Going balmy in Barmouth
In the dark winter nights Damian Jackson SJ remembers sunnier times
For centuries Barmouth was just a small fishing village at the mouth of the stunningly beautiful Mawddach estuary in the south western corner of Snowdonia in north Wales. You can still see and walk among the picturesque stone cottages clinging to the cliff behind the present town.
But all this changed in the 1870s. Those wonderful adventuresome Victorian railway engineers built a daring bridge across the estuary. The village became a holiday town for people from the fast-growing city of Birmingham and other industrial towns in the Midlands of England.
The Jesuits found it all too noisy and retreated from their house (which still stands in the middle of the town) to the small hamlet of Llanaber, a mile up the road. The Jesuits? Yes, each summer from about 1850 onwards the Jesuit theology students from St Beuno’s College near St Asaph sailed round the coast from North Wales to Barmouth for their two weeks holiday, to walk in the hills, swim in the sea and in lakes - or just to laze! From the 1920s onwards, the philosophy students - who had joined the theologians at the newly established Jesuit seminary at Heythrop, north of Oxford - would also come for their two weeks.
Their use of the ramshackle Victorian holiday house continued right up to the late 1960s. Ask any older member of the British Jesuit Province today, ‘what are your memories of Barmouth holidays?’ and you will get an interesting and varied set of replies! For some it was bliss! A wonderful chance to climb mountains in all weathers; to sail in the small Jesuit yacht - the unpredictable ‘Serrin-y-Mor’, or just do nothing. For others - well, let’s just say a house of 60 students, with only four loos and four rusty baths (showers? you must be joking!). ‘In all weathers?’ You mean day after day of driving rain coming in off the sea, through the roof and dripping into old enamel bowls strategically placed on the bare-boarded floors of bedrooms and sitting rooms1 But it wasn’t all misery! The scholastics were given a little pocket money - just enough to get into the cinema in Barmouth (if you went in your clerical collar, the kindly manager let you in for half price).
By the early 1970s, the big question was - does the Barmouth house have a future? Fr James (Jimmy) Langan offered to see if he could do something about it. He most certainly did! Quite simply he has transformed the house: there are carpets, there are showers, there are comfortable beds and the house is warm (and waterproof). It’s not surprising that since the late 70s ‘Barmouth’ has been used more than ever before. The tradition of university chaplaincy groups going there, begun by Fr ‘Bengy’ Winterborn, when he was at Manchester, continues. Jesuits of all ages still, very much, use the house for short breaks and holidays, at all times of the year. The scholastics gather there each year after Christmas, the novices for their summer holiday and some of our men on leave from Guyana, Zimbabwe and South Africa have had holidays there - often with their families and friends.
Over the past twenty or more years, a whole variety of groups have used the house for weeks or weekends. To mention just some of them: groups from our parishes (eg Liverpool and Preston) go there for holidays and a quiet time; primary schools and our own colleges (such as Mount St Mary’s, Stonyhurst and Wimbledon) have been for geography field trips, retreats or short holidays. For the past few years, the Christian Life Communities hold one of their summer meetings, and sometimes retreats, there. In 2003, the Province retreat took place at Barmouth, and for the last two years, St Beuno’s has used the house for retreats for Catholics and Anglicans.
There have been coffee mornings and evenings in aid of the local branches of various charities such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Gwynedd Air Ambulance Appeal. And recently in September, a day of prayer was held for the local parishes and chapels.
This list is not exhaustive, but none of this development would have taken place but for the energy and commitment of Jimmy Langan SJ and the devoted service of the Corps family who have looked after the house since 1961. So many people owe them a great debt of gratitude. Long may ‘Barmouth’ flourish!
For centuries Barmouth was just a small fishing village at the mouth of the stunningly beautiful Mawddach estuary in the south western corner of Snowdonia in north Wales. You can still see and walk among the picturesque stone cottages clinging to the cliff behind the present town.
But all this changed in the 1870s. Those wonderful adventuresome Victorian railway engineers built a daring bridge across the estuary. The village became a holiday town for people from the fast-growing city of Birmingham and other industrial towns in the Midlands of England.
The Jesuits found it all too noisy and retreated from their house (which still stands in the middle of the town) to the small hamlet of Llanaber, a mile up the road. The Jesuits? Yes, each summer from about 1850 onwards the Jesuit theology students from St Beuno’s College near St Asaph sailed round the coast from North Wales to Barmouth for their two weeks holiday, to walk in the hills, swim in the sea and in lakes - or just to laze! From the 1920s onwards, the philosophy students - who had joined the theologians at the newly established Jesuit seminary at Heythrop, north of Oxford - would also come for their two weeks.
Their use of the ramshackle Victorian holiday house continued right up to the late 1960s. Ask any older member of the British Jesuit Province today, ‘what are your memories of Barmouth holidays?’ and you will get an interesting and varied set of replies! For some it was bliss! A wonderful chance to climb mountains in all weathers; to sail in the small Jesuit yacht - the unpredictable ‘Serrin-y-Mor’, or just do nothing. For others - well, let’s just say a house of 60 students, with only four loos and four rusty baths (showers? you must be joking!). ‘In all weathers?’ You mean day after day of driving rain coming in off the sea, through the roof and dripping into old enamel bowls strategically placed on the bare-boarded floors of bedrooms and sitting rooms1 But it wasn’t all misery! The scholastics were given a little pocket money - just enough to get into the cinema in Barmouth (if you went in your clerical collar, the kindly manager let you in for half price).
By the early 1970s, the big question was - does the Barmouth house have a future? Fr James (Jimmy) Langan offered to see if he could do something about it. He most certainly did! Quite simply he has transformed the house: there are carpets, there are showers, there are comfortable beds and the house is warm (and waterproof). It’s not surprising that since the late 70s ‘Barmouth’ has been used more than ever before. The tradition of university chaplaincy groups going there, begun by Fr ‘Bengy’ Winterborn, when he was at Manchester, continues. Jesuits of all ages still, very much, use the house for short breaks and holidays, at all times of the year. The scholastics gather there each year after Christmas, the novices for their summer holiday and some of our men on leave from Guyana, Zimbabwe and South Africa have had holidays there - often with their families and friends.
Over the past twenty or more years, a whole variety of groups have used the house for weeks or weekends. To mention just some of them: groups from our parishes (eg Liverpool and Preston) go there for holidays and a quiet time; primary schools and our own colleges (such as Mount St Mary’s, Stonyhurst and Wimbledon) have been for geography field trips, retreats or short holidays. For the past few years, the Christian Life Communities hold one of their summer meetings, and sometimes retreats, there. In 2003, the Province retreat took place at Barmouth, and for the last two years, St Beuno’s has used the house for retreats for Catholics and Anglicans.
There have been coffee mornings and evenings in aid of the local branches of various charities such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Gwynedd Air Ambulance Appeal. And recently in September, a day of prayer was held for the local parishes and chapels.
This list is not exhaustive, but none of this development would have taken place but for the energy and commitment of Jimmy Langan SJ and the devoted service of the Corps family who have looked after the house since 1961. So many people owe them a great debt of gratitude. Long may ‘Barmouth’ flourish!