No 62: European Heritage Days, Snowdonia WW2 Exhibition

September sees local societies representing a wide variety of interest starting their autumn/winter monthly programmes. The Gwynedd Family History Society is no exception as you can see from the full programme of meetings at each of the six centres with two meetings taking place next week. Non-members are welcome at any of the meetings.

September also sees the European Heritage Days programme operating at numerous locations throughout Wales. The Institute Building in Caernarfon is once again participating; being open on each Monday in September, 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th, between 10.00 am 2.00 pm with guided tours being provided by councillors. There is also a rare opportunity to seen the basement where the town baths used to be. I wrote in detail about the rich history of Caernarfon that can be seen in historic documents, paintings and photographs on the walls of the Town Council Chamber and the other rooms in the building in Blog No. 45 last September.

Last winter two of these paintings featured in a BBC2 programme on the work of prominent Welsh painter Christopher Williams. One was a wall-length commissioned painting of the 1911 Investiture and the other is a huge painting, "Gwenllian - Deffroad Cymru" (The Awakening of Wales). A third famous painting by Christopher Williams can also be seen in Caernarfon, "The Welsh at Mametz Wood" which is on display at the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum in Caernarfon Castle.

The Open Doors programme is an opportunity to see inside many historic buildings that are not normally open to the public. To see which historic building are open in your area visit www.civictrustwales.org.uk and click on your county. It is also worth clicking on "Stop Press" to see late inclusions.

Snowdonia WW2 Exhibition in Capel Curig

Last week I visited an excellent exhibition atSt. Julitta's Church, Capel Curig entilted "The War Years in Snowdonia" organised by the Friends of St. Julitta's Church. This shows the effect of WW2 and the activities in Snowdonia and, as a WW2 evacuee myself currently researching into this aspect of my life, I was particularly attracted to see this exhibition. I was not disappointed. On the contrary, I was amazed at the range of content and the professional standard of this exhibition.

There were numerous artefacts and the range of professionally produced bilingual display boards with photographs and well written stories covered life under war time conditions, rationing, the Home Guard, military training camps in the area, evacuees, the effect on agriculture, Prisoners of War, the Women's Land Army, aircraft crashes in Snowdonia, the Observer Corps, Snowdonia's anti-invasion defences and the storage of art treasures. This really was an excellent informative and enjoyable exhibition. The exhibition has been open throughout the summer and will remain open, 11.00 am to 4.30 pm, until 5 September (except Tuesdays) and then on 11th and 12th September. I would thoroughly recommend anyone who has the time to go to visit this Exhibition.

To accompany the Exhibition they've produced an excellent 64 page A5 sized bilingual booklet whose cover is shown. In addition to content of the display boards the book also contains a time line of wartime events in Snowdonia which includes dates when bombs were dropped in Snowdonia including one on 24th September 1941 which killed one person in Llanllechid and on 24th October one which killed three persons in Bangor. I seem to be using "excellent" a lot in this account but the exhibition and the book certainly deserve this description. I will certainly make every effort to visit future exhibitions organised by this group. The Church itself is an excellent example of the Churches not-in-regular-use that are open as part of the Open Doors programme and indeed it is listed amongst the attractions within the County of Conwy in the programme.

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwynedd.fhs.org.uk
Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Caernarfon, 29 September (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, Lôn Pafiliwn:
Wil Aaron: "Y Llyfrgell fwyaf yn y byd"

Bangor, 6 September (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street:
Dave Mills: "Rails to Red Wharf Bay"

Conwy, 12 September (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn:
Stan Wicken: "Dafydd Jones of Trefriw, Publisher and Printer"

Pwllheli, 16 Medi (In Welsh, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod:
Parch Olwen Williams: "Hel Achau"

Dolgellau, 8 Medi (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel:
Pegi Lloyd Williams: "Hen Glochyddion Cymru"

Llangefni, 15 September (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa:
Angharad Holmes: "Môn to Mesapotamia. The story of a nurse"

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk
The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd.

Saturday 10 September: 2.00 pm at Rhuddlan Town Community Centre, Parliament Street, RHUDDLAN, LL18 5AW
Anne Pedley: "Penmaenmawr Quarry Boys"