The old people used to talk a lot about Mrs Holland Thomas, Caerffynnon, she came to the school to give prizes to the children and presents at Christmas time and of course when she was in the village, the women used to curtsy to her.
Captain Holland Thomas, her husband, was the one that built Caerffynnon. He was a Sea Captain and he had lots of property around San Francisco - he would walk from Caerffynnon, down the drive cross the main road, to the field where the school is now and follow the wall down to the railway. There was a bridge there then and if he wanted to go on the train he would wave his stick for the train to stop. I don't know if it was something between him and the railway company as the railway was running through his land.
When I left school I went to work to Caerffynnon for the summer and I remember when we were in the hay in the field by Draenogau railway crossing that belonged to Caerffynnon, Mr. Haigh and his daughter and the maid came down and brought us some tea and then they carried on to Ynys Gifftan across the traeth as they had a little summer hut there and when I went home in the evening the maid, who could not swim, had gone out of her depth and had drowned, her name was Nellie Thomas from Glanywern.
Mr Haigh was one of the Aber Ia family - Portmeirion now. He married the daughter of Caerffynnon. There was a hunt in Glyn every year and at Maesyneuadd and there was some well known people coming there for the shoot, amongst them I remember Lord Derby and of course the gamekeeper would come to the village to find beaters and it was a day we enjoyed. We had a big stick and we beat the bushes as we went through Coed Glyn and Coed Mawr Maesyneuadd and when we had a bird in flight we had to shout "Cock over my Lord" and very often it would be a rabbit running in front of us, but once one of the men shouted "Rabbit over my Lord" in his excitement. The gamekeepers knew how the birds would fly and he would station the men with the guns for them to be ready to shoot.
Mr Savage was the gamekeeper I remember, and John Lewis in Glanmorfa y Warren. They used to send a cart load of rabbits to Manchester on the train. They had square baskets with a bar across and the rabbits hanging on them. There was a lot of poachers then after the pheasants and there was a wire on the ground in Coed Mawr, if you happened to touch the wire there would be a big bang and they had to run for it.