CLIFF HEWITT: The majority of the people here who opposed the School, they were Welsh speakers themselves. It wasn’t just non-Welsh-speaking people against Welsh-speaking people, some Welsh speakers were prominent in the protest against the School. And there were mothers here, arm in arm, trying to stop children from going in, and there was a bit of a 'Mexican stand-off' I think, nobody knew what was going to happen. I didn't see this myself, but there was one woman, her name was Mrs Davies, whose child was supposed to attend the school, she lost patience with the people who were just looking at each other, she held her child and just marched right through the line of women, and that was it, the 'physical' protest ended and everyone just walked in. But, I’d like to say one thing about that time, there was a lot of opposition against the school as I said, in the village, but all credit to the school staff, Mr Davies in the English school and Idwal Rees in the Welsh school, the hatred didn’t come across to us at the school, and the school staff of the two Schools worked very hard and very closely together to make both schools a success, so respect must be given to the English school staff who helped the staff in the Welsh school, especially in the first few weeks.
MAIR LEWIS: Yes, definitely. We must also remember that during the fight to get the school, the parents got to see the building and the councillors said, there’s the building, there’s furniture available in a warehouse somewhere, and you have to find the headmaster, and the first teacher. So the battle had been a big one, and then, on the first morning, to have that opposition from people who went to chapel with them, that was the worst thing, when they shared the chapel on the Sunday and then came down on the Monday, and saw the opposition, it was quite frightening to see that, it was terrible.
CLIFF HEWITT: I remember, I don't remember the details of the discussion but I remember my father standing outside the front door with half a dozen other men, from the chapel and not from the chapel, around him, it was quite obvious that they were talking about the Welsh school, and there was one sentence, the last sentence of the conversation is still in my mind now, as they went away, someone turns around to my father and says, 'you'll regret it'. And I'm proud to say he didn't regret it. And I'm very proud of our little family, who worked so hard to get the School, with so many other people who worked very hard to establish the School.