A celebration of 5 years at Pentre Bach!

Last Friday was the 5 year anniversary of us buying Pentre Bach so on Saturday we held a party to celebrate.
It started off sensibly with drinks and canapes in  the kitchen at 3pm, with a TV lounge in Y Popty for those who couldn't miss out on watching Wales v France  at rugby.
Many, many thanks to Rosemary and Gerald , who provided the majority of the buffet, (yummy homemade bread, flans , roast beef, salmon and salads) and many thanks to Helen and Sue who helped me prepare the rest earlier in the day.
It went down well to say the least!
Unfortunately as we were too busy circulating, we forgot all about the cake, which was probably just as well, as in the heat, it  was slowly subsiding over on the sideboard!
Apres food , and some time to let it settle, the games started...... Gerald takes the prize for the effort, creativity and sheer entertainment!
It was a long day but it was lovely to be able to share our celebration with so many people who'd helped us over the last 5 years and also made us feel so welcome in the village.
Here's to the next 5!

2 very different weekends

Last weekend we were delighted that all our cottages were occupied- a great result in early October. What a shame that the weather was so awful on Saturday evening when most of our guests wanted to have a bonfire and fireworks display. It turned out to be a bit of a damp squid of an evening.
However on the Friday evening, after welcoming our guests into their cottages we set off to Machynlleth, to watch the Lantern Procession. We parked up by the station and walked into town where small crowds were gathering in anticipation of the annual event. We weren't expecting much , perhaps just a few children carrying some small lanterns. We had quite a wait beyond the expected start of 7pm but when the procession eventually arrived, proceeded by a percussion band, we were absolutely amazed. There were hundreds of people of all ages, carrying lanterns of all different shapes and sizes, but all linked by the theme 'things with wings'. Obviously masses of work had gone into creating these lanterns and what a spectacle they made. Well worth the wait. The participants and most of the watching crowds were then going on to somewhere, where there was going to be a grand fireworks display but we left them to it and returned to the village with a quick stop off at the Riverside in Pennal for a drink on the way.



This weekend, only Heather, Maggie and friends were in residence at Pentre Bach. A great weekend was had by all, including a rather wet walk across Barmouth Bridge, a live game of Cluedo, organised by Rick and the usual poses on Fairbourne beach.

This apparently spells TRIBE!

Meanwhile, this morning, before any of the above opened an eyelid,   Mike and I set off into the hills above Arthog in search of a memorial that we knew existed but had never been able to find before. Despite having to negociate a very muddy and prolonged landslide, we eventually came across the memorial plaque set into a wall in a beautiful spot, overlooking Fairbourne and Barmouth in the distance. Our research on the Internet, before setting off, informed us of the sad story of the American bomber , heading back to the states on the 8th of June , 1945, just after WW2 had ended. The plane somehow got lost in bad weather and ended up crashing into the side of the mountain, just yards from safety, with the loss of all the crew and passengers inside, 20 men altogether.
We sat and had our coffee, thinking about those poor men, before leaving our poppies and headed back down the mountain.

On the way back down we met a couple, probably in their 60s,  on their way up and started chatting. It turned out that they were on their way to find the source of the river Gwril. After finding that , they only had another 3 river sources to find out of all the rivers in the whole of England and Wales. They'd already climbed all mountains over 2000 feet in england and Wales. what an achievement! I just hope Mike isn't getting any ideas!

Monkeys, ghosts and a donkey that walked backwards!

We’ve often wondered about the history of Pentre Bach. We’d heard vague stories of monkeys, ghosts and whisky swilling landowners. Last night we were invited to Nick and Margaret’s (the previous owners) for a drink and slide show of how Pentre Bach used to look and the huge project they undertook when they bought it. We asked Margaret about the history. This is what we found out

Thanks to Margaret for this.

We know that someone was living at Pentre Bach in 1770 but we don't know what buildings were here then.

A maltster was the tenant here in 1840. His sons qualified as medical men and practised at Pentre Bach. The house has a plaque on it, telling us that it was re-built in 1868. This is when it was bought from the Garthangharad estate and we guess transformed from a farmhouse into a rather grander house with 11ft ceilings in some of the rooms.

 

The lower road through Llwyngwril passed down the lane by the post office and along the narrow left fork of the drive before coming down the rest of the drive past the house and along between the old sycamore and corsican pine trees behind and beyond Pen y Lon, meeting up to the south of the village with where the railway line now runs.

 

The upper road went up along the hills behind the pub and up again behind the church.

 

When the railway was built in the 1850s, it used part of the lower road, so the present road was built between the two and a new entrance made to Pentre Bach, with the big stone pillars.

 

On the dining room wall, behind the shutters is a note "snowing heavy, very miserable day 1st 1897". On the window reveal of the Sweet Chestnut room is a pencilled drawing of a butterfly. On a purlin in the main roof are the names of three builders from local villages who must have been part of the re-building team in 1868.

 

William Williams was wheeled to church in a bathchair for his marriage in 1920. He died three days later and his new wife claimed the estate. His family objected to that so she burnt all the papers she could find, except her marriage certificate. Hence the fact that the deeds for Pentre Bach go back only to 1954. The fight over ownership went all the way to the High Court and she won.

 

From 1920 until her death in 1953, Margaret Winifred Williams hardly lived at Pentre Bach preferring to spend her time in the village shop that she also owned, now Ivy Cottage. In 1954, there was a two-day sale of the property and contents of Pentre Bach and most people in the village bought something, including stuffed animals in glass cases that stood on the big marble fireplaces. Then the council houses were built on the top field above the road and the new primary school and head teacher's house were built below the road. The cottages to the south of Riverside Stores (Northern Terrace) and those on both sides of the Post Office (Meirion Terrace) all belonged to Pentre Bach until 1954. Most were offered to existing tenants for the sum of £20. One was sold for £10 because £20 was too much. Another was sold for £200 to a relative of Mrs Williams but who lived out of the area.

 

Stories about William Williams abound: before his marriage, the vicar objected to behaviour and it's said that he took his donkey up to the church, saddled it and when it charged backwards up to the altar, he shouted at the vicar "You mind your business and I'll mind mine!" Around 1910, he had a five-legged ram here. No pictures, unfortunately, only hearsay. He had a monkey that was prone to escaping, getting in through any open bedroom windows of cottages in the village and shredding feather pillows all over the place, then sitting above the chapel door when the worshippers were coming out - and peeing over them. William Williams used to shoot at the devil in the gooseberry bushes. In the Victorian Kitchen Garden on television in the 1990s, we were told that it was common practice to fire a shotgun along a line of gooseberry bushes to make the caterpillars fall off. So, we guess that he too was an organic gardener. He was also known to gamble with the local vet. They would race with ponies and traps along the road to Tywyn with farms at stake.

 

 

Boys from the village were forever coming down for sweet chestnuts. Thomas Owen's father caught them one day and locked them in the stable between 1954 and 1971 when he and his wife left (in their 90s) to move to Tywyn. The boys' friends came along and removed stones from the wall under the window and they clambered out. The stones were replaced rather randomly and can still be seen today!

 

Nick and Margaret bought Pentre Bach in 1979 after it had been empty for 8 years except for a few months when the schoolmaster from Friog was here with his family. When they arrived, there were 15 retail businesses in Llwyngwril:

 

Haberdashers, post office and shop, paper shop and groceries, paint and glass, butcher, greengrocer, pub, Sunday papers & toys & gas &everything else, repair garage, petrol garage, antiques, hairdresser, 3 banks. Gradually over the years, several of them have closed as the owners have retired. However, new businesses have also started up. Many chapels have also closed and several have been converted to other uses.

 

Apparently many years ago, soon after Nick and Margaret started letting out the cottages, at least two guests saw the ghost of a young girl and an old man. Nick and Margaret brought in some ‘experts’ who  discovered that the ‘old man’ had ‘interfered’ with the young girl in some way and she wouldn’t let him settle, after he’d passed away. The ‘experts’ had a word with them both, sorted out the problem and the ghosts were never seen again!

A sad time.....

What a glorious weekend of weather! However the last few days have been under a huge cloud.........
We arrived on Thursday morning knowing that April was missing but the whole community was still hopeful that she could be found. Pink ribbons were sprouting everywhere and the gate of Llwyngwril school was festooned with pink ribbons.
Mike went off on Friday morning to offer his services as a volunteer searcher and offer our accommodation to any other searchers but he arrived back after lunch with the news that it was now a murder enquiry and he was no longer needed.
All day long helicopters flew up and down the shoreline , obviously in search of a body.
We used to always tell guests that there was no crime around here and they needn't worry about locking car doors, etc. But there can be no greater crime than the one committed by one man in or around Machynlleth last week.
What has happened to that poor family, is every parent's nightmare. We can only begin to imagine what they're going through at the moment. Our thoughts are constantly with them and we just hope that they can soon have their daughter back,and put her to rest.

Dogs or No Dogs?

When we first took on Pentre Bach Holiday Cottages and started receiving guests, we thought long and hard about whether to accept pets. The previous owners didn't despite owning a dog and two cats themselves. In the end we decided to allow one pet per cottage, and of course this usually means a dog (although we did have one group who brought along their tortoise on holiday- fair enough!).
On the whole we've been satsfied that we made the right decision. there's a huge market out there of dog owners who refuse to leave their much loved Spaniels, Jack Russels and Collies at home when they go away for a weekend or a week. We reckon that about 30% of our guests bring a dog with them. So if we'd not accepted pets , that would've been a sizeable chunk of income that we would've lost.
The vast majority of our guests who bring along their best friend, are considerate, careful and clean. They clear up after their dogs, bringing doggie bags with them, with which to dispose of the dog mess and very often bring a dog bed or blanket for the dog to sleep on. They keep their pets on a lead at all times and make sure they don't upset other guests or our sheep-rearing farmer neighbours. They make good use of our large field to exercise their dogs or take them off to enjoy the many dog friendly beaches nearby.
However ...............very occasionally come along some dog owners who give other dog owners a bad name. We had one couple last week in Y Popty. They allowed their Alsation to roam the garden and lawns unattended (thank goodness the main house wasn't occupied last week!) and let it leave its messy deposits here , there and everywhere. This is not nice to get caught up in the lawn mower or trodden in and tramped into the cottages. The poor animal must have also been sick in the garden on a number of occasions but again this was left for us to clear up before the next guests came across it.
The cottage carpet was coated in a thick matt of long dog hairs, both downstairs and up in the bedrooms. I even found dog hairs in the cutlery drawer! It took me over 2 hours to vacuum the lounge carpet, down on my hands and knees, using the nozzle of my Little Henry! The whole cottage stank of wet dog throughout. To make matters worse, they'd left the log fire unguarded, with the result that we had burn marks on the carpet. Oh and they left early in the morning before we were up and about. could it be that they didn't want to face us?
We had to refuse a last minute booking from a family with a toddler because we couldn't guarantee that we could get the place cleaned and odour-free before they arrived.
Don't get me wrong; I love dogs and if we didn't have to travel as much as we do, we'd most likely have a dog of our own. Its just the odd thoughtless, selfish owner that thoroughly gets up our noses (and other places!).
We do make a small charge of £15 for a dog , to cover the extra cleaning, but this would not have come anywhere near the cost of extra cleaning this week. We're going to have to have all the carpets cleaned before we can let the property again. We also ask owners to abide by a set of commonsense 'Doggie Dos and Doggie Don'ts' before they arrive, just things such as keeping dogs on leads on our property and picking up their 'Doggie Dos'! Most owners are happy to comply and do.
As holiday cottage owners, we're constantly at the mercy of guests who could post a derogatory review on Trip Advisor, if we happened to have a problem such as the heating failing unexpectedly or poor weather which made our guests feel miserable and then find fault with something in one of our cottages. Its never happened yet, but we're always nervous that it could , and then our business could suffer. Perhaps there should be a cottage owner version where we could name and shame people such as those we had the pleasure of hosting last week. We wouldn't but its an idea.
Rant over. I feel better for getting that off my chest!
Dogs and their considerate owners are still very welcome.

A wee problem with badgers!

For the last six weeks or so, we've had a bit of a problem with badgers digging up great lengths of the grass verges alongside our drive leading down to our cottages, leaving us with a bit of an eyesore. It doesn't make a very good impression when guests initially arrive at the start of their holiday.
So.......what to do about it?
Well my mum and dad had a similar problem in their immaculately kept garden down in Oxfordshire until my mum remembered a speaker who had come to give a talk to her WI group many, many years ago. He came up with the solution with which my brother-in-law obliged, and the badger never returned to their garden.
We thought, 'Why not?' so over last weekend, Mike filled up a plastic bottle every time he went to spend a penny, then under cover of darkness, went out and poured the contents of the bottle down the badger hole and along the grass verges either side of the drive.
Result!
So far, so good. No more digging has occured this week! Where have they gone? We don't really care, as long as they're not digging up our drive!

What our guests had to say about Y Llaethdy this year....

These are some of the comments written in Y Llaethdy's guest book this year. Carina , from Holland, who's been many many times, even drew us a picture!

September 2012

A wonderful sunny week we had in Llwyngwril. I guided my friend Marieke, who had her 50^th birthday here and her wish was to come to Wales. We went on my favourite walks and visited other nice spots. It was great to be back again and hope to return again one day. Thanks Mike and Wilma for keeping the place as it is ….such a peaceful haven.

Carina and Marieke, Holland

 

 

 

September 2012

We have had a wonderful stay in Llwyngwril and have very much enjoyed staying in Y Llaethdy. One day we took the train to Harlech which had the most amazing castle. Purely by accident we were there on the evening of Glyndwr Day, as there was an amazing torchlight procession winding its way into the castle.

We have had a brilliant time. Thank you very much, and hopefully we will be back some day! J

Tom and Penny, Kent/Surrey

 

August 2012

Diolch am ‘wg liau bendigedig!

Dick and Dina Allard

  ( I translated this online to something like ‘thanks for wonderful egg turns’! but heh!)

 

July 2012

We’ve had a fantastic time! Peace and tranquillity. The cottage is divine, so homely we couldn’t wait to get back after we were out and about each day. We went on the train to Fairbourne and caught the ferry to Barmouth- a great day out.

We absolutely loved the little touches you’ve given to the cottage; they made it very welcoming and it felt like home from home. We will definitely be returning. Thanks so much.

Sally, Clare , Jasmine and Teddy.

 

June 2012

Our second visit- very comfortable and warm, despite the horrendous weather at first! Hope to return when we can stay longer. Thanks very much.

Graham, Sally and Charlie

 

May 2012

Thank you for your great hospitality. We had a great time. People here in Wales are really welcoming. Our dog Oscar was happy as well. We had a wonderful time in your cottage with the beautiful sea view. We’ll definitely come back soon.

Marta and Krystian