X-Nico

unusual facts about Betws-y-Coed railway station


Betws-y-Coed railway station

The original plans envisaged a railhead at Betws-y-Coed and a large goods yard was established with intended interchange to a proposed narrow gauge line (with a significant saving in construction costs) via the steeply graded Lledr Valley to Blaenau Ffestiniog.


Betws-y-Coed

The Conwy Valley Line was constructed by the London and North Western Railway with the primary aim of transporting dressed slate from the Blaenau Ffestiniog quarries to a specially built quay at Deganwy for export by sea.

The Pont-y-Pair Falls are in the centre of the village (also the site of a 53-hole rock cannon), and a mile upstream are the famous Swallow Falls.

Bro Garmon

Waterloo Bridge, which carries the A5 across the River Conwy to Betws-y-Coed, was built by Thomas Telford in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, and is made wholly from cast iron.

Conwy County Borough

It contains the major settlements of Llandudno, Llandudno Junction, Llanrwst, Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, Colwyn Bay, Abergele, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan, and has a total population of 115,000, the vast majority of which lives along the coast.

Dulwich College Preparatory School

There were plans to move the school to the West Country, but when these fell through the Cranbrook school was evacuated to Betws-y-Coed in Snowdonia (there remains a memorial planting of trees in that village in memory of this period).

Harry John Johnson

In 1844 he was making one of a number of visits to Betws-y-coed in Wales - this time with David Cox of the Birmingham School who was known for painting landscapes.

Henry Tanworth Wells

Wells first met the artist Joanna Mary Boyce in Betws-y-Coed in north Wales in 1849, where she was studying under painter David Cox.

Running with the Demon

After his post-graduate work, John traveled to Wales and happened upon a glade called Fairy Glen in the country around Betws-y-Coed.


see also