People of Conwy: Pat Rowley
People of Conwy: Pat Rowley
Pat Rowley, who has lived all her life in Llanrwst, has a deep love of her town and its history and has published numerous books on the town. Here she talks about her memories of the river, and how it made her feel coming back after time spent away: “…the river, it’s always moving, it’s never dull, so like Llanrwst it is always moving…”
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Transcript:
… you can’t go out of Llanrwst without crossing a bridge. If you bring your grandchildren here on a day out, you want a coffee, so you put your grandchildren in the square and say ‘right, try and get out of Llanrwst without crossing a bridge’. And you sit there and have your coffee while they’re looking, and two hours later they come back and ‘they can’t do it’ …
… It is a humpback bridge, and only … one car can go over at a time. So what happens when a car meets another car at the top is; the old fashioned rule is if you arrived at the top first, you had the right of way … and so one summer two cars went to the top, neither would give way, they were there arguing. One person got out the car, went to the other car, pulled the keys out and threw them over the bridge …
… Walking along the riverside here there is a stone at the far end and I like to sit there and look at the river …
… I remember going to Manchester and I’m on my own from here via the train, carrying my suitcase and I had a red coat on, and I was going away from home for the first time, and I got on the train on my own; my mother and father were from Cae Person - they didn’t have a car you see. I changed trains at Llandudno Junction, I changed trains at Chester and I finally was going on a bus from the station from Manchester to my halls of residence …
… but I felt very temporary in Manchester, and you felt ‘I don’t want to go there, but I’m going to go home anyway’ and so I managed to survive …
… I used to come on the train home. Coming up the Conwy valley by train, tears used to start coming to my eyes seeing the view coming and the river, my river, and so I feel a lump in my throat and start weeping and of course it’s ’cause I’m coming home …
… because you come down Bodnant hill, and they used to cut up trees there, and you just see the river and the Tal y Cafn bridge and you say ‘Oh, I’m coming home’ …
… the edges were blurred, because it wasn’t so sharp, it was comfortable, you know, happy, ‘Ahh here I’m safe. I’m happy and I know everybody and everybody knows me’ …
… the river, it’s always moving, it’s never dull, so like Llanrwst it’s always moving. It’s got a past, a present and it’s got a future, It keeps on moving to the future, going through the past and the present. But it’s stable as well …
… any mention of Llanrwst to anybody and they say ‘oh, the river, the bridge, the floods, the rains. But that’s how we’re green …
… I think people should know where they come from, the town and the history of the town itself, because every town has its own history, it might be exciting for some people and dull for others …
… Llanrwst isn’t just a town that’s empty, has no soul, it’s the people of Llanrwst, and their stories matter, because that gives the life of Llanrwst: it puts the meat on the bones, if you like …
… this town is full of history: we’ve had battles here, we’ve had parades here, we’ve had kings and queens here, and this is just Llanrwst, little old Llanrwst, in the middle of nowhere, we’re still very proud …