The Three Towns during wartime

[Barbiroli]

My OH remembers Edmund as manager at the Avondale in 1963 / l964.   It was a bit like Sumners but not quite as posh.

[Dwyforite]

it was about 1964/5 that i was drinking in the back bar.on a rain off day we would kick the mud of our boots outside and go through the cafe into the bar ,edmond played hell about the mess but still allowed us in,he knew a gang of us  we would spend  a large amount of money, he was a very good host  and would go of and make plates of sandwiches.there was allways a good fire to dry off around.sadly i can remember it well ,tony,terry ,tommy and davy bangor.tom pye the joiner his mate peter all passed on R.I.P. and how we used to wind edmond up about his sexuality,he was gay,nowadays you would be taken to court  and fined for our behaviour about 3.45 pm he would throw us out  shouting your barred  barred,but come 7.30  we would be back  all cleaned up and ready to go and not a word said, i do remember the odd time when  he expected and got an apology.he was also the manager of the washington for a time ,i cant remember was it before or after the avondale .   happy days

[Bri Roberts]

There was a girl in my alpha form in JBGS during the early sixties called Julie Dale-Jones and I think her parents ran the Avondale at that time.

[Trojan]

Some excellent info and photo's of the Coastal Artillery School here:

http://www.fsgfort.com/DB/C086/34/Text.htm

[wjones74]

WOW , Superb pics trojan , I have never seen these pics before , SUPERB!!!!! , i grew up in fairways ,this was my playground ! . how many shells (other than the sea variety) must there be off west shore coast ?

[Merddin Emrys]

excellent, do you know of any similar ifo / pics for the Little Orme gunsite?

[Quiggs]

Great to see my old home on the Gunsite, The fortified Guardroom. The walls were 18 inches thick, but no cavity, so the damp came through. My parents were always scrubbing the green mould of the inside walls, so one summer my father obtained some pitch, melted it in an old 40 gal. oil drum and painted it on the front walls of the house. It looked bloody awful, but it stopped the damp.

[Fester]

You need to write that autobiography, Quiggs.

[DaveR]

Great find, Trojan, and, yes, Quiggs does need to write an account of life at the gunsites. 

[Ian]

I'm curious.  I wonder if the author of this piece has mixed up both Little and Great Orme gunnery sites?  This made me wonder:

There were several observation posts around Conwy Bay to observe fall of shot and check the range was clear of shipping.

Now, observation posts in CB wouldn't even see where shot from the West Shore battery fell, but they would see shot from the Little Orme batteries.

Secondly, although some of the images are clearly Great Orme, the positioning of the big gun sits, plus the angle from which the shot was taken make me think they look suspiciously like the Little Orme sites.  And the shot with scaffolding, to which reference is made of the need for

a harbour for target towing craft

tend to make me think that was the deep water cliff on the Little Orme, which has been eroding into the sea for some years, but which was once heavily concreted as a small harbour.

[Ian]

But I'd also add that the website is a great find. And it prompts me to check my father's photo collection to see if he took any shots.

[Ian]

This one has me interested...

A costal artillery Practice camp was established on the Little Orme which whilst enabling Gunners from the East and South coasts exercise also served operationally, as the base of 21 Coast Defence Batter R.A. The H.Q. and senior officers Mess was located at the nearby Gogarth Abbey Hotel, Workshops at Red Garages and Central Place and junior officer’s messes at the Richmond and White Heather Hotels.

http://www.ffotograffiaeth.co.uk/Llandudno_WWII/

[Ian]

This seems a recent shot

------This image has been removed following a complaint of copyright infringement.-----

[DaveR]

Angie's Special Place....   

[Merddin Emrys]

Angie's Special Place....   

yes I noticed that too  L0L