North Wales Holiday Cottage Penrhynside, Penygroesffordd History

Penygroesffordd Cottage(s) on Bryn Gwynt Lane are among the older dwellings of Penrhynside. Believed to have been built in the 1860s as one cottage, it was probably extended around 1895 to accommodate two families at a time when extra housing was in demand. The original cottage was built on land considered to be a part of the Common Land of Mynydd Penrhyn.

Penygroesffordd was not included in the comprehensive Williams family land auction of 1884, which would indicate that by then it had achieved freehold status.

The first recorded occupants of Penygroesffordd by 1871 were William and Elizabeth Roberts. William Roberts (b.1825) was a labourer originally from Llangwstenin and Elizabeth was from Caerhun in the Conwy valley. They had two children – Mary E. (b.1864) and Margaret (b.1866). By 1881 the family appear to have left Penrhynside and the cottage was occupied by Thomas and Ellen Hughes.

Thomas and Ellen Hughes and their family lived at Penygroesffordd for a few years until Thomas Hughes’ death in 1889/90 when his widow and children moved to Bryn Mor on Bryn Gwynt Lane. The cottage was then occupied by John and Elizabeth Williams.John Williams (b.1847) was a general labourer originally from Glan Conwy, his wife Elizabeth (b.1849) was from Llanfairtalhaiarn. The family remained at the cottage for some years before moving to Ael-y-Bryn, Pendre Road. Around 1895 the house was also shared for a time with Catherine Roberts before she moved to occupy Sea View, Pendre Road. Around this time Penygroesffordd could have been extended as from 1897, the family of William Hugh and Anne Hughes also lived there. They had moved from the cottage adjacent to the Penrhyn Arms public house, then known as Penrhyn Arms Cottage, later to be called Llwynon. William Hugh Hughes had a variety of occupations -originally working on his parents farm at Pentre Isa, Penrhyn Bay before moving to Penrhynside, he later earned a living as a general carter/coal merchant and also worked in the quarries on the Little Orme. By 1903, as part of his general carting business, he was appointed by the local Council to collect and dispose of refuse in Penrhyn parish, presumably using his own horse and cart, at the rate of one shilling (5p) per load. Also living with William Hugh and Ann Hughes in this period were Edward Hughes, a quarryman and his wife Sarah Elizabeth whose son Isaac was born there in 1897 – they later moved to Mona House, Pendre Road.

John and Elizabeth Williams were followed at Penygroesffordd by Joseph and Ellen Jones from No.3 Penyffordd Terrace, Pendre Road who remained there for a few years before moving to Bella Vista by 1907.
Both cottages were entered in the Land Tax assessments of 1910, being owned by James Hughes of Penygroesffordd, the son of William Hugh and Anne Hughes who occupied the larger cottage listed as No.l with a gross value of £8.25p, rateable value £6.25p. The smaller cottage, gross value £6.25p, rateable value £4.075p was occupied then by Sarah and Elizabeth Roberts.

William Hugh Hughes died in April 1916 aged 66, his widow Anne remained at the cottage with her son James until her death in August 1928 at the age of 79. Both were buried at Llanrhos, Anne with two of her children and William with his parents.

By 1925 Sarah and Elizabeth Roberts had been succeeded by William Williams, a labourer and his wife Sarah Ann who remained there for over fifty years. Sarah Ann Williams was the daughter of Peter and Margaret Hughes of No. 2 Drillo View, Pendre Road. After the death of his mother, James Hughes moved from the cottage they had occupied, to live with William and Sarah Ann Williams. The cottage he vacated was occupied by Thomas and Mary E. Roberts who had previously lived at Springfield, Bryngwynt Lane and who were tc remain at Penygroesffordd for seme sixty years.

William and Sarah Ann Williams had a daughter Rosina (b.1922) – she died i-March 1940 when aged only 18 and was buried with her grand-parents. Peter and Margaret Hughes at Llanrhos. Thomas and Mary E. Roberts had a son Philip who moved to Goleufryn, Pendre Road, when he married.

After 1975, the cottage which had been occupied by William and Sarah Ann Williams for fifty years, was occupied by Lizzie Ellen Hughes, the daughter of Peter and Margaret Hughes of No.2 Drillo View, from where she moved to Penygroesffordd, remaining at the cottage until her death in c1995. The cottage was then renovated and modernised.