The Cayley Flyer

link_to_french_translationThe Cayley Flyer, Rhos Promenade, Rhos-on-Sea

This pub, formerly the Cayley Arms, is named after the Cayley family, once prominent landowners in the area. Several other local place names mark this influence including the Caley Promenade, with its distinctive grass bank on the landward side of the road.

Kenelm Road is named after Sir Kenelm Cayley, Allanson Road after Sir George Allanson Cayley and Everard Road after Sir George Everard Arthur Cayley. The names Brompton and Ebberston, attached to local roads, are the names of former Cayley estates in Yorkshire. Most of the family’s remaining property in Rhos-on-Sea was sold in 1935.

One member of the family, Sir George Cayley, was an eminent inventor. He designed a practical flying machine 50 years before the Wright brothers. In 1853 he built a machine that could carry the weight of a man. This glider, the “Cayley Flier”, paved the way for the Wright brothers' powered flight in 1903, as the Wrights acknowledged.

The “Cayley Flier” flew for about 275 metres across Brompton Dale (in Yorkshire) before crash-landing. This was the first recorded flight in history in a fixed-wing aircraft, so it is fair to describe Sir George Cayley as the true inventor of the aeroplane. Sir George, 80 years old at the time, didn’t risk flying the plane himself, ordering his coachman, John Daley, to fly it for him. After the alarming experience, the coachman promptly resigned.

In 2017 the Caley Arms was renamed the Caley Flyer, following refurbishment.

With thanks to Ian Reid, of the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay History Society

Postcode: LL28 4EN    View Location Map

Website of the Cayley Flyer (Facebook)

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