 Head Master Tony Allen, telling kids to ask their questions and visit with the WGS members. |
 Joan Bretz shows the Kids some of the books she has brought while Becky looks on |
 Becky and Queenie Joyce watch Joan Bretz with the kids looking at the books she brought them. |
 Merle Millheim show the girls some of the things she has brought for them. |
 Sharon Underhill with some of the students, as Betty McGehee visits with one of the teachers. Remember that Betty is a retired teacher! |
 Betty McGehee and Sharon Underhill visiting with the children and answering questions. The Kids were so great! |
 Cada Grove talking to the boys. |
 Cada Grove answering questions from the boys |
 Sharon Underhill, expressing how neat the kids were and what great questions that had! We really enjoyed our visit with them, there was not a shy one in the bunch, and they asked great thought out questions. It was wonderful for us. |
 Loading up to head from the School to the Bronfadog!!! I believe that van held 17 people it was great. George and Carol Gallagher were wonderful in dealing with our schedule our luggage and getting us where we needed to be, with George giving us heads up to look at things of historic value as we went down the road. They were both wonderful to tour with! |
The Bron Fadoc
The Bronfadog or the Bron Fadog or Bronfadoc or Bron Fadoc, It seems with the Welsh way of spelling things we don’t seem to get a straight answer to the spelling…. BUT, if Mike and Fliss have a sign on their gate that says Bronfadog, then I am going to go with that. I have legal documents that have it written differently, but I think the owner of the property would have the right spelling, so I am going to go forward with that spelling. We only find the spelling to be Bronfadoc way back in the lines but in the more resent years 1600’s and forward they have been spelling it Bronfadog, so again I will be going forward with that.
Mike and Fliss Owens are the most wonderful people you could ever meet. They are the most hospitable, informative, and talented people, I can't say Kudo's enough. They are both artisans Mike makes woodcarvings and furniture. We were shown pictures of Mike displaying his furniture to Prince Charles and Camilla. Prince Charles actually sat on most of the benches and showed a great deal of interest in Mike’s furniture. Fliss is a textile artist, as in materials, which can be turned into furniture materials, or drapes or clothing or what ever. She is also a phenomenal artist, she showed us her portfolio, I am so impressed with her work. In one of them you could actually see the different personalities in the children’s faces. Most artists do not catch such expressions. I would love to own one of Fliss’s works.
Mike and Fliss have a son Christy, he was also at the school we had just visited. Christy has the greatest accent. If you have watched “Oliver” he would remind you of Oliver Twist when he speaks but it is more melodic. Christy ended up with a fever while we were there, but he was feeling better for his birthday that was celebrated that weekend. He had all his friends over and they had a gay ole time. Fliss made a Treasure chest cake it would be any boys delight.
The pictures that are following are a mix. But I believe we covered every angle of the property that we could with out imposing to far into Mike and Fliss’s privacy. They are the greatest hosts. I suggested to Fliss and Mike that they need to open the “Bed and Breakfast” in their home until the Dower house was finish, because Fliss has the touch for it. There was nothing that she didn’t offer or supply. Fresh flowers, bathing supplies, snacks in the room, everything you could want. Vi Grooms-Alban and I shared a bedroom at the Bronfadog. The room was L shaped and huge! Mike and Fliss were so wonderful to allow us to share the room, as they were expecting my husband to be with me and were worried about the room only having one bed. When we returned the first night they had moved a second bed into the room for us. They went so out of their way, we felt guilty. They were wonderful and I can’t say that enough.
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 Coming from Caerwys to the Bronfadog property you travel on a narrow one car lane that has stone walls on both sides, which is the norm for this part of the country it seems. Then you turn onto the property to this lane you see here. Pasture land is on both sides of the lane |
 Now you start to see some of the out buildings as you travel down the lane to the house. |
 Now this view is from the house up the drive to the lane. This picture was taken around 6:30 or 7:00 am, Monday morning as we were leaving to go home. I wanted to be sure to cover things I didn't know if there were pictures of.. lets not waste a moment!! |
 In this picture you see, as I was walking from the house up the drive, I ran into Mike Owens the owner of the Bronfadog and their Jack Russell taking their morning walk. I think I surprised Mike, but we had had so little time to visit I wanted to spend some time with him before we left. Not enough hours in the day, we had so many obligations that I felt we never had enough time to truely visit with out running out the door. Thank you Mike for taking us in clips and bits! |
 Now that I have ran into Mike we headed back down the drive towards the house, you see the Bronfadog sign on the gate that is on the drive right before the house. |
 This is a view from the same drive but to the right of the gate, so you could see the back side of the house that is walled off and hard to picture. You will see more of this later. |
 This is Thursday afternoon, we are arriving from the Caerwys Primary School, to have tea and explore the property with Mike and Fliss. They were so wonderful to allow not only us but the BBC who were still lurking around and interviewing Mayor Phillip and Myself. |
 This is Mayor Phillip, saying hello to Mike and Fliss, and introducing them to us. |
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 The look on Mike's face says "What did we get ourselves into?" ha ha, he was a great host. Fliss seems to be expressing back, "on with the show!" ha ha |
 Everyone heads in all directions trying to see everything! |
 This is a view back towards the house, you can see the Van parked for us when we get ready to leave. |
 This is the same side of the house and we are discussing the different buildings on the property |
 This is Hazel Formby the local historian and I by the BronFadog. She was so wonderful to come out and help us with the history of the area. |
 Here you see George Gallagher our driver and tour guide extraordinaire, the BBC Camera guy, Mike Owens and Alice Neff's friends talking about the property |
 Here you see the BBC interviewing Me about our visit. |
 Mayor Phillip and Hazel Formby coming to organize us for a group picture for the BBC. |
 Good luck! ha ha The picture is better if we all look in another direction!! |
 Do you think that Susan Grove knows the camera guy? [I think this picture taken by Cada Grove, her husband] |
 Ok, trying again to get organized. |
 George Gallagher our tour guide, and now our camera man, notice all our camera's at his feet? Ok yes I did not post the 10 other pictures.. they weren't any better than these, no one is ever looking the same direction!! ha ha |
 BBC camera guys again.... we still don't know his name |
 Mayor Phillip inviting us to look at the camera man. |
 Ok here is the best picture of us almost all looking in one direction, but it is a bit high on contrast but best I could adjust it. =). Starting from the left: Mayor Phillip, Sharon Underhill, Joyce Gail Stewart, Linda Shabo, Becky Thill, Merle Millheim, Queenie Joyce Quigley, with Koth Bob Quigley behind her, Ida Cann, Mary Alice Shaw in yellow, Betty McGehee behind her, Janet Beard, Joan Bretz behind her, Susan Grove, Vi Grooms-Alban behind her, Alice Neff, Debbie and Brian Hunter [Alice Neff's daughter], Amy Humphries in front of them, Dick McGehee, and Cada Grove. P.S. The Dower house is the house in the back drop, the house to the right is the Main house of Bronfadog, There is a small walled yard in front of the Main house. |
