North East Wales Tour Report 

10 September 2022

by Paul Clayton

The tour began on a cloudy Saturday morning, 10 September. Andy Hamer provided the vehicle for the first part of our tour, the former DOG187 (B187 BLG), a Leyland Olympian with ECW body, acquired by Andy from Confidence of Oadby, Leics.

We depart Chester and follow the route of the L1 Coastliner out along Sealand Road, through Garden City, noting the former premises of Hollis Coaches. Passing over the Blue Bridge into Queensferry provided fond memories of trips on the F11. Turning right we continue through Shotton, Connah's Quay and Flint to our first stop at P & O Lloyd at Bagillt.

Always, for enthusiasts, an interesting and well-kept fleet, P & O was formed in 1926 by Pryce and Owen Lloyd. The very varied fleet was viewed and photographed in the fifteen minutes we are there and I was impressed with the interior of the depot.

As we leave the sky begins to clear, as we pass through Greenfield which I recall was the location of one of the many Courtauld's sites in the area. We cross the railway and view, from the outside, the yard of Townlynx Limited, again another very varied fleet, including a couple of ex-MOD Dennis Javelins and ex-Stagecoach East London Tridents. We pass Greenfield Dock, then re-join the main road, passing Mostyn. Tony comments that it used to be the home of Darwen and Mostyn Ironworks. Looking out over the river, Hilbre Island and the Wirral can be seen. On passing the site of the former Point of Ayr colliery, now a gas terminal, we again cross the railway for our refreshment and toilet stop at Prestatyn Bus Station.

Here we transfer to our next vehicle, Clive Myers’ ERG3 (OFM 3E), a Bristol RESL6G with ECW dual purpose body, well known to most of our tour participants. The destination blind is set for M34 Trelogan.

We set off again and travel up the High Street, turning left at the top, to follow the M34 to Llanasa and Trelogan. We climb up through Gronant, passing a busy Gronant Arms and the former Talacre Abbey and we then reach Llanasa, briefly pausing at the church for a photo-stop. 

Then it is on up the hill into open country now following the M79 and turn into Berthengam. Clive points out that the opera singer David Lloyd was born here and that it was originally a lead mining village. We now head up via Trelawnyd into Gwaenysgor, the northern end of the Offa's Dyke footpath, where we have another photo-stop. The pub here is called the Eagle and Child. Incidentally there was a similarly named premises in Liverpool. We now set off downhill towards Dyserth where we make a stop at the location of the former National Provincial Bank at the junction with Thomas Avenue. This is the location of a couple of photos by Dennis Kerrison which appear in the Ian Allan book, “The Heyday of Crosville”, 

Unfortunately due to parking issues the Rhyl circular, 35/36, no longer passes through here. Passengers wishing to visit this location must now use the P and O Lloyd 19 service for which there is only five journeys a day or walk the quarter mile from the Waterfall Road cross roads.

Our tour notes, circulated by Tony provided brief information on Brookes Bros’ network of services centred on Rhyl and Prestatyn which were broadly maintained by Crosville after they had been taken over. (see below).

We continue down into Rhyl taking a diversion along Marsh Road, across the ‘H’ bridge and then slowly past the former Crosville Albion Works which now houses the Arriva depot. A brief glance is taken of the former London T63 (LJ08 CXT) which has just been converted to a training bus. We arrive at Rhyl Bus Station where we now take our lunch break.

I walk over to The Late Lounge at 92 High Street, behind which was the much-missed Bus Station, now an Employment Service block. In there I start putting these notes together.

After an hour's break, we board ERG3 once again and head up to the seafront, passing the demolished Crescent Road Coach Station. We go west, with our destination showing ‘M89 Gwrych Castle’. This was the route that ran from Prestatyn to the castle entrance in Abergele from 1958 until 1964.

At Abergele we join the former school bus route M15, resulting in a second visit to the isolated village of Rhyd-y-Foel, then down a long lane, with, above us, what was Pen-y-Corddyn-Mawr fort, then another long lane to Garnedd Cross Roads. Here turning constraints prevent us from reaching Betws-yn-Rhos, but maybe next time.

We now drop down, through attractive countryside, passing Colwyn Bay football ground, to join the current 12 route into Colwyn Bay from where we follow the old Colwyn Bay electric tramway route into Llandudno; until recently two broken tramway poles were still to be seen along the way. (More can be found in the recently published Venture publications Prestige Series 43 “Colwyn Bay” and 44 “Llandudno”.)

Turning right we cross over the A55 Expressway and railway and head for Rhos-on-Sea. The weather is still glorious, adding to the enjoyment of the day. We travel along the seafront, passing the golf course then, up the steep hill, Mynydd Penygarreg, on the Little Orme. We turn left onto Penrhyn-Side and then left down through Craigside. Clive points out that somebody's house now stands across the track bed of the old tramway, which is still visible across Bodafon Fields and Craig-y-Don. We continue down into Llandudno, to The Palladium, where we say our farewells to Clive and have time for a brief break.

Spot on time at 4pm, Andy arrives with DOG187, and we set off to retrace our route out of Llandudno via The Little Orme to join the A55 and a spirited run back into Chester.

Our thanks are due to Andy, Clive and Nigel Massey, who drove ERG3, and, of course, to all who came along for the ride.