Dorothy Addison Hosmer's Story

 

School children from Liverpool were evacuated to North Wales.  My two oldest brothers with other children from Clint Road school were taken to the small village of Clynnog-Fawr near Caernarvon.  They stayed on a farm and had a wonderful time.  They were given complete freedom to roam the countryside.  Never had to bathe, and could be gone all day long and into the evening with no questions ever asked.  The boys were Frank and Ronald Addison.  After a few months my mother, another brother (Kenneth) and I joined them in Clynnog.  We stayed in a council house with the Braithewaite family.  What a change from the greya dampness and overpowering sense of misery and fear in bombed out Liverpool.  Being evacuated was an experience I wouldn't change for anything.  I was only four years old, but the memories from those days have always enriched my life.  I remember walking along country lanes and seeing wild foxgloves growing.  Seeing a snake slither out from a hedgerow on a bright sunny morning.  To sit in a barn where the cows were being milked.  The whole village hiked to a nearby woods to gather fire wood in the Autumn. These memories and many others I treasure. 

A few years ago my husband and I went back to Clynnog-Fawr.  Surprisingly it hasn't changed very much.  Now I could see over the tops of the hedgerows to Caernarvon Bay in the distance.  The hedgerows towered above the four-year old, and I didn't realize that we were so close to a beach. 

Any other North Wales experiences from anyone?