Gathering – Prestatyn, home of the MPO
Prestatyn is the birthplace of Mike Peters and The Alarm and home to the MPO.
Prestatyn is a seaside resort in Denbighshire, North Wales. It is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. At the 2001 Census, Prestatyn had a population of 18,496.
(Prestatyn High Street)
A history of Prestatyn
Prestatyn is thought to be the oldest resort along the North Wales coast bringing in tourists since the 1800s due to its supposed health benefits from ‘sea bathing’ and fresh air. Before tourism the town’s staple industries were agriculture, mining for silver and lead as well as limestone quarrying.
They first came following the building of the Chester to Holyhead railway, lured by the descriptions of the ‘air being like wine and honey’, a far cry from the grime and smog of the cities, and they flocked to the town to enjoy its ‘abundant sunshine ideal for arthritis and nervous disorders’.
Wealthy families bought houses and set up bathing huts that could be wheeled to the seafront to cover people’s modesty and TB huts were established along the coast as people believed the fresh air could aid people’s recovery.
To accommodate the growing numbers who came in the Victorian era, entrepreneurs built hotels, many using the Ruabon red brick from the Wrexham brick makers.
And among the striking buildings which still stand is the impressive Victoria Hotel. Plans were approved for the building for a Mr Martyn O’Connor of Liverpool in August 1897.
Prestatyn is steeped in history, dating back to Roman times, when an offshoot settlement of the Twentieth Legion based in Chester in 120AD came to the area. The remains of three buildings have been discovered in 1984 on Melyd Avenue, the best preserved being a bathhouse and the other two probably workshops.
The scant remains of Henry II’s motte and bailey castle which was built in 1157, but destroyed in 1168 by Owain Gwynedd, can be seen just off Prestatyn Road near the railway.
Christ Church, Prestatyn’s Parish Church dates back from1863. Within the churchyard are the graves of six choirboys who tragically drowned in 1868 and those of shipwrecked mariners who were washed up on the shore.
From the hillside just above Prestatyn, you will notice a house called Uplands which incorporates a revolving dome observatory. This was built in 1912 by Thomas Thorpe an inventor, architect and engineer. He met Marie Curie the founder of radium at a scientific exhibition. Not knowing the full devastating effects of radium at that time she gave him a small piece. He kept it in his waistcoat pocket as a souvenir and he ultimately died through radiation poisoning. The telescope was dismantled because local people feared it would be taken over by German spies! It was donated to his old school.
Famous people of Prestatyn
Mitch Mitchell
Mitch Mitchell Drummer With The Legendry Jimmy Hendrix Experience from 1966 to 1970 as a child attended the prestigious St Chad’s private school, Princess Avenue, Prestatyn. Today The Building Is occupied by the welsh primary school Ysgol y Llys. Mitch Mitchell was ranked along with The Who’s Keith Moon and Ginger Baker of the Cream as the greatest rock drummers of their day.
In The Mid 1970′s he was compelled to sell a prized Jimmy Hendrix guitar he owned, and also his legal claim to future Jimmy Hendrix record sales reputed to be worth £100,000, he was the only surviving member of the Jimmy Hendrix Band until his untimely death in Portland, America at the age of 62 in November 2008.
Peggy Cummins
Film actress Peggy Cummins (real name Margaret Diane Fuller) who appeared in a number of films with top film stars of the day including Sean Connery, Vincent Price, Victor Mature, Ethel Barrymore, Margaret Rutherford, Dana Andrews, Stanley Baker and Humphrey Bogart was Born in Prestatyn in 1925, and moved to Hollywood in the mid 40′s, where she had brief relationship’s with J.F. Kennedy, Cary Grant, and Billionaire film producer and director Howard Hughes.She married Derek Dunnet who sadly died in 2001 and had 2 children a boy in 1954 and a girl in 1962.
Peggy Cummins moved back to Britain in 1950 where she today lives in Retirement.Her films were many they included, Old Mother Riley Detective 1943, English Without Tears 1944, Moss Rose 1947, Gun Crazy 1949 in her best role playing a gun shooting femme fatale who robs banks with her lover, Cash On Delivery 1956, Night Of The Demon 1957, Carry On Admiral 1957, Hell Drivers 1958, Dentist In The Chair 1960.
Arthur Rowland Jones
Born in 1880 Arthur Rowland Jones lived with his wife Margaret and son Rowland (born in 1910) at the ‘Nook’, Chapel Road, Prestatyn, opposite to where the magistrates court is today on Victoria Road .Arthur was first officer on Titanic’s sister ship the ill-fated luxury ocean liner The Lusitania sunk by a German u-boat off the coast of Southern Ireland in 1915.Of the 1,959 on board only 761 survived, and Arthur Rowland Jones was instrumental in saving a number of these lives by personally assisting to launch the life boats, and saw to the safety of the women and the children.
As he was rowing away eighty survivors Arthur saw an empty life boat floating nearby and transferred forty survivors from his lifeboat on to the empty life boat, and under his supervision returned with both life boats to the sinking ship to rescue those who were either floating or swimming, until both lifeboats had a full complement.The Royal Naval boat H.M.S. Bluebell subsequently came to their assistance.
Following their arrival at Liverpool the survivors were required to give depositions of their experiences of the sinking, and all paid a high tribute to the gallant and courageous behaviour of first officer Rowland Jones who had saved the lives of many of The Lusitania’s passengers and crew.On an unlucky stroke of fate Arthur Rowland Jones was later killed while serving as a captain on the iron ore carrying ship The Avanti, when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the Irish Channel in 1918, he was 38 years of age.
Arthur Rowland Jones is buried at Prestatyn’s Parish Churchyard.An inscription on the headstone of this Prestatyn hero erected by his wife reads “To my beloved husband Arthur Rowland Jones first officer of the Lusitania and afterwards captain of the Avanti. I hope to see my pilot face to face when i have crossed the bar”!
Neil Aspinall
Neil Aspinall The Beatles first road manager and personal assistant who was at the inception of the band in Liverpool was born in Prestatyn in 1941 when his mother arrived in the town as an evacuee from Liverpool during the second world war.He subsequently attended Liverpool institute for performing arts in Mount Street, and was in the same class as Paul Mcartney and George Harrison who were all to become lifelong friends.
In 1967 The Beatles asked Neil Aspinall to take over management of Apple Corps (a play on words and pronounced “apple core”) a multi media corporation with it’s foremost division being Apple Records.In 1967 Neil Aspinall supervised the launch of the iconic Beatles album Sergeant Pepper, and was instrumental in the album’s soaring success, and recently voted as the greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Although he wasn’t a musician Neil Aspinall played harmonica on the Sergeant Pepper track, for the benefit of Mr Kite, and was one of the many who sang in the chorus of ‘Yellow Submarine’, he also played some percussion on The Magical Mystery Tour. Neil Aspinall lived in Twickenham, Middlesex and died of cancer at the age of 66 in New York in 2008.
Prestatyn born Neil Aspinall has left a priceless lasting legacy to the music business that will be treasured by future generations.
Carol Vorderman
With an I.Q. of 154 Carol Vorderman was producer, researcher and host to a variety of T.V. programmes, and once one of the most popular and highest paid presenters on television. As a young girl Carol grew up with her family in Palmeria Gardens, Prestatyn. Born in Bedford in 1960 she had been working for an electrical retailer, when on the insistence of her mother Edwina she applied for work on the Countdown T.V. programme, and was at the inception of the show when it was first aired in 1982 becoming the legendry letters and numbers girl on the show.
After 26 years and 4,750 programmes Carol stepped down from Countdown in July the 2nd 2008.Once appearing in a advert for ariel washing powder she was to learn more about her roots in Prestatyn during the filming of the BBC 1 history series, “who do you think you are” shown on September 27, 2007 and that i myself took part in. Carol was to learn that her great grandfather Daniel Davies had a butchers shop in Prestatyn (the bistro restaurant today) and that also her father was an active member of the dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation, but sadly died during the making of the programme, Carol also learnt that her great grandfather Adolphe Vorderman participated in a major role in the discovery of vitamins.
In 2001 Carol received a belated and well deserved M.B.E. for services to broadcasting .A fitting tribute to an admirable woman who’s character was shaped as a young girl in the town of Prestatyn. Today Carol lives with her two children in Bristol.
Thomas Thorp
“Uplands” Prestatyn’s most distinctive hillside landmark, better known as the “house with the green dome” that once housed a large telescope was designed and built in 1912 by Thomas Thorp, a scientific inventor, astronomer and engineer from Manchester, who built his retirement home and once revolving domed observatory to pursue his interest in astronomy.
The claim to fame for this extraordinary ingenious man is that he invented the prototype colour camera and the coin-operated gas meter, both now used worldwide, unfortunately he didn’t find time to patent his inventions and lost a fortune. He once had the honour of meeting Madame Currie the inventor of the x-ray when she visited Manchester, and presented him with a piece of radium which he proudly kept in a metal container in his waistcoat pocket, unaware of the dangers of radium at that time his treasured possession ultimately caused his death through radiation poisoning. He died in 1914 just two years after retiring to his dream home on Prestatyn’s hillside.
Thomas Thorp’s telescope was later presented to a school in Whitfield, Manchester, the place of his birth. Today uplands stands as a monument to the memory of one of Prestatyn’s colourful if slightly eccentric characters.
L.S.Lowry
L.S.Lowry possibly the greatest painter this century, a shy and private man was born in Stretford, Lancashire in 1887, and became renowned for his “matchstick men” paintings of England’s industrial North West, paintings that snap and crackle with passion, honesty and commitment. And it was said that he wore his old suits to paint in, wiping the brushes on his sleeves and lapels.
Lowry was known to have spent many a happy holiday in North Wales, and on his visits pencil sketched scenes of Prestatyn, Meliden, Rhyl, Rhuddlan Castle, Denbigh and Flint.
In November 2004 a 1929 Lowry pencil Sketch of Edward Henry Street, Rhyl sold at Christies auction for £22,000, together with a Lowry painting of the Foryd, Rhyl that sold for £75,000. Denbighshire County Council endeavoured to purchase them to exhibit at Rhyl library but were unable to obtain the funding.
The White Lady Of Prestatyn
One of the greatest pleasures of living in Prestatyn is the ability to take a walk along the town’s glorious lengthy promenade. On a warm sunny summer’s day it’s an ideal way to relax and spend a few leisurely hours. However, if you choose to walk along Prestatyn’s promenade during the twilight hours on a summer’s evening and happen to see a figure of a woman on her own in a white dress, you have been one of those number of people to have sighted an apparition known as the White Lady of Prestatyn. The people said to have seen this ghostly figure describe her as a tall figure dressed in white walking along the promenade between the Nova and the Festival Gardens, although sightings of her have been seen elsewhere on the promenade. The most vivid sighting of the White Lady was some years ago by a Rhyl man walking his dog, when from nowhere a figure of a woman in a white dress appeared in front of him. His immediate thought was “How unusual it was for a woman to be walking alone in a white dress at this time of night”. His dog suddenly started to shiver and whine and refused to move. The man then picked up his dog and proceeded to carry him under his arm. The figure of the woman had now turned around and was walking towards him.
Many Thanks to local historian Harry Thomas and his excellent web archive relating to Prestatyn. Click here to see Harry’s archive.
Links
Prestatyn Weather – (5 – Day Forecast)
North Wales Webcams – BBC site of local webcams including live feed from traffic cams on A55