| Ddisgrifiad / Description | Topics include the Aer Lingus Disaster [1952]; the new Conway Road Bridge (1958); plans to expand the Hotel and Catering School in Llandudno to form a North Wales Technology Centre, possibly in conjunction with the Technical Institute at Colwyn Bay (1959); newspaper cutting on the Welsh Coast Resorts' Catering Trades Exhibition to be held in Llandudno in 1971; report of a court appearance by Sidney Rawlinson Cain of London, accused of obtaining money by false pretences from North Wales hotels (1959); report on the imminent opening of Ysgol Gogarth, Llandudno, a special needs school for 60 pupils (1962); cleaning of statue of Llewelyn the Great in Lancaster Square, Conway and a comment that this provided an opportunity to correct a heraldic error when it was erected in 1898 (1966); report on speculation about the location of the ancient house of Plas Isaf which stood on the site of the reconstructed Town Hall at Conway until 1851. IWJ discovers the answer when he sees a painting of Castle Street which includes Plas Isaf, hanging on the walls of the Borough Council Offices (1966) [this item noted as missing from bundle 2/2/2015]; report on witchcraft in a 'black magic' den on the Little Orme (1972); report on James Hanratty's Rhyl alibi following a radio programme on the subject 10 years after Hanratty was hanged (1972); details of the 'Conway Star', one of two new luxury fishing boats commissioned for trips in Liverpool Bay (1973); mummified human remains discovered in a stable loft at Plas-yn-Llysfaen (1973); the fate of the St Trillo, last survivor of the Liverpool & North Wales Steamship Co., sold for conversion into a floating restaturant (1973); speculation on the location of Mochdre's first chapel built in 1780 and later converted into a house that was still known to exist in 1909 (1973); 'Does Mussolini have a Welsh grandson?', speculation that a chamber maid, Annie, from a Llandudno boarding house spent a night of passion on the Great Orme, c. 1902, with an Italian named Benito. Annie gave birth to a son she named Ben. In 1924 she took Ben (aged 21) to Italy for a holiday and he never came back. Annie told everyone he had gone into the ice cream business in one of the Italian colonies and soon after, Annie herself appears to have disappeared. Twenty years later, British troops liberating North Africa discovered a 17 year old Welsh-speaking Arab orphan called Ibn Ben ap Benito, who named Annie as his next of kin. Annie was traced to Liverpool but refused to speak to journalists, indicating that the answers were in her 'little black box'. The box was taken away by men claiming to be from Military Intelligence and was never seen again (1974); tourism in Llandudno and North Wales (1979 and 2000); report on a Llandudno fairground accident which resulted in the death of a local girl (1979); a memorial stone to Lewis Carroll to be installed in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey [with photograph], (1982); news that the Vicar of Colwyn Bay has been driven out of the vicarage by burglars and beggars (2001); a Christmas Day snowstorm and ensuing travel problems (n.d.); articles on mink farming in the Conwy Valley (n.d.); plans to build a new reservoir in mid-Wales; the nature of being Welsh; Anne Robinson; the legal system; the Holy Land; the romanticisation of the past; Plaid Cymru; Welsh tourism; Palestine; the closure of Dolgarrog Aluminium Works; the National Botanical Garden; political correctness; mis-spelling of Welsh words by railway companies; Michael Howard; Welsh republicanism; alcohol; the FreeWales Army; the 111th annual conference of the Cambrian Archaeological Association; the RNLI; John Cowper Powys; the 1st Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry; a Swedish coast defence gun displayed in Caernarfon Castle; the nameplate of Llanfair PG railway station going to a York museum; shellfish called 'queens'; Rhyl as a 'sunny resort'; marriage rites; Welsh travellers; Ifor Bowen Griffith of Caernarfon; low-flying aircraft and Gwyneth Jones' opera concert. |