Author Topic: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs  (Read 93056 times)

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Offline Nemesis

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #135 on: December 17, 2011, 10:37:04 am »
Christopher Draper wrote a book " Walks with history-Llandudno"       I haven't read it yet, but if it's like his other book " Llandudno before the hotels" it should be good.
Hope that you soon get over your injury as I know how much pleasure you can get from the walks. I've trapped a nerve in my back so have not done any walks for nearly 3 months.    :(

Christopher Draper Has also written Walks from Colwyn Bay, Walks in the Conwy Valley and Walks from Conwy. Perhaps more, but I have all these 4 and they are excellent. Can't walk long distances, but have picked bits and pieces of interest from them and walked sections. Can recommend them.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #136 on: December 19, 2011, 04:34:25 pm »
Isaac and Miriam Jones (Yr Ogof) were still living in the cave in the 1871 Census and had 5 children living with them at that time.
The eldest daughter (can't read the name ) was born in Liverpool??  the other 4 children were born in Llandudno.


Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #137 on: December 20, 2011, 01:37:10 pm »
I had a look on the 1881 Census today and by that date Isaac and Miriam had moved to the Gogarth Tea Rooms.  Isaac was aged 71 and had retired as he had "no occupation" on the Census form. His birthplace was listed as Liverpool which seems strange as books I've read list his birthplace as Amlwch.
Miriam was then aged 50 and was working as a "charwoman"    They only had a daughter Rebecca aged 11 living at home by that time.

Offline jennie.ross

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #138 on: January 20, 2012, 07:12:45 pm »
I'm a new Member that joined today.  I would certainly like to hear more about the Old Gun site on the Orme - My dad worked ther when he was in the RAF during thw ww2.  My Grandmother lived in Ty'n Y Coed Road

Jennie

Offline DaveR

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #139 on: January 20, 2012, 07:15:15 pm »
Welcome to the Forum, Jennie.  :)

Offline jennie.ross

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #140 on: January 20, 2012, 08:30:59 pm »
Thanks Dave - I came across it by accident this evening whilst trying to find info about my family on the Orme

Offline Cambrian

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #141 on: January 20, 2012, 08:47:59 pm »
Jennie - there is a leaflet giving an outline of the hsitory of the Gunsites during the war.  This is available at the Town Hall or the Museum in Gloddaeth Street.
If your dad was in the RAF he may have been stationed at the Summit Hotel which was an RAF radar facility rather than the Coast Artillery School which was essentially an Army base run by the Royal Artillery.
There was also an experimental station situated above the CAS which may have had RAF people seconded.  It is not clear who exactly ran this - it was know locally as "Hatters Castle" - but it dealt with experimental radar systems and seems to have been a "hush hush" site.

Offline Blodyn

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #142 on: January 20, 2012, 11:12:26 pm »
Welcome to the Forum, Jennie.  Good luck with finding information on your family.  There are some very helpful and knowledgeable people on the Forum, so if you've got any more questions do keep asking.   :)

Offline jennie.ross

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #143 on: January 31, 2012, 06:48:33 pm »
Thanks Blodyn and Cambrian.

My Nain owned two shops in Ty'n Y Coed Road just befor the war - one at no 5 and one on the land to the side of the Quarry (which was owned by her Father) - I think there is a bungalow there now so if anyone knows anything about Bett Evans and her family - she was related to The Hobsons at Ivy Mount and the Roberts at Pen Y Frith Farm - that would be great.

My Taid died in WW1 but he was Robert John Hughes (my Nain re-married) and was related to the Hughes family who had the donkeys on the beach - so any info regarding that side of the family would be good too

Jennie

Offline Cambrian

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #144 on: January 31, 2012, 07:51:15 pm »
Jennie

If you look at the Genealogy section of this site there are sections on the Hobsons and some of the Hughes families in the area.  You may find something which connects with the info you already have.  There are some very kind and helpful people on the forum who seem always willing to assist with family researches.

Offline jennie.ross

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #145 on: February 08, 2012, 06:26:52 pm »
Thanks Cambrian

Offline Chris H

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #146 on: March 20, 2012, 07:25:22 pm »
Having just signed up to the forum today, I thought I may as well dive in with a post!  We visited Llandudno on Sunday, bringing my Mum over from Wrexham, as she and my late Dad used to love to take a picnic onto the Orme when he was still alive.  Llandudno holds many happy memories for me, as I spent some of my childhood there (1960 - 1966) and the Gun Site was one of our occasional playgrounds.  I recall some of the larger coastal gun positions as still in place back then, I suppose the scrap merchants hadn't yet got to the rusting metalwork that the guns used to traverse around.  I also recall the triplet barbettes lower down towards the beach, you can still see two sets on Google Earth.
One for Ed Jones, I remember your brother Johnny and your Dad, as my Dad used to take us on the pleasure boats in the summer.  My Dad was also a Lay Reader and he and Canon Daniels, the Rector, conducted Ted's funeral service at St Tudno's.  Dad said you could hardly move there, it was packed with mourners who had come to pay their respects to your Dad.
I shall have to contact a friend of mine, who is something to do with photographs at the Imperial War Museum in London.  He told me a while ago that there are some albums there showing the School and I also think that the documentary that someone mentioned earlier is still in existence.
Cheers to all,
Chris

Offline snowcap

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #147 on: March 20, 2012, 08:26:16 pm »
hi Chris, welcome to the forum, i am also a wrexham lad even though i have not lived there for the last fifty years or so, still have family in bryteg southsea + pentre broughton, hope you enjoy the forum as much as i. made some good friends on here as I'm sure you will.

Offline Chris H

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #148 on: March 20, 2012, 09:07:20 pm »
Thanks Snowcap!  I wonder if I'll bump into any of my old school friends from "Lloydy" here...
Southsea eh?  My Dad was the village bobby there in the mid-1950's!  PC 147...
I live in Cambridgeshire now, where it's far too flat and featureless. 
My Mum is now 80, so long trips out in the car are a thing of the past and she can just about manage a run to Llandudno!

Offline snowcap

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #149 on: March 21, 2012, 07:36:08 pm »
so he,s the one who used to chase us off the slag heap, lol