Annie Webb

Annie Webb was born on 9th February 1857 in Monmouth. Little is known of her early life, but by 1905, she was living in Narberth, Pembrokeshire.

Described during her lifetime as ‘plucky’, Annie built her own home at Peterslake, Narberth, from ‘her own concrete bricks (made) with sand and gravel from a nearby stream…’ A newspaper cutting from 1927 reveals that ‘the concrete blocks weigh over half a hundredweight and Mrs. Webb keeps to herself the secret of how she has been able to make them so perfectly’.

Clearly a self-motivated and independent character, Annie was also reported to regularly walk ten miles to Tenby, pushing a ‘perambulator all the way, loaded up with butter, eggs and vegetables’ before ‘walk(ing) back to Narberth after selling her wares’. This was when she was 70 years old.

In July 1929, she appeared in Narberth Petty Sessional Court for the fourteenth time on the charge of ‘allowing a mule to stray’. The Narberth Weekly News reported that a witness had seen ‘the mule straying on the Stoneditch Road…It was not attached to a rope or chain’. Annie however, protested that ‘He (was) a sensible mule…he stays at home’.

In her later years, Annie showed no signs of slowing down. She took part in a local carnival where she ‘won prizes for the costume (and also) for singing and reciting’ and in 1938, aged 81, she travelled to London in search of estranged family members. In May that year, The Narberth Weekly News reported: ‘sat in the cottage she built herself…a picture fell from the wall…It revived memories of a brother and sister from whom she had parted 50 years before following a family quarrel’. Annie discovered a niece and nephew in Ealing and resolved to ‘send the council official who assisted her a crate of chickens’.

Annie Webb died in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, in December 1943; aged 86 years. The local press described her as a ‘headstrong character’.



Ganed Annie Webb ar 9 Chwefror 1857 yn Nhrefynwy. Prin sy’n wybyddus am ei bywyd cynnar, ond erbyn 1905 roedd yn byw yn Arberth, Sir Benfro.

Yn ystod ei bywyd, disgrifiwyd hi fel menyw ‘lew’ ac adeiladodd ei chartref ei hun yn Peterslake, Arberth, o’i ‘brics concrit ei hun (wedi eu gwneud) o dywod a graean o nant gerllaw…’.  Mewn erthygl a ymddangosodd mewn papur newydd yn 1927, datgelir bod y blociau concrit yn pwyso dros hanner canpwys a bod Mrs. Webb yn cadw iddi hi ei hun y gyfrinach o sut y llwyddodd i’w creu mor berffaith.

Yn amlwg, roedd Annie yn gymeriad annibynnol a ysgogai ei hun, a dywedir hefyd ei bod yn cerdded deng milltir i Ddinbych-y-pysgod yn rheolaidd, gan wthio coets fach yr holl ffordd, yn llawn menyn, wyau a llysiau, cyn cerdded yn ôl i Arberth ar ôl gwerthu ei nwyddau. Â hithau yn 70 oed.

Ym mis Gorffennaf 1929, ymddangosodd gerbron Llys Sesiynol Mân-droseddau Arberth am y pedwerydd tro ar ddeg, ar gyhuddiad o ‘adael i ful grwydro’. Ym mhapur newydd y Narberth Weekly News, adroddwyd bod tyst wedi gweld y mul yn crwydro ar Ffordd Stoneditch…Nid oedd ynghlwm wrth raff na chadwyn. Serch hynny, protestiodd Annie mai ‘Mul synhwyrol ydoedd…mae’n aros gartref’.

Yn ei blynyddoedd hwyrach, ni ddangosodd Annie unrhyw arwydd o arafu. Cymerodd ran mewn carnifal lleol lle ‘enillodd wobrau am y wisg (a hefyd) am ganu ac adrodd’ ac yn 1938, â hithau yn 81 oed, teithiodd i Lundain i chwilio am aelodau o’r teulu yr oedd wedi colli cysylltiad â nhw yn dilyn cweryl.  Ym mis Mai y flwyddyn honno, adroddwyd yn y Narberth Weekly News: ‘sat in the cottage she built herself…a picture fell from the wall…It revived memories of a brother and sister from whom she had parted 50 years before following a family quarrel’. Daeth Annie o hyd i nith a nai yn Ealing a phenderfynodd ‘anfon crât o ieir at y swyddog o’r cyngor a oedd wedi ei chynorthwyo’.

Bu farw Annie Webb yn Arberth, Sir Benfro, ym mis Rhagfyr 1943; roedd yn 86 oed. Disgrifiodd y wasg leol hi fel ‘cymeriad penstiff’.

Categories: Agriculture | Revolutionaries | Survivors

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