Croeso i Llanllyfni, or if you are coming from Penygroes, hope to see you again soon!
You are now in a tiny little lay-by just by a sign that welcomes you to the village. You also notice by the sign, that Llanllyfni is twinned with the village of Dolavon in Chibut, Patagonia.
Dolavon is a small town in the Patagonian province of of Chibut Argentina. The name comes from Welsh dôl (meadow) and afon (river). Welsh immigrants began to settle in the area after their arrival in Patagonia on the converted tea clipper Mimosa, in 1865, at a cost of £12 each (£1468 in today`s money) and £6 for children, and the town was officially founded in 1919.
The Mimosa sailed from Liverpool England on 28 May 1865 to Patagonia with a group of about 153 passengers with Captain George Pepperell and a crew of 18. They landed on 28 July 1865 and named their landing site Porth Madryn. They were met by Edwyn Cynrig Roberts and Lewis Jones who had already arrived in Patagonia in June 1865 to prepare for the arrival of the main body of settlers.
Their aim was to establish a Welsh colony which would preserve the Welsh language and culture, which after a damning report on the Welsh language called "the Treason of the Blue Books" in 1847, was under attack by the "Welsh Not", a practice where Children caught speaking Welsh in schools were beaten at the end of the day.
Anyway....Why is Dolavon (spelt the 1865 way) twinned with LLanllyfni?
The old bell, which used to chime from the fourth century Eglwys Sant Rhedyw in Llanllyfni, currently lies in Eglwys Llanddewi just outside the Patagonian village of Dolavon.
But villagers in Llanllyfni are in the dark as to how the bell ended up in a church thousands of miles away in the Welsh colony.
The story starts in 1883 when Huw Davies, a carpenter from Bangor sailed for Patagonia. He had recently been badly injured and as a result had devoted himself to the service of God. He had a wife and four children and intended to only stay in Patagonia for five years but ended up there until his death in 1909.
In 1891 with his own hands he built Eglwys Llanddewi just outside Dolavon and that is where the old bell from Eglwys Sant Rhedyw Llanllyfni is today.
A local counclor said he has tried to solve the puzzle along with the great great great granddaughter of Huw Davies, who still lives in Llanllyfni anda former Gwynedd councillor - but to no avail.
Somehow the bell has been transported from the church in Llanllyfni to the one just outside Dolavon. A bell is certainly a weird item to transport, as it would have had to have been done by boat and would have taken months.
Ebeneezer would be so proud!!