Today's County in the spotlight

[mickthemaverick]

Having closed Cardiganshire I thought "excellent perhaps we can get back into England" so I ran the generator:

Screenshot

Which came up with a '2' which inevitably keeps us in Wales with:

Screenshot

So our new land of mystery is Anglesey!

Time for some new authors to add their knowledge of the one county I have never been to!!

[Hell Razor5543]

I have been to Anglesey twice, to see citroenxm!

[mickthemaverick]

Anglesey's flag is a striking combination of colour and design:

BFTW

Information about it here

Here is the location map:

BFTW

and places worth considering:

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

I have been to Anglesey twice, to see citroenxm!

Can you expand on the tale James, always adds to the interest...

I have also set foot in Anglesey by walking over the Menai Straits Bridge, and have driven over that bridge once and set wheels in a token delve into Anglesey and visited the Co-op!

Looks like its a Waitrose now!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.22278 ... 384!8i8192

Regards Neil

[Hell Razor5543]

I have been to Anglesey twice, to see citroenxm!

Can you expand on the tale James, always adds to the interest...

I have also set foot in Anglesey by walking over the Menai Straits Bridge, and have driven over that bridge once and set wheels in a token delve into Anglesey and visited the Co-op!

Looks like its a Waitrose now!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.22278 ... 384!8i8192

Regards Neil

Both times were last year. The first time was to get my current C5, the second was to return a set of alloys. I also know why Wales is so green; it is because it is being constantly watered!

[mickthemaverick]

.......... I also know why Wales is so green; it is because it is being constantly watered!

That is because it's the training ground for Manchester!!

[bobins]

I've got some lovely holiday snaps from Anglesey. Parys Mountain to be precise

"Parys Mountain was mined for copper ore in the early Bronze Age, as shown by sub-surface debris nearly 4,000 years old revealed during excavations in 2002. Since then access has been regained to the sealed underground workings of the Parys mine revealing further evidence for this ancient mining. Parys Mountain is thus one of the few sites in Britain where there is evidence for the prehistoric beginnings of the British metal mining industry.
Parys Mountain dominated the world's copper market during the 1780s, when the mine was the largest in Europe. Its rise severely damaged the mining industry in Cornwall. The copper from the mine was used to sheath the British Admiralty's wooden ships of war, to prevent the growth of seaweed and barnacles and to protect the wood from attack by shipworms. This increased the speed and manoeuvrability of the vessels, and enabled them to remain at sea for longer as there was less need to return to port for maintenance."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parys_Mountain

Parys surface - own work

The delights of Parys - own work

Subterranean Parys - own work

Mud & shi..... - own work

A fantastic treatment for arthritis.
This water here is technically known as bo11ock deep. One of our party suffered from bad knee pain, but after wading in this water for quite a while they noticed they had relief from pain for months afterwards. The water has massve amounts of copper in it.

Bo11ock deep - own work

[bobins]

Amlwch, up on the north coast of Anglesey, has a bit of an obscure claim to fame.

"On 23 November 1981, the first tornado of the record-breaking 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak, an F1/T2 tornado, passed through Amlwch."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amlwch

"The 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak is regarded as the largest recorded tornado outbreak in European history. In the span of 5 hours and 26 minutes during the late morning and early afternoon of 23 November 1981, 104 confirmed tornadoes touched down across Wales and central, northern and eastern England.
Although the majority of tornadoes were very weak, measuring FU-F1 on the Fujita scale, widespread property damage was reported, mainly from the small number of tornadoes which intensified to F2 strength. By the end of the outbreak, hundreds of properties across the country had been damaged.
Most of the tornadoes occurred in rural areas and small villages across central parts of the United Kingdom, although several large metropolitan areas were affected. The Liverpool area was the first to be struck by multiple tornadoes around 11:30, followed by the Manchester area around 12:00, the Hull area around 13:30 and the Birmingham area around 14:00. The strongest tornado of the outbreak, an F2 tornado, struck Holyhead in Anglesey, Wales at 10:30; the only other F2 tornado of the outbreak caused considerable damage in the village of Stoneleigh, Warwickshire around 14:00.
With 104 tornadoes, this single-day outbreak alone saw more confirmed tornadoes than any other whole year in British history – 1974 previously held the record, with 80 tornadoes across the whole year. At the time of the 1981 outbreak, there had only been one other tornado outbreak in recorded history which produced more than 100 tornadoes within 24 hours, that being the 1974 Super Outbreak in the United States. However, that outbreak included many more powerful tornadoes and resulted in hundreds of fatalities."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Unit ... o_outbreak


How many readers remember that happening ?

[NewcastleFalcon]

The treasure trove that is this records the important stage and mail coach routes to Holyhead in Anglesey. Pre Menai Straits bridge hence the reference to Bangor Ferry. The end point at Holyhead on most routes was The Eagle and Child Inn. No longer there but this gives some information about it, including a tale of billy-in-the-bowl

https://historypoints.org/index.php?pag ... -child-inn

Cary's Itinerary etc...full searchable document on-line here
https://archive.org/details/carysnewiti ... ew=theater

The Stage/Mail Coach road to Holyhead

Regards Neil

[bobins]

Anglesey has a surprising connection with the Space Race.

From the BBC:
'Tecwyn Roberts, from Anglesey, helped set up mission control rooms and enabled astronaut Neil Armstrong to communicate with Earth from the Moon.
Experts have hailed Roberts' expertise as events are held to mark the 50 years since Nasa's second lunar landing.
"Without Tec[wyn], Nasa and mission control as it exists today would probably not have happened," said Nick Howes, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"Tecwyn Roberts could rightly be labelled as one of the great unsung heroes of the space age."
He was chief of the network engineering division by the time of the first landing on the Moon and helped to ensure there was communication with astronauts'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-50444753

"In 1960, Roberts became NASA's first Flight Dynamics Officer at the Mercury Control Center, where his tasks centered on controlling the trajectory of the spacecraft and planning adjustments to it.
Roberts may have popularised the use of the phrase "A-OK", making those three letters a universal symbol meaning "in perfect working order."
In 1962, Roberts was appointed head of the Mission Control Center Requirements Branch, as which he played a key role in the design and further development of the Mercury Control Center at Cape Kennedy and also at the subsequent Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas, where NASA's manned spaceflight program had been transferred in 1961."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecwyn_Roberts

[Paul-R]

Thanks for the name check on the previous page. I had to bow out of this thread as it was taking up too much of my time to do the job properly.

As I lived in and around Bangor for five years in the early 70s I visited Anglesey many times. I was going to post some pictures of Parys Mountain that I took a few years ago but that's gone. Instead a story.

I had a friend who worked for the CEGB (goes back a bit this) and he invited me to see him at the Wylfa Nuclear Power station. He drove a Triumph Dolomite Sprint - a seriously quick bit of kit but was plagued by a rattling noise at the rear. He eventually narrowed down the source to the petrol tank and then cut it open. I side he found that one of the baffles hadn't been welded in properly.

He was so incensed by this stupid piece of metal being loose that he took it into the power station and dropped it down a tube into the core where he said it would remain forever out reach of further human contact.

I may have told the story before in which case I apologise.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks for the story Paul, I hadn't heard it before. Just join in where you can as the Counties crop up. No need to be concerned at creating carefully crafted posts, or avoiding repetition. Most of the excellent stuff posted in the past remains unlooked at and deserves a bit of a bringing forward to a new audience, much like your posts on the Internal Fire Museum of Power.

Wylfa very much in the news again now

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-61220247

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

When I was looking to buy a garage business back in the 1960s I went to view one in Llangefni, but it was just a shop with petrol pumps no workshop or or room to put one.

Anglesey's moment has arrived Gibbo, any more details to add to the story

Llangefni County town of Anglesey with a visually interesting colourful arty logo


Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

My only memory is that the seller was selling up because as he said "My teenage daughter has got herself up the duff." a term I'd never heard before. and that it was a long day.

[NewcastleFalcon]

From the black squirrels of Bedfordshire, the native Red Squirrels are a bit of a speciality of Anglesey.

Up here in Northumberland is another stronghold, but you are as likely to see a grey as a red now, and there are significantly less reds whereas a few years ago you would never see a grey.



Regards Neil