Caravan Holiday 1937 - and how we made the film 'The Bandits of Mawddwy'

Engineer John W Meredith works in Bilston, near Wolverhampton, but when he has a chance he exchanges the grime for the green of Llanymawddwy.

From the traffic and built-up streets of Wolverhampton to the green and pleasant pastures of Llanymawddwy come John W Meredith and family to stay in a caravan at Penygeulan Farm, home of Richard Ellis Jones. The sun shines on the washing-up outdoors and the pony riding – and on a few off-cuts from a film about the area’s legendary bandits that Meredith, the Rev H E Hughes (seen here with sackcloth and pony) and R E Jones made with the local community in 1936.

John W Meredith was a cine enthusiast who worked for mechanical engineering firm Thompson Brothers at Bradley Engineering Works, Bilston, Staffordshire. Together with TP colleagues, he came to Penygeulan farm on an annual camping trip from 1929. He documented the first trip on film and the group then produced a fully-fledged drama for a few subsequent years (‘We Regret’, ‘Farmer John’, ‘Jack Reforms’) culminating in ‘Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy/Bandits of Mawddwy’, available, like the others, on the BFI Player. JWM is seen in this film (he and his brother-in-law relaxing in deckchairs outside the caravan) as are his wife, Elsie, and his daughter Nancy (washing up and on pony).