Where to stay for a few days away closing enough for the wife who would be arrive a day last as she had one more shift to work, so we needed a journey of around 2 hours max, over the weekend end when the clocks go back in October and likely to be rather damp and autumnal - what a bout a town by the sea with interesting railway links, an award winning brewery with Tap on the high street and two, I say two, railway station taps – only one winner Porthmadog at the start of the Llyn peninsular North Wales.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XhMqkH6dmAnQgVyX8
(Son and I had hoped to travel to Porthmadog on the Cambrian Line using the £2 bus fare to get from the Potteries to Shrewsbury and then jump on the subsidised Transport for Wales train up the coast, unfortunately a train crash earlier in the week near to Macnellyth meant the dreaded bus replacement service was in place so in the end we drove)
Known locally as ‘Port,’ Porthmadog is situated on the edge of The Snowdonia National Park on the estuary of the Afon Glaslyn as it runs into Tremadog Bay. It’s one of the largest towns in Snowdonia with a population of around 4,200. Interestingly, it is also one of the newest towns in Wales, only being created in 1810-1811 after William Madocks built a sea wall (The Cob) and reclaimed a 7,000 acres of Traeth Mawr (The Big Beach). This major engineering project also created a new natural harbour deep enough for small sailing ships that started to appear around 1825 with the first appearance of the name ‘Port Madoc’ in 1830 when the Ffestiniog Railway opened.
Porthmadog developed as a famous port later in the nineteenth century when it began exporting the slate produced at the quarries in Ffestiniog and Llanfrothen to roof houses in the expanding towns and cities in England and all over the world. By 1873 more than a thousand ships carrying over 116,000 tons of slate left Porthmadog
Porthmadog is rather blessed with railway stations and station taps. The ‘big’ railway sitting at the north end of the awesome Cambrian Line (Barmouth Viaduct, Harlech Castle etc) enters to the North of the town just past Tesco’s and has a well established Bar on the platform – the Station Inn. There are actually Tow ‘little railways in town, they are focused on the southern waters edge of the town, very much in the centre of everything and even sharing and then crossing the LPhigh street, Litte a in the sense of narrow gauge – the West Highland Heritage Railway services to the North and East with a the line now extending all the way to Caernarfon. The Ffestiniog railway which shares the Harbour Station with the WHHR, is indeed the World oldest narrow guage railway first run in to transport Slate quarried up in the mountains at Blaeneau Ffestinog the 13 11/2 miles to Porthmadog where said Slate would have been shipped around the world. Being canny business men and independent the owners of the railway recognised the money to be made from passenger services and tourists specials which were also added to the operation as early as January 1865.
The Harbour Station was originally and all wood affair, the presence solid looking stone buildings appeared in 1879 when the profits and purity of the line led to a whole rebuilt – however they were still thirty rescuing the wood from the station to help rebuilt nearby Penrhyn station – this was confirmed during a refurbishment of Penrhyn station in the 1982 when the refurbished wood was found during the refurbishment.
The original Welsh Highland Railway was one of the greatest white elephants of Wales’s industrial history. It opened in 1922, and closed in 1937, lasting just 15 years However it is now another record holder being the UK’s longest heritage railway and runs for 25 miles from Caernarfon, past the foot of Snowdon and the picture postcard village of Beddgelert, then through the stunning Aberglaslyn Pass and on to Porthmadog. What’s more remarkable, is that, following its closure just before the start of the 2nd World War the track were lifted and removed to support the war effort.
A group of volunteers and rail enthusiasts was formed in 1961 and following lots of hard work and fundraising by 1980 there were trains running in the old exchange siding in Porthmadog, but only as far as the point where the siding joined onto the old Welsh Highland track bed. In the 90’s there was a bit of a push and shove between big sister Ffestiniog railway and the new kids on the block Welsh Highland Railway Society – which included High Court hearings eventually a truce was agreed and four phases of redevelopment was begun – heading south from Caernarfon eventually connecting to Porthmadog in 2011 – her majesty the queen rode the lone in 2010 and the two railways now bring in an estimated £15 million and employs over 300 staff.
What was the goods shed and then station refreshment room and now Spooners Bar and cafe offers rail users, tourists and locals a warm welcome and cracking range of local and regional beers – it was pretty much rammed during our time in the Porth.
Opened in its present format in 1999 -the large interior moves from cafe to Bar – you seemed to be able to sit it where ever you could get a table, there is a very nice beer garden which is on the curve of the station platform and at the start of the Cob – the man made that this beer garden has terrific view of up close steam engines and the Glaslyn estuary with a multitude of bird life and the occasional seal
For the three or so nights I popped in here, there was both a varied and interesting cask offer as well as clientele. The beers seemed to be changing on a daily basis and there was always a great range of blonde to dark and glad to see with a very regional focused – not a Doombar or Osset beer in sight. The quality was always top drawer as well and efficient bar service – as mentioned above it ticks over nicely the integrated café obviously supporting this- though we didnt try the breakfast looked god and not bad vale at £8.95 for a large full Welsh.
More families during the day and occasional coach load – as it was half term was very busy around ‘tea time’ and then settled into more of an adult/couple/beer tickers vibe with what felt like an even mix of locals and visitors – as always interesting that many of the ‘locals’ we chatted today had brummie or northern accents not welsh – most moved to retire or work in the tourist industry. Would definitely recommend popping in of your are in town – parking is a bit short in the immediate area though there is a large car park 5 mins away behind B&M and a useful little underused council carpark on the left just over the bridge beside the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Welsh shop – this is has a ticket machine. There is also a very new and shiny Premier Inn jus over the road from Spooners, which must have some of the best views of any of the chains hotels – right on the edge of the estuary and beside the railway and cob and from the rear a unspoilt view of Snowdon and the rest of the Eryri National park
Premier Inn with the best view in the UK?
A little further down the high street over the bridge and opposite a neat little park is another beery treat, the Purple Moose Brewery tap, which bucking the trend for brewery taps to be housed in industrial units or former shops is actually a proper Pub with affine heritage and pedigree including at least one name Change The Ye Australia, a pub since at least the 1850s, stands quite prominent on the high street – all white with purple edges, it’s hard not too miss.
The first known written reference to “Australia House” is dated 1857. The occupant, David Jones, was listed as a “victualler” in the 1861 census.
Robert Cadwalader of Porthmadog Maritime Museum In an online article on history points.org
Nobody know how the pub got its name. Contrary to popular belief, Porthmadog ships didn’t carry slates to Australia. Slates destined for distant continents went to Liverpool or London, for loading onto larger ships. One Porthmadog-built barque, the Anne Melhuish of 1849, did reach Australia. It sailed there and in New Zealand for many years but never returned to Britain.
The only other Porthmadog-built ship which sailed for Australia, the North Wales, left in August 1852 carrying emigrants who hoped to benefit from the gold rush. The brig was built for the voyage by Captain Richard Prichard, an entrepreneur who had taken many emigrants to the USA. He opened the town’s first bank, in Lombard Street, and briefly owned the Britannia Foundry. What became of the ship after he set sail for Australia, aged 72, isn’t recorded, but there’s an account of his dying off the Californian coast in 1855.
Source https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=the-australia-porthmadog
For a while the pub was renamed the Gestiana after the Porthmadog-built schooner which is recorded as the last ship to be built in the Porthmadog ship yards
An article in the Welsh Daily post 29.11.2011 reports that ships built in Porthmadog would sail to points worldwide, trading with ports in the Baltic, Hamburg, southern Europe and even as far as Newfoundland and Labrador in modern day Canada.
The Gestiana was known as a Western Ocean yacht, a type of schooner that had been developed in Porthmadog during the late 19th century, and had helped to export vast quantities of slate and other products around the world, but by 1913 the demand for these ships were in steep decline, with the railway having firmly established itself as the primary mode of transport of slate from the quarries of the Blaenau Ffestiniog area. Unfortunately, the Y Gestiana was wrecked on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic.
The legend of the Purple Moose in The Australia
The Pub but reverted back to to its previous antipodean name in 2015 when it was taken over by the group of local breweries. The Australia was then taken over by Purple Moose Brewing in 2017 as their tap house.
Many of the guides to town make the following reference; The bus stop outside has long been identified by the pub’s name. This sometimes gives rise to information about bus times indicating that the local bus is destined for “Australia”!
The mainline station and line were opened in 1867 as part of the a Welsh coast railway – the station actually opened as Porthmadoc with the name being updated to Porthmadog as late as May 1975. In its heydays you could catch through trains to Birmingham and London’s Euston and Paddington stations.
Thee long established Station Inn (there is a cafe across the railway crossing as well) was run by the same family the Havelocks for over fifty years, they retired in 2023 and the lease was taken on by the town;s Purple Mosse brewery, there beers dominated to pumps though there is limited other suugnage to tell its a PM pub.
It was pretty full on the Saturday afternoon we visited – a mix of folk waiting for the train but also a number of local families – theres nice beer garden out the back and it looked like you could also take drinking on the the platform – big screens at either end of the lnge was showing football.
Owned by Lawrence Washington, a former home brewer, volunteer railway worker and music graduate, The Purple Moose Brewery burst onto the Welsh brewing scene in 2005 in the historic harbor town of Porthmadog with its first beer, a pale ale called No. 1.
The grill and barrel blog https://thegrillandbarrel.wordpress.com/
I began home brewing in 1995 on the back of getting a music degree at Huddersfield University and discovering the great world of cask beer with fellow musicians. I took it quite seriously though. I read up on it, bought raw ingredients and worked out my own recipes. I even had a ‘proper’ home brew mash tun and copper. No home brew kits were used in the making of this brewery!
Initially brewing with a 10-barrel kit and only 2 to 3 brewing cycles a week, by the time the brewery moved into a new brew house in March 2013, they were brewing up to 10 times a week to fulfil demand. Purple Moose now has 200 barrels that produce 800 casks of beer a week. In June 2015 the brewery shop moved to Porthmadog High Street helping to boost foot fall by 65%! When talking to the drinks business in 2018, Washington’s argument for the point of difference that has aided in the brewery’s success comes from the calculated use of conditioning tanks, an important asset to the popular taste of products, and also expressing a desire to do some special brew collaborations in addition to the seasonal beers Purple Moose offers. Fast forward a few years and the brewery has done just that
The Royal Sportsman Hotel on the road to the station and just down from Tescos is a prominent building and has clearly been a long standing fixture in the town. It was closed for some time but recently it’s had a major refurbishment and now in the hands of
As imposing property dating back to 1862, the Sportsman was originally a staging post for coaches on the turnpike road to Porthdinllaen and was built using local Blaenau Ffestiniog slate, which is still visible on the exterior of the hotel. The original stone and slate fireplaces can be seen in the bar and the lounge.
The road to Porthdinllaen was another Llyn white elephant billed as a future route to Ireland the construction of The Menai Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it was the world's first major suspension bridge. And Holyhead n Anglesey became the gateway to ireland.
It all looked a little quiet for a Saturday afternoon, however on entering the front door the receptionist said I was welcome to come in for a drink and pointed the way to the bar which I followed only to find the same young lady waiting behind the bar and very happy to pour me a pint of Seithenyn, brewed by the local Crew LLyn and very nice it was. I was the only drinker in the bar which had obviously had a major, recent make over and had more of a cocktail vibe but far play to them keeping on one cask handpull.
Other pub options in Porthmadog include Tafarn Pencei (literally Quayside Tavern in English) a small café cum bar on the quieter side of the harbour and close to the town’s Yacht club. Unfortunately it wasn’t open when I was snuffling around that side of town. What pub suggests they are a regular for Cwrw Llyn beers and is Grade II Listed made up of Two former town houses built in the 1820s and combined in the 20th century to form one pub.
The Red Lion just round the corner from The Sportsmen Looks like a combination of three houses. Despite a handpump on the bar and a sign stating 'real ales' on the exterior none is served. Discos are held at the weekend and there's a surprisingly sizeable rear beer garden.
Another pub tucked slightly away from the main action but handily next to a number of car parks and the towns park is the Y Longg – The Ship Inn, a fine stone building with bar and sewerage lounge another Grade II listed and built around 1840, though as often the case some dispute around the pub itsel claims to benPorthmadogs oldest pub and in insciptionnnthe pub says it was built in 1824 An interesting feature is a very fine model ship over the front door said to be a replica of the type of schooner Porthmadog ship yards specialised in. Unfortunately listed as not currently serving real ale
Tremadog
Tremadog is arguably the birthplace of town planning in Wales, certainly the birthplace of Lawrence of Arabia. The Village, billed as an exceptionally fine example of a planned town, was founded by William Alexander Madocks, who bought the land in 1798. The historic centre of Tremadog was complete by 1811, and this part of the town remains substantially unaltered to this day.
Madocks (1773-1828) used the wealth he inherited from his father establishing Tremadog as a model village. To alleviate poverty, he created the first “manufactory” in North Wales, a water-powered mill complex in a valley a short distance north of the square. New reservoirs built in the hills behind Tremadog supplied water to his woollen mill, corn mill and fulling mill (where new cloth was cleaned and thickened). Maddock’s major breakthrough was agreeing a long term contract with the British Army and luckily for Maddock’s the Battle of Waterloo created peak demand for the supply of uniforms and brought further wealth to this par of Wales.
The other local dignitary T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia fame) born in 1888 spent his childhood in a house in Church Street, now named Lawrence House.
The Golden Fleece dominates one side of the square, this former coaching inn is now a friendly family-run inn and restaurant. Some interesting spaces with vaulted banquets, but was very quiet and bar dominated by macros. What Pub and other report that there are usually at least 2 hand pumps on, but only Hobgoblin IPA was on offer so I didn't stay long.
The union across the square looked interesting unfortunately time was against me and didn't have time to pop in. Its description on beer websites, suggests it's a friendly village local situated in the village square, with two separate cosy bars and a restaurant at the rear designed as one and building started around 1805 and has been known as the Union Inn since at least 1868.
All in all a very pleasant couple of days in North Wales and well worth a beery trip, Porthmadog is a little gem and can’t fault Purple Moose beers and would happily recommend Spooners.
No comments:
Post a Comment