Photographs and documents relating to Vivian Hewitt and the Parry Family, Bryn Aber, Cemlyn Bay

This collection contains negatives and photographs taken by Captain Hewitt over four decades which cover a range of subjects including early pre-WWI aviation, birdwatching trips in the 1920s, car and motorcycle racing in the 1930s, the construction of the bird reserve at Bryn Aber and many family shots of the Captain and the Parrys. Later photographs come from the collection of Jack Parry and show the house and gardens in the 1960s.

There is also a selection of correspondence dating from the late 1950s and early 1960s between Captain Hewitt (by now mostly resident in the Bahamas) and Jack Parry, who acted as his representative at Bryn Aber. This is supplemented by much of Jack Parry's own correspondence about such local issues as the siting of a car park at Cemlyn and the proposed nuclear power station at Wylfa.

Captain Vivian Hewitt was a pioneering aviator as well as a keen ornithologist and conservationist. From a very wealthy background, he ran one of the earliest aviation businesses in the UK and made a notable solo flight across the Irish Sea in 1912. Originally from Rhyl, he spent increasing amounts of time living on Anglesey before buying Bryn Aber, Cemlyn, in the 1930s. At Bryn Aber, he established what was effectively his own private bird sanctuary and the lagoon and islands there became an important breeding site for terns and waders. The site remains a wildlife reserve today.

Upon first leaving home, he stayed in a boarding house in Rhyl where he met a young couple called Parry. Mrs Parry would become something like a companion-housekeeper to the Captain for the rest of his life and her family would live with him in Anglesey. Jack Parry, the other principle author of this collection, was her eldest son and lived in Bryn Aber until his death in 1998.

Family members featured in the photographs include the Captain's mother Julia and brother Billie and the four children of Mrs Parry: Jack, Ken, Vivian and 'Girlie'. Later images include Tom Davies, Girlie's husband, and her son Vivian.

Arrangement based on order given in documents WDBD.

Dim cyfyngiadau/ No Restrictions

Adnau preifat / Private deposit

Os gwelwch yn dda archebwch y dogfenau gan ddefnyddio y rhif cyfeirnod amgen (lle ddarperidd) / Please order documents using the alternative reference number (where provided)

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at Archifau Ynys Môn / Anglesey Archives and the National Register of Archives. It is the policy of Archifau Ynys Môn / Anglesey Archives to catalogue in the language of the document.

Cyflwr da /Good condition

Compiled by Gwilym Thear for Anglesey Archives. Sources used: A Modest Millionaire: Biography of Captain Vivian Hewitt, 1973 by W. Hywel.

Mae'r holl gofnodiadau sy'n cydymffurfio â pholisi casglu Swyddfa Gofnodi Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn wedi eu cadw /All records which meet the collection policy of the Anglesey Archives have been retained.

Ni ddisgwylir croniadau/Accruals are not expected