Between the two wars people were very poor and it was difficult to make ends meet and because of that men would leave the farms and the quarries. Some went to South Wales to work in the coalmines as they could make more money, but it was a very difficut time for their wives and families.
Some of the single men found a wife and settled in South Wales. I can remember it was Christmas and you would see people going round the farms with a sack to beg. They would ask for a few potatoes or swede. After going to a few farms they would feel the sack getting heavier. I heard about one old woman in Harlech, when the farmer said to her that she had enough to carry, but she kept on filling the sack as she had her husband hiding behind the hedge ready to carry her load. She would then carry on with an empty sack.
A woman that we knew would go out early in the morning to paper rooms for people and she had to clean the room after and all she had for her labour was two shillings and she had to make food for her children after she went home as she was a widow.