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GWENLLIAN LLWYD and DEWI CLWYD David and Mary Roberts, of Min Nant, Llangollen
in the garden at Min Nant

David Roberts, otherwise known as Dewi Clwyd, was a quarryman, born in Denbigh about 1842. To his friends he was "Dai Nimble", due to his prowess as a clog dancer.
While working in a quarry near Llangollen, he met his future wife, Mary Ann Lloyd, the daughter of David and Gwenllian Lloyd.
Mary Ann was born in Eglwyseg, near Llangollen, in about 1845. Her father, the quarry supervisor, was from Conway, and her mother's family from Anglesey.
About 1864, when Aberystwyth railway station was being built, David Roberts (Dewi Clwyd) went to work there, supplying stone for the building. Soon, as they had planned beforehand, Mary Ann made the train journey to Aberystwyth, where they were married.
From Aberystwyth the young couple moved to Arthog, in North West Wales, where David was involved in supplying stone for the construction of Barmouth Bridge.
Eventually, the Roberts family moved back to Llangollen. Both David and Mary Ann were keen eisteddfodwyr, and adopted the bardic names of Dewi Clwyd and Gwenllian Llwyd. When the National Eisteddfod was held in Llangollen, in 1908, Dewi Clwyd organised the Gorsedd stones, and at another eisteddfod, Gwenllian Llwyd was the bearer of the Corn Hirlas (the Horn of Plenty).
Collecting fossils became a hobby for Dewi Clwyd, and he became well known as an amateur geologist. He gave his collection of fossils to the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, shortly before he died in 1923.
After Gwenllian Llwyd's death in 1930, one of her daughters gave her Welsh national costume to the Museum of Welsh Life, St. Fagans.
Click HERE for details of Gwenllian's costume
Photographs and Information courtesy of Mr. C. Granville Morris
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