If I'm feeling lazy I choose the downhill walk along the railway to the station at Tan y Bwlch for the uphill return. It's amazing the things you come across!
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Railway Walk to Tanygrisiau
This little film is about the walk up the line from Campbell's Kingdom to Tanygrisiau. Lots of interesting things along the way.
When you get to the Tanygrisiau reservoir you can walk round it on either side. I prefer to walk around the southern side as opposed to the railway side. This way you get a better view of the Moelwyns.
When you get to the Tanygrisiau reservoir you can walk round it on either side. I prefer to walk around the southern side as opposed to the railway side. This way you get a better view of the Moelwyns.
Labels:
Ffestiniog Railway,
Pumped Storage Hydro,
Railway Walks,
Rock Cannons,
Snowdonia,
Tanygrisiau
Monday, 5 June 2017
Atishoo! You need a handkerchief tree
Atishoo! Tree pollen? You need a handkerchief tree |
One of the first Pocket Handkerchief Trees to be planted in Britain was at Plas Tan y Bwlch which is one of the many great gardens in the North Wales Festival of Gardens.
Sunday, 4 June 2017
Getting the Guardian
It's quite a long walk for us to get to the shop but the train is very handy when you want to buy the newspaper.
Friday, 2 June 2017
One Man and his Dog
I knew they were coming when our dog ran to the garden fence with her ears pricked. Much later I heard the bleats of newly-shorn sheep with their lambs walking up the drive.
On some occasions the movement of sheep involves lots of action, several dogs and a fair amount of swearing as sheep and dogs scatter in every direction. But today was a masterclass in calm control.
The farmer said that, after the ewes were sheared, their lambs had difficulty recognising their mothers. In case of this, and if lambs had followed the wrong mum up the hill, he paused beneath the railway line for the flock to settle just as the last down train of the day went past. It took about ten minutes for the volume to subside, for lambs to find the right ewes, and then the gates were opened and off they went up Moelwyn Bach.
Dewi and his dog were real stars. One man and his dog ......
The P Way Gang
It was good to see the Permanent Way Gang collecting the old fencing materials off Campbell's Platform. New fencing has been put up on the stretch from Campbell's to the loop at Dduallt. Should help keep sheep off the line. Thank you.
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Dragon's Back 2017
It was a misty start to the day, cool conditions for day two of the Dragon's Back Race. The first runners passed through just before 10am.
The tracking service is fantastic. http://event.opentracking.co.uk/dragonsb17/ I could plot their progress as they rapidly approached over Cnicht, Moelwyn Mawr, then Bach and down to Tanygrisiau hydro station.
Not everyone was so rapid. I found two disoriented runners from China up at Campbell's Platform at about 3:30pm - there was no way they'd make it across the Rhinogs to tonight's campsite at Dolgellau. They would have been catching a lift.
Monday, 22 May 2017
Cool Runnings - water and trains
No Snowdonia garden would be complete without water features. No need for pond liners, just a never ending supply of water running off the mountain.
In this garden a stream enters at the top and splits into several branches. One feeds a series of five cascading ponds. Another feeds the big pond we dug for when we kept ducks.
Water enters and leaves some of the ponds by mini-waterfall.
All the streams converge into one, just before the old barn, where the water used to drive a wheel for turning a churn to make butter.
This place has one other very special water feature - steam, which sends the trains to and fro across the top of the garden.
Find your happy at Rightmove!
Sunday, 21 May 2017
Finding Your Happy
The joy of having a life size train set at the top of your garden!
Saturday, 20 May 2017
For Christmas
Our first Christmas morning we were covered in a blanket of beautiful snow. It doesn't come as often as we'd like, but when it does, we make the most of it. This could be yours for Christmas if you call in at Rightmove. There are only 218 shopping days until Xmas!
Labels:
Ffestiniog Railway,
Heritage Railways,
Snow,
Snowdonia
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Dragon's Back is Back
The 2017 Dragon's Back Race will start on Monday 22nd May and competitors will be running through Campbell's Kingdom on Tuesday, the second of five consecutive days.
They start off at Conwy Castle and end up in South Wales - 315km (about 196 miles for the metrically challenged) away with 15,500m of height gain across wild, trackless, remote and mountainous terrain.
The event organisers expect the fastest competitors to be running for approximately 8-9 hours each day and the slowest competitors (who complete the full course) to be running and walking for approximately 13-15 hours each day. Competitors pay several hundred pounds for the privilege of taking part.
It was first run in 1992 and it took 20 years until they recovered to do it again in 2012. It was also run two years ago making 2017 the 4th occasion.
They start off at Conwy Castle and end up in South Wales - 315km (about 196 miles for the metrically challenged) away with 15,500m of height gain across wild, trackless, remote and mountainous terrain.
The event organisers expect the fastest competitors to be running for approximately 8-9 hours each day and the slowest competitors (who complete the full course) to be running and walking for approximately 13-15 hours each day. Competitors pay several hundred pounds for the privilege of taking part.
It was first run in 1992 and it took 20 years until they recovered to do it again in 2012. It was also run two years ago making 2017 the 4th occasion.
Catching their breath at Campbell's Kingdom 2015 |
Tuesday, 16 May 2017
Wild Car
What a way to commute home after a day's hard graft working the slate in the mountains!
An Everyday Walk
The joys of an early morning walk to the railway loop which has excellent acoustics for the resident cuckoo!
Campbell's Kingdom's Gardens
Chelsea Flower Show is just around the corner and so is the North Wales Garden Festival. Our own garden is looking pretty splendid too along with some stunning steam trains running along the top. Different glimpses through the trees.
Friday, 12 May 2017
Llŷn Peninsula – at the end of the world
For a
special occasion we headed off for a couple of days to the Llŷn Peninsula. Our first stop was
at Porth Oer which is also called
Whistling Sands. I knew that the sand was supposed to make a funny noise, but
had never experienced it before. We must have arrived at just the right time,
the sand suitably firm and moist, and as we walked across it, if we scuffed our
feet a bit, it made this strange noise - not a whistle, but a squeak. Most odd.
The noise is said to be due to the shape of the sand granules.
As for the
swim, it was far too cold for me to even contemplate, but Sue was committed and
in she went until, two minutes later, she could take no more. Very brave. Very
foolish maybe. She thawed out over coffee at the café where the staff kindly
volunteered the option of hot milk to aid the recovery. Porth Oer? A literal
translation according to my dictionary would be ‘cold, sad or frigid’ port.
Lackey moth caterpillars |
From the National
Trust car park in Aberdaron we strode out over the beach and up the steps to
the clifftop which was covered in all sorts of flowers, lots of bluebells and
blooming orchids. Equally beautiful were the stripey caterpillars on their silk
tents, caterpillars of the Lackey moth which will metamorphose to start flying
in June or July.
The coconut-smelling
gorse so yellow, the sky and the sea so blue, choughs pronounced chuffs but
making sounds like ‘chow’, feet beginning to feel heavy and body a bit hungry –
it’s a rich cocktail of the senses. Our guide book said the walk would take 2
to 3 hours but we obviously enjoyed it too much and lingered for 5.
Back at
Gwesty Tŷ Newydd we checked
in to our room with a 1st floor balconette overlooking the beach,
then down to the verandah for a beer followed by crab supper. The sounds of the
sea through the night were relaxing but might have been too novel for a good
night’s sleep.
The
following morning we went to Becws Islyn, unmistakeable with its newly thatched
roof, and famous for its excellent sausage rolls and Eccles cakes. Armed with
rolls and cakes we walked to Porth Meudwy in more glorious sunshine to meet
Colin and the Bardsey Boat. Being hopelessly early there was time for one of us
pilgrims to build a tower of stones which was still standing at the end of the
day.
Colin duly
arrived and a dozen of us climbed on board Benlli III which was pushed into the
sea by tractor and, once afloat, was launched off its trailer with powerful
twin engines. Strange rock formations at the end of Pen y Cil then across
Bardsey Sound for an impromptu bit of seabird watching. Puffins, Razorbills,
Guillemots and a pair of Ravens harassing a Peregrine while Choughs flapped
around in synchronised pairs.
After
disembarking Colin shared his knowledge and thoughts about Bardsey. Nature is
doing really well – nesting shearwaters have risen from twelve to twenty
thousand (pairs?) in recent years - but we should remember that humans are a
species as well and that some economic growth would be appreciated. Bardsey
used to be the metropolis, the HQ of the Peninsula, from Rhoshirwaun and Rhiw
to the tip – but now it seems cast adrift to an uncertain but nature-rich
future.
Colin |
We walked
behind the farm and up the ridge for fantastic views across to the mainland and
eye-level sightings of chough. Around us were the holes of the shearwaters, in
which a solitary egg would be laid and a plump chick would eventually emerge
for a long and lonely flight to the seas off Argentina. Following the ridge
down the other side we continued our circumnavigation of the island with air
that felt so pure. The closely grazed grass was full of squill.
We ended up
hopelessly early at the harbour for a late lunch with the grey seals. They had
been so noisy when we arrived but now seemed quite settled. Lots of them
basking in the sunshine on rocks but one of the youngsters practising getting
in and out of the water, with humorous effect, sliding back into the sea off
slippery seaweed.
Another
pleasant evening at Gwesty Tŷ Newydd with Prosecco and crab supper followed by
a seaside sleep before breakfast, checkout and another visit to Becws Islyn to
buy picnic provisions of cheese and onion slices and flapjacks.
Billy on SPAR |
Going past
the Spar was a large heron called Billy on top of the roof right above the
doorway. When the manager came out of the store room door and whistled, Billy
raced across the roof and hopped down to the wall where the manager of the Spar
fed scraps of pork and beef. ‘He eats any meat but not sausages – doesn’t like
processed food.’ Apparently this ritual has been going on for 13 years and
Billy gets quite stroppy when the manager takes a day off.
Our first
stop of the day was at Porth Colmon where Sion the fisherman had just launched
his boat. A beautiful spot with a holiday cottage on the sea – you could cast
out your fishing line from the bedroom window.
Further
along the coast we walked through fields to the beach about a mile to the east
of Porth Colmon. A beautiful Shelduck was paddling in the shallows.
We continued
to Morfa Nefyn for a walk along the beach to Porth Dinllaen with masses of Sand
martin nests in the tops of the cliffs looking like woodworm. Refreshed with
ginger beer from Tŷ Coch we ate our provisions in a sheltered cove then up past
the very smart lifeboat in a big new building. After paying our donations, as insurance
against the need for future services, we walked across the golf course and back
to the car.
On our way
home we called in at Ffridd Wen the locally famous wholesaler of ‘SelectiveSeafoods’. As we arrived Sion the fisherman departed leaving two big baskets of
live crabs that had just been landed at Porth Colmon. None were cooked so we
took some advice and did the necessary when we got home.
We’d only
been away two nights but it really seemed we had been to the end of the world
and back.
Labels:
Aberdaron,
Bardsey Island,
Grey Seals,
Lackey Moth,
Llŷn Peninsula,
Morfa Nefyn,
Porth Dinllaen,
Porth Oer,
Ty Coch,
Ynys Enlli
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Wednesday, 3 May 2017
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Quirks & Curiosities Off the Track
If you’re up
for the Ffestiniog Railway's QnC2 you will be impressed and entertained by some amazing and eccentric contraptions;
it’s a wonderful sort of Heath Robinson jamboree. My favourite is Spooner’s Boat
– I just love the idea of losing momentum on The Cob, unfurling your sail and arriving
carbon neutral at Harbour Station - no push, no sweat.
Spooner's Boat (FR Photo) |
As well as those
on the track, there are lots of quirks and curiosities close to the track and
here is a selection of some of my favourites.
On the big
rock above Cob Records, overlooking the harbour, is a rock cannon – one of
three alongside the railway. The others are by Tan y Bwlch Station and close to
the entrance of the Moelwyn Tunnel. These were made by quarrymen for firing on
special occasions, such as a royal visit, winning the war, big weddings and so
on.
All three
have 17 holes, each about 5 inches deep. The holes were part filled with black
powder and covered with stemming (crushed stones) through which a goose quill
filled with powder acted as a detonator. Connecting the various holes was a
line of goose fat embedded with more black powder. Light the touch fuse, stand
well back and enjoy the show.
Ellie from Countryfile at the cannon |
At Blaenau, between
the station and the shops, are some amazing slate sculptures which were
installed 5 years ago. You can’t fail to miss the 7 ½ metre tall chisels, each
made of 15,000 roofing slates and stacked at an angle of 30⁰, the same angle at which the
slate beds lie within the mountains.
The River of Slate is a mosaic in the pavement with the names of each of the 350 Welsh slate quarries carved into their own piece of slate. Each piece of slate is the colour that was extracted from that quarry. There are at least 50 shades of grey but also purples, greens and browns depending upon the geology.
Just up the
line from Tan y Bwlch are a couple of private halts with interesting houses.
Coed y Bleiddiau is the old railway inspector’s house which has been leased by
the FR to many interesting tenants including St John Philby, the father of Kim
aka ‘Philby the Spy’. It’s being renovated by the Landmark Trust and should be
available as a holiday cottage by the end of the year.
Yet further
up the line is another private platform called Campbell’s. It was built for the
eccentric Colonel who helped with the rebuilding of the line to Blaenau. In the
20 years he lived here he worked tirelessly to restore Plas y Dduallt, the old house which is
currently up for sale. If you’d like to have a look inside, here’s a great
little film.
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Lifestyle House Film
Let’s sell
the house. Let’s choose an estate agent with OnTheMarket. Let’s make a film
about it. OK, but what sort of film? We looked at lots of films of houses in
North Wales and there is quite a mixed bag from the cheap and cheerful to the
professional. The professionally produced films all showed the houses to their
best, with excellent camera work, but one film in particular caught our eye.
Everything about it was just right and we said that’s what we want.
Watch those chimneys! |
Whereas the
other films were good, we found them a bit sterile, cold and lacking in
character. But the one we liked invited us in, this was a lifestyle house film,
a sub-genre we had been unaware of. Instead of seeing rooms, windows and
gardens you saw people using and enjoying them.
After a
brief exchange of emails ‘Gareth the Film’ came to meet us, to do a recce and
talk through some ideas. The key question was to what extent would we be
prepared to get into the spirit of it. Would we be filmed arriving by train?
Picking some herbs? Playing with the dog? Catching some fish and putting them
on the BBQ for friends who we’d meet at the platform? We said yes.
With the
story and scenes agreed we had to procure some props, dress the rooms, make
sure the garden was looking just right and invite some extras to be our guests
for the BBQ scene.
A key
element of the film was choosing the right music and we scoured through
websites that provide thousands of tracks for use in films. After dismissing
ones that sounded too much like Lord of the Rings, we ended up with a perfect
choice – the rhythm was light and happy and most importantly it would fit in
with the sounds of an approaching train. Our chosen track was 2 ½ minutes long,
so that became the length of the film. Surely that wouldn’t take two days to
film!?
Gareth and John Hearn |
As the first
day approached we prayed that the forecast of good weather would hold, this was
to be the day for outdoor filming and the BBQ. Gareth arrived with his
partner-in-film, his father John, who operated various cameras and microphones
and was also the ‘spotter’ for the flying of drones. Drones would be a key
component of the production and for this we would need wind speeds of less than
17 mph.
It was a
Sunday with just two trains scheduled which would pass Campbell’s Platform
twice on the way up and twice on the way down. These were the four,
time-critical slots of the day for the story to work.
As the first
train approached I stuck out my hand to request it to stop and it did. I then
asked the volunteer guard if it would be OK for me to get on and off a few
times while I was filmed from different angles. Having pre-booked this with the
management of the railway I was expecting ‘of course, no problem’. But instead
I got ‘that’s the first I’ve heard of it’ and much later ‘I’ve got a connection
to make’. But we were accommodated and it all worked well.
The story
involved my returning with the shopping to the kitchen where Sue was boiling a
kettle on the Rayburn for coffee. We were supposed to exchange a kiss as I put
down the shopping bag and Sue poured the boiling water into the mugs. Sounds
simple enough, but there were many takes and near misses!
After Sue
was filmed doing some gardening, I tied a fly in the old barn, walked away with
a split-cane rod and returned moments later with a couple of trout. Virtual
fishing with the help of a Tesco’s fish counter is so convenient and guarantees
success.
Our guests
arrived on the down train and we greeted them on the platform. After the
children played in the garden, throwing frisbee to Molly, we settled down by
the BBQ, where the trout was cooking, and toasted with Champagne …. This was
the critical closing scene!
The drone
was in the air beneath the Scots Pine as we waited for the last down train of
the day, hovering at eye level until Gareth heard the train’s whistle. It was
then a swift flight away from the tree and up into the sky at the right angle
to capture the house in front of the mountain with the train swinging into
view. It worked perfectly.
On the
second day of filming we filled in the key gaps of the story such as the rooms
and the actual riding of the train. Continuity meant I had to wear the same
clothes and carry the same shopping bag and contents – I looked fine, but the
baguette was a bit limp.
For the
interior filming a lot of use was made of the ‘slider’, a level track on which
the camera could move sideways. It was very effective at conveying the sense of
just walking into a room. Then there was the boom which captured the essence of
the four-poster room. It started high to focus on the cruck beams, coming down
to reveal the bed itself and the ancient Persian tapestry above.
It was an
enjoyable experience working with Gareth and John and a couple of days later
Gareth was back with two versions of the film to get our feedback as to which
we preferred and whether any final edits were needed. We were over the moon
with what we saw and are hopeful that this film is going to be a great success
in attracting potential buyers to the house. For further details look at OnThe Market.
Gareth and
John own and work for North Shore Productions. This is the film and I think
it's fantastic. Everyone was a star but I think Molly upstaged us all.
Monday, 24 April 2017
Campbell’s Kingdom
In 1962 a retired colonel from the Black Watch regiment bought an old manor house in the Vale of Ffestiniog. He bought it on a whim at the auction of the Plas Tan y Bwlch estate and was doubly surprised that, not only was his bid accepted, but the bank manager agreed to the necessary loan.
The building was in a sorry state, with the roof leaking like a colander, a collapsed stone spiral staircase and over a hundred years of ‘buy to let’ neglect. It was a shadow of its former glory as the posh home to the Lloyds, minor nobles who traced their ancestry back to Llewelyn the Great.
Andrew Campbell spent the next, and the last, twenty years of his life restoring the house with the help of some grants and a lot of resourcefulness. His first major challenge was the delivery of materials – the only access was by foot up a steep path.
At this time, the volunteers, known as the ‘deviationists’, were building the deviation route to re-open the railway which had stopped operating at the end of WWII. The Central Electricity Generating Board had flooded the track with a reservoir, to create Britain’s first pumped-storage hydro station, and the new route needed to go above as opposed to through Llyn Tanygrisiau.
Starting from Porthmadog they had reached Campbell’s ‘new’ house and he offered them the use of his barn for accommodation and his help with the explosives. In return he was given a platform onto the railway and a running powers agreement which allowed him to drive his own engine on the line.
As well as for the delivery of materials, the railway was also a lifeline for Andrew’s daily commute, to the Merioneth Council office in Dolgellau, where he worked as the solicitor for the county. He had been a lawyer in the army, which is governed by the laws of England and Wales – this meant he could not practice law in Scotland and that’s why we had this charismatic Scotsman in Snowdonia.
In 1974 the story of his eccentric commute sparked the interest of the BBC which made a 30-minute documentary called ‘The Campbells Came by Rail’. They filmed Andrew parking his car at Tan y Bwlch station, where he hand-cranked his diesel engine, called The Colonel of course, and drove the mile up the line before parking on the siding. To get the shopping the fifty yards down from the platform to the house he used an electric aerial hoist.
By the time of the filming, the Colonel had just created a half-mile driveway through the nature reserve to the house, which would have detracted from the story, so the cameraman was careful to avoid any shots that showed the new road.
As well as the commute, the half hour documentary also covered the restoration of the house including some of Andrew’s carpentry. He built ancient looking doors and furniture out of reclaimed timber and left his mark in many places such as the wooden beam over the fireplace in the main bedroom. In the middle is his adopted coat of arms and on either end of the beam are Andrew and his second wife Mary. Andrew is dressed in his medieval clothes next to a heart with an M in the middle for Mary. On the opposite side is Mary with her heart beating A for Andrew.
Colonel Campbell died in 1982, the year that the line was re-opened all the way to Blaenau. There’s a memorial stone dedicated to him at the Dduallt railway spiral, but his epitaph has to be Campbell’s Platform, which together with the medieval house were Campbell’s Kingdom.
His twenty-year mission to restore the medieval Plas y Dduallt was a brief but important chapter in its long history. You can see the fruits of his labour in the above film which has been made to promote the sale of Campbell's Kingdom.
Campbell building the signal box |
Andrew Campbell spent the next, and the last, twenty years of his life restoring the house with the help of some grants and a lot of resourcefulness. His first major challenge was the delivery of materials – the only access was by foot up a steep path.
At this time, the volunteers, known as the ‘deviationists’, were building the deviation route to re-open the railway which had stopped operating at the end of WWII. The Central Electricity Generating Board had flooded the track with a reservoir, to create Britain’s first pumped-storage hydro station, and the new route needed to go above as opposed to through Llyn Tanygrisiau.
Starting from Porthmadog they had reached Campbell’s ‘new’ house and he offered them the use of his barn for accommodation and his help with the explosives. In return he was given a platform onto the railway and a running powers agreement which allowed him to drive his own engine on the line.
As well as for the delivery of materials, the railway was also a lifeline for Andrew’s daily commute, to the Merioneth Council office in Dolgellau, where he worked as the solicitor for the county. He had been a lawyer in the army, which is governed by the laws of England and Wales – this meant he could not practice law in Scotland and that’s why we had this charismatic Scotsman in Snowdonia.
In 1974 the story of his eccentric commute sparked the interest of the BBC which made a 30-minute documentary called ‘The Campbells Came by Rail’. They filmed Andrew parking his car at Tan y Bwlch station, where he hand-cranked his diesel engine, called The Colonel of course, and drove the mile up the line before parking on the siding. To get the shopping the fifty yards down from the platform to the house he used an electric aerial hoist.
By the time of the filming, the Colonel had just created a half-mile driveway through the nature reserve to the house, which would have detracted from the story, so the cameraman was careful to avoid any shots that showed the new road.
As well as the commute, the half hour documentary also covered the restoration of the house including some of Andrew’s carpentry. He built ancient looking doors and furniture out of reclaimed timber and left his mark in many places such as the wooden beam over the fireplace in the main bedroom. In the middle is his adopted coat of arms and on either end of the beam are Andrew and his second wife Mary. Andrew is dressed in his medieval clothes next to a heart with an M in the middle for Mary. On the opposite side is Mary with her heart beating A for Andrew.
Colonel Campbell died in 1982, the year that the line was re-opened all the way to Blaenau. There’s a memorial stone dedicated to him at the Dduallt railway spiral, but his epitaph has to be Campbell’s Platform, which together with the medieval house were Campbell’s Kingdom.
His twenty-year mission to restore the medieval Plas y Dduallt was a brief but important chapter in its long history. You can see the fruits of his labour in the above film which has been made to promote the sale of Campbell's Kingdom.
Mrs Spinks and Eleanor Brooks
Eleanor Brooks was busy bringing up a family of
four children, and placed an advert for a cleaner, so that she could
concentrate more on her art.
Eleanor Brooks with Mrs Spinks in her bedsit |
Having a soft spot for nannies Eleanor invited her in and, assuming that nannies would know how to do basic housework, Mrs Spinks was hired, more out of pity than merit.
Her housework was a disaster. When ironing clothes she
would burn through the material. Plates which she stacked in a cupboard would
fall onto the floor when the door was opened.
After a couple of days Eleanor decided to switch her from
being a cleaner to being a model and for the next seven years she sketched and
painted the ever-changing guise of Mrs Spinks.
A Portrait of Mrs Spinks was first exhibited in 1973 and
has been shown on at least 25 occasions since then. It is currently in
residence until 7th May at Oriel Brondanw which is at Plas Brondanw, near to Llanfrothen and
Eleanor’s home.
I met with Eleanor for her to record the story of Mrs
Spinks and this is what she said:
Thursday, 20 April 2017
What type of film to help sell a house?
Let’s sell
the house. Let’s choose an estate agent. Let’s make a film about it. OK, but
what sort of film? We looked at lots of films of houses in North Wales and there
is quite a mixed bag from the cheap and cheerful to the professional. The
professionally produced films all showed the houses to their best, with
excellent camera work, but one film in particular caught our eye. Everything
about it was just right and we said that’s what we want.
Whereas the
other films were good, we found them a bit sterile, cold and lacking in
character. But the one we liked invited
us in, this was a lifestyle house film, a sub-genre we
had been unaware of. Instead of seeing rooms, windows and gardens you saw
people using and enjoying them.
After a
brief exchange of emails ‘Gareth the Film’ came to meet us, to do a recce and
talk through some ideas. The key question was to what extent would we be
prepared to get into the spirit of it. Would we be
filmed arriving by train? Picking some herbs? Playing with the dog? Catching
some fish and putting them on the BBQ for friends who we’d meet at the
platform? We said yes.
With the story
and scenes agreed we had to procure some props, dress the rooms, make sure the
garden was looking just right and invite some extras to be our guests for the
BBQ scene.
A key
element of the film was choosing the right music and we scoured through
websites that provide thousands of tracks for use in films. After dismissing
ones that sounded too much like Lord of the Rings, we ended up with a perfect
choice – the rhythm was light and happy and most importantly it would fit in
with the sounds of an approaching train. Our chosen track was 2 ½ minutes long,
so that became the length of the film. Surely that wouldn’t take two days to
film!?
As the first
day approached we prayed that the forecast of good weather would hold, this was
to be the day for outdoor filming and the BBQ. Gareth arrived with his partner-in-film,
his father John, who operated various cameras and microphones and was also the
‘spotter’ for the flying of drones. Drones would be a key component of the
production and for this we would need wind speeds of less than 17 mph.
Gareth and John Hearn |
It was a
Sunday with just two trains scheduled which would pass Campbell’s Platform
twice on the way up and twice on the way down. These were the four,
time-critical slots of the day for the story to work.
As the first
train approached I stuck out my hand to request it to stop and it did. I then
asked the volunteer guard if it would be OK for me to get on and off a few
times while I was filmed from different angles. Having pre-booked this with the
management of the railway I was expecting ‘of
course, no problem’. But instead I got ‘that’s
the first I’ve heard of it’ and much later ‘I’ve got a connection to make’. But we were accommodated and it
all worked well.
The story
involved my returning with the shopping to the kitchen where Sue was boiling a
kettle on the Rayburn for coffee. We were supposed to exchange a kiss as I put
down the shopping bag and Sue poured the boiling water into the mugs. Sounds
simple enough, but there were many takes and near misses!
After Sue was
filmed doing some gardening, I tied a fly in the old barn, walked away with a
split-cane rod and returned moments later with a couple of trout. Virtual
fishing with the help of a Tesco’s fish counter is so convenient and guarantees
success.
Our guests
arrived on the down train and we greeted them on the platform. After the
children played in the garden, throwing frisbee to Molly, we settled down by
the BBQ, where the trout was cooking, and toasted with Champagne …. This was
the critical closing scene!
The drone
was in the air beneath the Scots Pine as we waited for the last down train of
the day, hovering at eye level until Gareth heard the train’s whistle. It was
then a swift flight away from the tree and up into the sky at the right angle
to capture the house in front of the mountain with the train swinging into
view. It worked perfectly.
On the
second day of filming we filled in the key gaps of the story such as the rooms
and the actual riding of the train. Continuity meant I had to wear the same
clothes and carry the same shopping bag and contents – I looked fine, but the
baguette was a bit limp.
For the
interior filming a lot of use was made of the ‘slider’, a level track on which
the camera could move sideways. It was very effective at conveying the sense of
just walking into a room. Then there was the boom which captured the essence of
the four-poster room. It started high to focus on the cruck beams, coming down
to reveal the bed itself and the ancient Persian tapestry above.
It was an
enjoyable experience working with Gareth and John and a couple of days later
Gareth was back with two versions of the film to get our feedback as to which
we preferred and whether any final edits were needed. We were over the moon
with what we saw and are hopeful that this film is going to be a great success
in attracting potential buyers to the house.
But as Gareth
pointed out, having a great film is no use at all unless you get people to
watch it. He then proceeded to give us a masterclass in social media. Thanks
Gareth and John – we will nominate you for an Oscar.
Gareth and
John own and work for North Shore Productions. This is the film and I think it's fantastic. Everyone was a star but I think Molly upstaged us all.
Tuesday, 18 April 2017
The Lloyds of Dduallt
When we moved into the
house we inherited lots of documents, articles and letters full of titbits and speculation
on its history with building dates ranging from the 15th to the 17th
century. Then we joined the Dating Old Welsh Houses project and from the science of dendrochronology
we now know the first house (west) was constructed around timbers that were
felled between 1559 and 1565 and the second (east) house from fellings between
1600 and 1604. These two houses, on a cliff overlooking the Vale of Ffestiniog,
were joined together at the first floor although we don’t know when; the tithe
map (1842) shows them separate.
Lloyds are
named in documents connected with the house all the way through to 1903 but
it’s a common name and we can’t (yet) prove the Lloyds of the 1840s are related
to the previous Lloyds.
Cores from beams with crumbly sap wood at the end |
Early
history is sketchy and confusing in places. David Lloyd, builder of the second
house, married into the Pengwern family, as did his grandfather. One of David’s sons married into the Park
family of Llanfrothen whilst his oldest son John Lloyd inherited Dduallt and married Margaret, daughter of John
ap Richard of Ffestiniog, who had also married into the Park family!
The Civil
War must have been tricky times for families such as these. There is evidence
that the current grand house at Dol Moch, built around 1643 by John Jones, was
used as a royalist headquarters. There
are also stories that Dduallt was used as the headquarters of the parliamentary
forces and billet for the officers during the siege of Harlech. But the Lloyds
survived.
There are
several references to John Lloyd, including the tax payment of five hearths in
1662 and his death in 1665 without children and thus his nephew Hugh Lloyd inherited.
Hugh married
Katherine, daughter of Robert Evans of Tan y Bwlch, and there is mention in
Hanes Plwyf Ffestiniog of a cupboard at Dduallt with the inscription H.Ll 1672
K.E. In 1684 Hugh Lloyd died and his
will, written early that year, contains the following provision ..... ‘unto my daughter Catherine Lloyd all that
tenement and lands known as Bron-y mannod ... for and during the terme of five
years’. This property, a 100 acre farm just beneath Manod Mawr, remained a
part of the Dduallt estate all the way through to 1920. Why should Dduallt have
a long term satellite that far away? Bron y Manod abutted the Pengwern estate
which in turn abutted Dol Moch and thence Dduallt. We suspect, but can’t prove,
that the power and influence that created Dduallt emanated from the Pengwern
family. Maybe a marriage settlement?
Within the same
will Hugh Lloyd goes on to leave his ‘manhor
houses’ to his eldest son Robert
Lloyd including the four wainscot bedsteads at Dduallt and the two at Bron
y Manod. Locally this type of bedstead
is referred to as a ‘gwely wenscot’ and we have obtained some pictures from St
Fagan’s. In essence it is a bit like a four poster enclosed on three sides with
wood panelling and either a sliding door or thick curtain on the fourth: imagine how cosy that must have been, a bit
like camping in the bedroom.
Gwely Wenscot (St Fagan's Museum) |
Robert Lloyd
married Anne, daughter of Griffith Vaughan of Dolmelynllyn who entered into an
agreement with Katherine Lloyd (Robert’s mother) in 1693 to pay a marriage
portion of £170. Robert and Anne were
quite prolific spawning nine children including Elizabeth who married into the
Brondanw family.
By the time
of Robert’s first will the eldest son Hugh had died and Griffith, the second
eldest, is or is about to become an attorney at law. In his subsequent will of
1753 ‘being far stricken in years but of
a sound and perfect disposing mind and memory (praise be God)’ he leaves
five shillings to his by now eldest son William
Lloyd and other legacies including the yearly interest of the principal sums
of two hundred pounds to both Evan and Robert Lloyd who are described
ungraciously in Griffith’s Pedigrees as ‘idiots’. To outlive two sons and have
another two described as idiots is dreadful bad fortune.
In 1747
William Lloyd had married Catherine Jones, daughter of Evan John Owen of
Dolwreiddog, and together they had five children. William Lloyd’s will was
dated 10th February 1774, just twelve days before he died. Neither
William nor his wife Catherine were able to sign their names but simply placed
their mark. We suspect their eldest son had died and therefore John Lloyd inherited with £200 legacies
for two of his sisters but no mention of his youngest sister Catherine who goes
on to marry Rice Price from the Parish of ‘Dolgelly’ in 1781.
There is an
implication that Catherine and Rice Price did not meet family expectations. In her
mother’s will, Catherine Lloyd, is the following provision ‘to my
grand-daughter Catherine Price daughter of Rice Price Mariner the sum of twenty
pounds the interest thereof to be allowed my daughter Catherine Price (being
her mother) for and during the term of the natural life of her my said daughter
Catherine Price to her own use free and uncontrolled by her husband Rice
Price’. What had Rice Price done
to offend his mother in law?
John Lloyd had six children all of whom were
said to be of Dduallt at baptism, the last one being the second son, William Lloyd, in 1793. William
celebrated his 21st birthday at the Pengwern Arms on 5th
May 1814 ‘when his friends and tenantry were sumptuously entertained’.
In a subsequent newspaper report in August 1817 we learn of his marriage ‘At
Corwen, William Lloyd, Esq. of Dduallt in the County of Merioneth, to Margaret
youngest daughter of Mr Richard Horne, Solicitor, Ruthin’. The parish
register for Corwen records the marriage on 1st August with William
being of Ruthin parish. Presumably he was no longer living at Dduallt.
Between 1813 and 1827 there are four baptism
records in the parish registers showing children from Dduallt with surnames of
Roberts, Edwards and Williams but no Lloyd.
In 1832 the Ffestiniog Railway Act of
Parliament was passed which included an appendix listing the landowners against
whom compulsory purchase orders could be served. Trustees of the late William Lloyd were the
owners of the Dduallt section. His widow
Margaret is recorded in the 1841 census living in Vale Road, Ruthin, with
(probably) a younger brother and his wife. She is shown as being 'independent’.
By 1842 Dduallt and Bron y Manod were owned
by the Rt Rev Lord Robert Ponsonby Tottenham from County Wicklow who was
also Bishop of Clogher. The property passed down the line to the next two
generations of Tottenhams who lived between Ireland and Plas Berwyn in
Denbighshire. Both held local positions of office including being a JP and
Deputy Lieutenant of Merionethshire. Why were they in the Vale of Ffestiniog? Maybe
they were railway or quarrying investors.
At this time what had once been a minor
noble’s house was very different with the 1841 census showing it split into
three units housing a total of fifteen people. To complicate matters a Thomas
Lloyd and his family had spread themselves between Glanyrafon, a farmhouse at
the bottom of the hill and part of the Dduallt estate, and Dduallt. At present
there is no evidence this Lloyd family was related to the original Lloyd
family. The first unit of Dduallt housed Richard
Lloyd and Elizabeth with their five labourers and two servants. Maybe not
surprisingly the second unit housed a railway foreman and his family. In the
1851 census the foreman had been replaced by a copper miner, which may give a
date for the mine working just outside the house, and we learn that Richard
Lloyd is farming 665 acres.
Richard died in 1852 and David Lloyd took over the Dduallt farm
tenancy having moved up from Glanyrafon.
His father, Thomas Lloyd,
and other members of the family were still in Glanyrafon in 1851 but by 1861
they were living at Dduallt with David being the farmer and Thomas retired.
In 1903
David Lloyd died and by 1910 the tenant at Dduallt was Morris Thomas, with his wife and three children in residence at the
1911 census. Morris was the farmer until his death in 1927. By 1920 the farm
had been sold at auction and become part of the Tan y Bwlch estate. More
tenants followed until World War II when the house became home to 18 evacuees and their schoolmistress
from Liverpool. After the war the reverend
Hopkinson rented it for five shillings a year using it as a holiday home.
One of the children, Barney Hopkinson, recently came back and described how
dilapidated the place was. By great coincidence Margaret Dunn was a guest of
the Hopkinsons in 1959 and can remember staring into space at the top of the
collapsed stone spiral staircase.
The death of
Hilda Inge in the 1950s triggered massive death duties resulting in the 1962 auction
of the Tan y Bwlch estate. Colonel Andrew Henry Knight Campbell, formerly of
the Black Watch regiment, went to the auction and ended up owning Plas y
Dduallt. For the next twenty years he dedicated himself to the restoration of
the dilapidated house adding, to the annoyance of historians, many
embellishments.
His epitaph
is Campbell’s Platform, a private platform on the Ffestiniog Railway from which
passing steam trains can still be hailed by occupants of the house. He got this
through allowing the deviationists, volunteers building the deviation route to
Blaenau, to stay in his barn. Also for using his explosives licence from army
days to blast through the rocks.
At that time
there was no vehicle access to the house and this was the subject of a classic
BBC documentary in 1974 called The
Campbells Came by Rail which described his commute from the office in
Dolgellau, where he was county solicitor, by car to Tan y Bwlch station and
thence on his private engine ‘The Colonel’ to Campbell’s Platform. At the time
of the filming he had already bulldozed a zig-zag hairpin route up the cliff
face through the national nature reserve so the camera crew took great pains to
exclude this from the camera as this would have spoilt the story.
His widow
Mary Campbell sold to Margaret and Tony Eaton in 1984 who added their artistic
mark on the house and started the self-catering holiday business. This
continued with many more improvements organised by Ruth and Ray Lewis between
1990 and 2004 including central heating and a tarmac driveway. Huw Jenkins and
Sue Farrand are the current ‘caretakers’.
In the 1841
census there were fifty two people living in the five buildings on Dduallt
farmland. In the census of 2011 there were just five!
VACANCY at Campbell’s Platform
A whistle blows – time to put the kettle on! Bubble… rumble… bubble… rumble… CLICK! The 'bubble' stops but the rumble gets louder. With mug in hand I walk outside and wave to the first train of the day from Porthmadog to Blaenau as it passes Campbell’s Platform.
Trains punctuate our days and mark the seasons. Winter is very quiet; when the ground goes to sleep, so do the trains, waking briefly for a festive fling after Christmas, and to raise children's spirits at half term. By Easter they are back in full swing, and it's time to tidy the platform and its tubs of primulas and daffodils – both ignored by sheep and goats. What’s wrong with them? Penstemon and wild geranium also resist the fate of most of the flowers we plant.
Pink… blue… pink… blue… and then yellow. Not flowers, but two, four, two, four and then six trains a day as the timetable ratchets up to carry ever more passengers in the run up to summer. The grass on the platform will need careful mowing; not in the sense that it's a bowling green, but because of the profusion of wild flowers. Bird's-foot trefoil, in particular, needs a high setting on the mower.
Summer passes all too soon, we’re back into the pink and blue phase of the timetable and then BANG! Doors slam and cameras, tripods and step ladders alight onto the platform carried by 50 or more enthusiasts – it’s the annual photographic charter. The boss man speaks into his walkie talkie: ‘OK Roger, fire her up!’ Roger does the necessary, clouds of steam rise above trees and the train swings into view at the start of Tank Curve. Frantic bursts of camera clicks capture the scene in a few thousand versions. ‘Sorry Roger, the light faded, can you do that again?’ Then winter is back and it’s quiet again. Will we get snow? Building and decorating the Colonel Campbell snowman is Sue’s speciality.
So far we have enjoyed thirteen cycles of the seasons since moving to Plas y Dduallt, the ancient house that comes with Campbell’s Platform, and a cottage known to the Deviationists as Dduallt Mess. However, our children have left home and it’s time for our next adventure – so the hunt is on for a new caretaker. Applicants should have a passion for old houses and steam trains.
The story of the restoration of the house and the building of the platform are nicely told in The Campbells Came by Rail, filmed by the BBC in 1974. Without the Colonel, there would be no Campbell’s Kingdom to inherit. We are the third family since then to have taken on the caretaker role of owning the house, and each has left its legacy. The Eatons were arty and left a four-poster bed with painted panels. The central panel is a portrait of the house with Moelwyn Bach behind and on either side are panels of voluptuous nudes. Guests say they dream well in that bed. The Lewis’s were both musical and practical. Sadly they didn’t leave their grand piano but they did leave central heating and tarmac on the drive.
Our legacy will be an improved landscape and the telling of the house's history. Through the Dating Old Welsh Houses project, we have had the beams dated to the trees being felled from 1559 in the old house and 1600 in the new house. The new house is the bit that you see from the footpath with the balcony and arrow slits below.
As part of the project we have also looked into the people who have lived in the house. It was the centre of a 600-acre farm which, in the 1841 census, had five dwellings housing 52 people including a railway foreman. In the 2011 census there were just five people living in two dwellings.
The house was built by the Lloyd family and the earliest will we have found is dated 1684. In the name of God Amen I Hugh Lloyd of Dduallt … gent being sicke in body but of good and perfect memory praised be god …. His possessions at probate listed the livestock which included the ‘nine and fifty goats’, descendants of which still entertain us with their antics as they roam their hereditary lands.
As for neighbours, the nearest house, half a mile down the line, has been empty for several years. This is the well-known former railway inspector’s house at Coed y Bleiddiau, the plot of land for which was once part of Dduallt farm. Happily, the Landmark Trust have set about restoring this house and soon there will be new occupants with which to share this paradise.
So, if you would like to apply for the post of caretaker at Campbell's, which comes with the house, please contact our estate agents Walter Lloyd Jones on 01341 422278.
If you'd like a flavour of what it's like to live in a historic house with a platform onto the Ffestiniog, this fantastic film was made by North Shore Productions:
Trains punctuate our days and mark the seasons. Winter is very quiet; when the ground goes to sleep, so do the trains, waking briefly for a festive fling after Christmas, and to raise children's spirits at half term. By Easter they are back in full swing, and it's time to tidy the platform and its tubs of primulas and daffodils – both ignored by sheep and goats. What’s wrong with them? Penstemon and wild geranium also resist the fate of most of the flowers we plant.
Pink… blue… pink… blue… and then yellow. Not flowers, but two, four, two, four and then six trains a day as the timetable ratchets up to carry ever more passengers in the run up to summer. The grass on the platform will need careful mowing; not in the sense that it's a bowling green, but because of the profusion of wild flowers. Bird's-foot trefoil, in particular, needs a high setting on the mower.
Summer passes all too soon, we’re back into the pink and blue phase of the timetable and then BANG! Doors slam and cameras, tripods and step ladders alight onto the platform carried by 50 or more enthusiasts – it’s the annual photographic charter. The boss man speaks into his walkie talkie: ‘OK Roger, fire her up!’ Roger does the necessary, clouds of steam rise above trees and the train swings into view at the start of Tank Curve. Frantic bursts of camera clicks capture the scene in a few thousand versions. ‘Sorry Roger, the light faded, can you do that again?’ Then winter is back and it’s quiet again. Will we get snow? Building and decorating the Colonel Campbell snowman is Sue’s speciality.
So far we have enjoyed thirteen cycles of the seasons since moving to Plas y Dduallt, the ancient house that comes with Campbell’s Platform, and a cottage known to the Deviationists as Dduallt Mess. However, our children have left home and it’s time for our next adventure – so the hunt is on for a new caretaker. Applicants should have a passion for old houses and steam trains.
The story of the restoration of the house and the building of the platform are nicely told in The Campbells Came by Rail, filmed by the BBC in 1974. Without the Colonel, there would be no Campbell’s Kingdom to inherit. We are the third family since then to have taken on the caretaker role of owning the house, and each has left its legacy. The Eatons were arty and left a four-poster bed with painted panels. The central panel is a portrait of the house with Moelwyn Bach behind and on either side are panels of voluptuous nudes. Guests say they dream well in that bed. The Lewis’s were both musical and practical. Sadly they didn’t leave their grand piano but they did leave central heating and tarmac on the drive.
Our legacy will be an improved landscape and the telling of the house's history. Through the Dating Old Welsh Houses project, we have had the beams dated to the trees being felled from 1559 in the old house and 1600 in the new house. The new house is the bit that you see from the footpath with the balcony and arrow slits below.
As part of the project we have also looked into the people who have lived in the house. It was the centre of a 600-acre farm which, in the 1841 census, had five dwellings housing 52 people including a railway foreman. In the 2011 census there were just five people living in two dwellings.
The house was built by the Lloyd family and the earliest will we have found is dated 1684. In the name of God Amen I Hugh Lloyd of Dduallt … gent being sicke in body but of good and perfect memory praised be god …. His possessions at probate listed the livestock which included the ‘nine and fifty goats’, descendants of which still entertain us with their antics as they roam their hereditary lands.
As for neighbours, the nearest house, half a mile down the line, has been empty for several years. This is the well-known former railway inspector’s house at Coed y Bleiddiau, the plot of land for which was once part of Dduallt farm. Happily, the Landmark Trust have set about restoring this house and soon there will be new occupants with which to share this paradise.
So, if you would like to apply for the post of caretaker at Campbell's, which comes with the house, please contact our estate agents Walter Lloyd Jones on 01341 422278.
If you'd like a flavour of what it's like to live in a historic house with a platform onto the Ffestiniog, this fantastic film was made by North Shore Productions:
Teeming Tadpoles on Top of the World
It was
Easter Monday, mid-afternoon, and a last minute decision to go up Moelwyn Bach.
Living here makes it easy to be inspired into spur of the moment mountain walks.
Rucksacks packed, and with Molly’s frisbee, we set off on our little adventure.
It's a dog's life |
Sheep were
enjoying the fine weather and oodles of space – so far just a few have been
released up the mountain, last year’s lambs, that haven’t been tupped, and
those that the farmer knows to
be barren. But shepherding is not a precise subject, and there was a tiny lamb,
probably born less than 24 hours ago. I hope it will be OK.
Pinkish
fruits were forming on the bilberries and new shoots of bracken were still
underground.
People lived, and worked, up here! |
We stopped
briefly at the cairn beside the lake then steeply up a craggy gully until we
popped out just above the old quarrymens’ barracks. Whenever I see the barracks
I think back to the time that we camped in the middle room and cooked our ‘Blazing Saddles’ supper in the
makeshift kitchen next door. On that father son occasion we watched the sun set
over Cardigan Bay before lying on a slab of rock to watch the incoming Perseids
meteorite shower.
Towards the
top, one of the several ponds was teeming with tadpoles which were swimming vigorously,
presumably to keep warm. These tadpoles must be a month or more behind those in
our garden ponds, but they looked big and healthy.
Selfie on top of the world |
At the
summit it was windy and we paused for the customary, 10-second timed photo.
Molly needed persuading to stay still.
On the way
up I’d asked lots of short questions, to which Haydn had to give long answers,
but now we were on the downhill, I didn’t feel constrained to save my breath
and talked freely.
How many
times have we walked this mountain? Different rocks, formations and mini
waterfalls, all brought back memories of previous walks.
Happy days - we’re going to
miss this place.
Monday, 17 April 2017
Connections to Campbell's
Mr Redfern arrives as fresh as a daisy |
It's great to live part way up a mountain in Snowdonia but it's even better when you're connected to the world by a steam train.
Sometimes we get international visitors like Frank. Including a 14 hour flight to Heathrow and an overnight stop near Paddington, he arrived at Campbell's 30 hours after leaving Damascus. He still holds the record for Damascus to Campbell's.
Speaking of connections to Campbells .... I was working in the veg patch on Saturday and stopped to chat with a walker who turned out to be Delia, the niece of the late Mary Campbell. She told me about her holidays in the 1960s, before the railway was restored and long before the drive was built. They used to load their luggage and supplies on a flat wagon at Tan y Bwlch Station, then her brothers and father would take it in turn to push it up the line to what later became Campbell's Platform.
Friday, 14 April 2017
Rock Cannons
When it opened in 1836 the Ffestiniog Railway was powered by gravity, pony and water wheel. The brakes were released and gravity took the slate wagons all the way down to Porthmadog and the ponies brought them all the way back to Blaenau. But just beyond the western end of Tanygrisiau reservoir, the wagons went uphill, one at a time, driven by waterwheel.
From the day the railway opened this short uphill section was a bottleneck, and work commenced on the first Moelwyn tunnel, the one that is now flooded by the reservoir. Six years later the tunnel was opened, and thereafter the train truly ran downhill all the way by gravity.
Just a few yards from the old bit of uphill track there is a slab of rock embedded amongst the heather and wild grasses. A bit like any other slab of rock except this one has 17 holes drilled into it. No question of a compressor-driven power tool, but good old hand drilling, five inches into solid granite.
This was not a training ground for apprentice quarrymen, but a rock cannon to be fired on special occasions. The holes were part filled with black powder and covered with stemming (crushed stones) through which a goose quill filled with powder acted as a detonator. Connecting the various holes was a line of goose fat embedded with more black powder. Light the touch fuse, stand well back and enjoy the show.
Too little stemming and the explosions would be damp squibs. Too tightly packed with stemming and the rock would be blasted to smithereens. There were many accidents.
This particular cannon is known to have been fired when the railway was first opened, and again in 1842 when the tunnel was completed. But it is just one of many. Throughout Gwynedd there are more than two hundred and fifty such cannons that have been recorded.
The design of later cannons was refined with channels cut into the rock to link the holes together. Sometimes there are as many as a hundred and sixty holes in a cannon. The timing of each explosion could be controlled or varied by the length of channel between the holes. In this way one of the cannons was designed to beat out 'God Save the Queen'.
The greatest concentrations of cannons occur around quarries, especially those associated with the landed gentry: the reason being that they had a large number of VIP guests to impress, and what better way to do so than with a display of rock cannons.
Cannons would be fired to celebrate weddings, jubilees, declarations of peace, but probably the most extensive displays would be to welcome Royal visits. The Daily Mail’s account of the Prince of Wales’s visit to Blaenau in 1923 gives an idea of how impressive they must have been … each mountain sprang into eruption. The Prince sat in his car and crushed his cap into his hand. And while the roar of the explosions rose above the cheering he banged a fist into the palm of his hand and said, 'I have never seen anything more wonderful – never'.
Special occasions such as weddings are best held on dry days – especially so if you’re planning to fire cannons. On 6th August 1863 a Blaenau quarry owner F. S. Percival was to marry Miss Jones Parry and …great was the rejoicing in the quarries as the day was a general holiday for them. A large number of rock cannon were prepared to be fired throughout the day of the marriage but that was prevented due to torrential rain. The cannons were fired a month later on the couple’s return from honeymoon.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could get these cannons into action again? But then again I doubt whether we would get past Health and Safety.
From the day the railway opened this short uphill section was a bottleneck, and work commenced on the first Moelwyn tunnel, the one that is now flooded by the reservoir. Six years later the tunnel was opened, and thereafter the train truly ran downhill all the way by gravity.
Moelwyn tunnel Rock Cannon with a piece of paper stuck in each hole |
This was not a training ground for apprentice quarrymen, but a rock cannon to be fired on special occasions. The holes were part filled with black powder and covered with stemming (crushed stones) through which a goose quill filled with powder acted as a detonator. Connecting the various holes was a line of goose fat embedded with more black powder. Light the touch fuse, stand well back and enjoy the show.
Too little stemming and the explosions would be damp squibs. Too tightly packed with stemming and the rock would be blasted to smithereens. There were many accidents.
This particular cannon is known to have been fired when the railway was first opened, and again in 1842 when the tunnel was completed. But it is just one of many. Throughout Gwynedd there are more than two hundred and fifty such cannons that have been recorded.
The design of later cannons was refined with channels cut into the rock to link the holes together. Sometimes there are as many as a hundred and sixty holes in a cannon. The timing of each explosion could be controlled or varied by the length of channel between the holes. In this way one of the cannons was designed to beat out 'God Save the Queen'.
The greatest concentrations of cannons occur around quarries, especially those associated with the landed gentry: the reason being that they had a large number of VIP guests to impress, and what better way to do so than with a display of rock cannons.
Cannons would be fired to celebrate weddings, jubilees, declarations of peace, but probably the most extensive displays would be to welcome Royal visits. The Daily Mail’s account of the Prince of Wales’s visit to Blaenau in 1923 gives an idea of how impressive they must have been … each mountain sprang into eruption. The Prince sat in his car and crushed his cap into his hand. And while the roar of the explosions rose above the cheering he banged a fist into the palm of his hand and said, 'I have never seen anything more wonderful – never'.
Ellie filming the Rock Cannon at Porthmadog |
Wouldn’t it be great if we could get these cannons into action again? But then again I doubt whether we would get past Health and Safety.
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