People of Conwy: Dennis Roberts
People of Conwy: Dennis Roberts
Dennis Roberts, a former head teacher, has lived in Penmaenmawr all his life. In 1973 he established the Penmaenmawr Historical Society, which has grown to include a thriving community museum. As a young boy, Dennis’ father encouraged his interest in local history and his love of reading.
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Transcript:
… I once went to … South Wales to the home of Dylan Thomas. I went to the Boathouse, then you walk along this path, you pass this garage, this shed, and it was where he wrote many of his works, his poetry and books et cetera, and he could look through the window and see the desk layed out in front of him
… and one day I’ll have MY shed, [Dennis laughs] and I’ve only had it for about a year, but of course it’s full of of my grandchildren’s toys [laughs] …
… books there, books galore, hundreds of books; we’ve got books everywhere …
… I’m not selling them, some of them are quite valuable you know, [laughs] but they’re in the shed …
… I’m still reading books, and my wife says “You’ve got to start reading fiction”, but I get bored reading about detectives and things like that, so I usually fall back onto history books and really as a historian through my reading, I’ve become a self-taught historian …
… My father was a teacher in Llandudno, and he was forever bringing books home for me to read, very simple books, picture books, but I loved reading about the Romans and the Greeks and Gauls and Celts etc, and when I went to the grammar school in Llandudno I had what I would regard as an inspirational history teacher, Mr Davies …
… although I wasn’t particularly interested in the history he taught. When I was supposed to be writing an essay on European History in the library in the school, I was looking really for stuff on local history, what books there were in the library then, and he inspired me to take a … an in depth interest in history …
… Although I am not a religious person but I’m fascinated by how Christianity developed in Wales …
… I like the medieval period as well …
… Really my great love is for Victorian Britain, and of course that’s when Penmaenmawr as a town developed, it’s a Victorian town, and …
… since the 1830s the activity of the quarrymen has spread the rock all over Britain. I mean you walk in Manchester, you walk in Liverpool, you walk in Warrington, you walk in Huddersfield, you walk anywhere in any big city especially in the North West of England and you are walking upon Penmaenmawr …