Quirky Llandudno

On Thursday September 17^th, a full house turned out for another excellent talk by Adrian Hughes. Adrian is well-known as a historian, author and owner of Llandudno’s Home Front Museum, and also for his efforts on behalf of the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and his private endeavours in honouring the graves of Llandudno’s fallen, most recently on a visit to Myanmar (formerly Burma). Adrian’s latest book is Quirky Llandudno, and his talk certainly justified the title.

The evening began with a look at some of Llandudno’s more disruptive residents: the Kashmiri goats, who garnered international attention during their lockdown takeover of the town, and the herring gulls, perpetrators of ‘the chip tray lunge, the ice cream dive and the sausage roll heist’. Adrian talked us through the disputed origins of the goats on the Orme, as well as the massive decline in the seagull population – surprising though this seems to their victims – and discussed the claim that herring gulls have got bigger over the years (spoiler alert: they haven’t). Animals featured in other tales during the evening, such as the discovery of what became Tŷ Gwyn Copper Mine by a cow, and the accomplishments of Smiler, the late 19^th century superstar donkey, who could jump a five-bar gate, fire a pistol, open locks and walk a tightrope.

Over the years Llandudno has hosted several museums which are no longer with us, including the Museum of Musicology, the Llandudno Doll and Model Railway Museum and the Llandudno Motorcycle Museum. Those which have withstood the test of time include the town’s civic museum, now on Gloddaeth Street, and of course the Home Front, opened by our speaker in 2000 in a former garage on New Street. On that note, no talk by Adrian would be complete without at least some military history, and we were enthralled to hear the story of Russell Gradwell and his incredible WW2 adventures.

Other topics included bigamy, the Beatles, parish boundary stones, the story behind the illuminated ‘Llandudno Welcomes You’ sign, the town’s water-supply (incidentally featuring Duke, another donkey, though less precocious than Smiler), and the spectacular 1911 Investiture Day celebrations which ended in tragedy with the death of two council workers. For details of these and many other stories, I strongly suggest that you buy Adrian’s book and discover for yourself the fascinating history behind Quirky Llandudno.