corporation Limited, and years later it became a medical clinic for mothers and their babies.
Above: Old postcard from Mrs Davies' collection showing E B Jones shop.
I remember the new Central School being built - it was in the shape of an ‘E’. As a pupil there I recall the teaching was superb. We had an infants section, cookery room, and held assemblies, short services, in the main hall, which had a kitchen at the back and tables for school dinners. Music lessons were also held in the hall where we learned about Handel, Mendelssohn, Schubert and others. We had a laboratory and woodwork room where I made a wooden mouse. We also had shorthand and typing lessons. The headmaster Mr Darfyl Humphreys, later retired to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
On St David’s Day, we held the School Eisteddfod. The school ‘houses’ were named after local lakes; Cenin (yellow), Crafnant (red), Cowlyd (blue) and my ‘house’ Dulyn (green).
In our Girl Guide uniforms we attended the Armistice Day service in November at The Royal British Legion’s Cenotaph.
Mr Bert Williams led and conducted the children’s concerts and choirs, accompanied by Madam Olwen Hughes, a pianist and singer. These were held at the original cinema which was also a dance hall. We saw many black and white films there, and the serial Flash Gordon’s trip to Mars.
I loved listening to Saturday Night Theatre on the radio. One play was called Ladies in Retirement which was later made into a film, and I was all excited when I heard that the film was coming to Dolgarrog. Unfortunately, the cinema burnt down a few days before it was due to be shown.
We left school at 15 in those days, unless you passed the scholarship when 11 years old and carried on your education at Llanrwst Grammar School.
When walking to school I’d cross a bridge and looking down, I could see and hear the ‘bogeys’, which were trucks carrying workmen to the Hydro Electric Scheme up the mountain. The bogeys were attached to a thick black cable and came down the incline. There were also steps alongside giving people the opportunity of walking up and down.
Near E.B. Jones was another bridge which went over huge black pipes coming down the mountain, on a very steep inclination. I recall once climbing over the bridge and on to one of the large pipes – it took me a long time to come down from it!
We used to walk from our home 26 Gwydr Road across the valley and along the straight road called The Track with bushes either side and cross a wooden bridge to the small station. The Aluminium Corporation’s railway track ran alongside it on the left. From the Track, we could see the village houses with their red tiled roofs. In winter the streets were lit up, as was The Track. Trees have now grown to block the view of Dolgarrog.
At the station we caught the train to Blaenau to visit my grandparents, Richard Jenkins, or ‘Jenks’, a caretaker at Blaenau school, born in Trisant near Aberystwyth, and Elizabeth Jenkins neé Michell, who hailed from Cwm Ystwyth. It was so wonderful, stopping at various stations, all clean and tidy with little flower gardens decorating the platforms. Then off again to Blaenau through the long tunnel. Sometimes the light would go out in our carriage and we were in complete darkness. My dear father would light a cigarette so that we could see ‘light’ in the pitch black darkness, which went on for quite a few minutes – but I felt no fear, because Dad, Mam, two sisters Betty and Myfanwy and dear brother Eric were there. Then we came out of the pitch darkness into the light, and were a few minutes from my dear Taid and Nain’s home – absolute magic for me.
When it rained heavily, the Conway River flooded. From our small landing window, the valley appeared to be a sea of water all the way to Trefriw and beyond. Water would also come down in torrents from the vicinity of the broken dam.
I remember one occasion, relatives of mine journeying up the Conway River from Penmaenmawr to Trefriw in a pleasure boat, and we threw them a bunch of our garden flowers which they picked up and we all waved at each other.
My mother could play the piano and when we moved to Dolgarrog to live, as she played the piano, I would march around the table pretending to be a soldier marching. Little did I think that in years to come, I would watch real soldiers marching through Dolgarrog during the 1939 – 1945 War!
The piano sessions took place in the front room or parlour. We were not allowed to play there – it was kept for special occasions such as Christmas, when it had a lovely coal fire. The large oval mirror which hung on the parlour wall is now here in my home, and I remember on my Wedding Day, looking at myself in the lovely mirror and saying “Today you are going to get married to Bill”.
Roberts Family.c 1947 at 26 Gwydr Road. Back L-R Jean, Myfanwy Front L-R Betty, parents Owen John Roberts, Sarah Michell Roberts and Eric.
I married William Owen Davies of Llanrwst. Our eldest son Ken was born when we lived in Dolgarrog, and we then moved to live in Llanrwst where Bill worked at the Post Office. I worked for David Thomas, a Solicitor in the town. Bill got promoted to Postmaster at Dolgellau in 1960, where our second son Paul was born. We moved to Llandeilo in 1970. My parents came to live with us shortly before they died. Sadly, Bill died in November 2002 and I live not far from Paul and his family, with my very happy memories of my life in the beautiful village of Dolgarrog.
Jo Williams (Gorsedd Grucyn) with Jean Roberts in 1949 on a visit to Gorsedd. Photo taken by her fiance William Owen Davies.
MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR 2
Written by Jean Davies for her granddaughter Kim Davies at Newtown in 1998.
I was only a young girl at the start of the War, and didn’t know what War was until my parents explained it to me.
In the village where I lived, Dolgarrog in the Conwy Valley, there is a large Aluminium Works and also a Hydro-Electric Power Station. I understand that the Germans were aware of this fact, and they intended to bomb them. The Works was therefore camouflaged to disguise it from the views of the German aircraft pilots. Its roof was made to look like fields, and houses were painted on the sides of the buildings to confuse the enemy. Our homes were also camouflaged.
Llanrwst Grammar School had a foreign teacher. I was told that one day, she asked all the children to draw a map of the River Conway, showing where various places were. The river flowed very close to the Dolgarrog Aluminium Works. Shortly after that, the teacher did not appear in school again. Perhaps she was a spy, obtaining information for the Germans!
Above: "May Queen" - Betty Roberts, Myfanwy Roberts, Rhiannon Evans, Jean Roberts, Joyce Carpenter, Jean Jones, Margaret Roberts, Glenys Jones, May Queen Gwyn Davies, Mary Jones and Moira (?). Betty and Jean Jones decided to have a May Queen and arranged the event with the girls. It was held in the garden of 26 Gwydr Road, They borrowed the 'crown' for the day from neighbour Mrs Hughes at No 27, whose son had won it. Gwyn Davies was chosen as the May Queen.
When the air raid sirens rang out and we were in school, we all left very quickly to safe houses in the nearby village, for fear that a bomb would fall and destroy the school – and us too! Fortunately this never happened. In the air above some nearby lakes, were air pockets, and if a plane flew through one of them, it would immediately lose altitude, and drop to the ground like a stone. The pilots would die. Many years after the War, the remains of crashed warplanes were discovered.
Soldiers lived in our village in specially made huts, and there were several bunkers throughout the area where armed soldiers stayed. I remember large tanks travelling through Dolgarrog every Thursday, creating large holes in the road as they passed by. We children waved and shouted hooray at the soldiers who were in them and the lorries which accompanied the tanks. One day, our spaniel Jet went barking towards them. The tanks stopped and the soldiers all laughed to let Jet cross the road.
We could see searchlights from as far away as Liverpool at night, trying to pick out German bombers. The sirens sounded most nights and we could hear various places being bombed.
As schoolchildren, we knitted scarves for the army and the school forwarded these on to the soldiers to keep them warm on the battlefront.
Above: Dolgarrog Central School c. 1940.
Top L-R Rhiannon Evans, Josephine Watson. Olive Roberts, Gwyn Davies, Drina Scott, Jean Roberts, Bessie Bell, Jinnie Griffiths, Nora Spencer.
Middle L-R Annie Williams, Betty Davies, Joan Williams, Mary Coates, Betty Evans, Mildred Griffiths, Sally Shields, Audrey Baddley, Margaret Roberts.
Bottom L-R Glyn Roberts, Norman Evans, Gordon Jones, Ken Griffiths, Huwie Williams, Ken Carpenter, John Roberts, Jacky Bohanna.
Food such as butter, sugar and tea was scarce as were other items during the War. My father grew several vegetables in his garden and my mother did justice to them with her cooking. The shops were very short of ‘nice things’ and everyone had a Ration Book, which had a personalised number. My number was ZEIH/235. Very few sweets were available.
There were many War posters on display throughout Dolgarrog. The ones which stay in my mind are “Make do and Mend” and “Careless Talk Costs Lives”. I recall mending and re-mending our clothes and my father repaired our shoes. He was in the Local Defence Volunteers, renamed the Home Guard, having fought in the Great War of 1914-18. Each home had dark window curtains to stop lights showing at night. If there was a light, a policeman or a Home Guard soldier would knock on the door and give us a row. My father built an Anderson shelter in our back garden.
Despite all this, we children remained happy, not fully appreciating the situation, but we were extremely happy when the War came to an end.
Above: Gwydr Road, Dolgarrog, in days of peace.
Write to mail at melin-y-coed.co.uk - put @ instead of at and insert header MYC Dolgarrog Disaster.
On Monday 2 November 1925, after two weeks of heavy rain, a breach in a small gravity dam occurred at the Aluminium Corporation's Llyn Eigiau reservoir, up in the hills near 735 m high Craig Eigiau. This was claimed at the time to have been caused by inadequate foundations and lack of maintenance.
This breach released thousands of gallons of water which flowed down along the course of the Porth Llwyd river to another small reservoir, the Coedty. This reservoir could not contain the extra water and breached also, releasing an even greater quantity of water, possibly some 350 million cubic meters, which carried huge boulders and pieces of pipeline down the mountain through Porth Llwyd hamlet and the village of Dolgarrog a mile below, sweeping houses and villagers away as it went. Sixteen people died.
The water poured like a river down the streets and among the great boulders until the reservoirs were emptied. The church was swept away, its bell tolling as it went. Villagers were swept away, one family clinging to debris and singing hymns as they battled for their lives.
Fortunately many of the villagers were on higher ground at the Assembly Hall for the weekly picture show, and were away from path of the torrent.
Onlookers arrived, and police had to erect a road block to stop them obstructing relief operations. Photographers recorded the scenes of devastation and these were published as postcards at the time. They can now be found on the Internet at www. oldphotos.co.uk/dolgarrog.htm.
The scar that was caused by the disaster can be seen today down the side of the mountain together with the huge boulders it carried with it.
The river has been diverted since then, and flows over the old town.
Margaret Sinnott, her daughter Catherine McKenzie and a granddaughter were all lost, though Mr McKenzie and their two sons were at the picture house when it happened. Margaret Sinnott's body was the last to be recovered.
A seventeen year old survivor told of the church bell tolling as the church was swept away, and of a family clinging to debris, and singing hymns as they were swept along.
THE HATFIELD FAMILY
Albert and Nellie Hatfield from Yorkshire were living in Dolgarrog at the time of the disaster. Albert was working on the dam as an electric linesman. The morning after the disaster Nellie went out to look for Albert, but couldn't find him. She must have feared the worst. However, she met the district nurse, who told Nellie that Albert was all right, but was still helping to search for people.
Gillian Dansby of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, Albert and Nellie's grand-daughter says: 'My Grandma was pregnant with my mother at the time the dam broke. Grandad helped with a lot of the rescue work as he was one of the few men who could swim.'
Above: Albert and Nellie Hatfield in 1923
Albert and Nellie Hatfield were married 9 June 1923 in Batley, West Yorkshire, and not long afterwards they went to live in Dolgarrog. At the time of the disaster Nellie was pregnant, and her daughter Margaret June Hatfield was born in Dolgarrog on 23 April, 1926. They lived at 22 Taylor Avenue, Dolgarrog, for another four or five years. They then moved back to Yorkshire and lived at Thornhill, then Ravensthorpe for a short while. They then moved to Potter Avenue in Lupset.
Above: Nellie Hatfield with her only child, Margaret, while they were living in Dolgarrog.
Margaret met Peter Danby of Wakefield, and married him in 1949. Their two children were Simon John and Gillian Susan Danby. The family emigrated to Canada in 1970 and lived in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Above: The wedding of Margaret Hatfield and Peter Danby in Yorkshire 23 April 1949.
Albert and Nellie lived in Potter Avenue in Lupset until Albert retired. After his retirement the couple moved to Scarborough, Yorkshire where they lived until Nellie's death in 1979 at the age of 78. Margaret, who was an only child, then brought her father, Albert, to live with her family in Canada. He died in 1983 aged 85.
Margaret's daughter, Gillian, says: "My Mum, now 81, and my Dad, 80, now live in Vernon, BC. My Dad was a mechanical engineer and was in charge of many design and construction projects in the grain handling, coal handling and mining industries in British Columbia and across Canada. My Mum was a teacher of the blind and deaf, and also of mentally challenged children and adults. My brother Simon is a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police doghandler and has two children who are grown and married with children of their own. I have spent many years in various fields of health care including Nuclear Medicine and Cytogenetics. I have two children, both in their teens and three stepchildren also in their teens."
Above: Peter and Margaret Danby (nee Hatfield) at their grandson's wedding in 2006.
THE TAYLOR FAMILY
Dorothy Buddug Taylor (formerly Hughes from Llandudno) and her husband Stanley John Taylor were victims, along with their daughter Sylvia Doris Taylor, eighteen months old. Dorothy's father was a journalist with the North Wales Weekly News and the Llandudno Advertiser, and had the unenviable task of reporting on a disaster which had claimed his daughter and her family.
A Frank Kenyon of Rochdale had a share in the family business at The Princess Theatre in Colwyn Bay, and he shot about six minutes worth of film of the disaster, showing the empty dam and the water rushing through the streets. This can now be accessed on the Internet at www. gtj.org.uk/en/filmitems/29132
In April 2004 a memorial project to the victims of the disaster was dedicated at Dolgarrog. A £60,000 memorial trail up to the mountains was constructed along the river and among the boulders, a pathway to explain the tragedy to walkers. Fred Brown, a 93 year old Dolgarrog man, was present to open the project, and was said to be the last of the survivors still living. Fred was 14 when he lost his mother Elizabeth and four year old sister Betty in the flood. He reported that his father and elder sister rescued themselves from the flood waters by crawling over coke wagons.
A few years ago Janet Roberts of Llanrwst knew an old man nearly a hundred years of age who had lived through all this.
Most of the victims are buried in the churchyard at Caerhun.
The small gravity dam was not built across the end of a narrow river valley as one might expect, but stretched over a kilometre along the side of the reservoir. The water leaked under this wall, likely causing an outfall there, scouring soil and stones away from the dam bottom at the site, weakening the base of the dam wall until a whole section gave way, thus releasing the water along the natural course of the Porth Llwyd river. Inadequate foundations were blamed for the leakage. It has been speculated that the water level of the reservoir when in use would have been only three or four metres higher than the lake left behind, and did not itself hold a great quantity of water as reservoirs go. However, when the water leaked out and joined the smaller Coedty reservoir, the excess water caused that dam wall to breach, thus releasing water from both the Llyn Eigiau dam and the Coedty dam itself. A photograph of the Eigiau breach taken at the time shows the massive break in the dam wall. Modern photographs show that the resulting freed rocks have been arranged in a dome-shaped mound near the breach. A second breach may have been created later to ensure the dam does not fill up again. Photographs of the area maybe found on www. geograph.org.uk/
The dam was comparatively new when it failed in 1925. The plant and hydro station started operations in 1907 and 1908 to serve the aluminium reduction works in Dolgarrog. This process requires a great deal of electricity, and would need to be sited near an abundant source of water to turn the generators. The reduction process continued only until 1943, but the factory continued drawing power from the renovated Coedty reservoir to serve the specialist rolling mill which operated thenceforth.
HENRY JOSEPH JACK OF MAENAN MANOR
A Henry Joseph Jack, born Swansea 1869, moved to Maenan Manor, Llanrwst, some time after 1912 and became a councillor, later Chairman of the Caernarvonshire County Council. In 1918 he was Managing Director of the Aluminium Corporation and on the board of the Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway in which it had a controlling interest. He foresaw a good future for the railway in slate transport and tourism, and in 1922 became director of the Snowdon Mountain Railway. In April 1924 he was blamed for its lack of success, and resigned his position. After the Dolgarrog disaster he was blamed for even more, and left for Tunbridge Wells, where he died in 1936 after having changed his name to Henry Jack McInnes.
THE VICTIMS
TAYLOR, Stanley John, 1 Machno Terrace
TAYLOR, Mrs Dorothy Buddug, Wife of Stanley, Daughter of A R Hughes, Llandudno Advertiser
TAYLOR Sylvia Doris, 18 months, daughter of Dorothy and Stanley.
EVANS, Mrs Susan, wife of Mr William Evans 3 Machno Terrace
EVANS, Ceridwen, 5 - found Tuesday morning 3 November near the ferry in Conway Estuary by John Ellis, fisherman, yacht skipper, of Conway.
EVANS, Bessie, 3 - found Tuesday 2.30 pm just below Conway Bridge by Mr John Craven, yacht skipper.
EVANS, Gwen, 4 months. Daughter of William and Susan Evans.
TWYNHAM, William, Tai'r Felin. Washed into Conway River.
TWYNHAM, Jennie, wife of William Twynham
BROWN Mrs Elizabeth, 46, No 1 Bungalow. Married, a mother of 8 children. Body found by P C Smith and some other men half a mile below the works on Tuesday at 3.30 pm.
BROWN, Bessie or Betty, daughter of Elizabeth.
SINNOT, Mrs Margaret, Porthlwyd Cottage. Her dog was found safe lying on the bed upstairs; her house was damaged but standing, but she was swept away.
McKENZIE, Mrs Catherine, of 2 Dolgarrog Cottages, daughter of Mrs Sinnot, and wife of Mr Donald McKenzie, former employee at the works, who was working away from home. They had not seen each other since March. Her body was found by Mr John Roberts of Hendy, Roewen, between 9 and 10 am on Tuesday near the Carbon Factory.
McKENZIE, Mona, 5, daughter of Mrs McKenzie. Found on day of enquiry.
HIGGINS, Mr Henry Victor, 30, childless widower of Sarn Bryn Caled, Welshpool, Linesman, son of Edwin Higgins. Lodging at 2 Machno Terrace.
WILLIAMS, Mrs Mary, 66 yrs, 2 Machno Terrace. Body found near Carbon Factory between 9 and 10 a.m. Tuesday by Owen Jones, Bryn Hyfryd.
SURVIVORS
BROWN, Mr, husband of Elizabeth, No. 1 Bungalow. Water dragged him away from his daughter and carried him down the valley for 500 yards. He was reported to have clung on to an electric pole. This daughter also survived and got to safety in the ruins of the village school; his then 14 year old son Fred when in his nineties said that they both climbed over coke wagons to escape.
EVANS, Mr William, furnace man. Last saw his wife and children at a quarter to six on Monday night
There were also many other survivors.
Furniture and other artefacts were swept down the river to the sea. Much of it was recovered by fishermen, but a great deal was carried out to sea by the strong tide. The font of the church was also salvaged from the water, and a couple of bells were retrieved in due course.
Rowena Evans
For photos of Dolgarrog memorial and old boulders, see www.pbase.com/ruralliving/conwy_valley
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Y CRWYDRYN
Bu rhiniog carreg-las addoldy’r llan
Yn aelwyd ddigymydog, yntau’n brudd
A ymgartrefai’n wanllyd yn y fan
Bob nos, a’r corwynt milain ar ei rudd;
Er nad oedd ganddo gadair, grât na bwrdd,
Na chlustog ond ei bac i orffwys pen,
Hengôt-droi-heibio gadwai’r ias i ffwrdd
A drws addoldy ei barwydydd pren;
Ar noswaith wyllt, ymrwygudd dyfroedd blin
Trwy’r argae gwan a’r hafn, i foddi trum
O bentref hunai trwy gereiniau’r hin,
A’r creigiau’n crensio’r aelwyd fach ddi-rym;
Ond ‘wyllys Duw arbedodd grwydryn llwm
Y noson hon, nad oedd o fewn y cwm.
Gan William Owen Davies
Jean Davies (neé Roberts) explains that the poem is based on a tramp, believed to be a Mr Barber, who regularly slept inside the church porch in Dolgarrog on his travels. This particular night, he chose to move on towards Conwy. That decision saved his life as the church was washed away by the water as it thundered towards the village.
The poem was written by Mrs Davies' late husband.
Mrs Davies' contribution continues below:
MY EARLY DAYS
By JEAN DAVIES (neé ROBERTS)
I was born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, the third daughter of Owen John and Sarah Michell Roberts (neé Jenkins). My father came from Penmon, Anglesey, and mother from Blaenau.
I was about 4 years old when we left Blaenau Ffestiniog to live in Dolgarrog around 1932. My father came to work at the Aluminium Works. I remember my first visit to our home, 26 Gwydr Road. It seemed huge and empty. Obviously the furniture van had not arrived, but we children were very thrilled with the house. It had three bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, a kitchen, pantry, spacious hall, living room and parlour. My father turned our back garden into a productive kitchen garden with fruit and vegetables, with a lawn and flower garden at the front.
Above: 26 Gwydr Road, Dolgarrog. This shows the house and wooden fence, before the road was altered. It iis at the far end of the Gwydr Road colour postcard picture (below, after next story).
I can remember the current road running through Dolgarrog being built, with lorries and steam rollers working hard all day. There existed only a rough track outside our home then, muddy at times with several large stones or boulders visible. The main road was below that, and ran past Tan Y Ffordd farm.
The first infant school I attended was called The Aviary, situated opposite the Royal British Legion Club and up a narrow hill. Turning right, it was on the left. It consisted of only one room. It eventually became our Methodist Sunday School and prayer meeting place. The Band of Hope was also held there.
The older children went to a school called ‘Sillens’, opposite E. B. Jones stores on the main road. I recall using a thin slate to write on with a slate stick when I later attended there. The school property and land no doubt belonged to the Aluminium Corporation Limited, and years later it became a medical clinic for mothers and their babies.
Above: Old postcard from Mrs Davies' collection showing E B Jones shop.
I remember the new Central School being built - it was in the shape of an ‘E’. As a pupil there I recall the teaching was superb. We had an infants section, cookery room, and held assemblies, short services, in the main hall, which had a kitchen at the back and tables for school dinners. Music lessons were also held in the hall where we learned about Handel, Mendelssohn, Schubert and others. We had a laboratory and woodwork room where I made a wooden mouse. We also had shorthand and typing lessons. The headmaster Mr Darfyl Humphreys, later retired to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
On St David’s Day, we held the School Eisteddfod. The school ‘houses’ were named after local lakes; Cenin (yellow), Crafnant (red), Cowlyd (blue) and my ‘house’ Dulyn (green).
In our Girl Guide uniforms we attended the Armistice Day service in November at The Royal British Legion’s Cenotaph.
Mr Bert Williams led and conducted the children’s concerts and choirs, accompanied by Madam Olwen Hughes, a pianist and singer. These were held at the original cinema which was also a dance hall. We saw many black and white films there, and the serial Flash Gordon’s trip to Mars.
I loved listening to Saturday Night Theatre on the radio. One play was called Ladies in Retirement which was later made into a film, and I was all excited when I heard that the film was coming to Dolgarrog. Unfortunately, the cinema burnt down a few days before it was due to be shown.
We left school at 15 in those days, unless you passed the scholarship when 11 years old and carried on your education at Llanrwst Grammar School.
When walking to school I’d cross a bridge and looking down, I could see and hear the ‘bogeys’, which were trucks carrying workmen to the Hydro Electric Scheme up the mountain. The bogeys were attached to a thick black cable and came down the incline. There were also steps alongside giving people the opportunity of walking up and down.
Near E.B. Jones was another bridge which went over huge black pipes coming down the mountain, on a very steep inclination. I recall once climbing over the bridge and on to one of the large pipes – it took me a long time to come down from it!
We used to walk from our home 26 Gwydr Road across the valley and along the straight road called The Track with bushes either side and cross a wooden bridge to the small station. The Aluminium Corporation’s railway track ran alongside it on the left. From the Track, we could see the village houses with their red tiled roofs. In winter the streets were lit up, as was The Track. Trees have now grown to block the view of Dolgarrog.
At the station we caught the train to Blaenau to visit my grandparents, Richard Jenkins, or ‘Jenks’, a caretaker at Blaenau school, born in Trisant near Aberystwyth, and Elizabeth Jenkins neé Michell, who hailed from Cwm Ystwyth. It was so wonderful, stopping at various stations, all clean and tidy with little flower gardens decorating the platforms. Then off again to Blaenau through the long tunnel. Sometimes the light would go out in our carriage and we were in complete darkness. My dear father would light a cigarette so that we could see ‘light’ in the pitch black darkness, which went on for quite a few minutes – but I felt no fear, because Dad, Mam, two sisters Betty and Myfanwy and dear brother Eric were there. Then we came out of the pitch darkness into the light, and were a few minutes from my dear Taid and Nain’s home – absolute magic for me.
When it rained heavily, the Conway River flooded. From our small landing window, the valley appeared to be a sea of water all the way to Trefriw and beyond. Water would also come down in torrents from the vicinity of the broken dam.
I remember one occasion, relatives of mine journeying up the Conway River from Penmaenmawr to Trefriw in a pleasure boat, and we threw them a bunch of our garden flowers which they picked up and we all waved at each other.
My mother could play the piano and when we moved to Dolgarrog to live, as she played the piano, I would march around the table pretending to be a soldier marching. Little did I think that in years to come, I would watch real soldiers marching through Dolgarrog during the 1939 – 1945 War!
The piano sessions took place in the front room or parlour. We were not allowed to play there – it was kept for special occasions such as Christmas, when it had a lovely coal fire. The large oval mirror which hung on the parlour wall is now here in my home, and I remember on my Wedding Day, looking at myself in the lovely mirror and saying “Today you are going to get married to Bill”.
Roberts Family.c 1947 at 26 Gwydr Road. Back L-R Jean, Myfanwy Front L-R Betty, parents Owen John Roberts, Sarah Michell Roberts and Eric.
I married William Owen Davies of Llanrwst. Our eldest son Ken was born when we lived in Dolgarrog, and we then moved to live in Llanrwst where Bill worked at the Post Office. I worked for David Thomas, a Solicitor in the town. Bill got promoted to Postmaster at Dolgellau in 1960, where our second son Paul was born. We moved to Llandeilo in 1970. My parents came to live with us shortly before they died. Sadly, Bill died in November 2002 and I live not far from Paul and his family, with my very happy memories of my life in the beautiful village of Dolgarrog.
Jo Williams (Gorsedd Grucyn) with Jean Roberts in 1949 on a visit to Gorsedd. Photo taken by her fiance William Owen Davies.
MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR 2
Written by Jean Davies for her granddaughter Kim Davies at Newtown in 1998.
I was only a young girl at the start of the War, and didn’t know what War was until my parents explained it to me.
In the village where I lived, Dolgarrog in the Conwy Valley, there is a large Aluminium Works and also a Hydro-Electric Power Station. I understand that the Germans were aware of this fact, and they intended to bomb them. The Works was therefore camouflaged to disguise it from the views of the German aircraft pilots. Its roof was made to look like fields, and houses were painted on the sides of the buildings to confuse the enemy. Our homes were also camouflaged.
Llanrwst Grammar School had a foreign teacher. I was told that one day, she asked all the children to draw a map of the River Conway, showing where various places were. The river flowed very close to the Dolgarrog Aluminium Works. Shortly after that, the teacher did not appear in school again. Perhaps she was a spy, obtaining information for the Germans!
Above: "May Queen" - Betty Roberts, Myfanwy Roberts, Rhiannon Evans, Jean Roberts, Joyce Carpenter, Jean Jones, Margaret Roberts, Glenys Jones, May Queen Gwyn Davies, Mary Jones and Moira (?). Betty and Jean Jones decided to have a May Queen and arranged the event with the girls. It was held in the garden of 26 Gwydr Road, They borrowed the 'crown' for the day from neighbour Mrs Hughes at No 27, whose son had won it. Gwyn Davies was chosen as the May Queen.
When the air raid sirens rang out and we were in school, we all left very quickly to safe houses in the nearby village, for fear that a bomb would fall and destroy the school – and us too! Fortunately this never happened. In the air above some nearby lakes, were air pockets, and if a plane flew through one of them, it would immediately lose altitude, and drop to the ground like a stone. The pilots would die. Many years after the War, the remains of crashed warplanes were discovered.
Soldiers lived in our village in specially made huts, and there were several bunkers throughout the area where armed soldiers stayed. I remember large tanks travelling through Dolgarrog every Thursday, creating large holes in the road as they passed by. We children waved and shouted hooray at the soldiers who were in them and the lorries which accompanied the tanks. One day, our spaniel Jet went barking towards them. The tanks stopped and the soldiers all laughed to let Jet cross the road.
We could see searchlights from as far away as Liverpool at night, trying to pick out German bombers. The sirens sounded most nights and we could hear various places being bombed.
As schoolchildren, we knitted scarves for the army and the school forwarded these on to the soldiers to keep them warm on the battlefront.
Above: Dolgarrog Central School c. 1940.
Top L-R Rhiannon Evans, Josephine Watson. Olive Roberts, Gwyn Davies, Drina Scott, Jean Roberts, Bessie Bell, Jinnie Griffiths, Nora Spencer.
Middle L-R Annie Williams, Betty Davies, Joan Williams, Mary Coates, Betty Evans, Mildred Griffiths, Sally Shields, Audrey Baddley, Margaret Roberts.
Bottom L-R Glyn Roberts, Norman Evans, Gordon Jones, Ken Griffiths, Huwie Williams, Ken Carpenter, John Roberts, Jacky Bohanna.
Food such as butter, sugar and tea was scarce as were other items during the War. My father grew several vegetables in his garden and my mother did justice to them with her cooking. The shops were very short of ‘nice things’ and everyone had a Ration Book, which had a personalised number. My number was ZEIH/235. Very few sweets were available.
There were many War posters on display throughout Dolgarrog. The ones which stay in my mind are “Make do and Mend” and “Careless Talk Costs Lives”. I recall mending and re-mending our clothes and my father repaired our shoes. He was in the Local Defence Volunteers, renamed the Home Guard, having fought in the Great War of 1914-18. Each home had dark window curtains to stop lights showing at night. If there was a light, a policeman or a Home Guard soldier would knock on the door and give us a row. My father built an Anderson shelter in our back garden.
Despite all this, we children remained happy, not fully appreciating the situation, but we were extremely happy when the War came to an end.
Above: Gwydr Road, Dolgarrog, in days of peace.
Write to mail at melin-y-coed.co.uk - put @ instead of at and insert header MYC Dolgarrog Disaster.