Abergele Library
Category: photos
Church Walks, Abergele
Stryd yr Eglwys Abergele, with the Lynch Gate.
The pipe that filled the paddling pool
Have you ever noticed this rusty cast iron pipe in the Gele beneath the bridge at the top end of High St? Brian Haynes told me that its purpose was to fill the paddling pool that used to be in the Playnies (King George’s Field).
The concrete pool was there when I was a child in the 60s and 70s. During the 1980s it became a gardening project for Emrys ap Iwan students. This pool is filled in today.
I don’t have a photo of the pool but here’s one of where it used to be and one of the pipe used to keep it filled with water.
Spes non fracta
On the coat of arms above the entrance to Pentre Mawr is the Latin phrase ‘spes non fracta’. In English it means ‘hope shall not break’. According to CADW, the building was:
“Constructed on the site of the C17 manor house, first mentioned in 1697. The C18 house, the seat of the Jones-Bateman family, was extended c1830, but burned out in 1850. The present building was erected three years later, in 1853. It is now converted into 24 flats.”
Abergele Camera Club exhibition
Slaters Market St plays host to Abergele Camera Club’s exhibition on Saturday 16 August 2014. You’ll be able to see work by members, who are listed on the Abergele Camera Club’s website: Frances Del Prete, Alan Foulkes, Dewi W Jones, Donald Postles, Ernest Prendegast, Ern Ringwood, Gary Hughes, George Frost, Jill Bunting, Mal Hughes, Molly Blake, Ray Bicknell and Tudor Williams
All aboard the Club Train!
My father’s generation knows the Llandudno to Manchester train as the Club Train. It’s the service that stops at Abergele. Here’s a snap of the train leaving Pensarn for Colwyn Bay, taken from the station bridge.
Emrys ap Iwan students remember WWI and Abergele in 1914
Cofia Abergele Remembers.
Recording lists of the names of some of the people from Abergele and those with links to the town who took part in WWI was a challenge that Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan students relished as one of the school’s community projects to remember 100 years since the Great War.
Head Lee Cummins, head of sixth form John Seymour, music department and technicians and of course the students rose to the occasion, as you can hear in Sophie Peake’s recording:
Apart from Sophie’s, there are another 17 recordings. The first live performance, thanks to Abergele Town Council’s Delyth MacRae, is after the St Michael’s Vigil on 4 August 2014.
The participants’ names were researched by historian Andrew Hesketh with audio post production by AbergelePost.com’s Gareth Morlais.
Here’s a list of students who made the recordings:
Jordan Harwood
Chloe Merrison
Anna Humphreys
Teigan Thompson
Scott Carney
Alice Naylor
Chantalle Cox
Eleanor Lloyd
Iwan Coghlan
Cian Hanna
Mike White
Ben Stone
Sophie Peake
Laurie Wilson
Lara Wagstaff
Abbey Jacklin
Jamie Edwards
You can see some of the students below making their recordings using Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan’s Music Department studio.What’s poignant is that many of those who went to war a hundred years ago were a similar age to the young people whose voices you can hear listing the names. AbergelePost.com is grateful to these students for paying their respects.
Chapel Street’s Mount Cottages
Local historian and AbergelePost stalwart Andy (Nigel) Hilton has responded to the discussion about Mount Cottages over on this page.
He says: “I’ve managed to cobble together the relevant sections of two halves of the 1872 OS Map covering the Chapel Street/High Street area. They may shed some light on Andrew Hesketh’s comments regarding the 2 other Mount Cottage properties in the vicinity of the Old Police Station. I’ve also found an aerial photo which shows that same area, probably in the 1930’s I’d guess.”
The Royal Welsh Show comes to Abergele
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.
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
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.