Three Towns Forum
The Local => Times Past => Topic started by: Waffagolf on June 22, 2011, 11:00:23 pm
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I remember shopkeepers of small family businesses standing by ASDA as it burnt and crying. Not because they were sad it was on fire, but because they knew their business would be able to carry on just that bit longer.
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Some more ASDA fire pictures
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I worked in the office on the pier at the time. We could see the black smoke and were hoping and praying that it was the tax office on Mostyn Broadway.
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I remember walking through the Creuddyn with my Father to take a look at the scene. As we headed along Ffordd Tudno three distraught ASDA check-out girls were walking hurriedly towards us.
As they passed, my Dad said, "no work today ladies?" :-X
"That's a bl**dy funny remark", replied one of the girls.
The black, billowing smoke, cast a huge plume over the town and pots of paint & aerosol cans could be heard exploding inside the building.
I believe a welder working on the roof caused the fire, which must have spread quickly, as the fire station was a stone's throw away.
Quite a bit of looting took place (so I heard) during the aftermath of the fire, and numerous blackened coins started to turn up at the local amusement arcades.
It was around this time that I found out that our electric meter wasn't a money box, as Dad had always said it was. The guy from MANWEB spent ages at our kitchen sink with a nail brush and a bottle of Fairy Liquid. :twoface:
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This photo courtesy of DaveR illustrates the smoke which could be seen for miles around.
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I worked in the office on the pier at the time.
Who was the General Manager then, John Mills? Where the offices in the Pavilion or at the back of the arcade like now?
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my mum worked in the wages office there and we used to goto work with her. if i remember right it was started by the fabricator on builders street welding
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Yes, Dave, John Mills was Manager and Vaughan Turner Pier Master. The office were in the Pavillion up the stairs on the balcony over looking the bay.
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My Dad took these pictures of the fire - a big event at the time. I think it had only been open a couple of years or so...
(http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/2354/asdafire1.jpg)
(http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7317/asdafire2.jpg)
(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1267/asdafire3.jpg)
(http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/5689/asdafire4.jpg)
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Great photos! I remember I was in school in Colwyn Bay that day and you could see the big plume of black smoke rising up into the air quite clearly.
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I always had very mixed feelings about the Asda superstore. Yes, it was really handy for shopping all in one place. Yes, it provided jobs for many people. But as someone else said, it also destroyed a lot of the old family businesses like Mace, Macfisheries, EB Jones', one of the Dunphy's stores closed too. The one thing I could never really get over though (and I know it's a bit irrational given the inexorable march of 'progress') was that it sat on the place of a particular shrine for me. The place where as a kid, I had watched Dave Demaine and the boys lift the Cookson Cup, and explored the magical world of Simons funfair. Yes, Asda was built on the site of Llandudno football ground - almost impossible to find any good photographs of it now too...
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Correct me if I m wrong but thought football ground was more where halfords is and the funfair was where b and q car park is now &shake&
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Correct me if I m wrong but thought football ground was more where halfords is and the funfair was where b and q car park is now &shake&
No - sorry, here is a Google map showing A, the approximate (but pretty close) location of the centre spot of the pitch in the old Llandudno Stadium, and B, the location of the Swing Boats at the Mostyn Broadway entrance to Simons fair:
http://goo.gl/maps/xPBk (http://goo.gl/maps/xPBk)
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...or perhaps more accurately: http://goo.gl/maps/rzS9 (http://goo.gl/maps/rzS9) Are there really so few photos of the Stadium or am I just using the wrong Google images search criteria?
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I only remember the funfair where B&Q is now, unless you're going back a few years earlier.
I thought someone like BT had offices at the broadway house site.
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BT had the site where Mostyn House Surgery is now.
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Or are you getting confused with the funfair that was at the end of the swimming pool. The annual funfair was next to b and q just below the old allotments opposite the garage. The football ground wasnt as low as asda. Google maps arent that accurate they can be upto 500 m out with regards reference points.
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In this old photo, taken on the old council field in 1971, you can make out the Grand Theatre and St Pauls Church in the background.
Didn't the funfair always arrive during the summer holidays just beyond the corrugated sheeting on the far side of the football ground?
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Yes, I also recall a high dive act, where a tall pylon was erected and the diver climbed to the top before plunging down into a circular tank of water, which was only a few feet deep. It was rumoured that he damaged his eye when he hit a matchstick floating on the surface. :o
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the fair was behind the fence ,[behind the team] remember the small pitch there with the smaller goals ,all the allotments were opp the theatre and behind the top goal by the broadway
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Or are you getting confused with the funfair that was at the end of the swimming pool. The annual funfair was next to b and q just below the old allotments opposite the garage. The football ground wasnt as low as asda. Google maps arent that accurate they can be upto 500 m out with regards reference points.
Hello Gixer181, No I am not confusing the location of Simons funfair. Bri had it exactly right - Simons Funfair (the one I was specifically referring to) was a temporary fixture during the school summer holidays, and was definitely located on the other side of the corrugated iron fence of the football ground as Bri said. Also if you see the position of the Grand Theatre and St Paul's Church in the background you can easily see the actual location of the 'stadium'. I think for a time in the seventies there was a fixed, very small funfair by the swimming pool but it had a terrible reputation - for what I can't exactly remember now....
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Will this map help 1938 -58
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Or are you getting confused with the funfair that was at the end of the swimming pool. The annual funfair was next to b and q just below the old allotments opposite the garage. The football ground wasnt as low as asda. Google maps arent that accurate they can be upto 500 m out with regards reference points.
Hello Gixer181, No I am not confusing the location of Simons funfair. Bri had it exactly right - Simons Funfair (the one I was specifically referring to) was a temporary fixture during the school summer holidays, and was definitely located on the other side of the corrugated iron fence of the football ground as Bri said. Also if you see the position of the Grand Theatre and St Paul's Church in the background you can easily see the actual location of the 'stadium'. I think for a time in the seventies there was a fixed, very small funfair by the swimming pool but it had a terrible reputation - for what I can't exactly remember now....
When I click on your link the map opens with two pins on it, a green one which I assume is where you think the centre of the football pitch was & a red one which I assume is where you think the funfair was. The red one is in the wrong place on the one I opened as it's where the BT offices were situated and should instead be further up the road by B&Q.
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When I click on your link the map opens with two pins on it, a green one which I assume is where you think the centre of the football pitch was & a red one which I assume is where you think the funfair was. The red one is in the wrong place on the one I opened as it's where the BT offices were situated and should instead be further up the road by B&Q.
Well - ok, it was somewhere near there - It's not really important to know the exact location of the centre spot to within the nearest foot is it?. Although if someone could establish it's precise location it would make a great 'spot the ball' type competition for the quizzes and puzzles thread!. I was trying to picture the football ground from memory given the lack of photographic reference, and I have made this very quick sketch of what I can remember of it. If anyone else can add any more detail, I might make a 3D drawing of it in Sketch Up - if I can find some time/be bothered.
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1470/llandudnofcground.jpg)
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That is the best 'very quick sketch' that I have ever seen! $good$
I remember the small funfair in the seventies, by the swimming pool, it had a very small 'big wheel' also somewhere in that area I had pony riding lessons! (all done whilst on holiday!)
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That is the best 'very quick sketch' that I have ever seen! $good$
I remember the small funfair in the seventies, by the swimming pool, it had a very small 'big wheel' also somewhere in that area I had pony riding lessons! (all done whilst on holiday!)
$thanx$ Thanks M.E.!
- I would really like to make a proper drawing/painting/3D drawing of it, but I/we would need a lot more info to make it worthwhile. Let's see what happens in time....
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I agree.
It truly is excellent.
The only small problem is the ground was not parallel with Conway Road as can be seen by the old map illustrated earlier by pkevin.
Here is another old photo from 1958 which provides a view behind one of the goals.
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When I click on your link the map opens with two pins on it, a green one which I assume is where you think the centre of the football pitch was & a red one which I assume is where you think the funfair was. The red one is in the wrong place on the one I opened as it's where the BT offices were situated and should instead be further up the road by B&Q.
Well - ok, it was somewhere near there - It's not really important to know the exact location of the centre spot to within the nearest foot is it?. Although if someone could establish it's precise location it would make a great 'spot the ball' type competition for the quizzes and puzzles thread!. I was trying to picture the football ground from memory given the lack of photographic reference, and I have made this very quick sketch of what I can remember of it. If anyone else can add any more detail, I might make a 3D drawing of it in Sketch Up - if I can find some time/be bothered.
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1470/llandudnofcground.jpg)
Wow, that's a fantastic sketch, Ludo! $good$
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I agree.
It truly is excellent.
The only small problem is the ground was not parallel with Conway Road as can be seen by the old map illustrated earlier by pkevin earlier.
Here is another old photo from 1958 which provides a view behind one of the goals.
$thanx$ Thanks Bri
- great photo! - Agreed about the Conwy Road position. Some good detail there of the north stand - I thought it had a curved roof and this confirms it. There is also a tantalising clue to its construction, which is very helpful in making a more accurate drawing. The other stand had an angular pitched roof I think, and about the same size as the north stand. If I remember correctly the south stand was the cheaper of the two (2/-6d comared to the 3/- 9d of the North stand and 5/- in the main stand) - and was the away supporters' stand. Although in the latter years you were lucky to see any more than one man and his dog!.
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Some good footballers in that line up Bri. If I remember correctly the entrance to the funfair from Mostyn Broadway was just a wide dusty track in the grassy field and if you went in to town from the fair then you would turn left and after a short distance Tudor Road was on your right.
Most of the rides etc I think were east of that road and would be in the area where B and Q and part of Currys is now.
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Wow, that's a fantastic sketch, Ludo! $good$
$thanx$ DaveR - I feel encouraged to try and do something more with it now - perhaps some more refined quick sketches first....
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Here's a view of the stand at the other end from 1955.
It seems the roof did not go all the way along !
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Here's a view of the stand at the other end from 1955.
It seems the roof did not go all the way along !
hmmm - I was sure it went the whole way along that end, maybe it was extended in the 60s? - the plot thickens....
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...still trying to find info on the Football Ground - I made another quick sketch of the main stand as I remember it:
(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9578/llandudnofcmainstand.jpg)
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Even though I can't stand football, that's another great sketch! $good$
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I agree. I wish I could draw in perspective like that.
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$thanx$ - so kind! - I wish I could remember more details of the place though. I would really like to make a few paintings of it, but at the moment it would have to be a bit on the abstract side - more surrealist than photo-realism, but then that could be quite interesting.... hmm now that's an idea!
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Ludo, that is wonderful.
In fact, I had forgotten what it looked like inside the ground.
Did you see a photo album posted on here a couple of weeks ago?
It contained many old photos of Llandudno from 1923 and the football ground was in a different position but alongside some allotments.
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Thanks Bri!. Was that the aerial photography album? - if so I did see the shot of the football ground - fascinating it was too. I remember there being allotments at the back of the north stand up to the North Western. I also saw the photo of the ground during one of the Royal Marines Tatoos they used to hold there every year - I remember coming home from one of them to hear that evening on the TV, that there had been an explosion on board Apollo 13 and being really worried for the crew...
I would really like to make a Google Sketchup drawing of the football ground - then we could all wander around it to our heart's content and even replay one of the schools' cup finals in virtual reality with the half-size goals and using the D of the normal penalty area as the six yard box of course - it would have to be realistic...
http://sketchup.google.com/ (http://sketchup.google.com/)
There is already a sketch of the Grand and the Pier, but excellent though it is, I am sure the artist would agree it could benefit from a bit of improvement.
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hey anyone remember ormerods garage going up in rhos think it was a 10 pump job massive blaze 1976? datsun or mazda dealers site rebuilt as geordies now coop no fuel no more petrol stations left in rhos used to be four !!!!!!
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Some more ASDA fire pictures
I remember all the kids from across the road with money burns on their hands and price stickers everywhere, and lead in shopping trollies...and that smell for ever.