I’m biased:
I like Falcon, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him in his home, of witnessing
his uncluttered way of life and hearing him describe his hopes and
disappointments. I also live next to Blaenau Ffestiniog, so any comments about
his book (written by Peter Wakelin) are not wholly objective.
The book
contains 200 of Falcon’s drawings, now in the hands of public bodies for
posterity, and the bulk of them record the industrial heritage of Blaenau
Ffestiniog, Falcon’s home for over forty years.
In the
course of the book I learnt a lot about his life: how he got the impressive name of Falcon; how he came to move from
Grimsby to Coventry, to London and eventually to Blaenau Ffestiniog; his bold
decision to give up job security to follow his calling. I loved the drawing he
sent to his mother depicting the layout of his bedsit in Putney during the
times when he designed, amongst other things, first class bars and cabins for
cruise liners.
Within the
book there are many favourite drawings for me including the series depicting Tŷ
Uncorn, the one chimney house with four tiny cottages sharing a central
chimney. Was this a pioneering attempt at central heating? I like knowing what
it looks like inside as I walk past it near the police station.
The final
chapter is written by Falcon and titled ‘My Working Process’. On the last page he
talks about the drawings made in other industrial towns in which the buildings
have long since been demolished or renovated. ....’After half a century of recording, I believe that Blaenau Ffestiniog
and its landscape are the best and most complete surviving industrial landscape
in Britain’ .... ‘I feel we should save one example of a nineteenth-century
industrial town as a complete cultural and historic entity. So my final message
is: if you like my pictures, then please take care of the subject that inspired
them.’
And so we
should. As for the book, not only do I recommend it, I suggest you get three
copies. One for cutting out and framing images on left hand pages, another for
the right hand pages and the third for a good read.
An old London
underground railway carriage, built in 1892, was in use as a garden shed until
recently renovated at the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway’s workshops
in Porthmadog. Spick and span after 15 months TLC, and twelve coats of varnish,
the carriage will undergo trials at Loughborough before returning to London. In
January 2013 it / she will be pulled by Metropolitan Railway steam locomotive No.
1 on a journey through the old Metropolitan Line tunnels of Paddington, Euston,
King's Cross and Farringdon to Moorgate to commemorate the 150th anniversary of
the world's first underground railway.
Don’t worry, it’s not Kate Middleton on a night out with the lads, but the world’s oldest, narrow gauge steam engine. She was delivered to the Ffestiniog Railway in 1863 and was retired from service in 1946 as the last working loco when the railway ran out of steam. For some years she sat on a plinth at Blaeanu Ffestiniog, a symbol of the epic reconstruction of the line. In the last 31 years she has been in the museum and latterly the expanded bar at harbour station.
On 10th November she was dragged out of her corner, having first been jacked up and then jacked across on a pair of metal sheets lubricated with Fairy Liquid. Shifting ten tonnes of loco within the confines of a pub is no easy task – the first ten metres took about three hours. With the help of a tractor with forklift she was eventually dumped onto the railway track and towed across The Cob for a bit of restoration.
Next year she will travel by road to Paddington where she will be on display for the six weeks beginning St David’s Day (1st March). Thereafter she has several other ambassadorial appearances to make including a beer festival at Olympia in conjunction with The Purple Moose Brewery.
This is how she was dragged out and her corner in the pub taken by a steam (horse drawn) fire engine.
Howard
Bowcott invited me to his workshop to see the final touches to the giant jigsaw, the River of Slate. River - because that’s how all the sediment gets washed
down to create the mudstone which morphs into slate. River - because the Dwyryd was where the slate used to be boated
out to the waiting ships.
This
stunning work will soon be in the centre of town for people to walk on. What sacrilege!
I hope they take off their shoes.
The world’s first
narrow gauge steam engine Princess is to be pulled out of the pub at Porthmadog’s
harbour station and taken to the workshops for a 150 year service. In the new
year she will travel to Paddington where she will be on display for 6 weeks
from St David’s Day. The back wall of the pub will be removed on Saturday 10th
November but customers have been reassured it will be back to normal by 1pm
with a replacement to look at while they drink their beer – a steam powered,
horse drawn fire engine from Anglesey.
Lots of changes
at Y Pengwern. The kitchens are now open serving great food at the weekends. Details
of opening times and menus can be found on the Pengwern website. Bookings are
now being taken for Christmas lunches. Groups and societies have been booking
the ‘committee room’ for small meetings with refreshments. The Function Room is
open for larger events and between this and the Dining Room the kitchen can
cater for up to 80 people.
I always
thought the bar was good but there’s now an independent hallmark of goodness –
the Casque Mark was recently awarded by one of the 45 assessors who called in
unannounced and sampled the various cask beers for temperature, aroma,
appearance and taste. It’s one thing getting good beer from the brewery but the
final step of getting it to the customers’ lips is equally important and this is what the Casque Mark recognises. Da
iawn!
There has
been a steady stream of events organised by Y Pengwern since it re-opened and
one of those was last weekend’s nature walk led by Twm Elias from the pub to
the Plas (Tan y Bwlch). Next events are Halloween and Fireworks. Publicising a
programme of events can be a challenge but to make things easier we have
installed an events listing page on the pub’s website. Organisers of events are
going to be trained to use this system and pretty soon there will be a long
list of things to choose from and put into your diary. Here is the events page.
This exhibition of
Falcon’s work, who lives in Blaenau Ffestiniog, opened at the
Coalbrookdale Gallery, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, on 5 October 2012 and will run
until 30 April 2013. It is free to enter and will be open 10am-5pm,
Monday-Friday. For further details, please call 01952 433424 or visit the Ironbridge website.
With over 306,000 hits on the website in the last twelve months and more than a hundred members signing up since Easter the DATING OLD WELSH HOUSES GROUP is already making an impact in communities across north west Wales. “Our programme of events is very popular, with waiting lists for our guided visits to old houses and our Study Tour to St Fagans and Cosmeston Medieval village” says Margaret Dunn, Group Secretary. She has recently been made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London for her work running the successful Dating Old Welsh Houses Project and will shortly be giving a lecture on the Project to that Society in London.
Margaret added “we are excited to announce that with our partners, the Royal Commission on Ancient & Historic Monuments of Wales, we will be publishing a book titled Discovering Historic Homes in North-West Wales.”
The Project spent over £250,000, including the time given by around 200 volunteers, to date, record and research around eighty Tudor houses across the region. This was only possible with grant aid from around twenty five organisations led by the HLF. Over a hundred people attended the Annual Public Lecture held this year in Conwy.
“Searching for the Oldest Houses in Wales” has been selected as the topic for the Annual Lectures of both the Caernarfonshire and Merioneth county history societies.
Richard Suggett, of the RCAHMW, will be the speaker giving an emphasis on local buildings on each occasion. The Merioneth Historical & Record Society AGM & Lecture will be held on 6th October at 2.00 p.m. in Llanelltyd Village Hall, and that for the Carnarfonshire Historical Society will be held on 20th October at 2.30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, Caernarfon. All are welcome.
Margaret commented “Another development is the newly revised bilingual website: www.datingoldwelshhouses.co.uk which contains an increasing amount of information about the project and the Group”. Anyone interested can join the Group via the website or contact Margaret on 01766 890550.
Bleary eyed
festival goers were in good spirit on the morning of the third day. Down in The
Village, the re-enactment of Checkmate, by The Six of One (Prisoner
appreciation society), brought back distant memories for those of us who’d
watched 1960s TV. Words like ‘groovy’ come to mind?
This was
followed by Osadia, a colourful duo from Barcelona performing elaborate hair
transformations to willing volunteers.
Everyone
seemed to be having a good time; posh people were staying at the hotels, others
in camper vans but the majority were in tents. The mix of acts, which ranged
from big name groups to folk singers, poets, artists and stand up comics,
worked well – an eclectic cocktail that worked in a surreal setting.
For many
people this was their first visit not only to Portmeirion but to Wales. They
knew they were in Wales that Sunday evening when the Brythoniaid took to the
stage and gave them a male voice choir rendition of a New Order number. This is
what it sounded like in rehearsal:
The weekend beginning 14th September will be a celebration of old quarry engines. Full details are on the event website including guided walks. Engines on display will include the trio of Hunslets which can be seen here pulling up a gravity train on The Ffestiniog earlier this year.
20 to 25
million elms died of Dutch elm disease in the UK but don’t blame the Dutch, it
was their scientist who identified it. Today it’s a rare sight to see an elm
but you can find one on the drive down from Plas Tan y Bwlch towards The
Oakeley Arms, on the right hand side, just after the turning to The Lodge.
The gardens
are open to the public from 10am until 4pm and contain all sorts of trees. Oaks
of course, giant limes, also the handkerchief tree and the tree of heaven. But
for me the elm is the star – I wonder how it survived.
I'm told there are quite a few elms across the valley in Ceunant Llenerch.
It was one
of the first houses in Wales to have electricity with a Gilkes turbine
installed in 1905. This was used until 1928; presumably made redundant by the opening
of the much larger Maentwrog hydro scheme which was big enough to power all of
north Wales. Since then nuclear has been and (almost) gone and in a few months
The Plas will be back to having its own hydro power generated by yet another Gilkes
turbine.
Construction
is fraught with conservation complication. Work on the turbine end, alongside
the main road, can only be done in the summer months so as not to disturb bats.
Trench work at the top end has to wait until the ecologist confirms ground
nesting birds have fledged. The section through the orchard to the road has to
avoid anthills. And then there are trenches beneath highly prized trees, such
as the huge limes and the ‘Tree of Heaven’, which have to be hand dug to
preserve the roots.
The scheme
costs £420K and at current electricity prices is expected to have a ten year
payback. Generating 100,000 Kw a year that’s enough for about fourteen normal
households.
Stori Traws is a weekend conference, 16th to
18th November, celebrating the heritage of Trawsfynydd power station
& electricity production in Eryri.
It's about the social as well as the
technological impact of one of the largest industrial developments seen in
North Wales during the last 50 years. It is an impressive story of innovation
and engineering on a grand scale encompassing the three main phases of
Trawsfynydd Power Station’s lifetime: construction, power production and
decommissioning.
Footbridge, reactors and Stwlan
Now, as work on site is approaching its final stages, an
imaginative programme is underway as part of the Trawsfynydd Heritage Strategy
to safeguard this unique aspect of our industrial and social history by preserving
documents, photographs, and the taped memories of former workers etc. for the
future.
Nuclear power production though is only one part of the
story of electricity generation in the area. Our conference timeline starts
with the production and use of electric power in local quarries in the
Victorian period, early hydro-electric schemes, establishing local supply
networks, the National Grid, the advent of nuclear power, pump storage schemes
and the recent revival in interest in micro-generation and concludes with a
look to what the future might hold.
Interwoven with this story of technological revolution is
the social and economic impact of such a large development as Trawsfynydd power
station and the domestic transformation which followed the coming of power to
people’s homes.
The conference begins at 7pm Friday 16th November with an open evening for the
public; an exhibition of photos and a chance for former / present workers &
their families to share memories. Followed by a presentation of ‘Stori Traws’
by Joanna Wright & Naomi Jones.
The weekend course costs £160 to £180 on a residential basis
or £8 per session non-residential.
200 miles
and 45,000 feet of altitude starting at Conwy Castle on Monday 3rd
September and finishing five days later at Carreg Cennen Castle near Llandeilo.
A hundred
competitors from fourteen countries are expected to take part in the ultimate
endurance race which was last run in 1992. Day two of the race will start with
an ascent of Cnicht then Moelwyn Mawr, Moelwyn Bach, through the Vale of
Ffestiniog and across the Rhinogydd. Faster runners are expected to complete
each day in about eight hours whilst slower competitors will be out for over
sixteen before making it to the overnight tents. The mind boggles and the price
for all this ‘fun’ is a mere £500 per person.
Scaffolding
down and the sculptures are looking great with the steps ready to go in. Completion date only about a month away. Here’s
Howard Bowcott talking about the project and some of the fine detail regarding ‘fat
ladies’ in the bus shelter:
Previous
films about the progress of the sculptures can be seen through these links:
It’s
not unusual when friends come to stay to take a walk to the pub. But with it
being so hot, and someone’s ankle playing up, we chose the easy option; a down
train to Tan y Bwlch then an open carriage to Blaenau. Newspapers bought we
admired the new sculptures. Howard, the artist, was experimenting with finishes
to bring out the colour and texture of the slate. The Queen’s Hotel, newly
painted and renamed Ty Orsaf, is looking smart and recruiting staff. Someone said the downhill biking above Llechwedd was sold out for the second weekend in a
row. The times they are a changing. Back on the train, coasting down to
Campbell’s Platform, with a bottle of Purple Moose ... so much more than a walk
to the pub.
With sun
shine and blue skies I raced through the shopping to be ready for friends
staying the weekend. I called by the Purple Moose Brewery to find the shop had
moved a door down the street - the old shop being turned into more brewing capacity. I bought some new to me bottles of Ysgawen, a summer beer
made with elderflowers. Then to the butcher for Sunday’s salt marsh lamb and
that evening’s steaks of black beef. At
the supermarket some meringues and whipping cream to go with freshly picked bilberries.
I blame the Ysgawen
The scene
was set. Friends arrived. News was exchanged over a cup of tea as peas were
shelled from their pods. Lots more chatting over a couple of beers as I lit the
logs in the Rayburn and prepared the steak supper. Inside the oven some skinny
chips, big mushrooms and tomatoes with garlic and pepper. As an afterthought,
and a quick rummage in the deep freeze, I threw in a few onion rings. Searing
hot griddle pan et voilá, a local feast was on the table.
There were compliments
to the chef who modestly said it’s all down to the ingredients but apologised for
the onion rings which hadn’t quite worked out. Then someone solved the mystery –
these onion rings were made of squid. I blame the Ysgawen.
There’s only one
colony of silver studded blues in Snowdonia and that’s at Hafod Garegog
National Nature Reserve, between Porthmadog and Beddgelert. It’s one of only
six sites in Wales and the only site in the UK on wet peatland, but this summer
of wet weather could wipe it out.
They need the help of
black ants. The females lay their eggs singly on stalks of heather where they
detect suitable ant pheromones. Next spring the resultant larvae are either
picked up by the ants or crawl into the nearest ants’ nest, where they enjoy a
warm and humid environment, safely protected from predators, with the ants
collecting protection money in the form of a sugary secretion. Larvae crawl out
of the nest to feed on tender shoots of heather before pupating, sprouting blue
wings (or brown if they are females) and flying off to mate.
At Hafod Garegog they can
usually be seen in July and the first half of August with individuals living for
just a few days. Without warmth and sunshine they won’t mate and that would be
a disaster from which they can’t recover. These butterflies are weak fliers so
there is no chance of new blood flying in from another colony, such as the
Great Orme.
Business was
brisk at Furnace Farm Shop, part of Bodnant Welsh Food, on its first Saturday. From
the car park we followed the smell of baking bread. At the fruit and veg
display I filled a brown paper bag with broad beans and placed them in a large
wicker basket; much more pleasing than a plastic bag into a trolley.
The deli
counter was temptation, full of new tastes to explore including cheeses from
the on-site dairy. A few slices of air cured ham from Trealy Mon at £45 per
kilo. Sausage rolls were more to our taste - watching a film
later that night the last roll was sliced into wafer thin rondels and shared
round.
Good to see
Purple Moose beers on display and Cynan’s shiitake mushrooms (fresh and dried)
from Nantmor.
Top marks to
master butcher Ian Miles for the meat counter, his salt marsh lamb sourced from
the Vale of Ffestiniog. Black beef even more local with just a fourteen mile round
trip to the abattoir and back. We chose minted lamb henry for our supper with
the broad beans and our own freshly dug new potatoes.
The setting
is good. Across the farmyard, now courtyard, an ice cream parlour and a long
thin cattle shed converted into a tea room. In a corner the National Bee
Keeping Centre for Wales. Plenty to see and do. Upstairs is a posh restaurant
and on the top floor a cookery school.
This is what
it looked like just before the official opening:
11th
July 2012 and the crane was hoisting the final components on top of the sail
shape, slate sculptures. Will this be our ‘Angel of the North’?
Howard checks the alignment
The project is
generating a lot of interest – while I was filming I got talking to a couple on
their first visit in thirty years. They could not believe how much things had changed
and said they would be back next year to see the sculptures unveiled from their
scaffold.
The big
crane was in the station car park today hoisting massive chunks of slate
sculpture into position. Using block tackles the first piece was tilted to just
the right angle then lowered through the scaffolding, around the concrete reinforcing
rods and onto its plinth. Precision work. Larger pieces followed and the work is rising out of the ground. I'll be back in late July to see the final pieces go on top. Below is a film clip of this stage. Earlier stages of the project can be seen in The Workshop and at the Station Entrance.
What does a
nightjar sound like? If you want to find out, first of all you need to locate a
male nightjar. According to the RSPB there
are just 4,606 of them in the UK between May and August. They sing at night and
like heathland - which is not necessarily the easiest surface to walk over in
the dark. But the heath at Gwaith Powdwr
has smooth pathways and a guide, Rob Booth, to take you to the right spot at
the right time without scaring the birds away.
Rob will be
leading a nightjar walk on Saturday 30th June and on Friday 6th
July starting, presumably from the entrance to Gwaith Powdwr, at 8:30pm. There is a charge of £2 for members of North
Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT) and £4 for non members. Please call Rob or the NWWT
office on 01248 351541 if you would like to take part.
If you can’t
make it, turn off your lights, turn up the volume, close your eyes and listen to the film above.
The birdsong and call is courtesy of BirdVoice which produces great products
for people like me struggling to make sense of who is singing what.
There was only one way to find out if I could do a marathon and a new
one on my doorstep at Coed y Brenin seemed the obvious choice.‘Trail’sounded so much more appealing than
road; although at the time I did not realise trail would translate into 3,959
feet of altitude gain.
A strong breeze
kept away the worst of the midges as the organisers outlined a revised course.
Torrential rains had forced a new route to be marked at the last moment. Then
it was into the starting funnel,‘The Final
Countdown’blaring out of the speakers, and
Iori, the wildlife ranger, started us with a blast from his twelve bore.
For the first mile there was much shuffling of the pack as runners
settled into their pace, conversations were struck up and there was a steady,
easy going atmosphere as we ambled along. After an hour and six miles into the
trail, front runners of the half marathon went pounding past on a thin, steeply
downhill path laced with slippery tree roots – having started 30 minutes later
than me they were obviously going twice as fast.
What we lost in altitude into that deep gorge was regained by an
exhausting haul up the other side. Once more on high ground we were able to
take in distant views towards Cadair Idris but low cloud meant only a local
would know that. At Tyn y Groes, friendly assistants handed out snacks and
drinks at one of the many oases along the way. Beginning to feel a bit weary I
chanced a gel, a pouch of instant energy, but I won’t be using them again.
‘Twelve miles in two hours’ my new friend from Edinburgh told me,
reading off her high tech gadget. For her this was just a training run for a
sixty four mile event around Mont Blanc. Much as I enjoyed her company I
explained that I needed to drop down a gear and off she went. This was my black
spot with legs feeling heavy. I was now at the furthest point I’d run before.
If I could get through the next six miles I’d have a good chance.
The following stretch seemed to go upwards for ever and I wasn’t the
only one walking the steep bits - and later on the not so steep bits. Four
young women passed me chatting as they went. There was talk about the Champagne
being on ice. One said she’d have some tonic with her first gin. Printed on the
backs of their T shirts:
Never under estimate
the strength
of a woman
Don’t f@#k with
one who enjoys
running 26.2 miles
My heart sank as the route took us back down that deep gorge and up the
other side but then it was steady running once more. My companion at this stage
was a woman from Abergavenny, also doing her first marathon. Knee bandaged and
pumped with pills after an early fall she was determined to reach the finish.
Whilst I was looking forward to a hot bath, supper and a couple of beers in
front of Euro 2012 she had the prospect of feeding four young children at their
campsite.
Flapjacks and a few words of encouragement buoyed me up for the final
stretch. After crossing a river one of the helpers said‘well done, just over a mile to go’. I think he meant just a mile
of uphill, it was steep and a cruel sting in the tail. Then a steady half mile
freewheeling down to the finish. A few minutes under six hours was not fast but
I’d done it. The first person in the world to ever do a trail marathon in this
body.
Many thanks toTrail Marathon Walesfor organising the
event in cooperation with Forestry Commission Wales– it was brilliant, friendly and atmospheric. Thanks also to all the
marshals, volunteers and toSouth Snowdonia Mountain Rescue Teamwhose presence gave me a little bit of reassurance. My only criticism
would be towards my fellow runners for dumping so much plastic along the way. What next? Maybe the Dragon's Back Race in September?
Monday 2nd July
meet 12:45 for a 13:00 depart from Tan y Bwlch station on a guided walk into
Coed y Bleiddiau, ‘forest of the wolves’, returning via the train leaving
Dduallt at 15:30. Four hundred years ago wolves roamed this forest and legend
has it that this is where the last wolf in Wales was slain.
In those
days the land was owned by the Lloyds of
Dduallt and their old house has recently been tree ring dated
to 1559. In the census of 1841 there were 52 people living on their 600 acre
farm; in the 2011 census there were only 5! Fortunately the land was acquired
by the National Trust in the 1960s otherwise this beautiful oak
woodland, managed by CCW, would be sitka spruce.
Huw Jenkins
(that’s me) will lead this walk on behalf of the Snowdonia
Society (Cwmdeithas Eryri). The route through the Maentwrog
nature reserve stays close to the railway line but I’ve slashed an off-piste
path through the bracken to show you some of my favourite bits.
The woods
are full of birds singing away. I’m no bird expert but equipped with BirdVoice (a
recent birthday present) we’ll see if together we can identify some of the many
songs.
If you wish
to join the walk the Snowdonia Society suggests you give them a donation of £2
if you are a member of the society and £5 if not. The one way ticket from
Dduallt to Tan y Bwlch can be bought on the train and costs £2.40 or £2.20 for
the over 60s. The Ffestiniog Railway have confirmed that the Tan y Bwlch
café will be open.
We might see
some goats but just in case we don’t, this is what they looked like a couple of
weeks ago:
The
Snowdonia Society is a registered charity working to protect, enhance and
celebrate Snowdonia, its wildlife and heritage. The Society works with local
communities, organisations and businesses to achieve this vision.
Birds and
steam trains seem to get along well, probably bird watching and train spotting
too. Here are three short films of birds nesting close to the line.
Nuthatches at
Campbell’s Platform with the hole to their nest made narrow using mud set like
concrete; this helps protect them from predators.
Woodpeckers (greater
spotted) between Campbell’s and Coed y Bleiddiau; the cries of the chicks so
close to the path was a real give away.
Pied flycatchers
at Coed y Bleiddiau, which have travelled all the way from Africa, coinciding
the hatching of their chicks with peak availability of a caterpillar which
feeds on the young leaves of oak trees.
It doesn’t sound
right but, half way up the Vale of Ffestiniog, we’re on the Wales Coast Path! Further
downstream is Pont (bridge) Briwet, but that doesn’t (yet) take walkers. It’s about
to be rebuilt and maybe, in a few years time, there will be a footbridge.
Another alternative is to wade across to Portmeirion at low tide but make sure
you don’t step in the wrong part of the sands.
So, if you’ve
made it half way up the Vale of Ffestiniog, why not go the whole hog? We’ve
created this little eighteen mile diversion for your delight and delectation.
The route takes you up to the ancient village of Llan Ffestiniog, with its
community pub, then high up to the quarry which housed the National Gallery in
WWII and down the other side of the valley where the last wolf in Wales was
slain.
This is the
Vale of Ffestiniog Way. You won’t
believe how wonderful it is until you try it.
Portraits by
schoolgirls in London from back in the 1980s are the subject of an exhibition
titled MISS-interpretations of an Art Teacher.
The art teacher in question is local
artist Eleanor Brooks, famously known as the creator of ‘Mrs Spinks’.
As well as
being the art teacher, who could not bring herself to throw away any of the
pictures, she was also the model. There are some resemblances between the
pictures but, as Eleanor says in the film below ..... ‘I can’t always recognise myself in their work but I can see the students
..... every portrait is half a self-portrait’.
The
exhibition, by Eleanor Brooks and Sheelagh Stevens, is at Blaenau Ffestiniog library during normal
library hours until 27th May 2012.
Seventeen million
grenades and other munitions were made at Cooke’s Explosives Ltd during WWII.
Nowadays it’s an extensive nature reserve where the most lethal thing is an
adder.
The site has a long
history of explosives production starting from 1865 with gun cotton, then TNT
and a range of ‘safety explosives’ for the mining industry. With the demise of
British coal mining, the business was no longer economically viable and closed
in 1995. Three years and six million pounds of decommissioning later, the site
(Gwaith Powdwr) was donated by ICI to the North Wales Wildlife Trust.
On Saturday 19th
May there will be a ‘fun day for all the
family’ from 10:30am to 4pm including bushcraft, pond dipping, minibeast
hunting and so on. This is a free event although donations are most welcome. Here's a recent film clip taken in the reserve:
It’s a brilliant place
to explore, bringing together a mix of natural history and industrial history. It
used to be the biggest employer in the area with a workforce of five hundred in
the 1960s but today’s only employee is Rob, the warden, helped by a small army
of volunteers.
A massive explosion
occurred in 1915 (enemy sabotage?), totally destroying the facilities, and
responsibility for the site was taken over by the Ministry of Munitions before
being sold to Cooke’s in the 1920s.
A key feature of the
200-acre site is the partitioning into three valleys – in the wake of the big
accident, production was distributed across the valleys to limit the risk of an
explosion in one area spreading to the other.
One of these was
called KlondykeValley because the pipework required for
producing nitro-glycerine resembled a gold-rush town. The plumbing has gone but
one of the key buildings remains, the Settling Shed. Amongst other things this
housed seven settling tanks in which residues of nitro-glycerine were removed
from the water used to keep the explosives cool and stable.
When explosives are
being mixed it is essential to keep them cool and the process involved piping
in water from a nearby pond with an operator monitoring temperature dials and
adjusting the flow of water accordingly. Probably not the most fulfilling work
but exceedingly important. For his comfort he was provided with a stool but for
his protection it had just one leg – if he fell asleep, it would not be for
long!
This is the most
modern of the buildings dating back to 1988 when a huge blast destroyed the
previous one, killing two of the employees, and shaking the buildings of
Penrhyndeudraeth like an earthquake.
Ballistic pendulum
The footpath across
the summit of the hill goes through the heather to the Pendulum Shed. Not some
giant clock although people in the town could set their watches by it at 2 p.m.
every weekday. Suspended from a steel frame is a two tonne ballistic pendulum (pendil
balistig) with a pair of rails in front. A canon mounted on the rails was fired
point blank at the pendulum. The force of the explosion would cause the canon
to recoil on its tracks and the pendulum to swing – the degree to which it
swung was the measure of how powerful the explosives were!
This part of the site
is the area where nightjars breed and during early summer the footpath is
closed to prevent disturbance. Guided walks are organised by Rob – it’s unusual
to see these pre-historic looking birds, but the noise is unmissable, it sounds
like the rumblings of a diesel engine.
Sandbag wall - great for nesting
Dotted around the site
are several Explosives Sheds where products were wrapped and sealed in wax to
protect them from the damp. The sheds have detachable roofs and are surrounded
by thick safety walls made of sandbags so that in the event of an explosion,
the force of the blast would go upwards and not sideways … adds a whole new
dimension to ‘raising the roof’. Sparks
were a hazard to avoid and to that end the floor was lined with lead and
workers provided with rubber shoes and anti-static overalls.
Linking all these
buildings and remote areas of the site is a network of tarmac and railway
tracks. My first impression of the fading tarmac was that it was out of place
in a reserve but on the other hand they make easy access for pushchairs, wheelchairs
and mobility scooters. One of the railway tracks went through a tunnel which is
now grilled off and makes a great hibernation roost for lesser horseshoe bats.
Bats have also colonised the emergency shelters where workers would take refuge
in the event of the alarm being sounded.
The final building in
the explosives process is the Belfast Store where explosives were safely stored
prior to shipment by rail or by ship. One of the many safety features of this
building is the lightning conductor, an unlucky strike could set the whole
thing off. Cooke’s had their own steamship called the Florence Cooke which
started work in 1923 and during the war was used as an ammunition ship at Scapa
Flow and took part in the Normandy landings.
Alas in 1959, the year
after Mr Cooke retired and ICI took over, it was decided that road transport
was more efficient and she was sold for scrap.
Seventy years ago, in the first week of April 1942,
three trains arrived in Porthmadog from Y Fenni (Abergavenny), carrying almost a
thousand men and officers and a thousand mules and horses. They were the three
companies of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps mule transport. The muleteers
were Muslims from Rawalpindi in India (now Pakistan), with a few English and Indian
officers. They had come up through France in WW2 with the British Expeditionary
Force and were known as the ‘Rice
Corps’ – their motto ‘Heaven’s Light Our Guide’.
At the start of the war the British Army realised they
needed animal transport and India sent four companies by boat to Marseilles at
short notice. Company 22 was captured by the Germans, companies 25, 29 and 32 were
evacuated at Dunkirk and had to leave their animals behind. First they were in Cornwall, then in Y Fenni
and for three months in 1942 they were in Llanfrothen and Nantmor doing
mountain warfare training. Company 32 was camped on the Gwernydd in Llanfrothen
and companies 25 and 29 around Dolfriog in Nantmor. New mules were imported
from the USA and horses for the officers were collected from here and there. From
north Wales they went on to Scotland and in 1944 they were repatriated and went
on to fight in Burma.
Edgar Parry Williams from Croesor, aged ten at the time,
remembers them well. ‘We had never seen a
coloured face before and we were very interested in these strange men in
turbans. They didn’t speak much English and neither did we. They seemed very
gentle and civilised and rather sad. They would come past, along the Roman Road,
with strings of mules three abreast, taking an hour and a half to pass.’
William Morris Roberts and Annie Roberts of Ty Capel
Nantmor in the garden of Castle Cottage Penrhyndeudraeth
Dilys Rees’s (nee Jones) father farmed Dolfriog for Mr
Priestley. She remembers the Indians’
camp and the mules lined up, looking over a wall. Her mother used to trade eggs for sultanas
with the Indians, who also gave sultanas out to the children. Dilys remembers
walking through the camp, quite unafraid, with a rice pudding her mother had
made for a Mrs Wade who lived in the ‘Stablau’ at Dolfriog. The camp took up so
much land that there was no land left to farm and Dilys’s family had to move to
another farm. She remembers the 6am ‘call to prayer’ and the big prayer tent. A
bugle was blown several times a day when the animals had to be fed and watered.
The late Jos Williams of Gardd Llygad y Dydd in Nantmor who was 25 years old in
1942, remembered the beautiful horses the English officers rode. One of the
Indians taught him how to ‘cold’ shoe a horse which he did like that for ever
after. Several people remember Malik
Mohamed Khan, a highly intelligent man, an Indian officer (maybe a vet) who
rode a white horse at the head of the troop.
‘Standings’ were built for the animals by local farmers
before K Force (as the company was called) arrived. The manure was carted away by the farmers
whose land they were on and the food swill from the camps went to feed pigs in
Tremadog. Every Sunday sheep were killed for the camps at the supply depot at
Trawsfynydd. Local people remembered the ‘chapattis’ the Indians cooked. Marian
Roberts, whose father was a baker in Penrhyndeudraeth, remembers her parents were
friendly with some of the men and would invite them in. One day her parents
were at the cinema and Marian, aged ten, and her aunt, aged twenty one, invited
two of the men in for tea and gave them an egg each (eggs were scarce!). ‘There was a massive row when my parents got
back from the cinema!’ said Marion ‘for
inviting them in!’
Indian vet paints child's throat!
She also remembers once coming out of the cinema when it
was pouring with rain. She and her friend walked home under the capes of two
Indians (who always walked in single file) holding on to their waists! She
still has the autograph of one of them ‘NOWAB KHAN 180697’, carefully printed
and then written in his own Indian script. He was 19 years old. The men had
been taught to write their name and number in case they were captured by the
Germans. Nowab Khan said to Marian one day ‘You come India – I buy you silks’! Marian
said children got on very well with the Indians, neither group could speak much
English and that seemed to make a rapport between them.
John Griffith, Penrhyndeudraeth, who lived opposite the
present garden centre in Tremadog in 1942, remembers going for walks with his
mother and sister when he was about three and the Indians coming along the road
with their mules pulling carts. The family had to get over a wall to be safe
from the carts which had no brakes. Elspeth Parry, Penrhyndeudraeth, still has
a photo of her grandparents William Morris Roberts and wife Annie (with dog) of
Castle Cottage, Penrhyndeudraeth with one of the Indians.
Betty Evans, daughter of Hugh and Sarah Griffiths of
Penrhyndeudraeth, said she suffered a lot as a child from tonsilitis – she
remembers one of the Indian vets painting her throat to treat it!
For the local children the Indians were of constant
interest but not so for the local farmers. The mules and horses would ride
through growing crops and hayfields and the mules would batter down walls. When
the farmers complained they were told ‘There
is a war on’. It is true that they did get compensation later on but had to
build up the boundary walls again. Then over a couple of days in the middle of
July 1942, after only three and a half months, the Indians were gone. Edgar Parry Williams says ‘The valley seemed suddenly very quiet’.
But the memories remain for many people.
Many thanks to everyone who told me their stories of the
Indians. Giovanna Bloor, Cae Glas,
Croesor. March 2012.
Paddy Ashdown's father, John, was an Indian Army officer
in the 14th Punjab Regiment and the Indian Army Service Corps. During the
retreat to Dunkirk in May 1940, John Ashdown ignored an order to abandon the
Indian troops under his command, instead leading them to the port and on to one
of the last ships to leave, without losing a single man. Although court
martialled for disobeying orders, he was exonerated, and by the end of the War
had risen to the rank of colonel. I think this story will be part of the new
Channel 5 series War Hero in My Family - Paddy Ashdown is in episode 3 (15th May).
John and
Sandra stay in our cottage for four or five weeks each year, they love this
part of Wales and make the most of every day, whatever the weather. Long walks
combined with a ride on the Ffestiniog Railway and lunch at a local cafe.
A plate of golden veg at the end of the rainbow
We thought
they came back just because of our lovely cottage, but one of the many reasons
is the great selection of vegetarian meals. Unlike their home town, with a
chain pub offering just one or two unexciting options, Blaenau provides choice
and great taste.
One of their
favourites is De Niros, run by Kevin and Sue. The specials blackboard usually
contains six vegetarian dishes with recent favourites being: roasted vegetables
in honey with rice, nut roast, brie and spinach crumble.
They also
like Bridge Cafe where Gaile serves great food including vegetable lasagne and
John’s favourite after a long walk, chips, cheese and baked beans. Between De Niros and Bridge Cafe, tucked away
above the main street, they have also enjoyed CellB – the old police station now
converted to cafe and venue for events complete with lock-up cells.
Just a stop
down the line is the Lakeside Cafe at Tanygrisiau. Lots of options here but a
favourite is the all day vegetarian breakfast complete with vegetarian sausages
and lots of mushrooms.
I had never
realised Blaenau was such an oasis for vegetarians.
A young slate
worker in Ffestiniog aspired to be a doctor but, aged ten and one of a dozen
children, he was obliged to work in the quarries to contribute to family finances.
When there were problems at the quarry, and the men laid off, he used his
savings and began his medical career in the 1880s. They say the original recipe
came from a ‘vagabond’ who gave it to Morris in return for some act of
kindness.
Manufactory
There were
two main product lines – household oils for humans and oils for horses. In his
day he was a pioneer in advertising through the medium of Welsh, which made him
popular with the farmers, but he was also quite international. One of his
promotional leaflets, targeting military buyers, tells the tale of a young
soldier buying the oil at Cape Town on his way to fight the Boers. ‘The Riding Master of the Battery found it a most valuable preparation in war time for the ailments of horses,
whether caused by the climate, the hard work, or the work of the enemy’.
It’s
difficult to imagine the small village of Llan Ffestiniog having a
‘manufactory’ for the production of medicines but it was there, conveniently
for mail order, next to the railway line between Bala and Blaenau, until not so
long ago. Morris died of tuberculosis in
1923 and the oils continued to be made up until 1980 when his youngest son
Frank died. Members of the family say they still have the secret recipes but
there are no plans to reintroduce them. This is a great shame as there are lots
of people around who swear by it. It worked on anything. ‘Sore throat? Suck a sugar lump with a couple of drops of oil!’
Morris
Evans’ Oils (Olew Morris Evans) didn’t make it quite as big as Elliman’s
Embrocation which was manufactured in Slough from 1847 onwards by the James
Elliman family. By 1911 the product was on sale in 42 countries. In the 1960’s
Horlicks took over the product and they in turn were taken over by Beechams in
1970, now part of GSK (GlaxoSmithKline).
Bottle and packaging
According to
the Slough Museum the three ingredients of Elliman’s Embrocation are eggs,
turps and vinegar! Eggs were imported from Ireland by the million to the extent
that the staff would spend six weeks just cracking them. As for the addition of
turpentine this was especially dangerous and the process overseen by the fire
brigade.
Like Morris
Evans, James Elliman had two main product lines ‘Universal Embrocation’ for humans and ‘Royal Embrocation’ for animals. Apart from the names they were
identical but tax was payable only on human medicines.
The good news is that there is another product called Muscle Oil or Olew Gewynnau which is locally produced by descendants of the Bonesetters of Anglesey! Full details at http://www.muscleoil.co.uk/
