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News
YNYSHIR SAYS GOODBYE TO OUR MOST FAITHFULL STAFF MEMBER
Posted on 06/08/2008
It was with sadness and many fond memories that we said our last goodbye to Ivy, our longest serving member of staff.
Ivy was just short of her 90th birthday when she passed away last week, at a nursing home in Llandovery. She had no surviving relatives, but many dear friends. Her life had revolved round the ‘little church’ of St Michael’s in Eglwysfach, where she and her late husband had been wardens, and Ynyshir Hall, where she had worked as a housemaid since 1938.
It was only fitting that she was brought back to be buried in her beloved churchyard, and that all her friends should celebrate her life with a wonderful ceremony and an afternoon tea back at Ynyshir Hall. Many staff who had worked with Ivy over the years, came back to pay their respects, so it was a lovely trip down memory lane for us all.
Ivy was brought up in Welshpool, and went ‘into service’ at 14 in a local hostelry. She soon moved on to work in Powys Castle, where she spent many hard hours in the laundry.
In 1938 , when she was just 19, she and her sister moved to Eglwysfach to work for William Mappin at Ynyshir .
Ivy met and married David Owen Hughes , her ‘Dai’ , who worked in the sawmill on the estate, as did his father. Ivy moved into the family home, at ‘Pandy’ just above the waterfall in Furnace. Although they never had children of their own, they looked after a family of six evacuees for four years, which must have been a tight squeeze in the tiny cottage!
After the war, Dai took a job on the railway, and he and Ivy moved to Ynyshir lodge, just opposite the waterfall, which was built for them by William Mappin.
Ivy worked at the Hall until Mappin’s death in 1966. After its conversion to an Hotel in 1970, she came back to clean.
When Rob and I took over in 1989 Ivy was my very best housekeeper. She knew the house so well, and gave me so many wonderful tips such as cleaning the slate with boot polish to keep it black and lustrous and her secret recipes for copper polish and silver polish!
She was scathing about the young cleaners, as she had double their energy and could spot a cobweb at 50 yards. But she is from the generation to whom hard work and loyalty was instilled at an early age. She had a tough life, but proved that hard work is good for you!
She worked at Ynyshir until she was nearly 85, but sadly Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s meant that she had to stop.
I am sure her spirit is still here, and loves to see Ynyshir sparkling and lovely still.
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