2009 was the bicentenary year of the birth of Hawarden resident and several times Prime Minister, W E Gladstone. As a community heritage volunteer and Hawarden resident, I set myself a task to document some of events in the village together with interviews and commentaries contributed by local personalities.

I purposely sought out subjects that might have a connection, however tenuous, with Gladstone. I wanted to capture any residue of the aspirations and ethos of The Grand Old man of the Victorian era, whose commanding spirit and vitality, resonates, to this day, in the village.

So, on a mild June morning I arrived at the appointed hour at the modest bungalow where, in retirement, lived a teacher from my own formative years. No ordinary teacher, no ordinary school. Mine had once been a formidable exponent of linguistic exactitude -in an eminent grammar school, right at the heart of the village that Mr Gladstone called home...

After a short illness, Cerrie Hughes, passed-away November 2014. This recording is offered as a tribute to the inspiration and influence she undoubtedly had on a fortunate generation of Flintshire children.