The History House

Based at the edge of the Nant Ffrancon Valley in Snowdonia, The History House provides a genealogical and family history research service. It has also conducted extensive research on the heritage of the Bethesda area and the history of mountain walking and climbing in Snowdonia.

The History House is led by Dr Hazel Pierce, an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Member of AGRA (Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives). She has provided entries for the online Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and is an Associate Member of the Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book, Bangor University.

Website of The History House


HiPoints collection

Anglesey
Cemaes - former royal maid Violet Vivian designed Cestyll Garden and helped the area's nurses and infirmary
Llanfaethlu - Catherine Owen got damages from doctor after their engagement through her “marriageable years”
Grave of Edna Pritchard, Menai Bridge - inherited a fortune but died in 1935 in Snowdonia while walking with Oxford University friends
Grave of Emma Henderson, Beaumaris - worked for the French Resistance in WW2 until captured by the Gestapo

Conwy county borough
Grave of medical students, Capel Curig - roped together, Alfred Bradford & Edward Latham died in 1937 in a fall above Cwm Idwal
The Epperstone, Llandudno - named after the childhood village of suffragist Edith Champneys, who once lived at the house
Conwy Workhouse site - a couple who married after meeting here were both tried for bigamy at the same time
Abergele - stories of each of the 34 victims of the 1868 train disaster, from servants to a peer and a judge

Denbighshire
Rhyl - illness left Dorothy Miles deaf as a child. She became a pioneer of sign language poetry and education in the USA and UK
Corporation Arms, Ruthin - run by candlemaker Thomas Pierce in 1830s. Victorian landlady was deserted by her husband after childbirth

Gwynedd
Douglas Arms Hotel, Bethesda - on Telford's Holyhead-London coach road. Proprietor in 1850s was a former Inland Revenue officer
The Bull Inn, Bethesda - the landlord killed himself on the premises in 1862 after being cuckolded
Old police station, Bethesda - a local butcher locked up his wife here in 1906 for drunkenness, to Sergeant Rowlands' astonishment
The Victoria Hotel, Bethesda - one wing wrecked by lightning in 1893, then windows smashed by striking quarryment in 1902
The Llangollen Vaults, Bethesda - licensee's thirst for speeding in his horse-drawn "car" ultimately caused his death in 1901
Christ Church, Bethesda - vicar and residents wrangled over burial fees in 1875. Gas explosion in 1806 damaged windows and floors
Quarry bugler sculpture, Bethesda - depicts Hugh Llechid Williams sounding the warning before blasting at Penrhyn Quarry
Bethesda war memorial
Cae'r Berllan, Bethesda - the façade of this row of small cottages has hardly changed since the 19th century
Ruins of quarry hospital, Bethesda - built 1840s for rapid treatment of injured quarrymen. Also aided visitors after climbing accidents
Christmas murder victim's home - Gwen Ellen Jones of Cae Star, Bethesda, died 25/12/1909. Her killer was last man hanged in Caernarfon
Capel Jerusalem, Bethesda - pastor resigned in WW2 after deacons refused to allow evacuees' education in chapel rooms
Penrhyn quarry - the world's largest slate quarry in 19th century. Hundreds watched "Talcen Mawr" being blasted away in 1895
Former Pont y Twr School - largest school in the area in 1860s. Hosted meetings, concerts and a temporary typhoid hospital
Coetmor, Bethesda - Elizabeth Williams was prosecuted during the Great Strike to make an example of ‘one of the fair sex’
Blue Peris, Dinorwig - home to successive quarry managers, some lauded by the quarrymen and one reviled
Bangor - Countess Haig, widow of controversial wartime commander Douglas Haig, latterly lived at the Glynn estate
Bangor - all of the workhouse's staff were dismissed in 1890 after quarrelling
Christ Church, Deiniolen - opened in 1857, funded by the owner of Dinorwig slate quarry
Former National School, Deiniolen - church services held in the school while Christ Church was being built
Graves of 1899 boat-accident victims - nine children and three parents are buried in the churchyard
Dol Peris, Llanberis - quarry clerk John Davies lived here, before becoming the quarry's controversial local manager
Vivian slate quarry, Llanberis - named after aristocratic Dinorwig quarry manager, once locked out of the quarry by a jeering crowd
Anglesey Barracks, Llanberis - one Anglesey quarryman blew up himself and his barracks when trying to thaw dynamite
Pete's Eats, Llanberis - Harriet Hume named a new ship in Glasgow and ran several businesses, including the Glasgow House shop
Dolbadarn Hotel, Llanberis - a guest in 1846, an English curate, died on the mountains and his family alleged a cover-up
Plas Coch, Llanberis - Ellen Williams, daughter of a prosperous trader, had 10 children. One nursed in France in WW1, dying in 1919
Hanging Tower, Caernarfon - the hangman was paid £10 for the final execution here, and his 2nd class train travel was covered
Pwllheli - nine children on Sunday School trip from Llanberis area drowned with three parents in 1899 boat accident
Porthmadog - John Williams lodged and worked at Ynys Tywyn while supervising construction of the Cob
Queen's Hotel, Harlech - first licensee was Jane Christall. Her husband, a ship's captain, died in Denbigh asylum in 1884

Wrexham
Former Elephant & Castle Inn - where the father of Jack the Ripper's second victim committed suicide