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Eryl, Porth y Castell has many happy memories for me. Even today immediately one enters the house one appreciates a great atmosphere of happiness and friendliness. It was in Eryl that I spent nearly all my school holidays with my grandparents, Major and Mrs Edgar Jones and especially Auntie Winnie whom I always knew as Ninnie. From the outside, the house is a strange looking one, standing like a soldier with two rifles – the chimneys - but its great attraction is that it stands towering on the heights of Porth y Castell overlooking the Bristol Channel and it commands probably one of the most beautiful panoramic views in Wales. It was said to be copy of a house in the Cotswolds.

During the Depression of the 1930’s Gareth, my uncle, the Joneses’ son was in Wall Street working for the ‘founder of public relations’, Ivy Lee who numbered amongst his many clients such companies as Chrysler, Rockefeller and others. Gareth was extremely disillusioned by the poverty to which he was a spectator in New York. "World situation very grave. Must buy house within a couple of months. Only safe investment." Letters and telegrams arrived in quick succession from the United States persuading his parents to buy a house and so it was they bought Eryl for "the very reasonable price of £1,250".

Until 1931 the Joneses had lived in rented property in the Colcot opposite the Buttrills. I well remember removal day for I was lying in their tester bed with its curtains around me suffering from whooping cough and I had to be carried in a blanket to the new house, Eryl.

As young child I remember how vibrant the house was – full of fun and laughter. Every Sunday crowds of visitors, both the grand and the humble, would fill the house, many arriving by bus from Cardiff to receive a warm welcome and the hospitality for which the Joneses were renowned. Conversation flowed and discussions were lively. There would be two sittings for tea provided by Auntie Winnie - thinly-cut buttered bread and homemade jam, apple tart, Welsh cakes and the mouth- watering orange drizzle cake.

The intelligentsia of south Wales would gather including Mortimer Wheeler, Dr Glyn Daniels, Dr Thomas Jones and the famous Miss Davieses stayed at Eryl. The ‘Major’, a courtesy title from the First World War, had been headmaster of Barry County School for Boys and old boys from the school were always welcomed. These numbered Barnett Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone, Sir Charles Woolley, former Governor of Cypress and Sir John Habbakuk, at one time the vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.

I remembered that Gareth had a number of German friends, some of whom were Nazis and others not. From the Western Mail where Gareth was working he phoned ‘Barry 32’ to speak to his aunt. He advised Winnie who had a lively personality not to give the Nazi salute and say "Heil Hitler" as the Germans left the house.

It is 75 years since the Great Famine in Ukraine and Gareth as a journalist endeavoured to expose the ruthless starvation that Stalin imposed on the peasants of the breadbasket region of the Soviet Union when up to 10 million persons died. In his endeavour to tell the world he was maligned and denigrated. I was aware of the atmosphere in the house at that time. One day in August 1933 there were excited voices coming from the sitting room. Gareth came in from there into the breakfast room and I vividly remember where I was standing. Implanted on my mind vividly are photos of starving Ukrainian children with fat bellies and of thinking how could they be so fat when they were suffering from hunger.

Two years later Gareth was dead. He died in mysterious circumstances in Inner Mongolia investigating what the Japanese were embarking upon in their designs for territorial expansion into North China. He had been captured by Chinese Bandits, held for ransom for £8,000, and was murdered after 16 days in captivity.

It was then that the laughter went out of the house and a silence descended on it. A light had been extinguished. Life went on as usual, but it was never quite the same. I continued to have happy holidays there, but often pressing my nose at the landing window wishing it would stop raining.

I did not return for sometime afterwards to Eryl as I was evacuated to Canada. I do believe that the garage a the bottom of the garden was hit by a German bomb and a cluster fell on Romily Park killing a few including tragically small boy.

Winnie Jones died in 1952, Major Edgar Jones in 1953 and Mrs Annie Gwen Jones lived to be 97 years dying in 1965. Their daughter, Gwyneth Vaughan Jones, former headmistress of Barry County School lived on in the house until it was burgled in 1990 and she came to live near my family in Nottingham until the end of her days.

Following the burglary the family rushed down to the house to rescue as much as we could. Life had stopped still in 1935 after Gareth’s death and little had changed. Even the wallpaper from the hall up the stairs was William Morris in style and on the wall was the old gaslight. The house was in a very sorry state. Everywhere were books doubled filed. The small room on the top floor, known as Master Gareth’s room was untouched and under the bed were Soviet Posters brought back in 1931 when Gareth went to the U.S.S.R. with Jack Heinz taking with them a supply of baked beans. Coming down the stairs from this floor were piles of old magazines dating from 1953. The wallpaper was peeling off and the plaster disintegrating into dust. At the bottom of these stairs was antiquated domestic equipment and there I found Gareth’s diaries preciously kept by his mother. I do not think anything was ever thrown away. In my grandmother’s room I found an old trunk full of interesting documents, but it was covered by inches of dust. Everywhere in the room had a thick layer and I found it difficult to breath.

Fortunately the burglars had been intercepted by the barking of the dog next door and had had taken little. They had piled the expected loot into the sitting room. In this room were cracks in the wall beside the fireplace and water was coming down the chimney. I have not mentioned the kitchen that had four doors into it, a ‘pre-historic’ gas cooker and an old enamel sink. There was no efficient heating and the drafts in the house were indescribable.

Gwyneth had wanted to spend the last days of her life in the old house, Eryl with it many memories, but this was not be. She died at the age of 100 in Nottingham. On her birthday the Welsh speaking mayor of Broxtowe read the telegram from the Queen to her in Welsh. There was a memorable Memorial Service held at The Holy Trinity Church, Barry when the church was full to capacity, and even today to mention in Barry the name of Miss Vaughan Jones, women will say ‘she was my headmistress.

And the Bryls now have this lovely home which is so full of memories of yesteryears and a new story and a new era begins. There are certainly happy vibes in the house which I hope will always continue. The Bryls’ story will continue from here as they have transformed the house, Eryl into a wonderful home.

Margaret Siriol Colley