Sir,
It was interesting to see the evocative pictures of Amroth from Mr. Graham Hughes in last week's paper.
The top picture of the storm damage was taken in 1931. The man standing on the remains of what was once the coast road was the legendary Bert Thomas, of Stepaside, a County Council roadman of the old school, and for something like 50 years the father figure of the Parish Council.
The house, the corner of which is just visible in the top left-hand corner of the picture, was known as Gardenhurst, and was where Will Callen, the gardener at the Castle, then lived. It had been built c1902 by Sir Owen Phillips, later Lord Kylsant, to replace the cottage opposite the Castle entrance which had been the original Amroth Arms, and which he demolished, along with the archway, to make for easier access for his new car.
The new gardener's house was then demolished in turn in the 1930s to make way for the present coast road, and the new sea wall was built where the earlier coast road had run.
Roscoe Howells,
Glan-Y-Môr, Amroth.