Eisteddfod's headline concerts hailed as major success

* Madness. All pictures Cuffe & Taylor.

* Manic Street Preachers.

* Nile Rodgers and Chic.

* Tom Jones.

More than 50,000 people headed to Llangollen for a month of live music from some of the world’s biggest rock and pop stars. 

Marking a new partnership between the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and live event promoters Cuffe and Taylor, organisers have hailed the events a major success.

 

The record-breaking summer for the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod saw crowds flock to 11 headline shows with big name concerts over four weeks from the likes of Bryan Adams, Simple Minds, Paloma Faith, Jess Glynne, Kaiser Chiefs, Madness and Nile Rodgers and CHIC. While indie gods Manic Street Preachers and Suede kicked off their double-headlining UK and Ireland tour to a sold-out crowd.

 

In addition, the International Eisteddfod, which this year welcomed more than 3,000 competitors in its biggest festival for a generation, marked its 77^th year with music legend Tom Jones opening the iconic Core Eisteddfod Week with a sold-out concert. 

This was followed by performances from Welsh Folk superstars Calan, royal harpist Alis Huws, Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalists Johns’ Boys Male Chorus, West End stars Kerry Ellis and John Owen-Jones, plus concerts from two-time GRAMMY award-winning jazz sensation Gregory Porter and Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins.

 

Over the course of the four weeks more than 38,000 people headed to the 11 headline concerts, almost 13,000 bought tickets for the traditional events of the Core Eisteddfod week, while thousands more attended events in Llangollen including the Parade of Nations.

Artistic Director of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, Dave Danford said: “Together with our co-promoters Cuffe and Taylor, we’ve brought North Wales its most amazing four weeks of live music ever.

 

“For a festival that’s been in existence for almost 80 years to undergo a rebirth such as this is truly remarkable, and I couldn’t be more proud of what our team has achieved.

 

“Our festival scaled new heights this year and that’s down to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers who worked hand in hand with the brilliant team at Cuffe and Taylor. We are already planning for 2025 as we build on our most successful summer for generations.”

 

Cuffe and Taylor co-founder Peter Taylor added: 'We are delighted by the success of our first year working with the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod team.

 

“Together we have brought global stars to this beautiful town in North Wales and a record number of people to the Llangollen Pavilion.

 

“We have always prided ourselves on bringing music to areas that would not ordinarily attract global names and we well and truly did that in Llangollen this summer.”

Llangollen Museum closes to prepare for new roof.

* Llangollen Museum is to have a new roof fitted.

From today (Monday) Llangollen Museum will be closed in preparation for the building having a new roof put on. 

Paid for by the Community Ownership Fund and another funder which they museum cannot yet disclose, the entire roof will be replaced with a new structure with steel girders. 

The appearance of the building will change slightly as the new roof will not have a parapet and the rainwater will drain through external pipes, rather than the internal ones that have caused flooding problems when they have become blocked.

Building work by the contractor, Team Roundhouse of Frodsham in Cheshire, will commence on August 19. 

The three weeks until then will be used to clear the museum before handing over to the contractor. 

The work is estimated to take around six months, meaning the museum will be closed until January 2025.

For updates on the work, and exact dates of re-opening people are invited to keep an eye on the museum's own Facebook page.

However, heritage will not stop in Llangollen, according to the museum.

A spokesperson said: "During the period of the closure some of our display cases will be relocated to other public venues around Llangollen. Look out for displays in the Tourist Information, the Library, the Dory Gallery, the Health Centre and St Collen’s Church.

"Our programme of talks will continue. There will be no talk in July but the next talk will be on Wednesday, August 28, at 7.30pm, in the Council Chamber on the opposite side of Parade Street from the museum. 

"Entitled ‘The reasons the Welsh went to Patagonia in 1865 and how they overcame early hardships,’ it will be a presentation by Graham Edwards. 

"Why did 162 Welsh people go to Patagonia, one of the most remote and inhospitable places in the world, in 1865?  How did they eventually succeed, despite incredible hardship and overwhelming difficulties when they arrived?

"On Wednesday September 25, again in the Council Chamber at 7.30pm, the Portable Antiquities Scheme Officer, Susie White, will give a talk entitled ‘Buried Beneath our Feet’. She will describe what the Portable Antiquities Scheme is – who they are, why they do what they do – and then look at some of the objects recorded on the database from the local area. 

"October 30 will be Gill Smith with Andy the storyteller. The talk will be entitled 'Brenig, Landscape of the Dead,' and on November 27 Sam Thomson will give his second talk looking at the Romans in Britain and North Wales, again in the Council Chamber. Watch out for posters, and on our Facebook page for full details."

The spokesperson added: "Plans for the Llangollen Museum Young Archaeologists’ group are well on the way, and will continue during the period of closure. We are hoping to have a full programme in place by the end of 2024. 

"Young Archaeologists’ Club (YAC) is the only UK-wide club where young people aged 8–16 year olds can participate in real archaeology and discover why it matters. If you want to become a professional archaeologist in the future or just feel like taking up an amazing new hobby, YAC is the right place for you.

"YAC members take part in all sorts of exciting, hands-on activities, such as excavation, working with artefacts, visiting historical sites and undertaking experimental archaeology. As a YAC member, you will also have access to the YAC Pass, giving free or discounted entry to hundreds of heritage sites across the UK, including those run by English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland and Cadw. Anyone wanting to join our mailing list for updates please email cdv.yac@gmail.com"

Julie's on the lookout for gangsters and molls

A former West End performer and actress from Llangollen is running musical theatre workshops for youngsters in the town and Wrexham.

Julie Kirk Thomas, who was part of the original cast of the hit musical Evita and featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is bringing Bugsy Malone to St Collen’s Community Hall in Llangollen on August 21 and 22 and Wrexham's Ty Pawb on August 19 and 20. 

Parents and guardians looking for fun activities for their children over the summer holidays can book them onto the workshop, which will feature splurge guns (water pistols) filled with custard and cream pies in one brave gangster’s face.

Julie said: “I'm looking for budding gangsters and molls for this lively production of Bugsy Malone - children who love to sing, dance and act.

"We'll be heading back to 1920s New York and recreating the action with custard pies, splurge guns, along with silly string and Charleston dancing.

“There will be laughter and lots of mess to clear up but it's a great opportunity for children to do something different and learn some new skills this summer.”

A regular mum who always books her children onto these workshops said: “Julie provides a great environment for the kids to have fun while at the same time learning some of the discipline of musical theatre.

“Her workshops are always a great confidence boost to my boys, who are already practising their New York accents.”

The two-day workshop culminates with a short performance for family and friends. 

Bugsy Malone is a 1970s British gangster film, directed by Alan Parker, which featured only child actors.

The story is loosely based on events from the 1920s/30s America during the prohibition era. It featured a young Jodie Foster as the lead female, Talullah.

* To book a place at the workshops, email Julie at: danceworkshops@yahoo.co.uk

"Remarkable" Llangollen resident dies at the age of 99

* Bill Saunders on one of his regular walks in the hills.

A mainstay of the Llangollen Ramblers, who had the distinction of once producing the definite map of an African country just after the Second World War, has died at the age of 99. 

Bill Saunders, who joined the very active walking group a decade ago, was also a regular volunteer with the local Tidy Town Team and is recalled by a friend and fellow Ramblers member as a “remarkable citizen”.   

Bill originally hailed from the south of England and went to school at the Duke of York's Military academy in Kent.  

The Second World War broke out when he was 14, and in due course he went into the army and became a cartographer.  

It was when his unit was billeted in Llangollen, at Bryn Howel Hall, that he met Betty, a local girl, who became his wife.  They went on to have four daughters, all of whom survive him. 

After the war his work took him abroad and he was particularly proud of producing the definitive map of Uganda. Back in the UK the family moved around but eventually returned to Llangollen. 

His fried Judy Smith recalls: “Betty had just died when I first met Bill.  He had joined the Tidy Town Team and it was at their Christmas dinner that I was introduced to this man who wanted to join the Ramblers.  

“It was when he started telling me about his wartime experiences that I did a few quick calculations - he was actually 84!  The next week Bill came out for a walk and he was a regular from that moment.  At first he was slow and we would wait for him but within a couple of months he was up there with us. 

“It got to the point where he was faster than us, and on one memorable occasion on the Offa's Dyke Path he was ahead of us when he took a wrong turn, thus cutting out a section of the designated path.  He'd just walked 14 miles, but when we told him what he had done he insisted we took him back to go the right way, adding another three miles to his day.  He was 87 years old!” 

Judy added: “There were other notable moments in his walking career.  At 88 he was up Catbells and Dale Head in the Lake District.  On his 90th birthday he climbed Snowdon with his friend Beryl, a mere 81-year-old.  Together they took many walking holidays and were always amused to find the HF or Ramblers Holidays leaders disconcerted by their ages.  But they could keep up with anyone! 

“At 94 Bill was still walking with the Ramblers and had covered the Wales Coast Path from Chester right round to Harlech when Covid struck.  The isolation and lack of freedom proved too much for him and he was soon admitted to the Old Vicarage and then to the Llangollen Fechan, where he died. 

“Llangollen Ramblers won't forget him. He was something of an icon, an inspiration to all of us, and getting slower and older, we console each other with, 'Well, Bill only just started at 84' .  

“With all that he had a fine sense of humour and was truly a gentleman.  I don't think we shall see his like again.  Llangollen has lost a very remarkable citizen.”

* Bill's funeral will be at St Collen's Church at 1pm on August 15.

County's 2023 tourism figure up 6% on previous year

* Llangollen is one of the county's premier tourism areas. 

Denbighshire's tourism figures have seen a rise for 2023 in comparison to the previous year. 

Latest STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) figures show that the total visitor numbers for Denbighshire in 2023 reached 6.39 million, an increase of almost 6% (5.9%) in comparison to 2022 figures.

The data also shows that the number of day visitors to the county for 2023 was 4.72 million, a 7.5% change when compared to 2022.

The total economic impact of tourism was £736.05 million, a jump of 17.1% on the previous year.

STEAM is a tourism economic impact modelling process which approaches the measurement of tourism from the bottom up, through its use of local supply side data and tourism performance and visitor survey data collection.

Councillor Jason McLellan, Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Economic Growth & Tackling Deprivation, said:

“Denbighshire has both stunning coastal areas as well as scenic rural patches, which allows it to be a very well-rounded offer for tourists, who travel far and wide to come and visit our beautiful county.

"Once again, we welcome increased tourism figures for Denbighshire year on year, which demonstrate the importance of tourism to the local economy, and the bounce back the tourism industry has achieved after a difficult few years.”

Cooking with your family session at Pengwern Hub

 

Railway welcomes back popular Swinging Sixties event

* Mandy Towers and Joe Walker have organised the 60s weekend. 

Llangollen Railway says it is looking forward to turning the clock back for its 60s Weekend on the weekend of August 3 and 4.

Making a very welcome return after several years’ absence, the event will include live music on Llangollen station, vintage vehicles, a heritage bus service from Corwen, a real ale bar at Llangollen station and the chance to drive a diesel shunting locomotive at Corwen station. 

There will be a busy timetable of steam, diesel and railcar trains, all of which would have been seen at work around the country in the 1960s.

The 1960’s saw monumental political, social and technological change. The railways in Britain were no different, seeing the end of steam locomotives, the birth of the famous "double arrow logo" and the controversial closure of a third of Britain's rail network, masterminded by BR Board Chairman Dr Richard Beeching and controversial Transport Minister Ernest Marples. 

The Ruabon-Barmouth railway was one of the victims of the Beeching Cuts, closing at the end of 1964. The closure of rural railways was extremely unpopular and attracted considerable resistance from the communities about to lose their transport links. 

Demonstrations were not uncommon and Llangollen Railway volunteers, dressed in period clothes and bearing placards, will recreate anti-closure protests at Glyndyfrdwy station over the weekend. 

Volunteers worked for nearly 50 years to rebuild 10 miles of the abandoned line between Llangollen and Corwen, with the first trains running in 1985 and a new station at Corwen finally opening in June 2023.

The event is being organised by mother-and-son team Mandy Towers and Joe Walker, who both volunteer on Llangollen station.

Visitors can find out more and book tickets on the railway’s events webpage: https://llangollen-railway.co.uk/1960s-weekend/

* Llangollen & Corwen Railway continues to make a successful recovery following the collapse of its operating company in 2021 and rescue by the Llangollen Railway Trust under new management. 

July 9 saw the third anniversary of the first train to be operated by the Trust, whose manager Tom Taylor said: "Three years on from our first train to Berwyn under Trust management we have achieved what many said would be impossible. 

"Corwen station has been completed, opened and is proving very popular. Our much-loved Pannier steam locomotive No 7754 has ben restored and is steaming again. Our legendary events have returned, including the exciting return of our 60’s Weekend. 

"We have also secured significant grant aid by working with local partners, like Denbighshire County Council. 

"Through their Shared Prosperity Fund, we have been able to recruit new staff who are helping take our volunteer, interpretation, environmental and training needs forward. The SPF has also funded an in-depth consultant-led project to assess how we can secure the railway's future sustainability. 

"We have a wonderful railway and a brilliant team of volunteers and staff who care passionately about it. We are all optimistic about its future."