Tish Farrell has produced a fascinating post entitled Gazing into Hell’s Mouth at Plas yn Rhiw  which got me thinking – I was reminded of an old family photograph.  My comment on Tish’s post says  I have a family photograph taken on a road above Hell’s Mouth – there is my mother, my sister, and me, leaning against the car in a pretentious fashion (makes a change from gurning I suppose). I would be 9 or 10 which makes it 1960 or thereabouts, possibly earlier. The car was the family Ford Consul, reg – RMA 803 – now I must find the picture.

This is wrong on two counts – firstly I am now fairly certain it is 1958 and we have taken a ride out from a holiday let at Morfa Nefyn.  Secondly I am gurning after all – perhaps in a satirical reference to the location, I am stretching my mouth sideways with my fingers.  A much more likely explanation is that I am pulling faces at my too-grown-up sister.  I perfected the art of the irritating younger brother at a very early age:

The black Mk 1 Ford Consul is the first car I remember, a very solid piece of engineering prone to not starting in the winter.  Dad would eventually resort to dangling a light bulb in the engine compartment overnight to keep the temperature up. It seemed to work.  This is the insurance documentation – all very straightforward – the same document was just updated whenever the car was changed; two more Consuls followed by two Ford Corsairs. All but the last had column gear changes, something my parents insisted on long after they were a standard fitting. Creatures of habit in more ways than one were my Ma and Pa.