Our weekly Hidden Oswestry instalment

Charlotte and her family moved to Llandyn Hall, near Llangollen, in the 1930s, before the Second World War broke out. Her family were also friends with the Lloyd family of The Pentre, Bronygarth, where she would meet her future husband, Arthur Lloyd, who managed the family farms. It was from here where her second encounter with war happened. The Pentre was requisitioned by the Army as part of the war effort. Charlotte and her husband moved into one side of the house while the rest was given over to evacuee children their nanny and mother. They also provided work opportunities for refugees travelling to Shropshire from their occupied countries. Labour was also provided for the farm by prisoners of war from nearby camps, such as the camp at St. Martin’s.

By night, Charlotte and Arthur could see the flames and red sky of German bombing raids; across the rivers Dee and Mersey, Liverpool was bombed heavily. They would also listen to intimidating radio broadcasts from Lord Haw Haw, who boasted of German military might and made arrogant threats to listeners, all to destroy civilian morale. One memorable broadcast was from one night, when Lord Haw Haw claimed the Luftwaffe’s skills in bombing properties were so perfect, that one of many planned bombings included that little corner shop in Llangollen, by the bridge. Fortunately, the Luftwaffe never found Llangollen so the shop was saved, much to the proverbial egg-on-face that Lord Haw Haw suffered as a result. Charlotte’s father stayed on at the Llandyn Hall estate to help set diversionary fire’s at night on the top of their land above Castell Dinas Bran to trick German bombers looking for the explosives factory in Cefn Mawr.

Back to the Pentre – the prisoners of war and refugees did work on the holdings as part of the war effort. Many of the refugees are believed to have been concentration camp survivors that were liberated by the Allies. These people had been so badly treated by the Nazi’s that some had lost the power of speech and were so physically weak they were incapable of any work and were transported to the UK for safety as Europe was a complete disaster area and the Allies were unable to cope with the millions of survivors after the surrender of Germany. Charlotte described their depreciating features by referring to them as “ghosts”, due to how pale they looked.

The refugees were brought by cart every day from other locations to try and help feed the country who were literally starving. Charlotte, her cook and her maid used to help tend and feed these survivors in the fields during the Summer. Some worked to keep busy other as said literally could not physically walk much so they just sat in the fields in a beautiful part of the Shropshire countryside. There were no social services, nor were there counsellors; hospitals were over stretched so the decision to dispatch the refugees to the fields simply to try and give them a purpose in a beautiful part of the world to recover from whatever horrors they had seen.

Charlotte befriended ‘Wilhelm’, a German prisoner of war from the POW camp at St. Martin’s, whom Charlotte and Arthur affectionately referred to as ‘Billy’. Billy was shot and captured at the Russian Front and was brought to the U.K. Billy lived in the attic of the house instead of having to travel to and from the camp each day.  The friendship between Charlotte and Arthur and Billy was rather close, to the extent that they would allow Billy to take their children Ronnie and Barbara fishing and swimming in the River Ceiriog without a guard during the height of the war.

Charlotte was a very compassionate person, and at the end of the war, Billy was returned to Germany, but Charlotte & Arthur sponsored him to come back to Bronygarth as his home had been destroyed. Billy lived at the Pentre for some time after the War, later marrying a local girl and eventually lost touch with the family.

Arthur passed away in 1970, which affected Charlotte to the extent of deciding to emigrate to Australia and travelling in the far East. This would not stop Charlotte from making many return trips to The Pentre, as her family continued to live in the area, before finally returning there to live before her own death in 1996 from natural causes. William passed away in 1988, also from natural causes.

Many of her possessions were put away in old trunks up in the attic rooms of The Pentre when she left in 1970’s and were simply forgotten as the house remained in family ownership. An example of some of her possessions are a set of silver condiments from the R.M.S. Lusitania and various Cunard White Star Line books given to those attending the launches of the ships like the Mauretania, Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth due to her friendship with the Roydens.

One of Charlotte’s grandchildren had recently discovered these possessions of hers and kindly donated them to the Oswestry Town Museum earlier this year. They are available for viewing, in the casing, within the Judge’s Chambers.

Sources:

Mr. James Lloyd, The Pentre, Bronygarth

Oswestry Town Museum

Royden History www.roydenhistory.co.uk