Wrexham County Borough 41- Bangor on Dee/Bren Guns/Americans and bags of cans/Bales of Hay and the Petunias have gone over

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"A walk can make you bloody nosy " That is what the elderly gentleman tending his Petunias told me. I agree with him . I look in gardens . I compare them here with Wingerworth. I look at what grows both cultivated and uncultivated. I take pictures of the plants and of the wildlife and I probably notice more things than I ever did . Is that in spite of Covid or because of Covid I wondered ? It is Day 508 of Lockdown in Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland and Day 6 of English freedom . "That field across there where you live used to be a field " He said . Yes I agreed with him. I had noticed many photographs of the village in the 1950's and early 60's before the mass house building began . He told me how he used to bale hay as a child and he wished he had a pound for every hay bale he touched . The village must have changed dramatically for him . 83 years he told me he had lived in Bangor on Dee. His parents lived over there . His grandparents in that house on the corner . That other house on the corner was a farm . It was that land that once flooded but was used for housing eventually and the farm no longer existed.

He reminisced a little more . His garden was colourful . Pink and mauve Phlox. Petunias filled his baskets . He clearly loved the old fashioned planting . "They are going over . They are old just like me " he sighed . I explained it was more about the weather . Petunias went over very quickly in this hot muggy summer. He smiled a knowing smile and went on to tell me about the Americans who arrived during the war. As a young boy he had been enthralled with them when they came to the village to fill up their jeeps with fuel . They came armed with bags full of canned food . The like he had never seen before . He told me about the Bren guns that were decommissioned after the war and had been taken over the bridge at Bangor to the coast for scrapping . The bridge suffered . Traffic lights controlled the traffic and the by pass had not been constructed . The wagons that came from the car plants in the Midlands had to negotiate the narrow bridge and on many an occaision they clipped the bridge or the side of the pub . He relished telling me the stories and I didnt mind listening . He remembered the flood of 1946 and the one in 1963 when he was flooded out of his home . He recalled the bread vans coming to the village from the bakery at the Sarn and Chorlton Lanes . They dropped off bread in the unflooded part of the village and the farmer brought his boat out and filled it with bread which he delivered around the village . Hanging the bread on hooks he lifted them to the upstairs rooms of the houses . He told about the Water Board who in the 1960's used to allow Bala Lake to fill up during periods of heavy rain . On a Friday they would let the water out and it was rush downstream causing flash floods to devastate Bangor on every occaision . His memory was good . He explained the banks broke behind the church and caused another flood . I could have listened to him for a lot longer but I had to set out for a walk before the sun came out .

I bade him a farewell knowing I would see him again on my travels . We are now in the height of summer. The roses are blooming in nearly every garden . Hydrangeas of every colour fill each plot but no-one has put aside an area for the bees and butterflies . Perhaps this is one difference between Bangor and Wingerworth . No Corn Marigolds or Love in a Mist . No Clover banks or cheerful field Poppies . No cornflowers . I made the decision as I walked the river bank that next year there would be flowers for the bees in my front garden . A Gooseander swam by . I counted 21 chicks . Two swans followed and there were butterflies everywhere . The constant hum of the bees accompanied my walk . I wondered what Wingerworth looked like in high Summer . I miss the vernacular architecture . The old buildings . Here there is very little left . A few interesting walls with markers on them . But no milestones . A Heron rises from the water . Gangly it manages to fly away from me . It is going to be another hot day . Another lockdown day in Wales .

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