National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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The Morgan Family at Abersoch
When the sun shines, Abersoch beach has everything – all you need is a bucket, a bat, a bathing suit and your sea legs!
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Overview
Abersoch today, with its wakeboard and music festivals, seems aeons away from this painterly glimpse of beach life. We see that when the Morgan family holidayed here most cars were black, beach huts were basic and boats were pulled by shire horse, not tractor. But some things never change - then as now there were boat trips to enjoy, views to admire over to St Tudwal’s Islands and fish to catch.
The Morgan family travelled from south Wales to Abersoch for several summer holidays from 1944. Bernard Morgan, the filmmaker, ran the family-owned David Morgan independent department store in Cardiff (established in 1879 and closed in 2005 - by then Wales’s largest store of its kind). Here we see Bernard (1899-1955), his wife Mary, daughter Eleanor and sons Richard and John. John still remembers the numbers of the beach huts they rented – constructions which today have become a symbol of the inflated local property market, fetching eyewateringly high prices when they come up for sale.
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