Woolly says – The rain was hammering down as I sat crunching my way through my morning toast, I sighed, would it mean cancelling the day again? Or were we going to bring out the stiff upper lip and just get on with it?
It had a very difficult few weeks after Alfie the Dog had been in a bit of a situation. During one of our walks, he had slid down a twenty foot bank straight into the river, Jo had raced to his aid entailing finding a part of the bank that was safe for her to climb down and then wading waist deep up river for about half a mile to get to the stranded mutt. As I stood high above them both shouting encouragement my human gallantly brought the very subdued mutt along the river over rocks and trees to get him to safety. With the rescue a success he was carried back to the car and put on bed rest, as each day passed Jo nursed him and slept on the floor next to him as he lay there with the saddest eyes ever. Five days in and we were onto very slow and short walks to build him up again. This had of course meant us cancelling a number of things as the patient recovered, including a special museum visit, due to the school holidays the museum had also had to cancel a week later so today should be the day, I looked up at my carer to see what we were going to do.
I had the stiff upper lip out along with the raincoats taking the view that even if wet it would do us all good to be somewhere different, Alfie the Dog was now up to a mile of walking before needing a long sit down and I was fed up of hearing the mammoth moaning about being trapped inside.
Woolly says – As we loaded everything into the car the rain stopped and a watery sunlight appeared, I bounced happily as we headed off. The sat nav fell into disfavour very quickly as we realised that it was taking us onto some single track lanes that we have had to navigate previously, and that the driver hates as turning isn’t an option. Pausing for a moment to take in the gushing water of the river we drove up and down the hills of Mid Wales finally reaching a main road allowing us to get out of second gear and drive at more than twenty miles an hour. The main road was short lived as we turned towards the signs for Bala and encountered even more single tracks taking us through high trees and incredibly bendy roads. The driver was getting fed up given the amount of sighing she was emitting, things got worse as we arrived an impassible part of the road due to flooding which entailed a very long reverse and a goat track to keep us going, the sighs had turned to groans so I thought I would be helpful and tell Alfie the Dog about our destination.
Bala is a town in the county of Gwynedd in Wales, the Welsh word Bala refers to the outflow of a lake for which it is best known. In the 18th century the town was well known for the manufacture of flannel, stockings, gloves and hosiery. It has its own narrow gauge railway and an interesting claim to fame which we would come to later.
With the drive having taken far longer than needed we finally arrived at Bala Lake Railway. Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake Railway) is the home of the Quarry Hunslet locomotive and the Heritage Railway Association ‘Best Small Railway of 2012’. Running alongside Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) the Railway uses the trackbed of the former standard-gauge Ruabon to Barmouth line of the Great Western Railway. The line was included in the infamous Beeching Report in 1963 meaning that it finally ceased running on 1st January 1968, in 1972 it was reopened as a tourist site and continues to be run by volunteers.
It was a lovely little station with some lovely features including a Victorian post box and an old cigarette machine, as we walked along the small carriages towards the puffing tender I tried to keep my spirits up as Jo had already told me that we wouldn’t be going on it today, she has been on it a number of times as a child and taking Zoe on when she was little. Holy War was the engine for the day and a very fine engine she was indeed, I sat down to watch the engineers getting her ready as the human popped to the facilities.
As I was leaving the toilet block the station master approached to ask if we were on the train today, I shook my head as I didn’t really want to pay out for something I had already done. Two minutes later I was holding a ticket for a concession (the drive over had obviously aged me considerably) and a free pass for Alfie the Dog, I knew someone would be very happy.
Woolly says – As the human returned I thanked the lovely engineer for sharing his morning coffee with me and started to follow her back to the car when she suggested I had a look inside the carriages, I bounced up the steps to find a fairly spartan carriage only to find that Jo and the mutt had taken a seat as the small steam train let out a very loud toot toot and started moving. I raced to the door only to find my carer grinning at me and telling me to take a pew. The ride along the lake was nice if a tad cold, lots of lichen covered trees lined the route on the lakeside whilst sheep and fields covered the other side. I thoroughly enjoyed puffing along tooting at the right moments.
With our ride over we were now running very late for the museum part of the day and with the rain still holding off we drove round the lake to meet up with Nerys the museum manager at Mary Jones World. I knew this was a small museum but the story behind it was inspiring, let me fill you in….
Mary Jones was from a poor family, the daughter of a weaver, who lived at Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, Abergynolwyn, at the foot of Cader Idris near Dolgellau. She was born in December 1784. Her parents were devout Calvinistic Methodists, and she herself professed the Christian faith at eight years of age. Having learned to read in the circulating schools organised by Thomas Charles, it became her burning desire to possess a Bible of her own. The nearest copy was at a farm two miles distant from her little cottage, and there was no copy on sale nearer than Bala – 26 miles (42 km) away; and it was not certain that a copy could be obtained there. Welsh Bibles were scarce in those days. Having saved for six years until she had enough money to pay for a copy, she started one morning in the Spring of 1800 for Bala, and walked the 26 miles over mountainous terrain, barefoot as usual, to obtain a copy from Thomas Charles, the only individual with Bibles for sale in the area. According to one version of the story, Charles told her that all of the copies which he had received were sold or already spoken for. Mary was so distraught that Charles spared her one of the copies which was already promised to another. In another version, she had to wait two days for a supply of Bibles to arrive, and was able to purchase a copy for herself and two other copies for members of her family.
… What a girl, can you imagine any teen not only walking that far but saving that hard to get something that meant that much to her. But the story didn’t end there, according to tradition, it was the impression that this visit by Mary Jones left upon Thomas Charles that impelled him to propose to the Council of the Religious Tract Society the formation of a Society to supply Wales with Bibles. This in turn lead to an even bigger change in that bibles started to be produced in the language of each country and continue to be so up until today through the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mary Jones (16th December 1784 to 28th December 1864) actually had quite a sad time of it losing all of her children before they reached adult hood, her legacy however lives on.
Nerys was waiting for us in the café and after the loveliest of greetings and a catch up we followed her through the churchyard and into St Beuno’s Church, the church had been rebuilt in 1881 and closed for worship in 2003. Inside was warm and had a wonderful half wooden ceiling with some fabulous stained glass windows.
We sat and watched a short video about Mary’s journey before testing out all of the interactive display boards which gave us lots of extra information. A small cabinet contained a facsimile bible of the bible that Mary had purchased as well as a copy of the letter that Thomas Charles had sent to the bible society. Jo got very excited over one of the many wall memorials which was dedicated to a gentleman called William Williams as one of her forefathers that discovered gold in Australia had the same name.
Having thanked the wonderful Nerys for opening up for us we wandered through the large graveyard to find Mr Charles’s grave which had its own special fenced in area before heading back into the café for a lovely late lunch prepared by a very nice lady. With bellies full we still had the town of Bala to explore.
Bala is a small town with lots of pubs so the residents will never go short of a beer or to. We wandered along the high street, a small war memorial took our eye as did the incredibly red pub called Plas Goch, a small church sat in its own walled area which looked big enough for a very small wedding.
The town garage was unusual with three pumps om the side of a house rather than a whole garage set up. A large statue of Thomas Charles took pride of place in recognition of his work.
The town hall was a great building with its clock perched on top, constructed in the 1800’s it is now a restaurant.
As we reached the end of the high street one more treat was still in store. Tomen Y Bala (30 feet (9 m) high by 50 feet (15 m) diameter) is a tumulus or “moat-hill”, formerly thought to mark the site of a Roman camp. Well, it’s Romans so what’s not to love. As the human snapped some pictures of the mound I walked in the opposite direction and found a pathway spiralling up to the top, my excitement new no bounds as I raced up closely followed by a much slower human and dog.
As I turned the final corner and arrived at the top, I was amazed at how small the area was, big enough for a ten man tent I wondered how many Roman soldiers had camped there and how squashed they might have been. A large tree stood in the centre which Alfie the Dog duly christened as Jo stood on tip toes trying to take pictures of the views from the top looking over the town and the lake below us.
With everything seen we headed back to the car with the driver advising us that we would be going the long way back along main tarmac roads with markings on rather than the mountain passes of our journey here. We all agreed that it had been a fantastic day of meeting some wonderful people and seeing some lovely places.