Just back from a month in Wales, England and Ireland, celebrating a very big birthday, with family and friends. I chose to revisit some favorite haunts from my past, starting in west Wales. My parents built a small holiday home (which they named “Campions”- a local flower) a long time ago, in Noltonhaven on St Brides Bay in Pembrokeshire. I well remember digging the foundations myself in a school vacation, living in an old bus. On a previous trip we had taken Andy and Nicky and their families to Herefordshire, and the house where I grew up, called Mill Orchard, with sister Ann and brother John
Mill Orchard, birth home 
Dad, John, me, Ann
We rented a cottage for 4 days that was just big enough to accommodate the English families: Andy, Fiona, Alex, Charlotte and Issy Cotton, and Nicola, Julian, Perdy and Jack Richardson.
The cottage, Talbenny 
Noltonhaven 
Of course 
Campions from the beach
Newgale sands 
The beach from Campions 
Ifor and Jenny Jones
The area has changed remarkably little after 60+ years. The roads are no wider! The coastline is beautiful. The weather was better next day
The current owners of a much enlarged Campions kindly showed us around the house and garden. on a grey day which brightened as we moved up the coast to Solva and St Davids, the smallest city in Britain. It has an impressive cathedral.
Solva harbor 
St Bride’s bay 
Another highlight was a boat tour around Skomer island, a bird sanctuary that my mother loved.
We then drove through mid Wales to Stoke on Trent where I was due to speak at a medical conference, but stopped on the way at the Long Mynd, site of the Midland Gliding Club.
Gliding was a major preoccupation for my Dad, sister Ann, brother John and I for many years and the Mynd was the main focus. Sadly it was wreathed in cloud when we visited, but were able to wander and chat. Good memories.
Lovely going down memory lane with you Dad!
I read this with interest as my family had a summer holiday in Nolton Haven in 1970, spent on a caravan site. It was the year that the Cleddau Bridge collapsed and we were there shortly afterwards. I was a boy of 10. Dad would pick, seemingly at random but always very tiny, obscure places on the British coast to take the family. We’d pack up the Morris Minor and drive (usually overnight) from what is now part of Cumbria to Devon, Cornwall, Pembrokeshire or Galloway. I have fond memories of that trip to a very beautiful part of Wales. I look forward to exploring more of your blog.
David Marriott, Admin, Middlesex Hospital Facebook group.