Family memories with Fay Hampson

Gone fishing...

I think I can safely say that the Hampsons were a fishing family.

My grandfather, Herbert Hampson, represented Wrexham Borough Council on the Dee and Clwyd River Authority during the 1950s, and I can remember going with him at this time to a trout hatchery, where a tankful of small fish were loaded onto a lorry which we followed to the river Dee and watched them being released to fatten up for a few years only to be caught again!

Three of the photos show what must have been the same trip in the late 1920s to the Tanat Valley. They show dad, Jeff, fishing. Then, wearing the same clothes, with grandma, then grandma wearing the same clothes with auntie Lil, who was grandad's sister.

Two more of the monochrome photos, taken in 1938 show first grandad and then grandma fishing. Grandad looks so pleased with his catch!

The final monochrome photo shows my dad Jeff passing on his skills to my brother Peter in 1952.

The colour photo, taken in 2002 at Dearnford Lake near Whitchurch, is of my lovely uncle Wally, then a resident of Nazareth House Care Home in Wrexham. He was a keen fisherman and I remember him tying his own fishing flies. It was such a pleasure for him to be able to go and fish, even when wheelchair-bound, and these expeditions were great fun for Peter too.

It was a sad day when Wally died aged 90 in 2004.