Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog photos (41 available)
Blaenau Ffestiniog maps (2 available)
Map of Gwynedd
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Blaenau Ffestiniog books (2 available)
- 6 photos on Blaenau Ffestiniog appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Blaenau Ffestiniog
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Blaenau Ffestiniog and Gwynedd
Blaenau Ffestiniog memories
Read and share memories of Blaenau Ffestiniog and Gwynedd inspired by Frith photos
100 years ago
My aunt Elizabeth Lloyd Griffiths Jones was born in Blaenau Ffestinog on Feb. 12, 1906. She is the daughter of the late William and Annie Griffiths. She came to America in around 1920. While living in Wales she lived with her maternal grandmother Elizabeth Jones (Husband was David Jones). As a young girl she came to America to join her parents, her brother William Cynwal and sister Anna Lloyd. She is a wonderful lady. She married Richard T. Jones born in Blaenau Ffestinog in May 1905-son of Elias and Margaret Thomas Jones. Blaenau Ffestinog has a wonderful daughter that they sould be so proud of saying "she came from here". I hope to send ...read more here
Contributed by wendy griffith bowers
Gwynedd memories
100 years ago
My aunt Elizabeth Lloyd Griffiths Jones was born in Blaenau Ffestinog on Feb. 12, 1906. She is the daughter of the late William and Annie Griffiths. She came to America in around 1920. While living in Wales she lived with her maternal grandmother Elizabeth Jones (Husband was David Jones). As a young girl she came to America to join her parents, her brother William Cynwal and sister Anna Lloyd. She is a wonderful lady. She married Richard T. Jones born in Blaenau Ffestinog in May 1905-son of Elias and Margaret Thomas Jones. Blaenau Ffestinog has a wonderful daughter that they sould be so proud of saying "she came from here". I hope to send ...read more here
A memory of Blaenau Ffestiniog contributed by wendy griffith bowers
WW11 in Llan Ffestiniog
Towards the end of WW11 my mother took me to visit family in Llan Ffestiniog. I was vey young. I recall clearly looking out of the parlour window and seeing a communal water pump in the street and with dozens if not hundreds of soldiers passing through - apparently en route to their camp at Trawsfynydd.
Where was the pump ? Can anyone help? I think it may have been near the wide Y junction in Ffestiniog but I just don't know. Help!
A memory of Ffestiniog contributed by Meirion Jones
childhood memories
I was born in Cwm and I was always known by my middle name of Maelor, My fondest memories are playing with my friends Ken, Idwal, Iola, Anne Evans and Anne Parry to name but a few, We all used to meet after school to play, I also used to fish in the river and caught many trout with both rod and by tickling trout, I was so sad when I had to leave to find work, Sadly it was the end of a way of life because when I moved away I found a very different world to the wonderful innocent world I had known before.
A memory of Cwm Penmachno contributed by robert lloyd
Extracts From Blaenau Ffestiniog & Gwynedd books
Formerly the slate capital of Wales, this slate-grey mountain town is proud of its history and happily promotes its memory. The quarries, which roofed Victorian England from London to Birmingham and back, now offer various tours, and the Ffestiniog narrow-gauge railway carries passengers, rather than slate, to the coast at Porthmadoc. This sunlit view looks across the town towards the great heaps of waste from its slate mines. The railway can be seen on the left.
An extract from from"North Wales Photographic Memories".
The awnings are out at the far end of the street to protect the stock in the shop windows from the summer sunshine, and in the foreground we can see frames for the awnings that have not been put up yet. There are several customers for the tobacconist’s on the right, and for Alun Jones’s shop, a stationers and music sellers, while a horse and cart pauses at the shop on the left.
An extract from from"North Wales Photographic Memories".
This photograph looks uphill towards the great cliff of Carreg Du, which looms over the town’s streets. On the right is Owen’s butcher’s shop, whose hanging meat display would be a health inspector’s nightmare. A striped barber’s pole projects out over the street, and just beyond it the Temperance Hotel and W J Penny, who sells ales and spirits.
An extract from from"North Wales Photographic Memories".
This was one of Blaenau’s major quarries; it closed after the Second World War. Ffestiniog slate is of very high quality, and can be split into very thin sheets of great length. It has to be mined because the slate beds dip under a cover of other rocks. The non-slate rocks form huge tips of waste material that scar the hills around, creating a surreal and fantastic landscape.
An extract from from"North Wales Photographic Memories".
This finely-composed study shows the Afon Bowydd, the road bridge, the railway bridge, the ranks of terraces of Blaenau, and the mountains beyond. The town gives the impression of having grown out of the rock that surrounds it - the buildings and their roofs, and the street paving are all formed from the blue-hued slate.
An extract from from"North Wales Photographic Memories".