The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019
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JOURNAL OF THE JOURNALJOURNAL OF THEOF THE Issue2019 No. 1, 2016 2019 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 Hello Readers, Welcome to the Great Orme Exploration Society Journal 2019. In this edition surprises await both above and below ground. Strange happenings on the Orme will make you wonder and stories of mine workings still to be found will set you dreaming. We reminisce over the last twenty years of underground discoveries. There are articles on ancient fossils, old reservoirs and well known songs. We also take a look back at the 2018 Summer Walks and reveal the itinerary for 2019. It's a mixture of past, present and future possibilities to inform and delight. I hope everyone will enjoy reading it. As always, a great deal of thanks to all contributors. Regards Dave Wrennall – GOES Journal Editor 2019 Cover photograph: The Fach Reservoir by Nick Challinor PRINTING the JOURNAL With inkjet printers use at least 90gsm paper (200gsm for the front cover). In order to optimise page sequencing page 1 should be placed on the back of the front cover with p1 p2 page 2 opposite on the next sheet of paper. www.goes.org.uk 1 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 Contents GOES Inspects Two Reservoirs: St Tudno's and The Fach p 3 Some Fossils that Occur on, or near, the Great Orme, Llandudno p 7 Halloween Comes to Llandudno p 12 Ty'n-y-Fron Survey by Robinson Geo p 19 Treweek's Shaft: Below the Waterline p 21 Pointers from Vivian 160 years later p 27 Bert Lee (Songwriter) p 31 Looking Back: Some Underground Discoveries since I Joined the Club p 33 GOES Summer Walks 2018 p 37 GOES Summer Walks 2019 p 40 GOES Committee and Contact Details p 41 Incident at Little Orme Quarry / The Caving Code p 42 An image caught in Elephants Cave by Judith Hogg www.goes.org.uk 2 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 GOES Inspects Two Reservoirs: St Tudno's & The Fach (With a bit of background history too!) This article mainly deals with the above two reservoirs, both of which have been visited by GOES in the recent past. St Tudno’s is a surface reservoir not too far from St Tudno’s Church, while The Fach Reservoir is an underground reservoir near the Camera Obscura. Happy Valley was formerly known as Y Fach; the reservoir taking its name from this. As Llandudno’s population grew, there were many attempts to develop an adequate water supply. For instance, the North Wales Chronicle (Sat Nov 12th 1853) recorded an Act of Parliament giving permission “to divert Gogarth Springs to a point near a farm house called Tyn y Coed, together with the construction of two reservoirs at or near the Springs of Gogarth aforesaid with pumping engine and works.” A main reservoir was also to be built at Tyn y Coed with a pipe linking Gogarth and Tyn y Coed “with all the necessary approaches, filtering beds and basins.” Problems with the water supply continued nonetheless. Between 1895 and 1904, a 9 inch water main was constructed bringing water from two Snowdonia lakes, Dulyn and Melynllyn. This proved inadequate and a 15 inch main was soon added. In 1901, a 53,350 gallon reservoir was established on the top of the Orme so that water could be distributed by gravity to residents living on the Orme. The Fach Reservoir In the summer of 2018, GOES visited this underground reservoir under the former putting green by the Camera Obscura. Several nervous souls descended into a pitch-black chamber where the head torches on our helmets barely made any difference. Steve Lea did a grand job calming our nerves and encouraging us to step off the bottom of the ladder into the Stygian gloom … and thirty GOES members inspect the entrance. Photo by Christine Jones. www.goes.org.uk 3 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 inches of cold, murky water! But what a wonderful discovery: scores of elegant brick arches holding up the roof! The reservoir was an odd shape being approximately 57 paces by 59. The Victorian builders must have had an off day – the water at one end was shallower than at the other, meaning that the floor was not level. When the reservoir was full, An interesting view down the ladder. Photo by Christine Jones. the water was 12 feet deep with an overflow at 12 foot 10 inches; the overflow going to the sea. The Fach Reservoir dates from the 1880s. On June 17th 1880, the Prince of Wales officially opened the reservoir, a fact reviewed in the Llandudno Advertiser May 1st 1909 *: “Two reservoirs are included in this scheme, cue the Fach, of a capacity of 936,000 gals, and the other Llwynon, 48,000. These works were opened in June 1880 by our present king, then the View of the arches with stalactites (Note the 'tide mark' above the wellies!) Photo by Steve Lea. Prince of Wales.” The reservoir was a storage reservoir and only appears to have been called upon at peak times between June and September: records for 1903 show it was drawn upon for 202.5 hours in August, whereas in June it was only in use for 24.5 hours. Another view of the brick arches and the way back up the ladder. Photo by Christine Jones. www.goes.org.uk 4 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 The Fach was originally a surface reservoir. Plans were only drawn up in 1914 for a roof supported by the brick arches which so impressed us on the GOES visit. According to the book “Secret Llandudno” by John Lawson-Reay, water was piped to the Fach from the reservoir at St Tudno’s. St Tudno’s Surface Reservoir Just below the prominent path from Pink Farm to St Tudno’s Church is St Tudno’s Well. Further down the hill, and screened by large bushes, lies St Tudno’s Reservoir. When the reservoir was in use, it was fed by the nearby well, but other springs were also diverted to the reservoir. In 2017, Nick Challinor (GOES) and Christine Jones from St Tudno’s Church led a GOES walk to the well and to the reservoir, both of which are on private ground. Before construction of the reservoir could begin, William Herapath, a celebrated analyst, investigated the water quality. The results appeared in the North Wales Chronicle July 19th 1862: “I hand you the results of the Analysis of a Sample of Water – in an Imperial Gallon, there are in grains and decimal parts as follows:- Chloride of Calcium 0.162 Carbonate of Lime 9.963 Sulphate of Magnesia 1.433 Sulphate of Lime 0.433 Common Salt 5.643 Oxide of Iron 0.003 Organic Matter 0.326 Silica 0.463 Nitrates Traces Total Salts per Gallon 18.427” “There is nothing in this Water to prevent its being used for domestic purposes … it will, therefore, do well for brewing, tea making etc.” Subsequently, the Llandudno Water and Gas Company received tenders for an open reservoir capable of holding 3,500,000 gallons. The lowest tender was accepted; the construction of the reservoir and the filter beds were to be completed by 1st January 1863. www.goes.org.uk 5 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 Tenders For St Tudno’s Reservoir £ s d Mr Joseph Jones, Abergele 1983 0 0 Messrs Jn Williams & Jn Jones, Llandudno 1750 0 0 Mr William Jones, Beaumaris 1435 0 0 Messrs George Clarke & Son, Wootton Wawens, Henley in Harden 1370 0 0 Messrs Edward Brookes & Co, Llandudno 1160 0 0 Undated view of St Tudno's Reservoir. Courtesy of Conwy Archives Service. When GOES visited the site in 2017, it was very overgrown and difficult to identify the place as an old reservoir. View of St Tudno’s Reservoir 2017 Photo by Nick Challinor. Author: Keith Morris * Thanks to Adrian Hughes for drawing attention to this very long article on Llandudno’s waterworks. Thanks also to Christine Jones for helpful information. www.goes.org.uk 6 The Journal of the Great Orme Exploration Society 2019 Some Fossils that Occur on, or near, the Great Orme, Llandudno Introduction In order to appreciate the fossils of the Orme it is useful to understand some of the geological history of the area and the conditions under which the fossilised animals lived: The Great Orme comprises rocks of the Visean Epoch of the Carboniferous which were deposited approximately 330 million years (Ma) ago and form part of the Carboniferous Limestone sequence that is present over extensive areas of North Wales and Northern England. In North Wales this predominantly limestone sequence was deposited by a sea which progressively advanced from the north over an approximately west to east trending landmass to the south called the Wales – Brabant Massif. This extended from Cardigan Bay to the Brabant area of Belgium and in Wales comprised older rocks of Silurian and Ordovician age. These had been buckled and raised during the Variscan (Hercynian) mountain building episode that accompanied the closure of the Rheic Ocean during the formation of the unified supercontinent of Pangea. At the time Britain as part of Pangea was located close to the equator and was beginning its slow drift northwards to its present position. Deposition of the Carboniferous Limestone took place in a warm shallow shelf sea lying unconformably over the northern flank of the Welsh – Brabant massif.