19 September 2010

Never underestimate the power of the Plasites!

Once I returned to my desk after our wander round the grounds I realised from the e-mails that started arriving that a few of you were interested in finding out more about our railway Halt. You are probably gathering now from my posts that it doesn't take much to distract me from whatever I'm meant to be doing and so I did a quick search on Google and found a few references to the Plas y Nant Halt. As I've mentioned previously, I don't know how I'd cope without Google for finding things out, "I'll Google it" has become my catchphrase. In fact I think I might hire myself out as a researcher, if any of you want to know anything about absolutely anything just let me know and I'll Google it for you! Anyway, here I am getting distracted now about Google and not getting to the point of this post.

After reading through a few articles I'd found on the net and piecing together information I'd received in e-mails I realised that the construction of the Plas y Nant Halt was only possible due to the generosity of the Plasites. Apparently when the Welsh Highland Railway started the work to reopen the line from Caernarfon it became clear that there wasn't enough money to reopen the Halt. Therefore the Plasites decided to raise the money themselves, the Halt was constructed and officially reopened on 15th May 2005. So as the title of this post states - never underestimate the power of the Plasites.

I found the following website which has some lovely photos of the Grand Opening of the Plas y Nant Halt and no doubt someone will please tell me who the gentleman is cutting the ribbon!  

2 comments:

  1. Hi Michelle
    I know Plas y Nant well, in fact 4 generations of my family visited or worked there so we have memories going back into the 1930s. I was at the opening of the Plas y Nant halt and made a film of the event - would you like a copy? (DVD). The man cutting the ribbon is Stan Phillips who had also worked at Plas many years ago and was the father of Tony who at that time was running Plas. Stan and his wife Barbara refurbished the lodge and were living there in retirement. Unhappily Stan had a stroke about a year after the opening of the halt and never came out of hospital again until his death in December 2007. Barbara his wife died within a day or two of Stan and there was a huge turnout at Bangor crematorium for the double funeral and then a memorial event at Plas the next spring. Barbara's ashes were spread over the little rock garden on the right as you get to the top of the drive.
    I enjoyed your piece on discovering the greenhouses. The little path leading down to them was known by everybody as the bridle path - presumably access for horses in the distant past. As a child in the 1950s I remember seeing the grape vines and many other veg growing in the kitchen garden. The gardener at the time was I think called Mr Price and there were always fresh cut flowers on the dining tables in the summer. Price must have retired and his place was taken by a man called Owen Roberts. Owen was more of a handyman and definitely not an expert gardener and the demise of the kitchen garden and the greenhouses started then, around the early 1960s
    I wish you all the best with your project - will the hotel also have a restaurant open to non residents? The reason I ask is that I now live about 4 miles from you (as the crow flies) over Eilio hill above Llanberis, and we find there is a severe shortage of places to go out for good food.
    Best wishes
    John Cantrell (john.cantrell@sky.com)

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  2. Thank you John for taking the time to comment and provide me with more information. I am now slowly gathering together the history of Plas y Nant!

    Yes, we are opening the restaurant to non residents for the very reason that you have stated and we hopefully look forward to seeing you there. Until then, keep following the blog for more updates.

    Kind regards,

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