River of Slate

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.

Here’s Howard busy with the slate:

Princess dragged out of Porthmadog pub

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 10^th 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.

Pengwern Food, Casque Mark and Events

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.

Onwards and upwards. 

Worktown: The Drawings of Falcon Hildred

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.

Searching for the Oldest Houses in Wales

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 6^th October at 2.00 p.m. in Llanelltyd Village Hall, and that for the Carnarfonshire Historical Society will be held on 20^th 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.

Festival No. 6

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:

Quarry Power

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.