Conwy Suspension Bridge, Conwy

Under a tight lockdown, and during a week of extremely fickle weather, you have to take your bonuses where you can. At the moment, covid lockdown rules mean you can only take exercise away from home if doing it in conjunction with going shopping. This is what we did today, taking advantage of a small covid bonus - that, to create a one way system on the narrow pathway over the 1960s bridge, the Telford suspension bridge is currently free to cross. The bridge is owned by the National Trust, and usually you have to pay for access.

We parked in the station car park in Conwy to access the bridge, which, at the moment, means walking out over the 1950s bridge and back over the suspension bridge. Since this is the end where the toll house is situated, I think you have to enter at this end even when there isn't a pandemic sweeping the world, but you will have to cross the busy road to get there, or park in the very small parking area at the head of the bridge.

For a long time this pub (for a while the Malt Loaf) opposite the railway station car park stood empty. Now it's rather impressively done up, and the original Georgian name of 'The Erskine Arms' (the name of the original owners) has been restored. Read more about the history of the pub on the pub website here, and at the History Points site. I found two high points, besides testament to the philanthropy of the Dowager Lady Erskine. Firstly, I was happy to hear that Charlotte Brontë apparently stayed at the hotel with her husband. It's uncertain if this is correct, though. The date given on the History Points website is 1859, four years after her death, so either the date or the fact of her staying there is wrong. Charlotte Brontë was married in June 1854, and was dead of hyperemesis gravidarum (sometimes known as extreme morning sickness) by March 1855. The second wonderful fact is that in 1899 a young heifer made it as far as the first floor after wandering in during a livestock fair! 

The weather was atrocious, but Conwy Castle doesn't care. It's stood there since 1289, built under the orders of English King Edward I between 1283-89 to suppress the native Welsh population. It's probably seen far worse weather than this in all that time. Now it's back in Welsh hands, under control of Cadw.

Heading through the town walls, we passed beautiful beds planted by Incredible Edible Conwy, part of a UK wide network of public growing spaces for the public good. People are free to harvest what they need.

Passing the old public toilets, known locally as Water Loo Tower, which have been closed now for a long time.

A blocked up window in the tower. 

The door, being encroached on by ivy, looks rather like the entrance to a mysterious fairy tale location. My mother remembers the entrance to the toilets having a full height turnstile in it. Apparently the interior is still intact. 

The view from the bridge was atmospheric, to say the least.

The pathway over the 1958 road bridge is railed to protect pedestrians from cars, so it's a good idea to put the one way system in place - although we did see quite a few people ignoring the No Entry signs at the other end and coming back this way.

Presumably these steps down from the end of the cob had some historical purpose, but they're now railed off.

 

A rainbow over Deganwy as we walk onto the cob. 'Cob' seems to be a fairly unusual term in British geography. It seems to denote a strip of human-made raised land out across a waterway - in this case, joining the opposite side of the Conwy with the small natural island from which the suspension, road, and rail bridges start. There are cobs in Porthmadog in Wales and in Lyme Regis in England, and no doubt in many other places.

The cob took three years to build, from 1822 onwards, joining the east bank of the river to 'Yr Ynys,' the small island from which the bridges begin. It was later widened to accommodate the railway. Before this travellers had to cross the river, with its difficult tidal currents, by ferry. A terrible accident of 1806 killed eleven people, which prompted plans to be formed for a bridge. See the History Points website for more detail. 

The temporary traffic lights for the crossing to the suspension bridge. The cob is also the route of the North Wales Cycle Path. 

The road down to the suspension bridge, which, in 1822, would have been the only bridge here. 

The toll house for the bridge is a rather impressive design, obviously intended to complement the design of the castle built some 533 years earlier.

The board above the door outlines the charges at some point in the bridge's history - presumably post 1860 considering the term 'bicycle' wasn't coined until 1860.

TOLLS PAYABLE IN RESPECT OF BRIDGE

For every person passing on foot: 1d

For every person passing with a Truck or Wheelbarrow, Bicycle or such like carriage: 2d

For every Horse, Mule or Ass laden or unladen and not drawing: 2d

For every Horse or Beast of draught drawing any Coach, Chariot, Brougham, Clarence, Sociable, Berlin, Calash, Landau, Tandem, Phaeton, Gig, Curriele, Barouche, Whiskey, Buggy or other Carriage: 6d

For every Horse or Beast of draught drawing any Wagon, Timber Carriage, Wain Cart, Van or Caravan Drag, Truck or other like vehicle: 4d

For every Engine, Carriage or other Vehicle propelled or moved by steam or machinery or otherwise than by animal power for each wheel thereof: 1s 6d

PROVIDED that the Lessors shall be at liberty to refuse the passage over the bridge of any such Engine, Carriage or other vehicle if they consider that the structure of the Bridge would be thereby endangered.

PROVIDED ALWAYS that no Engine, Carriage or Wagon or other Vehicle weighing when loaded or unloaded more than Ten Tons shall be allowed to pass over the Bridge.

For every score of Oxen, Cows or meat Cattle: 6d

For every score of Calves, Sheep, Lambs or Pigs: 4d

And so in proportion for any greater or less number, but in all cases where there shall be fractional part of a half-penny in the amount of any tolls the sum of a half-penny shall be demanded and taken in lieu of such fractional part.

PROVIDED ALWAYS that tolls shall only be payable once on the same day in the case of foot passengers, carriages and carts may pass and re-pass the Bridge more than once upon the same day. 

Photos of the toll house in more clement times shows the shutters removed and diamond paned windows behind. The British Listed Buildings site has more information on the house, and mentions that originally this was a lodge for the bridge surveyor, the toll booth being on the other side of the bridge. By 1891 at the latest the lodge had become the toll house. 

The view from the toll house along Telford's bridge.

The toll house is of a cruciform shape and is believed to have been designed by Thomas Telford, like the bridge.

Despite its rather modern look, the 'sunburst' gate is actually one of the Telford-designed originals. Others can be seen in various locations around Britain along and near Telford's toll roads. See an image of another one of these gates in this interesting article about the Holyhead Road. 

The 1848 Stephenson Rail Bridge runs alongside the suspension bridge, with towers designed to complement the castle architecture, like Telford's road bridge. The cob was expanded to allow for this new bridge and the railway crossing to it on the main line from Holyhead to Euston.

Signs instruct bridge users to go one way only, despite the wind doing its best to send us (and the signs) off at ninety degrees.

There are also 'slippery road surface' signs; presumably for the benefit of cyclists. There is a thin skim of gravel over a solid surface beneath. Originally the deck was made of wood, but was replaced with iron panels in 1896. Read more details of the engineering here.

The article linked above, from EngineeringTimelines.com, mentions that 'in 1904, a 1.8m wide corbelled footway was added on the north side of the deck.' That must be the footway seen in this photo taken by my grandparents, Dr Nial and Mrs Dorothy Reynolds, in the 1950s.

From the arch above the road, stalactites have formed from minerals leaching out of the stone.

The suspension bridge cost £41,000 of public money to build in 1822 - over £5,000,000 today. Considering the bridge is still standing, and was in use until the late 1950s, this is probably quite a reasonable price, although it's not surprising that tolls were charged to support the building and upkeep of this transport network.

Looking back towards the east end of the bridge - and a glimpse of blue sky! One of the impressive Stephenson bridge towers can be seen here.

 

A better view of the span of the Stephenson railway bridge, which is unique in having two square iron tubes for trains to pass through. The first tube was opened in 1848, and the second a year later. The bridge was designed by Robert Stephenson, with the help of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and William Fairbairn, among others. There were only three other bridges built to this design in the world, and Conwy is the only surviving one. Famously, its pair the Britannia Bridge, crossing the Menai Straits to Ynys Môn, was accidentally burnt down by children trespassing in 1970. The bridge remains but the tubes were not replaced. Read more on the History Points website. 

The 1958 road bridge is very restrained in comparison to the two nineteenth century bridges. Perhaps yet more ornate castellated towers would have been overkill. You don't often get to see this graceful arc from the south side.

 

 

 

 

This period photo, taken by my grandparents, shows the river before the road bridge, and possibly the pilings for the new road bridge.

 

 

In another photo taken by my grandparents the steel structure of the road bridge can be seen in process of being built.

Looking back along the gravelled length, and it almost feels like a different day with the blue sky in the east.

The west end of the bridge comes very close to the castle, and the road has to kink sideways to go around the massive structure.

The Engineering Timelines site mentions that a 'small part of Conwy Castle was demolished so that the bridge’s suspension chains could be anchored into the rock on the west side of the river.' I'm not sure exactly what was demolished. I can't imagine permission being given for such a thing today, but the Telford Bridge wasn't sacred either after it was built; the same site tells of how it was only an international outcry that saved the bridge from being demolished when the 1958 bridge was built.

Leaving the bridge we were passed by another shopper with a box of groceries. 'Lovely weather,' he commented, as rain lashed our faces and blew our hoods from our heads.

The imposing Conwy Castle loomed above as we left the bridge. Between these two towers used to be the castle's water gate from the east barbican, which led to the harbour.

The former public toilets seen from the other side. I haven't been able to find out what else this building was used for. The windows look decidedly Georgian, and it seems unlikely its original purpose was a public convenience. It would be nice to see this building cleaned up and used again - even as public toilets, since the public toilets currently available in Conwy are little short of disgusting for a tourist town of such popularity.

This massive gap through the town walls was another casualty of progress; the widened access for the new road bridge in 1958. A photo from 1913 shows an arch for the road to pass through, but this was not original to the walls, as a reconstruction of how the castle looked when it was built shows. (You can generally tell original gates in the walls because they're flanked by two towers close on either side.) Despite this massive breach, these are still the most complete town walls in Europe.

Porth Bach, one of the postern gates and probably enlarged to some extent, leads onto Conwy Quay. The tower to the left is home to the Tower Coffee House, a nice little coffee house apparently also inhabited by a friendly ghost!

On your left as you pass through the gate is the Harbour Master. According to my uncle, the Boy Scouts used to meet under the Harbour Master's house.

Another rainbow over the Conwy, with the hump of the Fardre, site of the now razed Deganwy Castle, in the distance. The site of Deganwy Castle changed hands violently between the Welsh and the English in the late Mediaeval, and stones from the English castle (which replaced the Welsh wood one) were eventually used to built a small section of Conwy's walls, which leads out at the north into the river. These stones are a distinctly different colour to most of the walls.

 

In the foreground to the right is a statue to celebrate the mussel trade in Conwy, something I feel close to, since my grandfather worked on ensuring mussels were clean and safe to eat in the Shellfish Research Centre nearby.

A large social distancing reminder afixed to the fence. The weather and firebreak lockdown combined to mean there was hardly anyone to distance from. The boat behind the sign is the Helen 11, a wooden fishing boat of a type called 'Nobbys,' built in 1910 by the Crossfields boat builders, based in Conwy. The boat was donated to the community by the Roddick family, and is being lovingly restored. See more at the project website and blog. 

This photo taken this time last year (2019) shows the Helen 11 in the middle of restoration.

The old Civic Hall and library building rises up behind Conwy's lamentable public toilets, facing the quay on this side and Castle Street on the other. The original building is mock Tudor Gothic, but a fire destroyed much of it in 1966. This new addition at the back of the building is the result. Seen by many as an eyesore, I actually really love this building, with its blending of architectural styles. It's now a Grade II listed building, but standing empty after the library was relocated to the new Conwy Cultural Centre just outside the town walls. I remember when there was some rather marvellous 70s wallpaper in there, which I wish had been preserved. 

Parisella's Ice Cream Parlour on the High Street. Parisella's has a long history of making ice cream in Conwy, having been established in 1952. Unfortunately they're currently closed due to lockdown, but hopefully opening again soon. Visit for amazing ice cream, sundaes, and beautifully made coffee, including the mouth-watering affogato - a scoop of vanilla ice cream drenched in a hot shot of espresso.

Further up the High Street sits Plas Mawr, an Elizabethan town house that stretches back all the way to the next street. As a child, I remember Plas Mawr being a dour place, but since its restoration in 1993 it has been converted into a wonderful and colourful example of what an elite town house would have been like in the sixteenth century. Plas Mawr was caused to be built by Robert Wynne, a prosperous local gentleman and MP. It's unknown when Wynne was born, but he fought in the Siege of Boulogne in 1544 and died in 1598. He had Plas Mawr built between between 1576 and 1585, so he didn't have a long time to enjoy the vast mansion. He did, however, manage to have seven children in six years from 1588 onward with his second wife, Dorothy Dymock. The house is thought to be the best surviving Elizabethan town house. It is in the ownership of Cadw, and is a treat to look around.

Red telephone boxes survive at the top of the High Street, but one of them has been converted to a cash machine.

Our final stop on our way back to the car park was the White Bakery, for take-out coffee. The White Bakery is a beautiful Turkish bakery selling an array of glorious Turkish pastries, along with Turkish or Italian-style coffee, and some lovely Turkish craft items. The owners are lovely. Usually you can sit in, but because of covid only takeaway is offered at the moment. You can also order food for collection a few days later.

I was hoping for baklava, which is heavenly, but too many other people had the same idea before me, so in the end I chose a lovely chocolate brownie to eat in the car with my coffee, and the heater full on.

(None of the business featured here have any vested interest. I just like them!

Thanks to amazing local guide Rhian Jones for some inside information on various places that I didn't know about.)