Author Topic: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay  (Read 218718 times)

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Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea
« Reply #165 on: July 08, 2015, 02:06:52 pm »
From Ormegolf.....
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Hello Ian and what next instalment are you awaiting? Do you mean about Pyes? Or SteveH mentioned more shots of old Rhos but he has put them in a different thread, Rhos times past. Mainly of Colwyn Crescent which I knew very,very well. But funnily enough I didn't know that many people who lived there. Frank Westwell younger brother of Herbert Westwell, the bottling store owner is the only one I can name.

Here you are Mike    A Westwells advert ..........from a 1928 Souvenir Programme Pier Pavilion, Col.Bay

Offline Ian

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Re: Rhos On Sea
« Reply #166 on: July 08, 2015, 03:31:40 pm »
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could you please redirect recent posts and photos to this thread.    Many Thanks...Steve.

I'll sort that now, Steve.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.


Offline Michael

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #167 on: July 08, 2015, 09:02:41 pm »
 Yes, thats jogged my memory. The business was known as Westwell and Johnson, but Johnson had departed prior to 1936 when I came on the scene in Rhos. No, not born, Actually five years old.
  For some obscure reason I was interested what the words "Co.Ltd" meant. By now the company was titled H.Westwell and Sons Co.Ltd.  My dad who was the clerk in charge of Barclays Bank in Rhos at that time gave me a technical lecture on what they meant. I doubt that much of it sank in but no doubt it shut me up.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea/Colwyn Bay
« Reply #168 on: July 09, 2015, 04:25:27 pm »
Hello SteveH. Your "Pyes" photo, and you write "one for me." So here goes.
  This coach was one of two purchased by Pyes around 1948. They were both outstanding for their time for a variety of reasons, all of them way out in front of development after the sterile war years.
  First, the reg numbers. gUN 1 and GUN 2. This was years before anyone thought number plates were of any value. UN and CA were both letters showing they came from Denbighshire.
 Next to the engines. Foden 16 cylinder two stroke engines. Wait for the gasp of breath from anyone who has any clue as to what I am writing about. The noise they emitted was completely distinctive. A high pitched high revving noise, once heard never forgotten. Not at all loud just unique.
 Third the dorsal fin on the roof. For ventilation. In 1948 the average person couldn't even spell ventilation, never mind know what it was and witness it being put into a coach.

Offline Fester

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #169 on: July 09, 2015, 04:54:27 pm »
Some fantastic classic vehicles there....  $good$ $good$
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #170 on: July 09, 2015, 05:17:20 pm »
Some fantastic classic vehicles there....
$thanx$....... keep watching this space, a lot more to come.

Offline DVT

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #171 on: July 09, 2015, 07:59:06 pm »
I can remember those Pye coaches with the rear ventilator, used to make an odd sound from them!  It would been around 1954 as I started school then in Eglwysbach, living in Tal-y-Cafn.  I seem to think there was a similar coach, possibly registered GUN 60, that was based in a garage just below the Sun Inn that is on the way to Eglwysbach.  I did think that was a Pye's coach but I may be wrong.

Offline white rabbit

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #172 on: July 09, 2015, 08:46:57 pm »
Ormegolf - I remember Cutler's Butchers in Everard Road and noticed was left off the list :)

Offline poppy

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #173 on: July 10, 2015, 10:34:13 am »
Came across this film about Penrhos College in the fifties. Pyes coaches included  $good$

http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-semper-ad-lucem-penrhos-college-1953/

Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #174 on: July 10, 2015, 04:33:53 pm »
Pye's are here..........

Offline Michael

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #175 on: July 10, 2015, 08:57:50 pm »
  Poppy has found a most amazing film about Penrhos College. Absolutely wonderful. I only wish that Welsh Maid who used to write on the forum fairly often a couple of years ago spots this post. She would love it. She used to work at Penrhos, although I hasten to add not in this period of time. More around early 1980s.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #176 on: July 11, 2015, 01:05:14 pm »
While we are on the subject of old Rhos transport, I think this photo could be the winner..........

From information on the back, "Mr Thomas Williams,(my great grandfather) chauffeur to Dr Hewitt, with the first car in Rhos on Sea"

No year or make of car, however the gentleman was born in 1869 say he looks about 40 this gives approx date of 1910

Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #177 on: July 11, 2015, 07:31:20 pm »
Two adverts from the guide books..

Offline DVT

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #178 on: July 11, 2015, 08:20:26 pm »
Wasn't it the Princess Cinema that had the double seats on the back row?  They also used to show horror films starting at midnight, and they also showed motorsport films for enthusiasts as George Lee, the owner, was a member of North Wales Car Club - back in the 1960's so just before my time with the club (I joined in 1968).

CA313 - registrations for cars were introduced in 1903 and that would (presumably) have been the 313th car registered in Denbighshire.  So the date of 1910 may be correct, or perhaps a little before that.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay
« Reply #179 on: July 11, 2015, 08:44:11 pm »
The Playhouse in Rhos had double seats, I seem to remember they were aircraft seats, the center armrest lifted up.

In 1912, Picture Playhouse (Rhos) Ltd. was formed with directors R.D. Hartley, A.O> Cummings and H.B. Hill and they engaged architect Sidney Colwyn Foulkes to design a cinema to be built in Rhos On Sea, near Colwyn Bay, which at the time had no cinema. The result was a long, narrow building with seating for 450 patrons with, unusually, a musicians gallery in front of the projection box. The interior and foyer were panelled in wood and it had a nice terracotta front with some ornamentation.

The Picture Playhouse opened in April 1914. Programmes were once nightly with a matinee on Saturdays and two changes of programme per week.

In 1922 Sidney Frere became owner and installed his brother L. S. Frere as manager with prices 8d to 2/–. British Talking Pictures sound was installed in 1930, the name changed to the Playhouse and programmes expanded with an additional matinee on Wednesdays. In 1938 Mr. E. Port became owner and prices changed to 6d to 2/–.

Sometime in the early-1940’s G.H. Lee and J.F. Buckingham acquired ownership, and in the mid-1950’s installed Cinemascope on a 24 ½ foot screen in the 27 feet wide proscenium. Seating reduced to 375 patrons to allow for the new lines of sight and prices rose to 1/– to 2/3d.

Sometime in the 1960’s G.H. Lee brought out his partner and became sole owner, only to retire in 1974 when the cinema closed. The Co-operative Society purchased the venue, levelled the floor, demolished the stage but retained much of the terracotta frontage and opened the venue as a supermarket, in which guise it remains.

Thanks for the car date info. DVT.