Track extension reaches Corwen railhead

George Jones of Llangollen Railway gives this latest update on the track extension to Corwen ...

"As of Tuesday, 8th July, the track extension at the Dwyrain Corwen East station site has received its top ballast. 

Thanks to consistent supplies of ballast from Penmaenmawr quarry, the top ballasting of the extension has proceeded apace and the job is complete ahead of estimates. 

The 03 shunter brought the SHARK and two tipper wagons onto the station site to spread the ballast and place ash on the north side of the station site. This is the furthest west a train has proceeded so far. .

The railhead was extended at the Corwen East station site during week ending 28th June and the stop block now sits by the access gate at the end of the phase 1 station site and the Toad mess van is in residence.  

The services of the hired in tamper machine are now needed by the end of July, when further ballast supplies will be required to top up the formation once it is aligned and packed.

In the meantime, there is plenty of spade work for the volunteer work force to fettle up the stone dropped but it may be that we can soon have another golden fishplate moment at the end of the line to celebrate the achievement. 

Estimates for the building of the temporary platform with scaffolding are coming to hand from contractors, but a start date for construction has yet to be determined. 

There also remains the matter of building the graded access ramp off the embankment onto the approach road.

However, the footpaths from the car park have now been given a top coating and the poor weather approach is complete. The nature reserve access below the station site has been seeded with wild flowers and is closed to allow for germination. 

The ‘snagging’ list continues to be worked on. The piping of culverts 25g & 25h which take surface water off the A5 has been completed and work on the road surface drainage has been tackled by Highways. Some 800 fishplates on the extension have all been greased, but further work is necessary to complete the list of items requiring attention. 

With a range of work still to be completed, the date for the start of passenger services still cannot yet be given but the recent achievement brings the opening ever nearer.

The party is standing on the old under bridge 30 which disappeared as part of the Corwen Flood Alleviation Scheme – the spot where the 03 shunter is seen in the picture above. We did get there, but it has been a real challenge.

Gorillas on the prowl at the eisteddfod

 

* Gorilla girls, Chelsea Jackson, left, and Nicha Duffey.

A three and a half tonne Uri Geller-inspired gorilla made from spoons is wowing visitors to the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. 

 

The celebrity and entertainer who was a friend of late pop king Michael Jackson challenged the team at the British Ironworks Centre in Oswestry to make it.

 

The 12ft-high (3.6m) statue is made from 40,000 spoons and has taken almost five months to build.

 

Spoons for the silverback have been donated from across the world, as well as local schoolchildren.

 

Mr Geller, a friend of Prince Michael, himself donated a spoon once owned by Winston Churchill.

 

The giant silver primate is spending the week at the Llangollen Eisteddfod before starting a UK tour, where it will make stops at hospices and hospitals such as Manchester children’s Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

 

Llangollen Eisteddfod goer Chelsea Jackson, 17, from Rhos, who is a student at Ysgol Morgan Llwyd, Wrexham, said: “I didn’t realise it was made out of spoons. I think it’s really clever and I think it’s quite inspiring. I think it will inspire young children to be more creative.”

 

School pal Nicha Duffey, 17, added: “I think it’s very imaginative, and I think it’s crazy but in a good way.”

 

Managing Director of the British Ironworks Centre, Clive Knowles, is a keen supporter of the Llangollen Eisteddfod.

 

He said: “The Llangollen Eisteddfod is something totally unique. I think it‘s a wonderful voice for humanity, full of love, and it brings people from all over the world together through music to understand each other better.

 

“We transported the gorilla to the Llangollen Eisteddfod as part of our sponsorship of the event. We’ve also provided beautiful Victorian tables, chairs and benches.”

 

Many of the spoons for the impressive sculpture have been sent from as far away as China, India, Kenya, Tahiti and Armenia.

 

Clive added: “The spoons were mostly sent in by healthy children, so they could do something to make poorly children happy.

 

"Uri challenged us to make a gorilla out of spoons, and we showed him that we were up to that challenge. Uri is just an enormous personality. He came down to the British Ironworks Centre for the unveiling of the gorilla with Prince Michael of Kent.”

Ceinwin's on a roll with her baking collection

 

* Ceinwin on the eisteddfod field with her rolling pin collection.

 

YOU might say that for the past 30 years or more grandmother Ceinwen Clark has been on a roll when it comes to collecting.

 

For, when she’s not busy working as a volunteer with the floral committee at Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod she’s out at antique fairs and car boot sales up and down the country indulging her passion for collecting rolling pins.

 

Over the decades she’s been building her amazing collection, which she keeps at her home in the Denbighshire tourist town, and she’s managed to gather together over 300 in a wide range of shapes, sizes and vintages.

 

And when her hobby came to the attention of producers of the musical Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Bryn Terfel, which kicked off this year’s Eisteddfod on Monday night, she was the obvious choice to supply a suitable rolling pin to Sian Cothi as a prop to make her role as Todd’s murderous pie-making assistant Mrs Lovett as authentic as possible.

 

Ceinwen, who has been a stalwart of the eisteddfod’s floral team for over 20 years, recalled that she began her long obsession with rolling pins about 30 years ago when she was visiting a coffee morning in Anglesey.

 

She said: “I saw a very big rolling pin on show which had a hook at one end. I asked what that was for and I was told that it was to hang it up in the kitchen.

 

“This particular one had come from one of the big country houses on the island and must have been used by the resident cook.

 

“As soon as I saw it I was hooked myself. I paid something like 50p for it and haven’t looked back since.

 

“I’ve now collected over 300 pins in all shapes, sizes and sorts.

 

“Most of them are made of wood and have got all different kinds of handles on them. There are also pins which are weighted with lead inside to give you a more even rolling action.

 

“I have some special ones that are made of ceramic. I believe these were brought back home from abroad by sailors. They have people’s names inscribed on them along with scenes of the South Seas and sailing ships. I think they must date back well over 100 years.

 

“I also have quite a few smaller pins, including one with my name on it which was specially made for me by the Eisteddfod’s life president Bob Attenborough who is a friend of myself and my husband Ronald. Ronald has also been a volunteer on the floral committee for the past five years.”

 

Ceinwen, who has two sons, three grandsons and a granddaughter, added: “I have a special pin for making waffles, which has the correct honeycomb pattern on it and another that is one-handed and made for disabled people to use.

 

“Our house is now getting pretty full of rolling pins and Ronald has told me we don’t want any more of them – but I’m not sure I can stop myself buying them.

 

“The word is also getting out about my collection. At one car boot sale I go to regularly they now call me Mrs Rolling Pin and when the Eisteddfod was looking for a pin for Mrs Lovett to use to make her pies on Sweeney Todd they came straight to me.

 

“I was glad to help but I thought I’d have a bit of a joke with it. The first one I offered Sian was very big and so heavy she could hardly lift it up.

 

“When she told me it was much too big, I brought out a tiny one which she said was too small. But all the time I had a medium pin hidden behind my back and when she saw that one she said it was just right.”

 

Ceinwen actually does do lots of baking, which means she regularly uses pieces from her vast collection.

 

“As we grow our own fruit at home I make lots pies from things like rhubarb, apples and raspberries,” she explained.

 

“My favourite pin to roll the pies is the one my mother had years ago but I do use other ones too because it would be a shame not to with so many at home!”

 

Ceinwen obviously has the collecting bug because, apart from the rolling pins, she has also amassed hoards of old fashioned flat irons, glass fishes, cobbler’s lasts, models of red double decker buses and, perhaps most unusual of all, glass eyewash vessels. 

St Collen's to hold Eisteddfod service

To mark the 2014 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, St Collen’s Church is holding a special Festival Service at 11am on Sunday, July 13.

It will be a service of music and prayers, focussing on St Francis of Assisi.

 

 

Traditional Eisteddfod parade delights Llan crowds

The traditional opening parade for Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod was held yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon when thousands of cheering onlookers watched it travel from the field, through the town and back again.

The parade was led by Eisteddfod President Terry Waite who was aboard a vintage dray wagon loaned for the occasion by Llangollen Brewery.

Also in the parade, along with colourful contingents representing the countries appearing and competing in the festival, were the Mayor and Mayoress, Bob and Margaret Lube, who were carried in a 1926 Vauxhall supplied by Llangollen Motor Museum.

* Eisteddfod President Terry Waite greets the crowds from the back of a Lllangollen Brewery dray.

* A school contingent passes by.

* Mayor and Mayoress Bob and Maragert Lube aboard a 1926 Vauxhall car.

Bryn's Sweeney triumph kicks off Eisteddfod

* Bryn Terfel in Sweeney Todd at the opening concert at the

International Musical Eisteddfod in Llanfgollen.

Bryn Terfel and a star-studded cast gave this year’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod a brilliant and bloody launch last night with a sensational Sweeney Todd at the Royal International Pavilion.

The great bass-baritone was making a return to the Eisteddfod stage for the first time since 2006  and Terfel and a cast that included Welsh opera stars Wynne Evans and Shan Cothi produced a garishly gothic performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway smash hit, sponsored by Pendine Park.

Alongside the big names were unknowns plucked by Terfel from auditions to perform alongside him and seizing their big chances were 14-year-old Vale of Clwyd schoolboy Dewi Wykes, Solihull soprano Lauren Morris, 21, and tenor Berwyn Pearce, great-nephew of another Welsh legend, Sir Geraint Evans.

It made for a sensational start to the six-day Eisteddfod which began on Tuesday  with the Parade of Nations led by Eisteddfod President Terry Waite CBE.

A delighted Byn Terfel said: “I’m absolutely thrilled I’m able to appear at the 2014 International Eisteddfod. I’m a proud Welshman and the International Eisteddfod is unique, the atmosphere, the colour, the audience, even the flowers, it really is a very, very special event.”

Eisteddfod Musical Director Eilir Owen Griffiths said: "It is a dream come true that we achieved something so spectacular as Bryn has performed this work in Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall and now Llangollen. I'm so proud.”

Eilir has had him in his sights since he was appointed ahead of the 2012 event. He added: “The idea of Bryn doing Sweeney Todd at Llangollen stems from a discussion I had with him in June 2011 after a concert I did with him at Aberglesni Gardens when he premiered my Reqiuem.

“Bryn and I are friends and we were both staying the night and he invited me, my wife and our little boy, Aaron, for breakfast the next day.

“At 9am there was a big bang bang on the door and there was Bryn standing there and he said, ‘Do you remember I’m cooking breakfast this morning?’

“I said we’d be there in ten minutes and round we went to find Bryn with the frying pan ready and he cooked breakfast while we discussed him bringing Sweeney Todd to Wales.

“A few months later I was appointed Musical Director and one of my first calls was to Bryn’s agent to ask if he could do it in July 2012 but she said the first July day available was in 2014.

“So I’ve been so excited for three years and I’ve been planning for it since then. This is my third International Eisteddfod and I’ve been very passionate about doing this with Bryn with an all-Welsh cast and with young people from Wales.”

Latest update on railway's Corwen project

Llangollen Railway says a notable occasion came on June 25 when the first loco-hauled train visited the new Corwen station site – although it was only the ballast train.

In its latest official update on the Corwen extension project the railway says that ballast train was propelled by diesel shunter 03162 and nevertheless made an impressive sight.

The update goes on: “A continued famine of supplies of recycled ballast from Crewe frustrated the top ballasting of the track during June. 

“The issue has been resolved by placing an order for 1,000 tonnes of new stone from the quarry at Penmaenmawr, although it does come at increased cost.

“However, immediate delivery of stone by lorry to the yard at Carrog commenced and the ballast train began running again on the extension west of Bonwm from June 23.

“These daily deliveries allowed for the ballast train to work through to Corwen East as stone was dropped west of Bridge 28A.

“It is anticipated that the ballasting will take four weeks to complete, to be followed by the hiring in of a tamper machine which will clearly take completion of the exercise into August.”

On the Corwen East station site, the update says: “As of the end of June the volunteer work force began laying the final panels of track which will take the railhead through to the gated access for the site.

“Unfortunately, the prospect of the wooden temporary platform being erected by local contractors did not proceed as planned. The contractors have now withdrawn from the project and alternative methods for platform erection are being explored to provide a quick fix for this essential facility.

“In addition, the erection of the graded access ramp off the embankment is to be tackled as a volunteer led option, once the railhead is secured.

“The site of the accommodation building for the station has to be determined to allow for a concrete base to be cast, whilst the actual steel framed building is on order from the Railway’s engineering department.

“Solar powered lighting for the station is being investigated as the cost of a mains supply to the site is beyond the available budget.

“As of the end of June agencies for Denbighshire County Council were preparing the footpath below to station site which will allow access via under bridge 29 to the adjacent nature reserve. Top coating of the footpath through the Corwen Common area to the town’s car park is also proceeding.

“Attention continues to be given to the list of snags, large and small, on the length of the extension in preparation for the final inspection. With a range of work still to be completed, a date for the opening remains elusive at this stage.

“Local representatives at the Community Liaison meeting on June 25 were told that an autumnal option for a first passenger train in the Dwyrain Corwen East station is a possibility, if progress is maintained.”