QUIZ ANSWER # 85

Last Sunday I posted the above and said: Here is a Rhyl scene photographed in March 2015 by Yours Truly.

The question: What is the name of the turning in which I was standing?

The answer: Lon Hafren.

(The o has a roof over it but you can’t type that. Lon Hafren is off Ffordd Elan, not far from a little group of businesses including dentists at Oasis Dental Care where I was delighted to find a notice on the door saying Open Wide.)

That’s a win for Jane Shuttle, The Great Gareth, Sue Handley and for Richard & Ceri Swinney.

In addition there were a couple of wrong answers. Doesn’t matter, it’s only a bit of fun. Keep trying!

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AUBREY PHILLIPS / PHILIP BERNARD PRODUCTIONS

Sorry to read that Aubrey Phillips passed away on March 11th at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. I first met him in the very early 1960s when he was my school bus driver. Aubrey ran a fleet of rickety coaches from the car park next to his Riverside Café in Rhuddlan.

Aubrey was an impresario who loved to put on shows. His pantomimes were funny and often produced on a shoestring; they had to be seen to be believed. I was in one of them up in Gateshead with veteran comedian Sandy Powell. My life in showbiz is a story waiting to be told.

Aubrey was a good on-stage performer with a clear, booming voice, and he was a great audience. If Aubrey heard something that amused him, he would let out a sudden, single hoot of a laugh, loud enough to echo round any auditorium.

I remember visiting him in the late 1990s when he was running Rhyl's Coliseum Theatre on the prom. It was a warm day and there were drunks sitting outside with their backs against the theatre wall.

Aubrey didn’t shout and curse at them, he took a hosepipe and started washing everything down in a choreographed way like a piece of on-stage business, inching ever nearer to them until they got up and walked away. ‘Never fails,’ he chuckled.

Goodbye Aubrey old chap, we never really had a stage big enough for you.

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MON 10th DEC 2018 UPDATE: Memorabilia from Aubrey Phillips' days as lessee of the Gaiety Theatre, Rhyl (formerly Pier Amphitheatre where Billie Manders' Quaintesques held forth for decades):

Dates of posters (top to bottom): 1975; 1976; 1981; 1984.

Among names on the posters:
Philip Bernard, Dave Peters comedian, Vivien Day, Paul Sheppard, The Gaiety Girls, Bill Williams, Colin Beach, Michael Swann and his Music, John Yates, Jim(my) Darbyshire, Joe Holroyd, Aubrey Phillips.
Johnny Dallas.
Syd Jackson and Dick Collins, Michael Fraser, Alex Ward, Debbie Young,Stewart Suthurst, Mark Smee musical director.
Shep's Banjo Boys, Foo Foo Lammar, Steve King as Al Jolson, Jim Bowen of TV's Bullseye.

Some other refs:
The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe one day pantomime, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs pantomime, Wrestling.

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6720. Two additional images from Aubrey's time at the Gaiety added here in June 2020:

Above: An amateur snapshot. Among the shows advertised are Ronnie Hilton's Variety Show, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs pantomime and Lorde Payne hypnotist.
Below: Lorde Payne was a regular towards the end of the theatre's life. His poster below is dated 1990; the Gaiety was demolished in 1991.

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SPOT THE FACES

Click on the picture to seee a bigger version.

From Val Lovibond comes this memento of an al fresco event for children of Seabank Road/Winnard Avenue area, circa 1969. The reason for the event is lost in the party of time.

The photographer is Bob Jones of Portland Studio, 27 Bodfor Street, Rhyl. This address no longer exists. It looks to have become the back office of Williams Estates whose address is 17-19 Kinmel Street.

Val is in the happy throng, towards the far end. Her children Sharon and Stephen are somewhere in there, too. Who else? If you recognise anybody please send email to:
Colin Jones / rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk

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LEG SHOW

This Rhyl May Day shot is from Val Lovibond.

On the back it says Photograph by W. Renshaw, 117 Wellington Road, Rhyl. The address is a small shop on corner of Ffynnongroew Road, recently occupied by Sovereign Funeral Services.

The photo was taken in the 1960s in Wellington Road, probably from an upstairs window of No.117; that terrace of cottages in the background is still there.

On display are young ladies from the Keep Fit Club which was above Jack Hughes’ cycle shop in Bodfor Street (now flats above Thomas Estates). Val is the brunette sitting on the car chatting through a hula hoop.

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WED 13th JUN 2018 UPDATE: On the subject of Rhyl May Days, here is a May Queen new to this blog - Miss Beryl Stanley who was crowned in 1937.

Without the requisite facts at hand, my reading of the picture is that Beryl is the one with the head-dress. I imagine she is holding hands with the previous year's May Queen, Miss Eileen Savory who is about to relinquish the crown.
Standing far right, with the remains of a dead animal around her neck, would be Mrs. Sefton-Fiddian who would receive the crown from Eileen and then place it on Beryl's head.

If this reading of the picture is incorrect, do let me know:
Colin Jones / email: rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk

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6720. Additional image added here in June 2020:

Rhyl's 40th May Day (1930) May Queen Miss Kitty Walmsley.

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LOOKING WITHOUT SEEING

The Welsh Regiment image above is a card postmarked 1915. How colourful and heroic it looks. 

Last year, while this blog was hibernating, there were events to mark the centenary of The Great War or First World War aka World War 1 (1914-1918). The sheer bloody horror of the killing of 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians sometimes gave way in the media to cosy reminiscences and period tittle-tattle.

There seems little point in giving such widespread coverage to an old war unless it teaches us how to avoid them in future. That lesson was missing.


Colin Jones / email: rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk

See my Rhyl videos on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RhylTime

There are hundreds of Rhyl videos on YouTube. Only the ones labelled RhylTime are mine - don't blame me for the others!

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COLUMN SPACE

Here are some old newspaper adverts: three from the collection of the late Glyn Rees, three from Diana Hannam and one from Yours Truly. This one for Parry and Stevens Soda Water Works is dated 1857:

Click on any advert to read the small print.

The following business, Dinorben Arms Hotel, must have been a forerunner of the Alexandra pub which was later renamed several times including as Off The Rails, Bar Blu, and now The Front Room:

Dinorben Arms Hotel would have been named after Lord Dinorben of Kinmel Hall near Abergele. He may have been owner of the premises and/or the land beneath - that may be how Kinmel Street got its name.

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Below: Brickworks advert from 1902 for wire-cut (i.e. traditionally made) bricks, and Aston's Furniture advert from 1911 that includes reference to Painted Deal which was an cheap form of pine wood:

The following undated advert for concrete products is the first mention of Skeffington family on this blog. Come on you Skeffies, I know you are out there. You must have interesting items for us to see.

Here is evidence of girls from the Convent school fundraising in 1923 for War Memorial Hospital, Grange Road:

Finally, below is a reminder of the fundraising that helped to establish The Little Theatre's current premises in Vale Road. The advert is dated 1961; the theatre opened in 1963.

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QUIZ QUESTION # 85

This Rhyl scene was photographed in March 2015 by Yours Truly.

The question: What is the name of the turning in which I was standing?

That’ll keep you quiet.

You have until the end of Saturday 4th April 2015 to send your entry.

The result will be published on Sunday 5th April 2015 around Midday.

Colin Jones / email: rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk

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QUIZ ANSWER # 84

Last Sunday I posted this photo and said it was taken six or seven years ago of a Rhyl street. [It is a snapshot by the late Glyn Rees.]

The question was: If the street were NOT a cul-de-sac, to what other street would it lead?

The answer is: Fairfield Avenue (The cul-de-sac is Morlan Park off Bath Street.)

Fairfield Avenue is in the county council wards of Rhyl East and Rhyl West; the border is up the middle of the street.

Secondly I posted the following card of a photo from Daily Dispatch news-paper showing some of the Pals Battalion:

The question: Is the card postmarked 1914, 1927 or 1939?

The answer: 1914.

This week's scores are two wins for Jane Shuttle, Sue Handley, The Great Gareth and Richard & Ceri Swinney.

Richard & Ceri add that The Pals - such as these attached to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers - were locally raised units, following an idea by Lord Kitchener to increase the strength of the army needed in World War 1.

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WENDY & CO.

Rhyl Life notes with sadness the death a few days ago of Wendy McDaid, a community development worker based for a long time at the offices of Rhyl Community Agency. Wendy left there several years ago and operated as a market trader for a while before moving back to her home city of Derby.

At the end of this month Rhyl Community Agency, whose offices are in the bus station, closes down. The Agency has been giving professional advice and practical assistance to over 200 charitable and voluntary groups and small starter businesses. No funding was available to continue this project.

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