Grave of Evan Parry Hughes
Evan Parry Hughes (d.1910)
Evan was born in Menai Bridge, Anglesey, in 1838 and educated at the Garth Schools in Bangor. He moved east in 1866 for the construction of the railway from Llanrwst to Betws-y-coed, which opened in 1867. The Conwy Valley line had opened from Llandudno Junction to Llanrwst in 1863. Evan was secretary and manager of the contractor for the Betws-y-coed extension, which included bridges over the Conwy and Llugwy rivers.
He moved to Conwy in 1875 to set up a branch of Llanrwst-based timber company P & H Lewis. His office was above the entrance to the Town Hall in Castle Street (later the Civic Hall and library). He helped to establish the town’s Reading Room, where the public could read newspapers and other publications at a time when personal copies were unaffordable for many.
He was secretary of the St George Steamship Company, which ran pleasure cruises from Deganwy and Conwy to Trefriw. He was sometimes called on to arbitrate in commercial disputes.
A Wesleyan preacher for almost 50 years, he was a deacon at Conwy’s Tabernacle Chapel, near the police station. He was a musician and won prizes for his Welsh poetry.
He died aged 72 in October 1910, leaving his wife Annie and six children. Annie died in 1923, aged 80. The couple had lost an infant daughter, Mary, in 1877.