Ron has sent another email (12 November 2008) and a couple of photos.
Donna and I went up to PEI to visit our son Bill last month. The beach is so much like Prestatyn (wind included). Electric bikes are here to stay. Donna enjoys your emails too.
Ron
Google Maps,
Multimap and Google Earth help Ron Jones remember his youth in Prestatyn. Here's an email he sent on 31st October 2008. See if you can find the places he mentions and follow his footsteps.
Hello John
I have recently revisited the Google Map site. You had sent me the picture of your camp near Rhuddlan. With the "Bird's Eye View" I am flabbergasted beyond belief.
I can see my house at old 31 Dawson Park and all of my neighbours. One was Phillip Smith who now lives in Brighton and we are in touch with each other. My Dad's shop on High street is clear and the Parish Church, the railway station, Victoria Gardens and the hotel. I can see the door into the scout place. I can see the door I went in every Monday night. You can rotate the pictures and see the buildings from all angles. Wow! The Prestatyn Football and cricket pitch take my breath away. Again many an hour and footprint I put there.
I can see my grandmother's grave site in Picton Cemetry and her cottage too. I started out at Picton school and then Ysgol Bodnant in Prestatyn. This comes in as clear as a bell along with the Chapel next door. How often did we kick a ball over the wall and I had to sneak over to get it?
I then went to Rhyl and my view of Rhyl Grammar School really knocked me out. All of the classrooms and the Chem Lab and hall are as clear as a bell too. While they have put up many buildings around the school, the football field is still clear and I can tell you there is not a square inch of that field that does not have my footprints on it.
I followed Grange Road to the railway and then on to Morley Rd. Past the cemetary and down to the back of the Odeon Cinema. We were on the way to the bus terminal to go home to Prestatyn. We (Dave Mossley, Ken Jones, Hugh Cec Jones) would play football in the alley. I was always late getting home from school. Mum never knew what the heck we were doing. That is until Mum and I visited in 1965. We were in Rhyl and I took her down the alley and showed her where I wore out so many shoes. (Not good during the War as it was all rationed).
I also traced up to the Marble Church at Boddelwydden. I can clearly see the graveyard and the white Canadian Graves. There are 63 graves there from 1919. As a kid I knew they were shot by the Brits during the infamous Kinmel Riots. This I thought for many years, until I met Desmond Morton at the university of Toronto in 1982. He is a famous Candian Historian. I told him I was born there, close to Kinmel. He straightened me out and only five of the men were shot, all others died of the severe flu epedemic. When I was there in 1995 I brought some small stones from Canada and put them on the monument there. I am glad I did as it seemed like the right thing to do.
I can see the site of the Prestatyn castle at Bodnant Bridge. It is a clear circle in the field. As a kid I had heard of it but never saw it even as I passed it many times.
There are many other sites there that I see on the maps. It makes my day. I get so excited and I am driving Donna (Ron's wife) crazy. If you give me your snail mail address I will be able to see your house too. I can see St Chad's Scool and cricket pitch(also covered with my footprints) and the Roman Baths clearly
Sorry for the ramble, but who would ever think I could sit at my desk in Canada and see my old haunts so close and only 61 yeas later. Awesome!
You may(or not) want to put this on your web site. It may be of interest to someone. While Prestatyn has grown a lot it had not changed a great deal. In my day the pop was 5000+ (I had to know this for my Pathfinder's Badge) I understand you now have 18,000+.
My Best Regards and Thanks
Ron
Email from Ron Jones. Parents/Grandparents READ THIS. Click here to read Ron's letter from October 2006. You'll find it very interesting.
Ron with his thumb stick.
Here's an email from Ron Jones in Canada.
Greetings from Canada
Fri, 17 Feb 2006 11:29:57 -0800
This is what old scouts from the 3rd Prestatyn do in their retirement.
We are in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. We are trying to get a handle on the effect of Wood Smoke (and Air Quality in General). This picture was taken at 8.15 am looking back over the town about a mile away. Our house is over my left shoulder beyond the trees.
You can see the south mountain and there is a slight haze over the length of the River running from left to right.
Many of the houses burn wood stoves for heat and cooking. The Province of Nova Scotia does not yet have natural gas. We heat our homes with oil and/or wood. This is strange as we have natural gas reserves just off Nova Scotia in the Atlantic. The politicians are in the mix and any gas we get is piped through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to the USA.
Other than that all is well here. I keep looking at your great web site.
Best Wishes for 2006 and Good Scouting.
Ron
Thanks Ron for your email and photograph. Your interest in the site makes it all the more rewarding.
Here's another email from Ron Jones in Canada, in response to the Gimmie 5 pictures.
Sun, 20 Mar 2005 22:26:17 -0800
I am absolutely delighted with the Gimmie 5 pictures.
Boy do they (6-11 & 27) bring back memories. The Bastion Rd hall does not change at all.
I used to walk up the same path to the top of Craig Fawr on a Sunday after Sunday School. It was one of my favourite spots. When your group go up there again I would ask them to find and take a picture of the National Geog Marker, I used to look at it each time I went up. The year would have been 1946-47.
Also the picture of Prestatyn is great, I can see Meliden Rd, Llys farm and the Meliden golf course.
The best picture is # ll as I can clearly see the old railway and the fish Mtn. At the top right there is clearly a field and it brings back a clear memory.
The year was 1938 the year before the war. A German flying club came with gliders to that field. They took most of the children in town (including me). They had two long ropes on the front of the glider and we, the kids, held it in our hands. There was a chap who held the back and dug his heels into the grass. We all ran down the hill and I can rememeber the rope stretching in my hand. The chap at the back let go and the plane snapped into the air. I remember launching three gliders that day. In 1938 I was 7 years old. I strongly suspect that Glyn Lloyd Jones was there among us. It seems it was nylon rope but I doubt that was invented at the time. Seems to me Courtalls invented nylon later in the war and it was a secret until the war was over????? If you talk to anyone our age they may remember being there too????? I have no idea how we were recuited for the excercise. I am even surprised that my mother let me go at the time.
The war came the next year and what I remember is that they came back in 1947 but I did not get involved. I suspect the wind patterns there are very desirable. This is also why you have the wind farm out off Barker's Beach I think.
Please feel free to put this in News thing on the web. Give a big "Di Yawn ym fawr" to all participants It sound like fun and I congratulate them.
Best Regards Ron You made my day.
Thanks for the letter Ron, glad you enjoyed the photos. I'll print it off and pin it up in the hall for all to see.
The following email was received from Ron Jones.
(If you've visited this site before you'll know him. If not then also look at the News page.)
I just opened your web page and was delighted to see the clean up trip on the Dyserth walkway. I assume this was the old Dyserth Railway. When I lived in Dawson Park it was a railway and the train went up at 10.00 am every morning. It was illegal to walk on it and the railway police used to chase us if we were on it.
We used to go up from the Dawson bridge and "pinch" apples from a back garden on the Dell. I know I should not admit this as a good Scout but it was the truth.
The other thing is that after Sunday School at the Parish Church I would walk up to the top of Craig Fawr (British Survey Point there, I am sure it is still there. Maybe one of your patrols would like to go up there and see if it is still there). On the way down I would cross the railway at the style to the golf course. Often we would have to wait for a player to drive the ball . Interesting what?
I am deligthed to see the groups cleaning up the walkway path. Interestingly, here in Nova Scotia we have an "Adopt a highway programme" and groups such as the Cadets, Legion, Lions and Scouts do the very same. Just last saturday Donna and I drove up the Valley at 8.00 am and the Lions Club were out cleaning the trash off the highway. In Canada we call it "Hwy".
Thanks for all the work on the web. I see my stuff there. I will send you some pictures of our snow here. It usually starts in December and gets quite deep.
I still do a good amount of walking.
Here I am about a mile up stream on the Annapolis River along the old railbed (much like Dyserth) and the scenery is spectacular and there are no people around so it is nice.
Best Regards, Ron
Thanks Ron for taking the time to write.
For everyone else, if you'd like to email your comments I'll copy them to this page.
Ron with his thumb stick.
