Pubs and chapels in Bethesda

[GrahamSimons]

That one is the Douglas Arms, which I hear has  recently made the switch  to new money.
 

The prices in old money were, if I remember, quite frightening as I was remembering old prices! Also remember someone being told to leave the premises if they wanted to use "English money!"

[ParcMeurig]

Siop Bontuchaf
I  have found  a sister of my great grandmother who was living at the siop at the time of her death in 1900. She was the daughter of David and Sarah Evans of Glan'rafon. I have found the same shop mentioned in the Census but as far as I can see there is no address to determine which one it is.  What type of shop might it have been, any ideas? 

I live in David and Sarah's house. There's also a picture of them, in the garden, in J Elwyn Hughes' book 'Un Nos Ola Leuad'. They had two daughters, spinsters who died in old age around about the 1980's/90's. I'm intrigued by the possibility you mention, that  there was another daughter. As I understood it, from the tales that the last surviving daughter told me, they were his only children.

Incidentally, I know that a Joseph Rutter lived here before David and Sarah. A few years back, eight feet down, at the bottom of a ?communal ash pit in the garden, I found a slate which had scratched on it  "Joseph Rutter     Aoed (sic) 29 =1816     (?)Jane (?) Mair   27 1816 ". I saw, but forget the details of a subsequent census , which showed them as still resident in the house. 

[tylwyth]

Hi ParcMeurig,
Thank you for your post.
My great grandmother was the sister of David Evans, the father of the Evans sisters who you presumably bought the house from.  Therefore the owner of the shop was the aunt of the sisters and the sister of David.
Incidentally, it its quite confusing because David (known as David David Evans) is the son of David Evans Sr and his mother was also Sarah.
We came to Bethesda several years ago on a visit and the owner of the house kindly let us see the house although I can't remember whether this was number 7 or 8 as they owned both at one time.
I don't know whether it was you who showed us the house but if so, we really appreciated it and it was a very special visit down memory lane. My only regret is that I didn't take any photos. I have looked on Google map and can see these houses, it looks as though number 7 is the last one in the row and then number 8 is sideways on to the road?
We hope to visit the area sometime again in the future with the purpose of visiting the graveyards to see whether we can get any more information from that source. 
Thank you again for your help.
A James

[hiraeth]

In the sixties and seventies, my uncle Arfon and auntie May lived over their shop in Ogwen Terrace just opposite the war memorial.   There was a very imposing looking chapel opposite but I can't remember its name.  They had a long narrow garden backing on to the river Ogwen.    I loved the sound of the river at night after the A5 traffic died down!

[despair]

Going off your description and looking at Google Earth,was it this(Capel Jerusalem?)

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/67/41/2674106_01f7cd6e.jpg


Regards
Roger

[hiraeth]

Going off your description and looking at Google Earth,was it this(Capel Jerusalem?)

Thank you for positing the image Roger.  The facade looks vaguely familiar but it was a very long time ago

Heather

[Quarryman]

Hi Hiraeth,

It was Capel Jerusalem. My grandfather wrote about it being built in 1870/71 in his diary. Will look up the relevant entries..

[Mair]

Capel Jerusalem was apparently one of several venues my great grandfather preached at.

Thomas Rowlands  left for the USA leaving behind his eldest son John Rowlands b 1813 whose son John  b 1840 d 1908 in  turn carried on the family tradition of giving a sermon.  John Rowlands snr was known as John Thomas until the emigrated father died and then you have John snr and jnr both giving the congregations sermons as they travelled the countryside from the Owen valley to Beddgelert and down to the Llleyn - practically the south coast.  Apparently John had no mode of transport so must have walked the routes over the mountainous terrain.

Quarryman,  if on your research you find any reference to any of the above tale from a family bible held please could you let me know?

Mair

[Beeonthebay]

My grandfather was born in Bethesda.   I don't speak Welsh so the books listed here are no good to me.    all his family are from the surrounding areas.   

I have found the majority of them on the censuses and I do have a book about slate quarrymen but am interested in further background information regarding life in Bethesda such as housing,  schools etc.

Also I must buy the map of the cemetery talked about by the OP or is it available online these days?