The farmer who spearheaded the drive to save his old school for the community
George Evans has mixed memories of his time at Ysgol Gynradd Bryncrug (Bryncrug Primary School). He fondly remembers walking to lessons, aged five or six, with his brother Philip, sisters Helen and Rhiannon and several other children who lived in the same row of cottages at Rhydyronen. "There were about ten of us altogether," he recalls. "The path would take us through a farmyard at the bottom of the lane and each morning the farmer's wife, Mrs Pugh, would be standing by the door, waiting to count us past. When we returned in the afternoon, she'd be there again to count us back, and on hot summer days she'd have a jug of water and glasses waiting for us." But George also remembers struggling at school because of his dyslexia and "missing quite a lot" of his primary education because of his difficult home life. Behind closed doors, his outwardly charming father, Jack, was violent and controlling. George, Philip and their mother, Evelyn, bore th
