YOUR FACTOIDS AND SNIPPETS HERE!

[suepp]

Bear with me I'm in the process of extracting these from the Old Forum that Dave has kindly posted

[suepp]

GOGARTH MANORThe medieval parish of Llandudno comprised three townships, each established on the lower slopes of the Great Orme. The township of Y Gogarth at the south-western\''corner'' of the Great Orme was latterly the smallest but it contained the the palace of the Bishop of Bangor.
The Manor of Gogarth (which included all three townships) had been bestowed on Anain, Bishop of Bangor by King Edward I in 1284, in recognition of services rendered to the crown, notably the baptism of the first English Prince of Wales, newly born at Caernarfon

The significant agricultural yet north facing township of Cyngreawdr includes the original parish church and rectory of St Tudno.

 Following the Owain Glyndwr uprising, the villagers of the Creuddyn peninsular were harshly taxed and by 1507 they had nearly all fled their homes. Henceforth the cultivated land lay vacant, and is now grazed by sheep and goats.\

The third township was Yn Wyddfid clustered below the Iron Age hill fort of Pen-y-Dinas at the north eastern corner of the Great Orme. With the reopening of the copper mines from the 18th century onwards, this township grew considerably in size with the streets and cottages of the mining village laid out on the largely abandoned agricultural holdings

'THE GREAT ORME WELLS; Natural wells were greatly prized in limestone districts and the Great Orme was no exception. Water was required for copper mining purposes as well as for domestic and agricultural use. The following Great Orme wells are known and most still supply running water: FFYNNON LLYGAID - (Eye well) possibly one of the wells supplying the needs of the once populous Gogarth community before much of it was lost to coastal erosion.; FFYNNON GOGARTH - The main water source for Gogarth and in the later 18th and early 19th centuries the power source to operate the famous ''Tom &Gerry'' engine that, through a long series of Brammock rods, powered the mine water pumps at the higher shaft near the summit above Pyllau.;   FFYNNON POWEL - One of the water supplies, together with Ffynnon Tudno and Ffynnon Rhufeinig serving the medieval farming community of Cyngreawdr;  FFYNNON GALCHOG - This well, near Mynydd Isaf, to the north of Pen-y-Dinas, is a source of lime-rich water known for its petrifying qualities, it is one of two wells known to have been used in the washing of copper ores.; FFYNNON TUDNO - Situated beyond the road, near the north-east corner of St Tudnos church, Ffynnon Tudno was, together with Ffynnon Rhufeinig, a principal source of water for the community settled round the church; FFYNNON RHUFEINIG - (Roman well) It takes its name from the tradition that Roman copper miners used its waters to wash the copper ores mined nearby.; FFYNNON LLECH - A spring of water located in Ogof Llech, a cave on the headland very difficult to access and claimed to have been used as a hermitage by St Tudno; FFYNNON GASEG - (Mares well) This spring was revealed, at the side of the road, about half way round and near the highest point (and where it can still be seen just passed the''Rest & be thankful caf''), during the construction of the Marine Drive in the 19th century. It was thus ideally situated to refresh the horses on that five mile carrige drive round the base of the Great Orme

[suepp]

The Feast of Saint Tudno is celebrated each year on 5th June. ''Y Gwylmabsant'' or the Patronal Festival was observed on the Great Orme on that date as late as 1813 (recorded in the Cambrian Travellers Guide of 1813 as reported in ''The Old Churches of Snowdoni\'' by Harold Hughes & Herbert North, 1924 reprinted 1984)

[Trojan]

Bear with me I'm in the process of extracting these from the Old Forum that Dave has kindly posted

 

[suepp]

''Llety'r Filiast, loosely translated as ''lair of the female greyhound'', is the earliest known archeologically site on the Great Orme. It is a burial chamber used for collective burial during the Neolithic period between 3,500 and 2,500 BC. It is thought that the most important or prominent member of the community would have been buried here.

[Blodyn]

The Feast of Saint Tudno is celebrated each year on 5th June.

Thanks for the snippet, suepp.

St. Tudno's Day is still celebrated at the church each year on 5 June.  News of services will be posted on the parish website at:

http://www.llandudno-parish.org.uk/sttudno.html

[suepp]

 In the precipitous cliff face between the north toll gate and Pen-trwyn is a small cave, called Ogof Hanner Dydd  (the midday cave).  It is said that at twelve noon on the days of the Spring and Summer equinoxes, the sun shines directly into the mouth of the cave

[suepp]

From one of Abel Heywood  & Son’s Guide Books... ''Llandudno has a low general death rate, and a low infant mortality, and the good health normally enjoyed here testifies to its sanitation and salubrity. It has a water supply so pure that it has been described as  “one of the softest waters in the world”


Also from Abel Heywood: ''Proceeding up the Happy Valley Road past the Grand Hotel, visitors will find the local authority has provided for their comfort a magnificent colonnade shelter which is 560 feet long and 14 feet deep. It is surmounted by a promenade deck, and will shelter thousands in case of necessity”

[DaveR]

The badge of the RAF was designed by Charles L Pepper of Gloddaeth Avenue. Even though the RAF say it is an Eagle Mr Pepper used a stuffed Albatross at the British museum as his model.

[DaveR]

Did you know there was a HMS Llandudno, a 656-ton Bangor-class minesweeper. It was built in 1941 by William Hamilton & Co. Capable of 16 knots and carried a crew of 60 men. The ship lived a relatively short life serving most the war in Iceland and the south coast of England before being sold by the Navy in 1947. After being Decommissioned by the navy in 1947 she was given the name Roverick  and served in the merchant navy until she was scrapped in 1952.

[DaveR]

Llandudno's history of ship building totals 1 ship launched in 1863 and named the Sarah Lloyd after the wife of the last owner of the great orme mines. She was built to carry copper from the mines.

[DaveR]

The Winter Gardens opened on 25th March 1935 and was built by a coach operator Zach Brierley, as a dual purpose theatre/cinema. He employed local architect Arthur S. Hewitt to design this magnificent building. The exterior was quite austere, but inside was an Art Deco delight. Seating was provided for 1,079 in the stalls and 809 in the circle. The proscenium was 40 feet wide, the stage 30 feet deep and there were 14 dressing rooms. The Winter Gardens was equipped with a Christie 3Manual/8Rank organ and the building also contained a cafe and a dancehall. In December 1936, it was taken over by Oscar Deutsch's Odeon Theatres Ltd. chain and was re-named Odeon in 1943. On 13th October 1969 the Rank Organisation sold the Odeon to the independent Hutchinson circuit and it was re-named Astra Cinema. In the early 1970's it was operating in the Summer only (Llandudno being a seaside town), but organ concerts were regularly held in the theatre, organist H. Robinson Cleaver being one of its players. The Astra Cinema closed in October 1986 and in 1988 the Christie organ was removed from the building into storage for possible preservation. Unfortunately whilst in storage the instrument was destroyed. The Astra Cinema was soon demolished and housing, known as Ormside Grange, was built on the site.

[DaveR]

The Farman biplane piloted by Robert Loraine, landed safely about 100 yards from the club-house on Rhos-on-Sea Golf Course, Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, on August 1 1910 and was the first airplane to land in Wales. Robert, aged 34, flew from Blackpool, and completed a record-breaking over-sea flight. (63 miles).

[DaveR]

The earliest 'named' resident of the Llandudno area was a female who resided in a cave on the Little Orme nearly 6,000 years ago. Her remains were discovered in 1891 by workers at the Little Orme quarry, and she was nicknamed 'Blodwen'. In 1996, J. Roberts, D.W. Shimwell and M.E. Robinson of the Palaeoecological Research Unit at Manchester University performed a scientific analysis of her skeleton and these are some of the findings from their report - "The bones are thought to be from a female who died between the ages of 54 and 63 years. Her death occurred around 3,510 B.C. She was approximately 5 feet tall and of a fairly robust build. Degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, right knee and the rugged acromial ends of both her clavicles indicate that she had led a physically arduous life. More specifically, these features suggest that she was used to carrying heavy loads on her head and heavy weights with her arms extended by her sides. These heavy weights may have been water or milk containers. It is possible that she was suffering from, and perhaps died of metastatic (secondary) cancer which may have spread from a primary site in the breast."

[DaveR]

The Happy Valley, a former quarry, was the gift of Lord Mostyn to the town in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. The area was landscaped and developed as gardens, two miniature golf courses, a putting green, a popular open air theatre and extensive lawns. The ceremonies connected with the Welsh National Eisteddfod were held there in 1896 and again in 1963. The popularity of the 'Happy Valley Entertainers' open air theatre having declined, the theatre closed in 1985 and likewise the two miniature golf courses closed and were converted in 1987 to create a 280 metre artificial ski slope and toboggan run. The gardens were extensively restored as part of the resort\\''s millennium celebrations and remain a major attraction.