Author Topic: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs  (Read 93220 times)

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Offline Trojan

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #90 on: April 15, 2011, 02:50:39 pm »
Mike, you are correct in saying that the guns were anti shipping and not anti aircraft as I thought.   Have a look at the Coast Artillery School Llandudno site which shows you photos of the guns as well as a lot more info.


Of course Mike is correct. They towed decommissioned vessels off the coast, then used them for target practice.

I suppose it would have been difficult to do the same thing with anti-aircraft guns. Getting volunteers from the RAF would have been next to impossible.  ;D

 

Offline Yorkie

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #91 on: April 15, 2011, 04:17:31 pm »
Unless they were Japanese of course!     ;D
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Fools have to say something.
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Offline Quiggs

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #92 on: April 15, 2011, 04:53:05 pm »
 Hugo, Tony's house was just inside the gated area of the first photo, it would have been in the corner of the garden of the property 2nd photo, where what looks like a rockery is.  The concrete area 3rd. photo is the foundations of the building occupied by the Drabble family.
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Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #93 on: April 15, 2011, 05:40:44 pm »
Thanks Quiggs, that concrete base is still there but that gate stating private property keep out prevents you from going there to have a look.
I'll make a comment on that house again when I have more time.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #94 on: April 15, 2011, 05:52:42 pm »
Mike, you are correct in saying that the guns were anti shipping and not anti aircraft as I thought.   Have a look at the Coast Artillery School Llandudno site which shows you photos of the guns as well as a lot more info.


Of course Mike is correct. They towed decommissioned vessels off the coast, then used them for target practice.

I suppose it would have been difficult to do the same thing with anti-aircraft guns. Getting volunteers from the RAF would have been next to impossible.  ;D

I can't imagine that they were put into use then  apart from target practise as there were not many German boats about  apart from the U boats that stayed for a few days off one of the coves on the Orme.   What about the German planes flying over to Liverpool, surely there must have been something there that fired at the planes.

 
« Last Edit: April 15, 2011, 06:56:23 pm by Ian »

Offline Michael

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #95 on: April 15, 2011, 09:10:10 pm »
Hugo, you know this area far better than me, but, I would say NO, there was no anti aircraft function at neither Great nor Little Orme. Now----to wait for me to be shot down!!! LOL

Offline DaveR

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #96 on: April 15, 2011, 09:19:04 pm »
They had a boat which towed a target behind it. I believe they hit the boat rather than the target occasionally.  :o

Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #97 on: April 16, 2011, 12:15:17 pm »
Hugo, you know this area far better than me, but, I would say NO, there was no anti aircraft function at neither Great nor Little Orme. Now----to wait for me to be shot down!!! LOL

Mike, I know very little about the gun site but assumed that because the rails on which the guns were mounted went in a complete circle they would be for anti aircraft use.  It wasn't until I saw the guns on the web this week that I realised that they were not anti aircraft guns.

However just quoting an extract below from the Bye Laws passed in 1939 seems to make the situation confused:-
 " When vessel or aircraft in danger"
Para 8 (2) (b)  states:-
"When any aircraft is observed on a course likely to bring it flying over the danger area of the range at a height estimated to be less than 10,000 foot when anti aircraft firing is in progress, firing will immediately cease and will not be resumed until the aircraft is out of danger"        ???

Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #98 on: April 16, 2011, 04:04:39 pm »
When I was in my teens we had unrestricted access down Llys Helyg Drive to the Gunsite.  We would go for family picnics or walks or fishing.  People even used to go there to learn how to drive as they could do so as it was not  a public road.
About C1964 I was walking there with a friend,( who incidently lived on the site at one time) and we were prevented from going there because a gate had recently been put up blocking the entry to the Gunsite.  We just climbed over the gate and carried on walking.
After that I took a bit more interest in the area but cannot remember the dates or sequence of events.  In the papers it said that Mostyn Estates applied for permission to develop the gunsite for residential homes but the application was refused.  The buidings on the Gunsite were removed or destroyed but I cannot imagine for one second that Mostyn Estates would pay for that demolition, so who did?   
With the building permission being refused it later became the Great Orme Country Park but vehicle access to the Gunsite for the general public is still denied.

Offline Trojan

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #99 on: April 16, 2011, 04:17:59 pm »
   
With the building permission being refused it later became the Great Orme Country Park but vehicle access to the Gunsite for the general public is still denied.

I used to ride my Enduro motorcycle there, which used to annoy the park warden.

Could never catch me though.  $happy$

Offline Hugo

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #100 on: April 17, 2011, 12:40:42 pm »
When they put up the gate to prevent access for vehicles to the Gunsite C1964 this also marked the boundary to the last house in Llys Helyg Drive.  It was a nice Spanish style bungalow called Plas Gwyn. and it's boundary line was level with the line of the gate.
After going over the gate you could immediately leave the road on your left and walk to the concrete foundations that once was the place where Tonyf  lived.  From there you could walk along the cliffs to the centre of the Gunsite. You are now prevented from doing this by a gate on the left which says private property keep out.
Some years after 1964  the owner of Plas Gwyn decided to build an indoor pool at the side of his house and I can remember the builders using this concrete base for doing work on the property. They would store materials etc there and had a wooden shed on the concrete. I believe that the gate and fence were put there while the construction work was going on, but it has never been removed, possibly to protect the privacy of the house.
What I never found out were a number of things such as:-
The new pool could not be fitted into the original boundary of the property (see 1st photo wall near cliff edge) so a new boundary was created.
That extra land belonged to Mostyn Estates and as they give nothing away I assume a financial transaction to purchase the extra land took place.
Planning permission for the gunsite had been refused so the land must have been green belt land or even part of the Great Orme Country Park but I'm not sure of when the pool was actually built.   How they got permission to build the indoor pool, I'm not sure.
Having said that once the work was done, I cannot see why the gate was not removed because that land is now part of the Great Orme Country Park and access to Tonyf's place should not be denied. I can only think that the owner of the house left it there on purpose to protect his privacy.   ???

Offline Quiggs

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #101 on: April 17, 2011, 02:11:09 pm »
With talk of the Gunsite being used by learner drivers etc. jogged a memory, if I'm correct wasn't one of the first fatalities,( if not the first,) of a go-cart driver, being killed.   Happened   when driving round the large hump in the middle of the site?     ^*^0
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Offline Morkins

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #102 on: May 06, 2011, 06:49:47 am »
Quigs, thankyou for your stories of life back then, wonderful reading.     Do you remember a documentary film crew, back approx 1942, tearing around the place in Jeeps and lorries?    My father was directing.  I'm told recently, it was an AKC secret then, film for practice for Dunkirk or similar.     We lived at the time in a house I'm trying to locate (photo posted by Olden), perhaps in Llys Helyg Drive.    does any of this ring any bells?     I'd love any info you have.    I remember the shooting, did not know it was target practice.

Offline Micox

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #103 on: May 17, 2011, 09:53:19 pm »
Hello young Quiney. You must be older than I thought!!!! :-*
Micox

Offline Jack

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Re: Great Orme Gunsite Memoirs
« Reply #104 on: September 01, 2011, 08:24:56 am »
CCBC have produced a new Gunsite leaflet that is available from the tourist info and written by Cllr Evans.  There is a nice map in the centre outlining what most of the buildings were used for.