LLANDUDNO - QUEEN OF NORTH WALES RESORTS  

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CRAIG Y DON & LLANRHOS 

…… NEXT Little Orme & Penrhyn Bay



The Llandudno Promenade extends through Craig-y-Don (on the right in the above photograph) past Bodafon farm to the foot of Craigside (with its residential developments) where the road climbs over the shoulder of the Little Orme to Penrhyn Bay.

Craig-y-Don was named by the Victorian landowner Thomas Peers Williams after his own home and estate of Craig-y-Don near Beaumaris on Anglesey. In June 1884 Williams divided into small lots his Llandudno Craig-y-Don estate together with his other local land holdings at Marl, Llanrhos and Colwyn Bay, all of which he sold freehold over a period of three days. That sale was a huge success and led to the rapid development of the area, which included sea front hotels and guest houses and popular residential accommodation.

Craig-y-Don starts at the point on the promenade (now marked by a modern roundabout at the junction with Tyn-y-Ffrith Road) where Penrhyn Crescent, ending in Venue Cymru and the Llandudno Yacht Club, becomes East Parade, then Craig-y-Don parade and finally Bedford Crescent until Nant-y-Gamar Road is reached which marks the end of Craig-y-Don and the start of Bodafon.

From here the promenade road is called Colwyn Road and the promenade ends in a large, attractive and well maintained paddling pool for children complete with shelters, public conveniences and refreshment facilities and across the road are the fields of Bodafon farm park, home of the North Wales Bird Trust


 
Saint Paul's Church
 
Built in 1893 at the corner of Mostyn Broadway and Clarence Road as a memorial to the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the Prince of Wales, who died of food poisoning in 1892. The memorial stone was laid by the Duchess of Teck who was accompanied by Princess Mary of Teck to whom the Duke of Clarence had been engaged. She had married the duke's brother in 1893 and became Queen Mary in 1911.  St Paul's is a daughter church of the Church in Wales Parish of Llanrhos.  See the Flower Festival.  From St. Paul's to Nant-y-Gamar Road the main road is called Mostyn Avenue.

Dunphy's Corner

This imposing building at the corner of Queen's Road (named after Queen Victoria) and Mostyn Avenue was the grocery shop of Dunphy's, for many years, one of the leading bakers and grocers of Llandudno.  Today it is a convenience grocery and provisions store owned by the Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd.  The upper stories have been converted into residential apartments.  The building next door on Queen's Road is an independent evangelical church.
 
Queens Road
  
On the opposite side of Mostyn Avenue, Queens Road continues with useful and attractive local shops until the promenade is reached at the junction with East Parade and Craig-y-Don Parade.
  
There are excellent sea front hotels on East Parade, Craig-y-Don Parade and Bedford Parade together with modern residential apartments.

 
St David's Methodist Church
  
The game of lawn tennis was invented in North Wales in 1873 by Major Walter Wingfield of Nantclwyd Hall near Ruthin. In 1885 one of the earliest public tennis courts was established in Craig-y-Don. Two Llandudno players, Parke and Beaumont, were in the victorious Davis Cup team of 1912.  In 1931 the tennis courts moved to Queen's Road and St. David's English Methodist Church was built on the tennis court site in Mostyn Avenue.
  
Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru
Bethania
Rhodfa Mostyn, Oedfa 10.00 o'r gloch

This little Welsh Presbyterian Chapel on Nant-y-Gamar Road  marks the boundary of Craig-y-Don and the end of Mostyn Avenue. It is the point where the electric tramway to Colwyn Bay crossed the road and ran from 1907 to 1956 on a narrow private track through the Bodafon fields. Bodafon Farm is the home of the North Wales Bird Trust and the Bodafon fields are used at various times during the year as showgrounds.

 
The Lady Forester's Home
 
Queen's Road runs from the promenade at the County Hotel at end of East Parade and crosses Mostyn Avenue to run south past the park and tennis courts and the residential area to Llanrhos Church, near which it joins the A470 Wormhout Way leading to the A55 North Wales Expressway.  On the eastern hillside is this fine building erected in 1902 as the Lady Forester Convalescent Home, which in 1979 became the North Wales Medical Centre that closed in 2006.  The home and grounds have been bought by the St Dunstan's Charity for use as a respite centre by
blind ex-servicemen and their partners.
 
St. Hilary's Parish Church Llanrhos
 
The ecclesiastical parish of Llanrhos comprises in addition to Craig-y-Don and Llanrhos, the Little Orme, the townships of Craigside, Penrhynside and Penrhyn Bay and the township of Deganwy. Unlike Llandudno, which had only the Manor of Gogarth (with its Bishop's Palace derelict since 1405), Llanrhos had within its boundaries Deganwy Castle and several grand houses, Marl Hall (home of the Williams family), Penrhyn Hall (home of the Pugh family), and Gloddaeth and Bodysgallen Halls (both homes of the Mostyn families). All have been sold for other uses.


……  NEXT Little Orme & Penrhyn Bay

See also Llandudno Attractions

Last updated December 2008 
Photographs © 2004-7  Noel Walley

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