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Siop y Morfa is a Welsh shop situated in the sunny seaside resort of Rhyl on the North Wales coast with its golden beaches & fair climate. Selling books, tapes, CD's, videos & crafts not only in the Welsh Language but about Wales in English, it serves a wide catchment from the Holywell area in the East past Colwyn Bay in the West and up the beautiful Vale of Clwyd beyond St. Asaph. Many come from further afield to Rhyl as a shopping centre as well as all annual visitors & tourists. |
Dafydd and family. His wife Jil and children Mared,
Heledd and Gwian. |
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The shop was established by Dafydd Timothy in November 1980 in a small room in the village of Rhuddlan, 2 miles away. Adjoining it was the family business, "The Castle Pharmacy", established by his late father in 1948 and still now run by his mother. Coincidentally, the pioneering Welsh shop in Rhyl, "Gwasg Helygain" were channelling their efforts into their printing business and therefore a natural gap opened in the Welsh Language trade locally. Dafydd was keen to take advantage of this & the enormous strides taken during the 1970's in Welsh language publication & recordings as well as the major advances in Welsh medium education & the renewed interest in learning the language. By November 1984, the shop moved to a larger premises on the High Street in Rhyl, the main town in the locality and still occupies that position today. Again, the family connection saw his great-grandfather with a shoe shop on this site three generations ago. Dafydd, who was born & brought up in Rhyl has a lovely, close knit family. As well as his mother, sister and brother, his wife Jil teaches and his 3 children all attend local Welsh medium schools. The shop has two or three competent and able part-time staff in assistance. In addition to the general stock of new books, cassette tapes, Cd's & videos, either in Welsh or about Wales in English, the shop also sells a few crafts & souvenirs - Welsh slate products , Welsh lovespoons, Welsh traditional Red Dragons flags and antiquarian Welsh prints are just a selection. Dafydd has endeavoured to specialise in two fields, namely local history books & a substantial stock of a antiquarian, scarce & out of print books on Wales and the Celts, proving successful with worldwide contacts. Many people of Welsh decent and roots buy books in Welsh or English either to remind them of home or to assist in their genealogical research. The shop is also a major supplier to schools & colleges, county and national libraries with books, audio and visual tapes. Amongst our customers are the National Library of Wales, The British Library, Jesus College Oxford. Thank you for taking the trouble to visit us - we hope you find our site interesting & may come across items to your taste. Remember to send a message if you are searching for a specific title and we welcome and appreciate your response & remarks - enjoy browsing & shopping !
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