My family lived in Birkenhead in the early 70’s and we had a caravan at Morfa at that time until 1975 when we moved to Cornwall. I was nine years old when we left and have extremely fond memories of our stays at Morfa. We certainly made good use of the caravan. When the caravan was moved to its plot around Easter until early Autumn, we used to travel straight to Conway most Friday nights (picking my brother up from Cub Scouts on the way!). We would also stay there for most of the school holidays as well. My Dad was a co director in a large central heating company so was able to take the leave when he wanted (which was great for us kids!). He had other friends from the Wirrall that also had caravans on the site. Next to our caravan was Sid and Lillian Healey (Grandparents of Austen Healey the England Rugby player from recent years), and not far away were the Sampsons (Kevin Sampson now a well known author from the area). My Dad, Sid and the Sampons had speed boats that they used to launch from the slipway at Conwy and then travel down the river (always fast flowing and very treacherous) to the just off the beach where they used to water ski and fish.
For us kids we used to have the freedom to do what we wanted (unlike today !). We would go to the beach and jump off the sand dunes or make camps in the dune grass. There used to be fences (wicker ?) that were used to try to stop the sand dunes from moving which made great wind breaks for lying next to for sun bathing. Like a previous poster, we used to love getting a knickerbockglory in the cafe. I remember there was always the sound of the milk shake machine going almost non-stop making shakes .
We sometimes used to walk down the whole beach, passed the golf club and round to Conwy itself where would take our fishing lines and try to catch crabs and then buy a bag of chips. Maybe later we would climb the mountain. There was a sort of reservoir half way up where we would try to catch newts. We used to spend hours on that mountain and when it was time to go back to the caravan we would run, almost uncontrollably, down the hill, usually ending up head over heals. On the way back to the caravan we would stop at the railway bridge where we would look over to the road tunnel and play ‘Herby’. This was where the first one to spot a VW Beatle coming out of the tunnel had to shout ‘Herby’.
Although the caravans seemed to have ‘all mod cons’ in those days they probably seem a bit antiquated now. We had gas lights (always remember the ‘pop’ as they were lit when we arrived on a Friday night) and a gas hob. There was a large water tank under the caravan that had to be filled from a hosepipe connected to the tap at the ‘sluice pit’ when we arrived. A car battery supplied power for the water pump, the mini fridge and the 14” black and white portable telly. I remember lying in my bunk bed in my sleeping bag and hearing my Dad and brother watching Match of the Day or Kojak on the telly.
The toilet/washing block was a place that always smelt strongly of antiseptic cleaner and bleach. There was a cleaner chap that seemed to work there 7 days a week, always remember is big mop of grey hair. The place was teeming in the morning with people washing at the basins and ‘other’ morning activities. A Chip Shop was built at the site on our last season there (1974ish) and it was great to be able to get chips and gravey or curry sauce without having to walk to Conwy town.
My family and I still talk about our times at Morfa. They were such innocent, less complicated times where playing with a kite would fill your heart with joy for hours. Or, chasing the sheep, that had free reign on the site, made us laugh for ages.