Many of you will remember 1977 as a busy year, it was Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee as monarch; the Yorkshire Ripper was still on the prowl; National Front marchers clashed with anti-Nazi protesters in London.
Meanwhile Marion and I had moved our little family to North Wales, Anglesey in fact, and as I was settling in as Holyhead district reporter for the North Wales Chronicle, part of the North Wales Newspapers group based in Oswestry.
The Basildon house had been sold and we were looking for a place to buy in Holyhead, meanwhile we were renting a bungalow in Valley.
It wasn’t long before we found out about a new-build estate on the edge of Holyhead.
On viewing the plans and looking at the site we chose a plot for a nice little two-bedroom semi-detached with an open fireplace. We could just see ourselves, after the girls had gone to bed, putting our feet up in front of the fire in the autumn and winter (the houses would not be ready until the autumn).
We paid our deposit, arranged a mortgage and looked forward to living in our own home again.
Meanwhile I settled in to scouting out stories in Anglesey in general and Holyhead specifically.
At the weekends in that glorious summer we would take the girls to one of the local beaches, there were plenty to choose from, and watch them playing in the sand while we soaked up the sun.
Towards the end of the summer we went to check with the estate agents as to how the house building was going on, only to discover there was a minor hiccup, in fact a major hiccup, over our plot.
The building on the site was going well, it was the plot we had chosen but when we looked at the specifications we discovered there was no indication of a fireplace.
After a bit of a to and fro with the estate agent, who blamed the builders, we said – no fireplace, no deal.
We had our deposit returned plus ancillary costs and started to look all over again.
Then out of the blue I was talking to a member of the local council, who also happened to be an estate agent, following a meeting and after hearing about our let-down he said he had a two-bedroom cottage on Holyhead Mountain where the buyer had just pulled out.
We went to view it the next day and fell in love with it. From the garden you could look down to South Stack lighthouse.
As it happened the seller had bought the next-door cottage because it was bigger.
There was already an up-to-date survey on the property and with a purchase agreed we were able to settle within weeks and moved in at the beginning of autumn.
The place was two cottages made into one with solid stone walls and deep window embrasures.
It also had a magnificent stone fireplace.
We couldn’t have done better.
Robin's Nest 