How does a tiny seaside village
ICAME here in the summer. I couldn’t park anywhere and, when I finally got onto the beach, I couldn’t sit anywhere. This tiny Welsh village, with the sun beaming like it was trained on it and it alone, seemed to be the only place that mattered. The pubs and shops were full and the sand was nowhere to be seen, so covered was it with holidaymakers from the whole of Wales and beyond.
Today, I’m back in Llangrannog, the Welsh village in Ceredigion of just a few hundred people.
I made a friend here 23 years ago. Almost a quarter of a century on, he’s my best friend and without Llangrannog we would never have made it.
But, today it’s different. The joy that splashed on the seafront two months ago is no longer to be seen. Summer’s gone.
When you walk into the village, the first thing that strikes you are the signs on most of the houses and cottages – ‘for rent’, ‘holiday cottage’, ‘families welcome’. It’s like walking into a big advert. So, how does the community stay so resolute, so close, if a lot of people don’t actually live here?
West Wales Holiday Cottages, one of the companies which hires out holiday homes in Llangrannog, says that it sees a 50% drop in lettings over the winter, with all the properties it advertises being booked during the summer months and around half of that for the Christmas period.
So what happens to these houses when nobody wants to come? Do they contribute to the creation of a ghost town?
“It’s a concern moving forward because that is what’s going to cripple the village if it gets too much,” says Helena Boyeson, who has lived in Llangrannog for 27 years.
“There is no harm in having second homes, but we need the balance to be right. If there is too much of it then the pubs and the shop will not survive. Up the road at Tresaith, it can be like a ghost town in winter.
“What we are trying to do is to create a community that’s so strong that people don’t just want to come here – they want to live here.
“There are a lot of people here who own second homes and they all say that they want to move here permanently but can’t because of work. They’ve developed a strong affinity with the place, fallen in love with it,” says Helena. “Conversely, some people who are from here have had to move away for work purposes, but they still look for a house to buy here so that they can keep that connection.
“When my husband and I moved here 27 years ago, there weren’t a lot of people here, but now there seems to be an increasing amount of people who actually live here, but as each year goes by there are fewer people here who were born here.”
One person who was born and bred in England, but now calls Llangrannog home, is Jill Scott, known locally as Spot. Originally from London, she moved here 10 years ago and runs Sea and Slate Holiday Cottages.
“It’s a different pace of life here. I moved because I just wanted to get away and be part of something – everyone pulls together here and everyone knows each other.
“Tourism is important but there is a strong community and the holiday lets provide local employment. Also, it’s not like they’re owned by people who never set foot here – a lot of them are owned by local people. I would say only around 15% or 20% are owned