Plas Blodwel, Llandudno Junction
This 1920s building was originally a children’s home. Part of it is now used as North Wales Housing Association offices.
In April 1914 Conwy’s Guardians of the Poor, who managed Conwy workhouse, agreed to buy land at Llandudno Junction for £713 for new children’s homes. The old workhouse was no longer deemed appropriate for children.
Four months later Sidney Colwyn Foulkes, a young architect in Colwyn Bay, beat a Southampton architect to win the job. His design featured two residential blocks either side of a drive leading to a “receiving home”, with suggested positions for two “future homes”. The plans won first prize in a competition in The Builder magazine, but the First World War delayed the project. You can read more about Sidney’s illustrious career on our page about the granite “postcard” which honours him in Colwyn Bay.
When the project resumed c.1924, Sidney used the same Georgian style but simplified. Instead of the grouped homes, the main element was the building we see today – an elongated version of “Block A” in the 1914 plans. The early photos of it are shown here courtesy of Conwy Archive Service.
The home opened on 1 March 1926, with Mr and Mrs Christmas Evans as superintendent and matron until 1947. They quickly abolished the workhouse uniform (a cause of distress for the children) and were determined to make Plas Blodwel feel more like a home than an institution.
Around 60 children lived in the home and attended the council school across the road (later Ysgol Maelgwn). They were confined to Plas Blodwel during occasional outbreaks of infectious disease, such as scarlet fever in 1928.
Some eventually went to university and one became a senior civil servant. During the Second World War, Mr and Mrs Evans kept a room available for any former resident who was serving in the military to stay in while on leave. The couple recognised that many ex-residents had no family home to return to.
Later Plas Blodwel was a nursing home, which closed in 1992. It provided temporary accommodation for several months for people whose homes were damaged by flooding after torrential rain in June 1993. Prince Charles visited in July 1993. Plas Blodwel became the headquarters of North Wales Housing Association in 1994.
With thanks to Adam Voelcker, and to Adrian Hughes of the Home Front Museum
Postcode: LL31 9HL View Location Map
Website of North Wales Housing Association
Website of Conwy Archive Service