Fronwen and the people who lived there.
FRONWEN IN THE CENSUS RECORDS
Fronwen does not appear in the 1841 census, so it seems to have been built some time after that year but before the next census in 1851.
In 1851 it was home to the Edwards family, all local people. Robert Edwards, the head, was 39, and he was farming 39 acres. His wife was 28, and at the time of the census the family was being visited by 60 year old Grace Edwards - possibly Robert's mother. Their son Robert was aged two, and his two cousins were also in the home at the time, Jane Owens aged 7, and John Owens aged 4.
Ten years later the Edwardses were still living at Fronwen. Young Robert was now 11 years old, and they had three more children, John aged 3, Elinor aged 6, and a four month old baby, William. Robert is now recorded as farming 20 acres.
In 1871 the family living in Fronwen consisted of two widows, Jane Jones, a landowner and farmer aged 79, and her daughter Anne Edwards, aged 51, along with Jane's 13 year old grandson, John, who attended school. All three were born locally.
By 1881 the house had five children attending school. All of them had been born in Ireland. Their father and mother, Gamekeeper Peter Thompson aged 45 and Mary aged 44, had been born in Scotland. The oldest boy, Peter, was 15, Jane 13, Mary 11, Robert 9 and Anne 6.
The house was uninhabited at the time of the next census in 1891, but by 1901 it was home to Evan Roberts of Capel Garmon, a 72 year old agricultural labourer, and his Llangerniew-born wife, Cathrin, aged 68.
Soon it would be home to another Gamekeeper, William Evans, and his wife Eliza, along with their children John and Mary.
THE EVANS FAMILY OF FRONWEN
THE LLWYN RHISIART FAMILY
In 1841 a William Evans, aged 25, was farming in Llwyn Rhisiart. His mother Margaret, 55, was likely widowed. His brother David was aged 30, an agricultural labourer, and he had a sister, Jane, 20, and another brother, John, aged 15.
BACHELOR FARMERS
In 1851 the census indicates that William was still single at 35 years of age and farming 100 acres. His brother David, 42, was also still single. They had a 25 year old house servant, Margaret Owens, and on census night had a visitor, William Hughes, 21, a bachelor.
DAVID IN GLAN Y GORS
In 1861 William was still single at the age of 45, and farming 120 acres with the help of two servants. His dairy maid was Elinor Jones, 19, of Llanrwst. David was 55 and living at Glan y Gors, on higher ground near Gors Wen, farming 60 acres. His wife was Catherine, 45, a local woman, and he had a three year old son, John. He also employed 16 year old Robert Jones as a carter.
Above: Looking towards Moel Siabod from the site of Glan y Gors, Carmel (or Mathebrwd as it was known in earlier times).
WILLIAM EVANS MOVES TO GLAN Y GORS
By 1871 William was married and living in Glan y Gors with his wife Mary, formerly Jones, aged 33. He had a son, John, and daughters Margaret, 4, and Mary, 3.
In 1881 William was still in Glan y Gors and aged 66 and farming 81 acres. His wife Mary was 44 and their children by this time were John, 17, Mary, 12, William, 9 (later of Fronwen, "Y Cipar"), and twins Hugh and David, aged 6. (Hugh later married Anne of Pont y Clwt and they lived at Pen Ucha'r Gwyllt, where their daughter Marian still lives.) Baby Anne was a year old. She later lived in Ffynnongroew.
Above: The stream near Glan y Gors.
MARY EVANS WIDOWED
In time, William Evans senior of Glan y Gors was killed in a carting accident. It was said that an onlooker gave him a drink of water, and he choked on the water. His widow, cheated of property by a crooked lawyer according to family lore, was left to look after the children alone.
WILLIAM GOES TO LIVERPOOL
Young William worked for Mr George William Tinsley of Pennant picking strawberries, and a visiting shipping magnate from Liverpool who used to visit Melin-y-Coed offered him work in Liverpool. This was Mr Robert Crowe who lived in Bedford Street South.
WILLIAM MARRIES ELIZA
In 1898 William married Mr Crowe's cook in Conway, where Mr Crowe kept a large house. The cook was Eliza Eden from Pebworth, Gloucestershire, and a couple of her sisters also worked for Mr Crowe. In 1901 William and Eliza were living in Ty Newydd, Melin y Coed, near Cyffdy. William's mother was living in a different Ty Newydd on the way up to Carmel, now called Gwyndy, and supporting herself as a washerwoman at the age of 65. Her son David lived with her.
Above: William Evans of Fronwen (Y Cipar") with his Shire horses, both called Jewel. This picture appeared in the Welsh newspaper "Y Cymro" with the title "Pawb a'i Ffrindiau" (Everyone has Friends), and won a prize.
ELIZA DIES
William and Eliza later moved to higher ground at Fronwen. Eliza died on 18 November 1904 leaving two small children to be cared for, John and Mary. She was buried in St Mary's cemetery, Llanrwst.
Above: John and Mary Evans, Eliza's children.
LITTLE JOHN DIES
John (Jac) died aged six of croup and was buried with his mother.
LIFE OF MARY, ELIZA'S DAUGHER
Mary married William Roberts, the son of a gamekeeper who lived in Ysgoldy, and worked at Bryn Dyffryn.
William used to help his father as gamekeeper and later fought in Mesopotamia during the First World War.
William and Mary lived at Nant y Fedwen and Bod Wylim and their children were
1) MARGARET ELIZABETH (Maglys) b. Nant y Fedwen; m. David John Jones and lived at Cae Cwnws, Bryn Pydew - two sons and a daughter.
2) WILLIAM JOHN (Jac) who married Harriet Jones of Ty Mawr, lived at Gors Wen, and had four sons and a daughter. One son lives at Gors Wen now.
3) ROBERT HUGH who married Nance Jones, cousin of Harriet Ty Mawr Two sons and a daugh-ter.
4) ROSE ELEANOR who was born March 1927 and died aged 13 on 23 March 1940.
5) DAVID MEIRION b. 23 March 1932 married Janet Williams b. 20 Nov 1938 at Ffynnon Newydd Two adopted daughters.
6) GILBERT born at Bod Wylim. m. Alwena Thomas. Lived at Bod Wylim and Tan Lan. A son and a daughter.
7) EDNA b. Bod Wylim m. Tom Evans. Two Children.
Mary died in March 1971.
Above: Bod Wylim Family: Edna (Baby), Meirion, Mary, Rose, Maglys, William Roberts, Gilbert.
Above: Mary and Wil relaxing in the garden at Bod Wylim. Wil was a great gardener and topia-rist.
ENTER ELLEN ANN
Ellen Ann Roberts of Nebo, who had been acting as housekeeper for Mr John Davies of Bryn Bras, Nebo, and then Bryniog Uchaf, was called in to look after the Fronwen household. She had trained to be a schoolteacher, but a bout of rheumatic fever interrupted her plans
Above: Ellen Ann Roberts and Olwen Jones Evans
WILLIAM MARRIES ELLEN ANN
Ellen Ann and William married and had nine children together.
Their surviving children were Katie, Nell, David Trebor, Annie Ceridwen, Hugh Ivor and the twins, Margaret Elizabeth (Lys) and William Stanley (Stan). William, born in 1907, and Ivor Alun, born in 1914, were buried in Capel Garmon.
1) KATIE b. 27 June 1906 married Robert Williams and lived in Fourcrosses, Pwllheli (1940) and Perth, Australia (1974); d. 21 September 2005 in Collie, Western Australia. Ashes scsttered in Capel Garmon, Fronwen, Bethel Melin y Coed and Singapore. One daughter.
2) Baby WILLIAM b. 1 Jy 1907 died 28 Aug 1907. Buried Capel Garmon.
3) NELL b 11 Sept 1908 married Robert Edward Roberts; lived at Bryn Aber, Maenan. d. 17 March 1979. One daughter
4) DAVID TREBOR b. 1 Nov 1912 m. Sarah Jane Goodwin d. 27 Nov 1977. Remains in Capel Garmon.
5) Baby IVOR ALUN b. 11 Aug 1914 d. 19 October 1914. Buried Capel Garmon.
6) ANNIE CERIDWEN b. 24 Feb 1916 m. Owen Glyn Owen. Children: One daughter and three sons.
7) HUGH IFOR b. 16 May 1920 m. Laura Jones. Home: Garth Hebog. Two daughters and three sons.
8 & 9) Twins b.13 Aug 1923 - WILLIAM STANLEY (bachelor d. 16 Feb 1988; remains Capel Garmon) and MARGARET ELIZABETH m Evan Roberts Foty; d. 7 Apr 1959; buried Cae'r Melwr, Llanrwst. Home: Maes Gwyn. 3 Daughters (incl. twins)
Above: Ellen Ann and William Evans with Dei, Katie, Annie, Mary and Nell. July 1917.
Above: Hugh Ifor at Fronwen as a child and . . .
. . . just a few yards away but facing the opposite direction some 80 years later.
Above: William Stanley and Margaret Elizabeth Evans, Fronwen.
Ellen Ann also had a historical connection to Melin-y-Coed. In the mid-nineteenth century her great grandfather, Lewis Roberts, lived in Cae Dafydd Llwyd, likely situated between Ty Gwyn and Highgate. Highgate no longer stands, but its memory is preserved in the name of the hill on the way out of Melin-y-Coed, Allt Igat. The exact site of Cae Dafydd Llwyd, later corrupted to Gafael Lwyd, is not known at present. Lewis' son Cadwaladr married Elin Roberts of Soflen, and they llived at Bryn y Cyplau, Nebo. Their third child, William, was Ellen Ann's father. Lewis Roberts also lived at Nant Isaf and Nant Uchaf. Cadwaladr was born while they lived at Cae Dafydd Llwyd.
Above: Fronwen in the 1920s with Annie Ceridwen and Hugh Ivor Evans.
Above: Gwilym Dolwyddelen, Huw and Dei with the two Jewels in Y Rhewl. The tree by the door still stands, and part of Katie's ashes are scattered beneath it. In the back behind Dei's head stood the hayshed on the highest point, behind the cowshed. Image scanned from a negative.
DEATH OF WILLIAM AND ELLEN ANN
William died in Fronwen at the age of 83 on 26 Feb 1955 and was buried with Eliza and John in St Mary's, Llanrwst.
Ellen Ann died in Bryn Pydew at the age of 73 on 27 January 1957 at the home of her daughter Annie Ceridwen. She was buried with her two baby sons in Capel Garmon cemetery. She was joined in time by her sons Stan and Dei and her daughter Katie.
Fronwen as depicted by a Melin-y-Coed artist.
After William and Ellen Ann died, the house was rented out as a country cottage to a doctor from Liverpool. One night there was a noise upstairs. The tenant went to see what was wrong, and found himself looking at the stars. A hurricane had taken the roof off. Repairs were made, but bye and bye the house was left empty, and the tenants made do with a caravan at Pen Nant.
Furniture and photos were left in the house, but one day in the nineteen nineties thieves came and took everything away. One oak chest of drawers (chesal drors coch) was left behind, as the thieves could not get it out of the bedroom. It had been taken upstairs before the loft had been enclosed. The family took the drawers away and waited for the collapse of the floor to retrieve the case. An oak gun cabinet with glass doors was also stolen - even the portrait which always hung at the bottom of the stairs, that of Mr Crowe in mayoral chains, the honoured employer of William and Eliza.
Above: Katie, who took the photo of Fronwen above, visiting Fronwen in 1979 during its time as a holiday home.
Drws Nain, Drws gorau yn y byd.
Above, the kitchen door at Fronwen. This was originally the outside and only door to the dwelling. When extensions were built, it connected the kitchen with the hall. To the left the walls are lined with wood, and the men used to hang their coats and caps on the coat hooks. Above the doors to the new rooms a ram's skull with curling horns was nailed, an object of terror to a little girl needing to pass by to get to the kitchen door. Opposite, two shotguns hung on the wall. The floor was of thick, natural, rounded slate slabs.
Above: Rwm Ucha, Higher Room.
Part of the extensions built on to accommodate shooting parties. The original stone walls have been lined with wood. This was the original window to the house, but was covered on this side by a china cupboard with glass doors and on the other side by the Welsh dresser, so was never visible until the house was empty. This is the room where the visitors in the 1920s and 30s would have their meals served, and it had a fireplace. There were two steps down to it from the hall. It had a wooden floor. The old window would have provided a view over the Ffrith towards the woods through which the path to Nant y Rhiw chapel wound. The window of the new extension looked over the valley. Alterations in the time of the Liverpool doctor who rented the cottage enlarged the area of glass down to floor level so that the view was revealed easily. The old windows had been inserted rather too high for the view to be a feature.
Above: Fronwen in 1989 when Katie's grandson visited from Australia.
Above: Fronwen from the orchard in 1995.
Fronwen in March 2006
Above: Winter of 1994/5 and the slate roof of the cowshed is holding up well. On the left, the old orchard.
The haymaker was drawn behind the tractor. The person sitting on the seat of the device would depress a lever with their foot, which would raise the teeth of the comb and allow the hay to drop to the ground in rows, ready to be raked into heaps.
The seat used to be fixed to the metal part sticking up against the slates of the roof.
Above: 2007 - The old hay raking machine stands behind the ruined cowshed. At right, an old metal water tank is rusting away.
Above: The same spot in March 2006. The teeth of the rake are visible against the snow.
Above: The water tank hasn't moved far in the intervening 75 years or so, and it looked pretty old back then. Huw, Annie and Dei.
Above: The cowshed, the old water tank, the big tree and the house in March 2006.
Above: This is all that's left of the orchard. What a treat it used to be to climb up into the trees and eat damsons warm from the tree.
Above: The stone William Evans moved by himself from the far end of the Ffrith near the woods. Some say he carried it on his back, others that he dragged it with a rope. It forms the surface of a bridge across the stream.
Above: Sheep on the last part of the track up to Fronwen.
Above: This is where the track up from Garth Hebog forms a hairpin bend to the doors of the house and Y Rhewl. The Conway / Conwy Valley is seen below.
Above: The cowshed is not what it used to be.
Above: The cowshed around 1933. William Stanley Evans as a boy and Jewel as a foal.
Fronwen in April 2007 - the pantry window shown was at this time the only window remaining. Now that is gone, too.
Above: A carpet of snow in the parlour on top of what used to be the wall dividing it from the pantry, built into the rock. Overhead where a solitary beam remains, the floor of Llofft Pella (the men's bedroom) has fallen and the sky is visible above. A little plaster clings to the bedroom wall. March 2006.
The two photos above are of the same (pantry) window. Someone standing working at the table in the pantry would be able to look over Y Rhewl up the hill eastwards towards Pen Nant and the Hiraethog tops, and know when the men were coming in for their meal, or when the calves were heading to the door for their feed. The two shire horses, both called Jewel, would make a tremendous clatter as they passed this window, as their hooves were pounding the bare rock. The hens ranged free, and would walk past here to the north side of the house, where ash from the fire was scattered and well scratched over in their quest for grit.
Above: 1995. The kitchen door opened to the foot of the stairs. Here the door to Llofft Pella shows the wooden ceiling still intact.
Above: A cold white coverlet on the floor of the bedroom where the women used to sleep.
Above: A last fond look through the kitchen window down to Dyffryn Conwy.
From here the family sitting around the table would exclaim in sympathy as they gazed out after winter rains at the flooded land in the Conwy valley.
From here Dei could see the smoke from the engine of the train going up Snowdon. There was not a house with a view like it.
Now, not even the window exists.
Fronwen does not appear in the 1841 census, so it seems to have been built some time after that year but before the next census in 1851.
In 1851 it was home to the Edwards family, all local people. Robert Edwards, the head, was 39, and he was farming 39 acres. His wife was 28, and at the time of the census the family was being visited by 60 year old Grace Edwards - possibly Robert's mother. Their son Robert was aged two, and his two cousins were also in the home at the time, Jane Owens aged 7, and John Owens aged 4.
Ten years later the Edwardses were still living at Fronwen. Young Robert was now 11 years old, and they had three more children, John aged 3, Elinor aged 6, and a four month old baby, William. Robert is now recorded as farming 20 acres.
In 1871 the family living in Fronwen consisted of two widows, Jane Jones, a landowner and farmer aged 79, and her daughter Anne Edwards, aged 51, along with Jane's 13 year old grandson, John, who attended school. All three were born locally.
By 1881 the house had five children attending school. All of them had been born in Ireland. Their father and mother, Gamekeeper Peter Thompson aged 45 and Mary aged 44, had been born in Scotland. The oldest boy, Peter, was 15, Jane 13, Mary 11, Robert 9 and Anne 6.
The house was uninhabited at the time of the next census in 1891, but by 1901 it was home to Evan Roberts of Capel Garmon, a 72 year old agricultural labourer, and his Llangerniew-born wife, Cathrin, aged 68.
Soon it would be home to another Gamekeeper, William Evans, and his wife Eliza, along with their children John and Mary.
THE EVANS FAMILY OF FRONWEN
THE LLWYN RHISIART FAMILY
In 1841 a William Evans, aged 25, was farming in Llwyn Rhisiart. His mother Margaret, 55, was likely widowed. His brother David was aged 30, an agricultural labourer, and he had a sister, Jane, 20, and another brother, John, aged 15.
BACHELOR FARMERS
In 1851 the census indicates that William was still single at 35 years of age and farming 100 acres. His brother David, 42, was also still single. They had a 25 year old house servant, Margaret Owens, and on census night had a visitor, William Hughes, 21, a bachelor.
DAVID IN GLAN Y GORS
In 1861 William was still single at the age of 45, and farming 120 acres with the help of two servants. His dairy maid was Elinor Jones, 19, of Llanrwst. David was 55 and living at Glan y Gors, on higher ground near Gors Wen, farming 60 acres. His wife was Catherine, 45, a local woman, and he had a three year old son, John. He also employed 16 year old Robert Jones as a carter.
Above: Looking towards Moel Siabod from the site of Glan y Gors, Carmel (or Mathebrwd as it was known in earlier times).
WILLIAM EVANS MOVES TO GLAN Y GORS
By 1871 William was married and living in Glan y Gors with his wife Mary, formerly Jones, aged 33. He had a son, John, and daughters Margaret, 4, and Mary, 3.
In 1881 William was still in Glan y Gors and aged 66 and farming 81 acres. His wife Mary was 44 and their children by this time were John, 17, Mary, 12, William, 9 (later of Fronwen, "Y Cipar"), and twins Hugh and David, aged 6. (Hugh later married Anne of Pont y Clwt and they lived at Pen Ucha'r Gwyllt, where their daughter Marian still lives.) Baby Anne was a year old. She later lived in Ffynnongroew.
Above: The stream near Glan y Gors.
MARY EVANS WIDOWED
In time, William Evans senior of Glan y Gors was killed in a carting accident. It was said that an onlooker gave him a drink of water, and he choked on the water. His widow, cheated of property by a crooked lawyer according to family lore, was left to look after the children alone.
WILLIAM GOES TO LIVERPOOL
Young William worked for Mr George William Tinsley of Pennant picking strawberries, and a visiting shipping magnate from Liverpool who used to visit Melin-y-Coed offered him work in Liverpool. This was Mr Robert Crowe who lived in Bedford Street South.
WILLIAM MARRIES ELIZA
In 1898 William married Mr Crowe's cook in Conway, where Mr Crowe kept a large house. The cook was Eliza Eden from Pebworth, Gloucestershire, and a couple of her sisters also worked for Mr Crowe. In 1901 William and Eliza were living in Ty Newydd, Melin y Coed, near Cyffdy. William's mother was living in a different Ty Newydd on the way up to Carmel, now called Gwyndy, and supporting herself as a washerwoman at the age of 65. Her son David lived with her.
Above: William Evans of Fronwen (Y Cipar") with his Shire horses, both called Jewel. This picture appeared in the Welsh newspaper "Y Cymro" with the title "Pawb a'i Ffrindiau" (Everyone has Friends), and won a prize.
ELIZA DIES
William and Eliza later moved to higher ground at Fronwen. Eliza died on 18 November 1904 leaving two small children to be cared for, John and Mary. She was buried in St Mary's cemetery, Llanrwst.
Above: John and Mary Evans, Eliza's children.
LITTLE JOHN DIES
John (Jac) died aged six of croup and was buried with his mother.
LIFE OF MARY, ELIZA'S DAUGHER
Mary married William Roberts, the son of a gamekeeper who lived in Ysgoldy, and worked at Bryn Dyffryn.
William used to help his father as gamekeeper and later fought in Mesopotamia during the First World War.
William and Mary lived at Nant y Fedwen and Bod Wylim and their children were
1) MARGARET ELIZABETH (Maglys) b. Nant y Fedwen; m. David John Jones and lived at Cae Cwnws, Bryn Pydew - two sons and a daughter.
2) WILLIAM JOHN (Jac) who married Harriet Jones of Ty Mawr, lived at Gors Wen, and had four sons and a daughter. One son lives at Gors Wen now.
3) ROBERT HUGH who married Nance Jones, cousin of Harriet Ty Mawr Two sons and a daugh-ter.
4) ROSE ELEANOR who was born March 1927 and died aged 13 on 23 March 1940.
5) DAVID MEIRION b. 23 March 1932 married Janet Williams b. 20 Nov 1938 at Ffynnon Newydd Two adopted daughters.
6) GILBERT born at Bod Wylim. m. Alwena Thomas. Lived at Bod Wylim and Tan Lan. A son and a daughter.
7) EDNA b. Bod Wylim m. Tom Evans. Two Children.
Mary died in March 1971.
Above: Bod Wylim Family: Edna (Baby), Meirion, Mary, Rose, Maglys, William Roberts, Gilbert.
Above: Mary and Wil relaxing in the garden at Bod Wylim. Wil was a great gardener and topia-rist.
ENTER ELLEN ANN
Ellen Ann Roberts of Nebo, who had been acting as housekeeper for Mr John Davies of Bryn Bras, Nebo, and then Bryniog Uchaf, was called in to look after the Fronwen household. She had trained to be a schoolteacher, but a bout of rheumatic fever interrupted her plans
Above: Ellen Ann Roberts and Olwen Jones Evans
WILLIAM MARRIES ELLEN ANN
Ellen Ann and William married and had nine children together.
Their surviving children were Katie, Nell, David Trebor, Annie Ceridwen, Hugh Ivor and the twins, Margaret Elizabeth (Lys) and William Stanley (Stan). William, born in 1907, and Ivor Alun, born in 1914, were buried in Capel Garmon.
1) KATIE b. 27 June 1906 married Robert Williams and lived in Fourcrosses, Pwllheli (1940) and Perth, Australia (1974); d. 21 September 2005 in Collie, Western Australia. Ashes scsttered in Capel Garmon, Fronwen, Bethel Melin y Coed and Singapore. One daughter.
2) Baby WILLIAM b. 1 Jy 1907 died 28 Aug 1907. Buried Capel Garmon.
3) NELL b 11 Sept 1908 married Robert Edward Roberts; lived at Bryn Aber, Maenan. d. 17 March 1979. One daughter
4) DAVID TREBOR b. 1 Nov 1912 m. Sarah Jane Goodwin d. 27 Nov 1977. Remains in Capel Garmon.
5) Baby IVOR ALUN b. 11 Aug 1914 d. 19 October 1914. Buried Capel Garmon.
6) ANNIE CERIDWEN b. 24 Feb 1916 m. Owen Glyn Owen. Children: One daughter and three sons.
7) HUGH IFOR b. 16 May 1920 m. Laura Jones. Home: Garth Hebog. Two daughters and three sons.
8 & 9) Twins b.13 Aug 1923 - WILLIAM STANLEY (bachelor d. 16 Feb 1988; remains Capel Garmon) and MARGARET ELIZABETH m Evan Roberts Foty; d. 7 Apr 1959; buried Cae'r Melwr, Llanrwst. Home: Maes Gwyn. 3 Daughters (incl. twins)
Above: Ellen Ann and William Evans with Dei, Katie, Annie, Mary and Nell. July 1917.
Above: Hugh Ifor at Fronwen as a child and . . .
. . . just a few yards away but facing the opposite direction some 80 years later.
Above: William Stanley and Margaret Elizabeth Evans, Fronwen.
Ellen Ann also had a historical connection to Melin-y-Coed. In the mid-nineteenth century her great grandfather, Lewis Roberts, lived in Cae Dafydd Llwyd, likely situated between Ty Gwyn and Highgate. Highgate no longer stands, but its memory is preserved in the name of the hill on the way out of Melin-y-Coed, Allt Igat. The exact site of Cae Dafydd Llwyd, later corrupted to Gafael Lwyd, is not known at present. Lewis' son Cadwaladr married Elin Roberts of Soflen, and they llived at Bryn y Cyplau, Nebo. Their third child, William, was Ellen Ann's father. Lewis Roberts also lived at Nant Isaf and Nant Uchaf. Cadwaladr was born while they lived at Cae Dafydd Llwyd.
Above: Fronwen in the 1920s with Annie Ceridwen and Hugh Ivor Evans.
Above: Gwilym Dolwyddelen, Huw and Dei with the two Jewels in Y Rhewl. The tree by the door still stands, and part of Katie's ashes are scattered beneath it. In the back behind Dei's head stood the hayshed on the highest point, behind the cowshed. Image scanned from a negative.
DEATH OF WILLIAM AND ELLEN ANN
William died in Fronwen at the age of 83 on 26 Feb 1955 and was buried with Eliza and John in St Mary's, Llanrwst.
Ellen Ann died in Bryn Pydew at the age of 73 on 27 January 1957 at the home of her daughter Annie Ceridwen. She was buried with her two baby sons in Capel Garmon cemetery. She was joined in time by her sons Stan and Dei and her daughter Katie.
Fronwen as depicted by a Melin-y-Coed artist.
After William and Ellen Ann died, the house was rented out as a country cottage to a doctor from Liverpool. One night there was a noise upstairs. The tenant went to see what was wrong, and found himself looking at the stars. A hurricane had taken the roof off. Repairs were made, but bye and bye the house was left empty, and the tenants made do with a caravan at Pen Nant.
Furniture and photos were left in the house, but one day in the nineteen nineties thieves came and took everything away. One oak chest of drawers (chesal drors coch) was left behind, as the thieves could not get it out of the bedroom. It had been taken upstairs before the loft had been enclosed. The family took the drawers away and waited for the collapse of the floor to retrieve the case. An oak gun cabinet with glass doors was also stolen - even the portrait which always hung at the bottom of the stairs, that of Mr Crowe in mayoral chains, the honoured employer of William and Eliza.
Above: Katie, who took the photo of Fronwen above, visiting Fronwen in 1979 during its time as a holiday home.
Drws Nain, Drws gorau yn y byd.
Above, the kitchen door at Fronwen. This was originally the outside and only door to the dwelling. When extensions were built, it connected the kitchen with the hall. To the left the walls are lined with wood, and the men used to hang their coats and caps on the coat hooks. Above the doors to the new rooms a ram's skull with curling horns was nailed, an object of terror to a little girl needing to pass by to get to the kitchen door. Opposite, two shotguns hung on the wall. The floor was of thick, natural, rounded slate slabs.
Above: Rwm Ucha, Higher Room.
Part of the extensions built on to accommodate shooting parties. The original stone walls have been lined with wood. This was the original window to the house, but was covered on this side by a china cupboard with glass doors and on the other side by the Welsh dresser, so was never visible until the house was empty. This is the room where the visitors in the 1920s and 30s would have their meals served, and it had a fireplace. There were two steps down to it from the hall. It had a wooden floor. The old window would have provided a view over the Ffrith towards the woods through which the path to Nant y Rhiw chapel wound. The window of the new extension looked over the valley. Alterations in the time of the Liverpool doctor who rented the cottage enlarged the area of glass down to floor level so that the view was revealed easily. The old windows had been inserted rather too high for the view to be a feature.
Above: Fronwen in 1989 when Katie's grandson visited from Australia.
Above: Fronwen from the orchard in 1995.
Fronwen in March 2006
Above: Winter of 1994/5 and the slate roof of the cowshed is holding up well. On the left, the old orchard.
The haymaker was drawn behind the tractor. The person sitting on the seat of the device would depress a lever with their foot, which would raise the teeth of the comb and allow the hay to drop to the ground in rows, ready to be raked into heaps.
The seat used to be fixed to the metal part sticking up against the slates of the roof.
Above: 2007 - The old hay raking machine stands behind the ruined cowshed. At right, an old metal water tank is rusting away.
Above: The same spot in March 2006. The teeth of the rake are visible against the snow.
Above: The water tank hasn't moved far in the intervening 75 years or so, and it looked pretty old back then. Huw, Annie and Dei.
Above: The cowshed, the old water tank, the big tree and the house in March 2006.
Above: This is all that's left of the orchard. What a treat it used to be to climb up into the trees and eat damsons warm from the tree.
Above: The stone William Evans moved by himself from the far end of the Ffrith near the woods. Some say he carried it on his back, others that he dragged it with a rope. It forms the surface of a bridge across the stream.
Above: Sheep on the last part of the track up to Fronwen.
Above: This is where the track up from Garth Hebog forms a hairpin bend to the doors of the house and Y Rhewl. The Conway / Conwy Valley is seen below.
Above: The cowshed is not what it used to be.
Above: The cowshed around 1933. William Stanley Evans as a boy and Jewel as a foal.
Fronwen in April 2007 - the pantry window shown was at this time the only window remaining. Now that is gone, too.
Above: A carpet of snow in the parlour on top of what used to be the wall dividing it from the pantry, built into the rock. Overhead where a solitary beam remains, the floor of Llofft Pella (the men's bedroom) has fallen and the sky is visible above. A little plaster clings to the bedroom wall. March 2006.
The two photos above are of the same (pantry) window. Someone standing working at the table in the pantry would be able to look over Y Rhewl up the hill eastwards towards Pen Nant and the Hiraethog tops, and know when the men were coming in for their meal, or when the calves were heading to the door for their feed. The two shire horses, both called Jewel, would make a tremendous clatter as they passed this window, as their hooves were pounding the bare rock. The hens ranged free, and would walk past here to the north side of the house, where ash from the fire was scattered and well scratched over in their quest for grit.
Above: 1995. The kitchen door opened to the foot of the stairs. Here the door to Llofft Pella shows the wooden ceiling still intact.
Above: A cold white coverlet on the floor of the bedroom where the women used to sleep.
Above: A last fond look through the kitchen window down to Dyffryn Conwy.
From here the family sitting around the table would exclaim in sympathy as they gazed out after winter rains at the flooded land in the Conwy valley.
From here Dei could see the smoke from the engine of the train going up Snowdon. There was not a house with a view like it.
Now, not even the window exists.