Our morning started wet but had cleared up by the time all 17 of us met up at Bodynlliw for the start of our stroll. We began with a talk given by a lady called Ann who belonged to a group researching the history of old houses.
She had managed to find record of Bodynlliw dating back to early 1600’s and quoted owners and lines of succession through to early 1900’s Mair then took over and gave us some of her husband’s family history from the early 1950’s to the current owners; her son & daughter in law.
After this talk, we made our way out through the barns to follow the track up the hill, taking in fields and meadows full of bluebells. Progress was slow as we were continually stopping to take photos. When we reached the top of the hill the track took a right turn and this went gently downhill and then levelled off eventually returning to the back of the barns.
From there we went back to where some of us had left their cars in the layby alongside the Capel y Gro where our ladies who live in Betws GG served us with tea, coffees and homemade cakes to eat after the sandwiches we had taken. While we were having lunch another of our members, Elena, arrived. She had been unable to join us on our stroll but came to talk to us about the village of Betws Gwerful Goch and some of its previous residents including a young lady known as Gwerful Goch who had died in 1200. Elena then speculated whether the Goch meant that the lady had red hair or was a scarlet woman. She also described some of the landowners around that time one of which was somebody ap somebody ap somebody ap somebody ap somebody ap somebody, each with different names, suggesting that he was the youngest of several generations.
There was a lot of information to take in and remember but Elena, in particular. made this part very entertaining.
Thank you to all the ladies from Betws for making this a very memorable day.
