Story Detail

The cover is of St Margaret’s Church Bodelwyddan, North Wales. This is the home of five Canadian Soldiers graves, plus many more who fought bravely in each and every war!. Synopsis. Today one could perhaps be forgiven for not noticing the small village of Bodelwyddan situated on the North Wales coast, but back in the year 1919 just after the war to end all wars another was about to begin in the shape of a riot by some four hundred men of the Canadian expeditionary force stationed in the camp adjacent to the village, in 1919 the camp and indeed Bodelwyddan were on the front page of almost every tabloid in the country. The year is 1990 and I, Robert Bridge known fondly as Bob, and my wife Lilian had decided after fifteen years working for a credit card company it was time to maybe live near our aged parents in Abergele, another village not far from Bodelwyddan. It has to be said because of family ties we returned South at a later date. Meanwhile we purchased an old Victorian house for the challenge of bringing it up to modern day standards. The house had been built around 1890 and stood in its own grounds away from the hubbub of everyday life. Our first chore was to have central heating installed, even though each and every room had an old Victorian fireplace. We then set about the many other chores that needed doing, and it came about whilst Lilian .was preparing lunch I decided it was time to clear the attic: now the attic like the rest of the house had not seen the light of day for many years. As I made my way through the tangled web I came across loads of old junk which included an old box in the corner; as I brushed away the dust I was confronted by the insignia of a Regiment that escaped me, a regiment from many years ago. Curiosity got the better of me so I shone my torch on the badge and proceeded to open the box. Lo and behold to my surprise inside were a set of old manuscripts that were damp and almost unreadable. I found a crate to sit on and with the aide of my torch began to read of a story that had me mesmerized by the heading which read "Kinmel Revisited". Now I had heard of Kinmel and the many stories that were told in the public houses, and of how an army officer and his wife had lodged in Abergele in 1919 during the riot at the camp. Suddenly it became clear as this fascinating story unfolded before me that we had in fact purchased the house, and the manuscripts had been written by him, manuscripts that had remained untouched in the box all those years.