Bulldozers, riding tractors, and tourists
Read
Robert ‘Robin’ Griffiths was respectfully known as ‘Mr Newborough’ as he was the Head Forester at Newborough forest. He was awarded an MBE in 1977 and his son, Robin, shares memories of his father’s work.
“He was born in 1917, one of seven children,” says Robin. “He was raised in Dolwyddelan and Betws y Coed, where my grandfather worked in the slate mines. He saw such a life could be hard and decided to go to Forestry School.”
After finishing schooling, Robert was sent to Newborough in 1946 to establish the forest. Initially, the Forestry Commission flattened the dunes with bulldozers and then planted the Marram grass.
He also had to test which trees grew fastest, which led to the use of Corsican pine.
“He gathered up to 50 men, who worked in rows to plant the trees and establish the dunes,” says Robin. “My father was always conscious of creating work for local people, which also led to a strong community. He was also Secretary of the local football club, and many of the workers played on the team. He was also a good footballer.”
Robert was an academic, but was good at encouraging people to be involved in new ventures such as the forest. As Robin comments, it was probably a shock for some in the local community to have a forest planted in areas where people previously had plots of land and caught rabbits: “People had been used to go where they wanted, and the restrictions caused friction, as they felt it was ‘their land’.”
And the newly planted areas held their own dangers. “I was never allowed to play in the dunes, as my father considered the shifting sand to be dangerous,” recalls Robin. “I did want to go in the lorries (with Ivor Williams) and on the tractors, and was sometimes allowed to go along with Albert Jones, and Owen Llew Williams.”
In the 1960s, trees were still being planted, with a crew of about 20 men, although Robin remembers the sadness of less work for the local men. However, local children were taken on educational trips to the forest and along the sand: “And we would also count seagulls nests and one evening we found more than 60 nests full of eggs!”
As the decade advanced, more tourists were exploring the forest and beach, which caused some personal challenges for the family: “My father was never around on the weekends as visitors would want to light fires in the forest or have picnics on the beach.” Robert would also take university visitors around the forest, mentoring people who wanted to learn about the forest. However, Robin adds that his father might not have agreed with the current (2003) policy of the forest and the beach, open to tourist and walkers: “My father had an interest in the forest and the animals, and would probably have preferred that people would not be allowed to wander anywhere, so as to allow nature – the animals and plants – to develop and flourish.”