Most of the men in Talsarnau before the war were members of a Friendly Society. As some of the men worked in the quarries and were only home over the weekend they had their meetings on Saturday.
That was before the bus started running. All the new members had to go in front of the committee before they could be accepted and when a member was sick he had to be in the house by seven, those were the rules. He was not to do any work and if he broke the rules there would be less benefit for him. Things got better when we had the National Insurance and life became easier and that meant the Friendly Societies gradually finished. It certainly helped quite a lot of sick men and poor families as well. Talsarnau men were members of the Odd Fellows . R J Williams, the Garage, or Robin John as he was known, started selling motor bikes in the thirties and they would come to him from all parts of North Wales. I can remember him late at night doing repairs and he had to get the bike right before he would leave it. Robin worked in the Quarry as a rockman and it was a credit to him that he built the business up as it is today.
The Quarry that is behind Tom Ieu's house in Glanywern was called Chwarel Morris William. He was my Great Grandfather from my Mother's side and it could have been that they used the stones to build the houses as they were all stone built.
When they built the Power House at Maentwrog, they brought the heavy machinery by rail to Talsarnau and they had to strengthen the bridge near the station. When they were taking the transformers by big lorries, one lorry sank in the middle of the road near Barcdy and they had to get big cranes to move it from there. They are still spending money on this part of the road today, more than sixty years later.
Everything was noted in the Ty Cerrig diaries and in 1830 they have written down what they had spent every day, how many men were working there and the hours they had worked. This was during harvest time of when the hay was cut with scythes. I have tried to work out the fields that the men had been working in, Fridd Trwynog, Bryn Draenog, Acra, Tanygaer, Bryn Pren Onnen, Ffridd Pentre Gaer, Gwastad Cae Coch, Ffridd Ty Newydd, Plantation, Cae Garreg Lwyd, Bryn Mawr, Pentrwyn, Bryn Bach, Morfa Glas, Ffridd Morfa, Morfa Gloyw, Penrhyn Ithel Uchaf, Penrhyn Ithel Isaf, Buarth y Moch, Buarth Newydd, Ffridd Gwastad, Buarth Pant Gwyn a Weirlglodd wyllt.