A new book featuring the work of photographer Garry Stuart depicts life in the Hirael area of Bangor during the 1970s.
The book titled ‘Hirael, North Wales – 1976’ contains photographs taken by Garry when he was a post grad MSc student at UCNW Bangor, he was just 21 years-old.
Whenever Garry had the chance he picked up his Nikon F, loaded it with Tri-X film and walked the streets of Bangor, especially the Hirael district. This area of North Wales had connections to the Penrhyn Slate Quarries and Port Penrhyn where most of the locals had worked until the demand for Welsh slate diminished.
During holidays and weekends Garry worked at Royston Photographic Camera, owned by Ronnie Aggent. Ronnie took him under his wing and they had many discussions on photographic styles during the store’s quieter moments.
Over forty years later these photographs have captured a brief moment in time in a North Wales community, which was undergoing change. How different life looked back then.
These are not photographs of poverty and deprivation but of a proud community of which the elder members had lived through two World Wars. Their resilience and honesty can be seen in their eyes as they look directly into the lens.
Photographing street scenes, many of the people he met were happy to pose for portraits some even inviting him in to their homes for a ‘Panad’ (cup of tea).
Garry said: “Hirael is a small district of Bangor in North Wales. It grew up around Hirael Bay and Port Penrhyn initially as a fishing community and later on as a port servicing the flourishing slate industry. The area and its community were distinct from the rest of Bangor and its academic colleges.
“The people of Hirael (referred to as ’Sibols’ by the rest of Bangor’s inhabitants) were a proud and stoical lot happy to be considered separate. The elder generation went through two World Wars with a deep recession in-between and were no strangers to hardship and austerity. Yet they were not some down on its luck deprived area. In a tight knit Welsh Chapel community pride in their appearance and good family name was paramount.
“The people of Hirael looked you directly in the eye and fixed you with an honest gaze their life experiences etched into their faces and a wry smile never very far away from breaking out. However their community housed in small stone built terraced cottages was being eroded on all sides by ‘progress’ and it was evident that this unique Welsh sub society would not survive the changes.
“Hopefully my photographs of the people on their streets and in their homes in 1976 capture their character and spirit before they were washed away by the tides of time.”
The book is available now from Café Royal Books priced £6.50 https://www.caferoyalbooks.com/wales/garry-stuart-hirael-north-wales-1976
