Home Front museum, Llandudno

The Home Front museum was established in 2000 to give visitors and local residents an insight into life in Britain during the Second World War. Curator Adrian Hughes has also carried out detailed research into the roles played by Llandudno during the war, when it hosted the Inland Revenue (moved from London to escape bombing raids), the Royal Artillery’s Coastal Gunnery School, US Army personnel and others.

His research activities also cover the effects of the First and Second World Wars on communities across Wales. You can read some of his research at the HiPoints listed below.

The museum’s website gives details of opening times.

HiPoints collection:

In Llandudno
The Imperial Hotel – HQ of the Inland Revenue through the Second World War
Evans’ Hotel – earmarked by MI5 for double agents during the war
Home Front museum – in a building used for Civil Defence training in wartime
Tennis star's former office - JC Parke won Olympic tennis silver, after captaining Ireland's rugby team
Grand Hotel - doubled up as Companies House from 1940
The Bandstand - where the salute was taken during parades, including on VE Day
Former Land Girls' rest home - one of only two in Britain, and it was thanks to American fundraisers
Former wartime food office - where Llandudno's adults had to go for ration books
Former Home Guard HQ - the Home Guard installed a pigeon loft as backup communication
Former Lever Bros rest home - plenty of sea air for tired factory workers at this West Shore location
Bangor rail station - where 2,000 children arrived as evacuees over just a few days in September 1939
RAF logo man’s former home - this property was home to Charles Pepper, designer of the RAF’s insignia.
Former Royal Naval club - site of former Llandudno branch of Royal Naval Association.
Former artillery school HQ - the School of Coastal Artillery moved in September 1940 to the Great Orme
Town Hall - focus of activities including fundraising and cookery and make-do-and-mend classes
Former US Army mess - when Llandudno hosted American army military hospitals before D-Day
RAF hero family's home - Glyn Griffiths was an ace fighter pilot, decorated at the Battle of Britain
Snooker star's hotel - World champion Fred Davis bought this in 1948 and staged exhibition matches there
War hero J Rhydwen Jones' family shop
- son of furniture retailer was awarded Croix de Guerre and MC
Airship repair site 1918 - police warned sightseers not to smoke as an airship was mended on the prom
U-boat rendezous site - a German submarine called three nights in a row at the Great Orme in the FWW
Motor pioneer's ex-home - Sir William Letts of Llandudno was a founder AA member
Ex-shop of "Postcard King" - GR Thompson commercially exploited his facial similarity to King Edward VII
Czech internee's shop - tailor Hynek Zaloudek was interned in WW1 although the Czechs sided with Britain
1915 salute site - thousands of soldiers paraded past Chancellor D Lloyd George on the promenade
Mines inspector's ex-home - Sir Clement Le Neve Foster's work improved safety in quarries and mines
John Bright's Paddock - the reforming Liberal MP kept horses in Llandudno for his frequent visits

Elsewhere in North Wales
Bryn Rhedyn, Conwy - former home of submarine periscope inventor Sir Howard Grubb
Eagles Hotel, Llanrwst - earmarked for keeping spies under armed guard if Hitler had invaded
PoW camp, Llanrwst - the Italian and German prisoners worked on local farms
Craig-y-Dderwen, Betws-y-coed - home to a Sussex girls' school in SWW, before the army moved in
Betws-y-coed war memorial
Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel - pillboxes built here in SWW to thwart possible German invasion through West Wales
Plas y Brenin - used for officer training in SWW, one instructor was Marty Wilde's dad
Glanwydden war memorial - created in 2022 to replace one that was in a chapel
Dolwyddelan war memorial
Penmachno war memorial
Llansannan - German officers were held at Dyffryn Aled in WW1. Several escaped
US plane crash site, above Penmaenmawr - five airmen and their mascot dog died
Penmaenmawr war memorial
Penmaenmawr - PoWs from Graiglwyd Hall camp had their own path to the quarry where they worked
The Little Orme - many battalions of the Royal Artillery practised seaward firing here from 1942 onwards
Old Colwyn war memorial
Abergwyngregyn - German bomber crashed in 1941 on Llwytmor. One survivor later murdered a fellow PoW
Abergwyngregyn - coastal rifle range was used by many volunteer and regular soldiers and the Home Guard
Wartime diamond factory, Bangor - Helped sustain a vital industry, in rooms above a clothes shop!
Beach Road army camp, Bangor - boxer Joe Louis was one of the GIs stationed here
Penrhyn Hall, Bangor - where BBC Variety department broadcast ITMA and other popular wartime shows
Dickie's boatyard site, Bangor - built motor boats for the Royal Navy in the 1940s
Y Felinheli - Dow-Mac moved engineers from Suffolk to assemble tugs for vital war operations in the Persian Gulf
Fort Belan, near Caernarfon - RAF rescue craft based there in WW2. German munitions sent there for dumping at sea
Llanfairfechan war memorial - a woman who worked on RMS Lusitania is among those named
Wrexham war memorials - including details of hundreds of First World War dead
Bryniau Farm, near Deganwy - a German PoW assaulted a fellow worker here for calling him a Nazi
Pen Pyra Farm, Sychnant Pass -  former home of soldier decorated by British and French for FWW bravery
Penmaenbach - an RAF plane crashed into the sea, killing three airmen, after swerving to avoid the headland in 1937
Llanfairpwll war memorial
Beaumaris war memorial
Flying boat slipway, near Beaumaris - built for seaplanes to be modified in nearby hangars for RAF use in SWW
Conwy cenotaph
Bodlondeb, Conwy - more than 30 artworks were evacuated to here from the Williamson Gallery, Birkenhead, in 1941
Bryn Morfa, Conwy - the only Luftwaffe bombing of Conwy hit the farmhouse here, while the resident was reading her bible
Capel Tabernacl, Conwy - wartime evacuees were taught in the chapel schoolroom as local schools were overwhelmed
Isolation hospital, Conwy - opened in a Cadnant Park house to treat skin diseases following an influx of child evacuees
St Agnes Cemetery - JD Polin died of TB, probably caught from his mother while he was on leave from the Western Front
Colwyn Bay war memorial
Llysfaen war memorial
Tal-y-cafn bridge - an Italian PoW leapt to his death here in 1944, believing his wife and children dead
Eglwysbach war memorial
Llanddoged war memorial
Glan Conwy war memorial
Colwyn Bay - Chinese officials accused mountainer Sydney Wignall of spying for USA. He was spying for India
St Asaph war memorial
Porthmadog war memorial
Caernarfon - NECACO, moved from England in WW2, produced parts for some of the RAF's most famous planes
Beaumaris - Emma Henderson worked for the French Resistance in WW2 until captured by the Gestapo
Menai Bridge - William Jones killed in 1940 at Dover when a German aircraft attacked his minesweeper
Malltraeth - pilotless biplanes flew from RAF Bodorgan in 1940s
Rhosneigr - 11 rescuers and 3 airmen died after a plane crashed into the sea in summer gales in 1941
Sandymount Club, Rhosneigr - once owned by Ken Rees, survivor of Stalag Luft III escape tunnel
Holyhead - memorial to crew of an American bomber which ran out of fuel in 1944
Amlwch - sailor Will Williams received the VC and other medals for sinking submarines while serving on decoy "Q" ships
Tywyn - a German PoW from Neptune Hall camp tried to save a drowning girl. Site later used for D-Day training
Tywyn - an American Flying Fortress crash-landed at RAF Tywyn airfield in 1944
Fairbourne - almost 700 concrete blocks form one of UK's best-preserved defences against Nazi invasion
Aberdyfi - memorial honours European refugees who trained locally as commandos. Many later died in action
Pwllheli - giant concrete arrow in field was installed for trainee pilots from nearby RAF Penrhos
Aberdaron - war memorial
Llanberis - RAF bomber parts were made at the Dinorwig slate quarry in WW2
Llanberis - bombs for RAF raids were stored at Glyn Rhonwy quarry
Llanbedr - USAAF fighter pilots were based at the RAF base, practising air-to-air firing
Llanrug - war memorial
Harlech - two escaped German officers were arrested in 1915 after a week on the run

Outside North Wales
Church Village war memorial, Rhondda Cynon Taf
Air-raid victims' memorial, Swansea
The John Fielding, Cwmbrân - named after a man awarded the Victoria Cross after Rorke's Drift
Pontypool war memorial
St Thomas' Church war memorial, Neath
Second World War memorial, Abergavenny
Newport - pub named after WW2 Victoria Cross winner JW Linton. He and his son died in submarines