CHURCH HOUSE CORWEN An interesting building with some history-albeit a short one,it was built in 1930 as the date on the front wall shows,so its not really that old.My grandfather the late Rob Davies helped build that,mainly the plastering and roofing i believe (his daughter,our late mum Phyllis told me about it as she did several old Corwen stories!) also taking part in building this was a chap called Francis LeGaye,(if ive got the spelling right)-as the surname suggests, his father was french or of french connections.He was the last to leave his home in the former Brook Street that was behind there,he had stubbornly refused to go even though the houses around him were empty and condemned,i remember on dark nights when a teenager going with friends up past the Royal Oak to peek through the solitary light in his window-he was sat there in a dim light,all we could see was a dim light and just his armchair and a table,if he saw us he just give that gruff funny laugh he had!Francis was well known for his pub crawls,never took pints but had a half in each pub then worked his way back to finish at the first port of call, if he had time before last orders-sometime in the mid 1960ies our dad said hed seen him down in Corwen and bought him a drink...and he had let himself go considerably....in a few days we heard he had died alone in that old house of his.The fine brick fireplaces inside the Church House and what brickwork you can see outside are a testimony to his high-class skill and work as a bricklayer-he was a very big man indeed who obviously liked his food and beer and one day during the war he came up to Uwchydre to my grandmothers on behalf of the council to fit a new drain gully in the back yard-my mum was only young then-she said he bent down to fit the drain and split his pants with a loud tearing sound!-my mum,gran and Mrs Gibbons, a neighbour, all laughed at that,they couldnt help it-and he just gave his gruff laugh back!He went down through the field out of public scrutiny for lunch and re-appeared later with a big coloured patch hed hurriedly darned onto on his trousers which promptly tore off on a nail when he returned over the back fence and it caused even more laughter-poor Francis! So the church house had many uses besides being a place for Sunday school or Church socials-it also became a temporary cinema when the one in Bridge Street closed and until the Glyndwr Cinema near the square was complete-it was run by Idwal Peake and i think Clifford Williams formerly of Waterloo House,or maybe his brother?...i dont remember.It also became the venue for parties-i remember attending a Fire Service one in the mid 1950ies arranged for all local children whose father was a fireman!It also was used for jumble sales and the like,and if i remember for a while it was also a youth club in the 1960ies,run by the Corwen church Rector the late Ivor Phillips who was quite an open man really who didnt seem to mind the way of dress and long hair that was often frowned on in those days!-in due course it was sold by the church and refurbished into flats,and despite initial problems with p.v.c. windows fitted there that were condemned by the planning people,it now remains as a block flats as far as i know.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 11:27:15 +0000
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