For my new blog about Old Roads in Northern Gwynedd go to johndinorwig.vivaldi.net
Author: johnbyde
Travelling by train again
For various reasons it turned out to be impracticable for family to come and see me at half term, so it was agreed I would go and see them. That means a 160 mile journey to Leeds. I was reluctant to drive, as anyone […]
Unesco world heritage site
An application was made some ago to Unesco for the Slate Quarries in Gwynedd to become a world heritage site. Here are some comments I have just made to a local consultation on the subject “A neighbour has forwarded to me your correspondence about […]
Another red letter day
Wednesday 10th March Another red letter day since I had an appointment for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Bangor university at “0906”. That time left me a bit anxious, so when I woke up at 0550 I decided I might as […]
An eventful couple of days
On Thursday 28th January, I had booked my car in for a service and MoT test at Halfords in Bangor, who know the car well. As it is twelve years old, there is always a degree of suspense about the outcome, even though it […]
Nearly back to square one
So we are back to a full lockdown, with the significant difference that vaccinations are starting to happen even up here. With a predominantly white and elderly population locally, take up is likely to be high, as it has been with the flu vaccine. […]
Christmas Day 2020
With a family stretched across North Wales, Leeds, and Edinburgh , we made a collective decision some weeks ago to stay in our own little burrows for Christmas, regardless of the ever changing governments’ guidance on the subject, so we made no plans to […]
Terfyn and Lon Garret
Terfyn is a Welsh word derived directly through the Roman occupation of Wales from Latin terminus. Pont (stone bridge), cwrtil (curtilage), caer (castra, fort) are similar examples. In the context of Dinorwig it is the name of the highest formerly occupied area on Lon […]
Good fences make good neighbours
The famous Robert Frost poem is actually about a wall not being needed in that particular context, but it repeats a well known phrase in use for centuries. The vision of two landowners working opposite sides of a drystone wall seems rather obsolete from […]
Return to lockdown
This blog has been rather neglected in recent weeks, owing to various other demands on my time. As lockdown eased, I have been able to get visits from family, including grandchildren, which was very welcome all round. This included a visit from my daughter, […]
Collecting that prescription again
Varied the routine this time. After walking down the conventional way, I caught the bus for the first time in months, got off at Nant Peris and walked back up through the fields and quarry to home. The bus was busy because of walkers going to the […]
Emerging from lockdown
Getting around my part of the world
Transport can be a problem halfway up a mountain. Before the industrial revolution, you walked. Or if wealthy enough, you owned a horse. If a farmer, you might have a horse and cart. It was normal to walk three or four miles to work […]
Origins of tourism in North wales
I have recently come across two websites about the origins of tourism in North Wales. https://curioustravellers.ac.uk/en/about-the-project/ which details the results of a four year research project on previously unpublished tours of Wales and Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The common […]
