HistoryPoints News

Jun 14, 2012

Typing to the 'talkies'

The Cosy Cinema in Colwyn Bay was so small and cosy that the secretary in the architect's office above ...

used to listen to the film soundtracks as she typed. Her boss was Sydney Colwyn Foulkes, who designed this and many other buildings in the area. To read more, scan the QR codes at Matthews & Son, the hardware shop now occupying the former cinema. Or click here

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Wrexham bon viveur's fatal eye op

Jan 12, 2025

Edward Lovatt hosted legendary dinners at his Wrexham pub and brewery, the Old Swan, when he wasn't busy being parish clerk, an auctioneer and agent for various companies. But an operation to replace one of his eyes with a glass eyeball in 1887 ...

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Sub-periscope inventor's Conwy home

Jan 4, 2025

Sir Howard Grubb's periscope had transformed the Royal Navy's submarines by the time he bought a house on Sychnant Pass Road near Conwy, where he soon set about running an electric cable from a nearby hotel to light his residence. Sir Howard had invented ...

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Gentrifying Gibbet Hill

Dec 27, 2024

Gibbet Hill in Swansea got its name from public executions conducted there in medieval times, but Georgian gentlemen found the name unsavoury as they built mansions for themselves on the hillside. The name was changed to North Hill, but the old name ...

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