Rhos On Sea & Colwyn Bay

[DaveR]

Right at the far end of the prom at OLD Colwyn, by the arches.

Yes, I remember one there in the 70s and early 80s.

There also used to be one next to the Pier, on the Rhos On Sea side. That one disappeared in the 80s as well.

The average rent paid on those kiosks is only £41 a week!
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/colwyn_bay_promenade_refreshment

[Jack]

Wasn't Rhos on Sea Pier originally built to take limestone away from the quarry at Bryn Euryn? Or was that shipped away from a different pier or jetty?

[Michael]

I don't recall any other pier of any sort in Rhos. There were a couple of small jetties, no good for shifting quarry materials. But I do remember a pier in the most unlikely of places----off Penrhyn Bay, and I dont mean anywhere near the Little Orme.  Heading along Glan-y-Mor Road, the first road on the right. At the end of that cul de sac there used to be a narrow access to the beach. The pier was there. It was derelict when I was a child, seventy odd years ago. What boats managed to pull in there (must have been for an hour or so at high tide) I have no idea, nor what they hoped to carry.

[DaveR]

To answer Mike's question first, the pier at Penrhyn Bay was to transport sand from several sandpits in the locality, the site of the Princes Green park behind the Post Office was once a sandpit.

Back in Rhos, the Pier was funded mainly by William Houghton, a local landowner, in order to encourage the development of Rhos as a resort. There was also a jetty to transport stone from  Bryn Euryn Quarry, this was at the bottom of Rhos Road, roughly where the slipway next to the Public Toilets are now on the prom. A small railway ran from the quarry alongside Rhos Road all the way down to the Jetty, I believe the small embankment it ran on is still visible in the back of some of the house gardens on Rhos Road.

[DaveR]

This is the Chapel on the front in Rhos that later became Fortes and later Ninos cafe. I think the rear part of Ninos may still use part of this building?

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[DaveR]

I was interested to see that the remains of the fishing weir at Rhos Point have started to reappear from under the beach, there is about a 30+ foot section now visible, of which this is a small part:

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[DaveR]

Looking along Rhos Promenade back in the 1880s; the original Rhos Abbey Hotel can be seen on the right.

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[DaveR]

June 2001 - The Rhos Abbey Hotel is demolished.

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[Welshmaid]

At the front of Nino's there is a black door which is sometimes open, if deliveries are being made, and you can see the outline of the original windows of the chapel.

[DaveR]

At the front of Nino's there is a black door which is sometimes open, if deliveries are being made, and you can see the outline of the original windows of the chapel.

I know the door you mean, will have a nose the next time I'm passing.

[DaveR]

Rare view of Rhos Pier, looking down the Pier towards Rhos Point:

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[DaveR]

The Steamship Company that operated from Rhos Pier:

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[DaveR]

Found a thread about Rhos that was on the ill fated Colwyn Bay local forum - think it was from August 2009. Some good info in there:

Dave Jones has sent me these two photos of Rhos on Sea in 1987, showing the Westwells Wholesalers building on Everard Road, just prior to demolition. As can be seen on the older sign uncovered during the work, it was originally a Wilsons Brewery depot:





The entire building was demolished not long afterwards and is now (what else?) a block of flats.

Note: Wilson's Brewery opened in 1834. By the 1890's it was trading as Wilson's and Co. It amalgamated with Watney Mann in 1960. It was merged with Websters in 1985 with production transferred to Halifax and the brewery finally closed in 1987. Wilson's branded beers were also brewed by Morland's and Mansfield. The Wilson's brand ceased production during 1998.
http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/752

Don't know much about Westwells - can anyone fill in the gaps?

ajm wrote:
3 greengrocers
2 butchers
2 bakers 1 - Pinningtons (Trojan)
1 convenience store The Co-Op (Trojan)
1 frozen food store
1 art shop
2 newsagents
3 cafes 2 - Nino's, Fortes'? (Trojan)
1 deli
1 post office
1 chip shop
2 seaside gift shops
1 chocolate shop
1 estate agent - Bryan Davies & Associates
1 wool/haberdashers
1 jewellers
1 shoe shop
1 bike shop
1 hardware store
1 tyre fitters - Was it ATS? Yes (Trojan)
1 off licence
1 dried flower shop
1 hairdressers The Windsor (Trojan)

Ok, I'll try and answer some of these based on around 1977 to 1988

3 greengrocers - arundales on the corner, belmont - Colwyn avenue (now a dentist & later became Rosies wool and baby linen and then I think a shoe shop?) and another on Penrhyn Avenue (opposite the "old" Fortes)

2 butchers - Colwyn Avenue (now a beauty salon) & Bill Jenkins (now a charity shop)

2 bakers - Pinningtons and Tudor Bakery (now an Italian)

1 convenience store - The Co-op but poss. another one - where Penrhyn House is? Maybe it was called Pryce's?

1 frozen food store - Freezrite

1 art shop - ran by Mr and Mrs Hughes where the Copper Kettle is now

2 newsagents - originally Lennie's (who also had a booth on Llandudno pier) then taken over by the couple who owned one where the sandwich shop is now on Rhos Road. Lennies was were the estate agent is on Colwyn Ave.

3 cafes - Fortes, Nino's and the gem tea rooms (still a tea room I believe) used to be the gem tea rooms and a gem shop where ID hair is

1 deli - Sheards - where the tea room next to Pinningtons is?

1 post office - still there!

1 chip shop - still there but originally only the chip shop and not the cafe - used to be ran by the Wainwrights

2 seaside gift shops - 1 ran by Anthony Chorlton (?) who I believe still has a shop on upper mostyn street, Llandudno - the shop in rhos is now the clothes shop by the zebra crossing, the other gift shop was what is now the chip shop cafe on Colwyn Avenue, later became Rosie's wool and baby linen before that moved to Belmont greengrocers

1 chocolate shop - I believe this was what is now the "extension" to Bryan Davies?

1 estate agent - Bryan Davies

1 wool/haberdashers - Irene, Penrhyn Avenue

1 jewellers - Beardsalls

1 shoe shop - Rhos Road, still there but I forget the name!

1 bike shop - run by Ron Holland, I remember it in 2 locations, on the corner of Colwyn Avenue/Rhos Road and also on the corner of Rhos Road/Everard Road

1 hardware store - Butler and Timmis is absolutely right! It was run by Mr Fielding

1 tyre fitters - don't remember the name but now Lily Lace

1 off licence - B & J wines, Colwyn Avenue - now a charity shop

1 dried flower shop - now the Chinese take away on Colwyn Avenue - but who remembers the name?

1 hairdressers - The Windsor
Top of Form
Bottom of Form

Here guys this might help
Trade Advertisers in Borough of Colwyn Handbook 1987

Antiques: Shelagh Hyde 11 Rhos Rd (wrong side i think)

Auctioneer with Sale Room: Bryan Davies & associates
47 Penrhyn Ave

Butchers: W Jenkins 31 Penrhyn Ave

Chartered Accountants: EG Jones & Co 2 Colwyn Ave

Estate Agents: Swetenhams 22 Colwyn Ave

Garage Door Repairs: Glyn Ellis 51 Colwyn Ave (I think this was by Garstangs)

Jewellers: Beardsalls Ltd 17 Penrhyn Ave

Newsagents: Rhos Newsagents 6 Rhos Rd and 28 Colwyn Ave
Optician: Beardsalls 17 Penrhyn Ave

Pyes Promenade Garage, Rhos On Sea, in 1932. The corner site is where Fortes is now - the building to the right is still visible today adjoining Fortes:



Yes Freezrite was where Spar is now and I've just remembered that the take-away next to Spar now used to be Gwynfor Jones insurance. I seem to remember something the other side of Freezrite - was it the office for Rhos County garage I wonder.

How bad the flooding in Rhos used to get!



Photo by the late Dave Williams

Hello, Its 12.45 at night, I am half asleep, and Ive just found (and joined) this forum. I am too tired to write much, but I have skimmed through your Rhos threads. I will be back writing when I am more awake, but, just to be going on with, you have been writing about Banks. Well, Rhos used to have SIX full time branches of national banks, indeed there were three in Everard Road alone, four if you count the Midland on the corner of Everard and Rhos Road.Mike Oen

Hello and thanks for the welcome to this forum. I have now had time to read the posts on Rhos. I have a load of knowledge about Rhos, mostly very, very many years ago. But three points I will mention here 1/ You state you don't know much about Westwells. Well.I know EVERYTHING about Westwells (boastful). I worked there when I was 11 years old and I have a thousand tales to tell 2/ Query about Jane Berry. No need to go to friends reunited. As far as I know her elder brother, David, still runs Berry's Garage on the same site it has been at for over 80 years. 3/ The banks in Everard Road. Barclays, on the original site, District (taken over by Nat.Provincial, later Nat West) in the Gamlins office building, Westminster (building shown in your photo with the query as to its previous bank history) and next door to Barnwells Fruit and Veg that one or two of you were scratching your heads over. The last bank was Midland, now HSBC, on the present site. Mike Owen

O.K. I'll take up your offer to fill in Rhos folk law. My trouble will be cutting it down, I know too much!! So, one subject at a time. Westwells. I lived next door, in the flat over Barclays Bank. I was 11 yrars old, the same age as Harold, Mr Westwells second son. So, I set out to become a friend of Harolds. Not because I particularly liked him. No, it was because if I became his friend it would let me into the world of wonder, lorries going here there and everywhere, machinery washing, labelling, filling bottles. Barrels to be rolled, adventures unlimited. It was during the war years and Westwells were incredibally busy, they were only bottlers (not brewers) but the demand for their services was enormous with all the Ministry of Food civil servants, the Royal Artillery, the Inland Revenue all living (and drinking) in the area.The firm was so pressed for space they helped themselves to a plot of land opposite, just to store the empty barrels because they just couldnt return them fast enough.Bare in mind that all the bulk supplies had to come from Colwyn Bay Railway Station yards. Westwells delivered as far as Gronant to the West and Cerrig y driddion in the South and had three off licences of their own. I know, I went on these deliveries. The men used to "sheet over" Harold and me on the back of the lorries, we would wait until we got to say Mochdre and then we would start sampling the drinks out of the various bottles we could open!!! No wonder I developed a liking for alcohol!!! Mike

Garstangs as a firm I did'nt know much about. At the time of the period I knew Rhos well (war and immediate post war) Garstangs where not even in Rhos, their yard as up a back entry behind Greenfield Road in the Bay. The entry is still there. I do know that they banked in Old Colwyn so perhaps they started up even further away. The Rhos depot was built around about 1950, When they started on the work, the construction firm whoever they were experienced great difficulty in digging out trenches to put in the foundations. The deeper they dug all they reached was solid concrete. No wonder. I should have told them. During the war the army turned that area into a park for Cromwell tanks and "self-propelled guns" which the R.A. used for training, and the first thing they did was put an iceing of around five feet of concrete over the entire area!!Mike Owen

Westwells on Everard Road - I was passing this afternoon and thought I would take a photo so we could have a 'Then & Now' type shot.

Then:



Now:



On balance, I prefered it as 'Then', rather than 'Now' B)

The oak tree was the emblem of the Colwyn Bay Borough Council, which existed between 1934 and 1974. Some would say the demise of this council marked the beginning of Colwyn Bay's downfall.

Funnily enough, I was walking through Eirias Park today and looking at the plaque next to the tree planted by Baron Colwyn to commemorate the incorporation of Colwyn Bay on the 20th September 1934. I suspect all those people who worked so hard to build Colwyn Bay up into a fine town would weep if they saw the state it was in today.

Just been reading about the flooding. Snakecorp says it went down Penrhyn Avenue for a good few hundred yards. Well, that was beaten around 1946/7. A high tide, a NE wind, up the slipway opposite the Cayley and away downhill went the tide straight down Penrhyn Avenue. The wind then swung around more to the North and water came over all along by the Golf links, there wasent much of a wall there then, down Penrhyn Avenue but this time from the o,ther end and then, much to the delight of us small boys watching its progress, actually met up by the Cricket club. Not much depth, but, in theory, for about half an hour this made all the Abbey Road, Church Drive, Trillo Avenue etc etc area an island, cut off from the mainland. Mike Owen

The torrential rain this evening has caused quite a few problems in Rhos. Police closed off sections of the Promenade for a short while as manhole covers were forced off by the pressure of the floodwater. The Fire Service was called to the low lying cottages next to the Cayley Arms pub after they suffered flooding. At one point, the road outside the Cayley was almost impassable as floodwater extended right across. Just like the old days when the tide used to come over!

Needless to say, your intrepid photographer was out there taking pics:


Rhos Floods


Torrential



Found this photo on ebay of a Guinness bottle "Bottled & Guaranteed Genuine by William Hewitt, Everard Road Stores, Rhos On Sea"



Hewitts was the firm taken over by Herbert Westwell around 1928 and carried on being a major bottler for Guinness for 50 or more years.

Forum member Welshmaid has kindly emailed me some old postcards and photos of Rhos:


"Postcard from the early 1950s from the Park in Rhos looking towards St. Mary's school on Abbey Road."


"a photo of what is now Mark One hairdressers in Everard Road in Rhos on Sea.  The photo was taken in September 1946 (before my time!!).  Prior to being Mark One, it was Mane Attraction and prior to that I believe it was Howcrofts."

[Trojan]

 

[DaveR]

Until I saw this photo, I'd forgotten about the band concerts that used to take place on the prom in Rhos On sea opposite the Cayley. There was a purpose built bandstand there up until the late 1980s, when it was removed and....you guessed it...not replaced.

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