A holiday in 1890s Penmaenmawr

[Gwyn]

There are some nice photos of Pen that have been posted on the BBC website which were taken by a Manchester family whilst on holiday in 1898. Click here to see the photos. The person who owns them would like help identifying the locations in the photos so I have started this thread and have asked the BBC North West Wales web team to pass on a link to this thread to him. I can't identify all of them - can anyone fill in the gaps or add anything?
 
Photo 1 - Is in the Penmaenan part of Pen looking eastwards taken roughly from where Chapel Street meets High Street/Bangor Road.
Photo 2 - Not sure where this is - up in the mountains behind the town somewhere???
Photo 3 - Is of the Pant yr Afon shops taken from where Fernbrook Road meets Pant Yr Afon. This view hasn't changed much over the years though it recently has had a facelift.
Photo 4 - Don't know where this is - maybe on Graiglwyd Road???
Photo 5 - On the beach. Has changed a lot since this photo was taken. A few years after the picture was taken a proper promenade was built (click here for a picture of it) which in turn was replaced in the 1980s by a new one to help make way for a new dual-carriageway.
Photo 6 - Again on the beach. It's a bit too close up to work out exactly where on the beach it was taken.
Photo 7 - The Mountain View Hotel which is still going and is at the point where Pant Yr Afon forks into Conway Road (Ffordd Conwy in Welsh) and Conway Old Road (Ffordd Hen Conwy).
Photos 8 & 9 - Are of the railway station which is still going but is now an unmanned halt and doesn't look quite so grand as it does in the photos. Click here for the station's Wikipedia page which has a modern photo.
Photo 10 - Is taken from a similar spot to photo 1 just from the other side of the road. The steps that can be seen on the right hand egde of photo 1 can be seen in photo 10 in front of the shop. That building is still there but it isn't a shop anymore.
Photo 11 - Is taken from just about where photo 1 was taken but this time looking west.

The views in 1, 3, 7, 10 and 11 haven't changed a great deal. Use Google Street View in Google Maps using the street names I have given to see what the locations look like now.
 
Gwyn

[Richard G]

Great photos Gwyn.........

As you say, there are many places stilll recognizable today....

Although I hate to say it, I well remember those wheeled bathing huts in picture No 5, on the Penmaenmawr end of Llanfairfechan Beach !!!!

There were around 10 -12 of them, and they were owned by Nelso Jorrs, (Spelling ) who was of Scandinavian descent, and ran a Paint and Wallpaper shop, on Station Road, Llanfairfechan....

I remember my Father ( Born and brought up in Bell Cottages ) buying a Blowlamp from him, which I still occasionally use today !!!!!

[brussell]

Haven't had time to look at all of them yet but No 2  - sure it is the style my dogs still run over just behind the fishing lake off Graiglwyd Road. No 3 makes me wonder what the lady has in her pram, would it be some Pen Rock?
Wonderful pictures, Brussell

[Ed Hughes]

Great photos, a bit before my time though. I also think that I recognise the stile, didn't they dress their children up in some strange suits in those days. A question - is the 'fishing lake' what used to be the reservoir for the town? Back in the 1950s it used to almost dry up in the long hot summers (pre-global warming) and extra demand for water brought about by the influx of vistors. My Mam used to fill the bath for use as a reserve when the water was cut off as it often was.
Look at picture 10 - I wonder if the residents used to complain about the horse droppings, or just took advantage of the free fertiliser.

[Gwyn]

They're really good pictures aren't they? It's good to see some old photos of Penmaenan too, there doesn't seem to be many about.

Yeah that could well be the stile behind the fishery/old reservoir.

I don't know where those little cottages are. There are two or three cottages on Graiglwyd Road near Bryn Helyg, it could be them - not sure.  

[daihutton]

Great pics, Picture no 6 is a total mystery, the only possible place for that boat would be somewhere under Penmaenbach. That boat has been pulled up away from the sea at high water, even the smallest tides reach the railway wall, so definitely not the Penmaenan end.
Photo number 10 shows the shop we knew as Jane Post's. Presumably this was the Penmaenan post office before it moved to Mathews the grocers, further along on the left.

[Ed Hughes]

Yes. I did think that No 6 was just beyond the old jetty towards Pen Clip but as Dai says the tide comes right up to the rocks at that end. So I reckon you are right and it was taken under the Penmaenbach headland.
If you look at the attached picture there seem to be a couple of rocky beaches above the tide line. I can't remember what the access was like down to the shore there as we didn't explore that end very much but wasn't the Ship Inn somewhere above that area, although you would have had to cross the railway line to get down to the beach? I wonder what the pile of rocks and and wooden planks was all about? It looks like the sort of 'den' we used to build with whatever was at hand. And you thought that hoodies were a modern phenomenon. More questions than answers.

[Richard G]

Remembering that the photos were taken circa 1890......( Victoran costume of the lady confirms this ! )

Methinks the photo was taken near the "Goat" end of the beach, before the tunnel was built circa 1935, ( 45 years after the photos were taken,) when traffic had to go on the perilous mountain side road....

I remember going on a bus to Penmaenmawr, from Llanfairfechan on this road, and meeting another bus coming the other way...

They were scraping their sides against each other as they passed...There was no alternative....It was far too dangerous, for either bus to reverse to a more suitable place...

Crosville buses, were Maroon coloured in those days...

I used to go with an Uncle to deliver stone in a lorry, to the site where they were building the tunnel, The lorries in those days, could only be tipped, by means of a winding handle, on both sides of the lorry.

( It was easier to let it back down again, by means of one handle, which I was allowed to do. )

[mgt]

I to think  the "Goat" end of the beach for that pic we lived in the houses by the railway when we were kids.
The other question about getting on to the beach at the other end, there were some steps on the tunnel bends that lead on to the beach at one time, they were quit steep but you could get down if you were carefull

[daihutton]

I was born in Church Terrace and spent half my life on the Penmaenan beach as a kid. My grandfather Ren Williams used to take me catching conger eels under pen clip, and I still go there now if I fancy a conger.
That photo was taken on a clear day, you can see the horizon on the top right, if it had been taken under pen y clip, Anglesey would be visible on the horizon.
The railway would have been too close for that picture to have been taken there.
There is a small headland that sticks out between the old Penmaen yard and the viaduct, this has a small rock pool on it a good ten feet up, we used to catch small fish in it so it tells you how high the tide comes up. There is also a large rock, about twelve feet high that stands in front of this headland.
I just can't imagine how this photo could be anywhere near the Penmaenan end of the beach.