Abergele local news and history, incorporating Abergele in Shorts

Author: Gareth Morlais

Three charming vintage Kinmel Camp postcards

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

Thanks to Colin Watt for his comment: “My Grandfather was at Kinmel Park camp in the first world war. He was pvt 6033 J.E.Bayley in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was wounded at Ypres on the 30th Sept 1917 and admitted to the St Johns Ambulance brigade hospital at Etapler France with severe leg wound. I have two post cards from Kinmel Park and, if you are interested, will forward copies. One is called “A Soldier’s Letter To His Sweetheart”, and the other is “A Soldiers Dream Of Home”, both were sent to my Grandmother during training.”

Kinmel Camp postcard from Colin Watt

Kinmel Camp postcard from Colin Watt


Kinmel Camp postcard from Colin Watt



Click on these images from Colin Watt’s collection to see them full-sized.

If you’d like to make a local site like this…

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

I’ve heard three pieces of news this month which will be of interest if you think you may like to make a local website like AbergelePost.com

1. Starting in April 2014, Cardiff University is offering a free five-week Community Journalism online course. It’s called a MOOC, which stands for massive open online course. Cardiff University’s is the first ever community journalism MOOC. It’s led by Richard Sambrook who was editor of BBC News Online at the time when I worked as a content producer with BBC Cymru Wales Online. You can sign up for this course via the provider Future Learn, which is the Open University’s MOOC brand. I first heard of MOOCs though my interest in digital storytelling. The #ds106 course was a pioneer in this field. I’ve signed up for a computational linguistics MOOC by the University of Lancaster which begins next week.

2. Existing to help local organisations with communications, the Local360Network offers training and support to get local news sites and other local websites to get publishing regularly. I heard of this from Andy Smith, a former BBC colleague who trained me to use BBC News’s content management system many moons ago. He’d like to see more local journalism being published around the UK, and says:

“Local360 Network (is) a UK-wide community of citizen journalists, community reporters and local storytellers, providing the tools, skills and connections to get more from local news.”

Andy wants to “expand the existing network and to try and find local groups that may benefit from the opportunity of joining the Local360 Network.  I was wondering if you had any local groups or organisations you were in contact with that may benefit from getting involved.”

Feel free to contact the Local360Network directly if you’d like to find out more.

3. #DoSomethingBrilliant is a project I’m going to be learning more about soon following an invitation from a third former BBC colleague and experienced radio broadcaster Steve Lloyd. It’s a collaboration between the Media Trust and Community Channel, funded by Big Lottery Fund.

You can find out more about these three exciting projects by following the links above.

And remember, we always welcome contributions to AbergelePost.com; do get in touch if you’ve got a story to share.

 

Abergele Funky Stars Morris Dancers seek home

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

Russ Foames of the Abergele Funky Stars Morris Dancers group – which has been making an impression since the 2012 Carnival – has been in touch with an appeal for AP readers:

“We are currently looking for a new hall to hire once a week to practice and would like to know if you know of any places you could recommend i.e local church room, etc. I can’t seem to find any info and if you could help I would very much appreciate this.”

Feel free to use the comments section at the bottom of this page if you can help Russ and his wife and their dance group.

Song about Moelfre

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

Moelfre Isaf, o Bryn Twr

Moelfre Isaf through the south door of the tower of Tower Hill. Photo copyright Huw Waters.

Musician John Meed has been in touch with us to tell the story of his song Moelfre Hill. John wrote the song shortly after playing a concert at Mynydd Seion chapel in Abergele. You can read John’s story as you listen to his song:

 

 

John Meed writes:

“In July 2011 I was invited to join the French choir Ensemble pour Boala in a concert in the Mynydd Seion Chapel in Abergele in North Wales. The concert also featured local choir Coastal voices.
We got together to rehearse over the days preceding the concert in a farmhouse in the hills a few miles inland from Abergele. Isabelle and I stayed nearby in a little hut half way up Moelfre Hill – there was no water or electricity, plenty of night-time visitors, and it took a half mile walk to get there, but the view out across the valley in the morning was remarkable.

“I knew vaguely that there was some connection between the family of my best friend, Dave, and the area, so I had mentioned the concert to his widow and sister who came over and brought his mother to the concert. The following morning, as rain hurtled down, we met them for breakfast in a café on Abergele high street. Dave’s sister asked me to show her on the map exactly where we had been staying.

“It turned out that their family had been tenant sheep farmers of the land around our hut for generations. What is more, a white farmhouse that we could see from our hillside vantage point was the place where they had spent their summer holidays as children. And when I had phoned to give them final details of the concert, I had been leaning on a gate looking towards this farmhouse, on the fifth anniversary of his death.

“On the way home down the M6 we stopped at a service station and I jotted down the beginnings of what was to become the song, Moelfre Hill. The recording features Cliff Ward from The Willows on violin, and Brian Harvey on bass.”

Avro Anson Morfa Rhuddlan WWII crash landing

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

Have you ever heard of the WWII plane Avro Anson Mk1 N5130?

 

Avro Anson 652A MkI photo from Wikipedia
Avro Anson 652A MkI photo from Wikipedia

In the summer of 1941, an Avro Anson made a forced landing at Morfa Farm between Abergele and Kinmel Bay.

Researching this is Gwyn Hughes of the GRŴP HANES DEGANWY HISTORY GROUP. Gwyn is an authority on aircraft crashes along the north Wales coast.

He wrote to AbergelePost on 19 September 2013 asking for our readers’ help:
“I am researching an accident on this aircraft during Feb 1944 at Marl Farm in Llandudno Junction with five fatalities ….and have found more information on this same aircraft of an earlier accident . The first crash was a forced landing at Abergele at Morfa Farm between Abergele and Kinmel bay on the 27th July 1941. The  landing resulted with its undercarriage being torn off when it ran into a ditch at the end of a field .
“I wonder if any of your readers can recall this incident or know any eyewitnesses who may have seen it. … I have checked out all local newspapers – Abergele Visitor, Rhyl Journal, Rhyl Leader – with no reports on this aircraft.”

AbergelePost contributing journalist Nigel Hilton read Gwyn’s comment and said:
“I’ve trawled through my collection of books on aircraft crashes but, apart from Terence R. Hill’s 2 Volumes titled ‘Down in Wales’, most mainly cover those in the Snowdonia area. Volume 1 of Edward Doylerush’s book ‘No Landing Place’ makes mention of Anson N5130′s last flight in the Appendix. As Gwyn probably knows through his role as webmaster for Deganwyarchive.co.uk and with his greater access to archive material, the aircraft was from 8(O)AFU (Observers/Advanced Flying Unit) at RAF Mona on Anglesey on a Navigational Exercise. On 15 February 1944 the ‘plane disintegrated in the air near Marl Farm, Llandudno Junction’, possibly as a result of a detached aileron. There were no survivors unfortunately. So far I’ve been unable to find anything on the earlier incident on the 27 July 1941.”

Here’s the latest news from Gwyn:
“I spoke to a farmer at Gors Farm and he gave me a lead to talk to his relative now living in Llangernyw, who was living at Gors Farm during the war years …fingers crossed !!”

You can read the full discussion in the comments section here; we’ll keep you posted regarding any developments. Feel free to let us know if you have any information about the 1941 incident which we can pass on to Gwyn.

New novella about a boy growing up in Abergele

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

Abergele author Rob Burslem has published new e-book called “Three Pomegranetes and a half bottle of Scotch”

Rob wrote to Abergele Post to let us know about the book because it’s about Abergele. The blurb on the book cover says:

“It is a story inspired by true life events. It depicts with compassion the poverty that existed in North Wales during the 1950’s and 60’s.  Kevin is faced with an imminent and cataclysmic life changing event. He has to decide if it’s worth going on. Before he makes that decision he needs to face up to his past and the bad things he has done to the ones he loves. He has to decide if redemption is possible. All the basic events are true and characters real.”

Rob adds that – for a limited time – readers can download a free Kindle copy from Amazon from Thursday 19th September to Monday 23rd September 2013.

The Royal Welsh Show comes to Abergele

Posted on by Gareth Morlais

This year, the Royal Welsh Show is celebrating its 50th year at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells.

Before 1963 the show was a moveable feast. The Royal Commission has recently published a 1950 aerial photo from the Aerofilms Collection of one of the first shows held after WWII. And guess where this Show was held? Yes, Abergele. The Royal Welsh was held in Abergele on Wednesday–Friday, 26–28 July 1950, with 61,311 people attending the show.

The Show was held where Maes Canol was later built. The photo seems to have been taken from a plane over Pensarn or the sea, looking south or south-west towards Tan-y-Goppa. I think I can see the Gwrych Gatehouse along that wriggly line of trees on the right. The river Gele enters the frame at the top left. Pentre Mawr Park is that triangle of trees on the right. You can make out St Michael’s clocktower, St Paul’s and some other churches and chapels. If you spot any other points of interest unique to the 1950s, please do highlight them in the Leave a Reply  section at the bottom of this page.

Aerofilms photograph of the Royal Welsh Showground, Abergele, July 1950
Aerofilms photograph of the Royal Welsh Showground, Abergele, July 1950. Click to view full-sized.

The writer Vernon Hughes described the 1950 Abergele Show like this:

“The weather during the three days was warm and sunny, the field was packed with happy, smiling faces, the caterers were busy, and the traders on their stands were obviously pleased with the public, other tents were full of exhibits and, most importantly, the farmers and their families were really enjoying themselves in the summer weather―a sure sign it was a good show.”

 

1947 Abergele Grammar School Cricket Team

Posted on by Gareth Morlais
school cricket team
About 10 or 12 years ago a cousin, who lives in Abergele, told me that “The Visitor” published photos of bygone times in the town so I sent this photo of the 1947 Abergele Grammar School Cricket Team to the paper and it was published.
Over the years more and more people have become computer literate and I thought the photo would reach a wider group of readers, so here it is again!
At the time I could not remember some of the lads’ names but apparently Tudor Williams called the paper giving the missing ones and it was published again with all the names.
They are :
Back row left to right:- John Manton, Brian Roberts (me!) Brian Ricketts, Tudor Williams, and John Roberts.
Front row left to right:- Mike Kirkham, John Parry, Ian Cumsty, Trevor Glyn ‘Jimmy’ Roberts and Tony Hind.
You will note that there are only 10 players on the photo, the other lad must not have been at school when the photo was taken!
Brian Glyn Roberts.  Hampshire. June 2013.