Former Heath Memorial Home, Llanfairfechan

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Former Heath Memorial Home, Llanfairfechan

The Heath Memorial Convalescent Home in Llanfairfechan was opened in 1897. It was named after industrialist Robert Heath, an ironmaster and colliery owner who became one of the world’s largest producers of bar iron. He died in 1893 before he could fulfil his long-term ambition to open a convalescent home in North Wales for the working men of North Staffordshire.

Old photo of Heath Memorial HomeHis two sons continued the business and spent c.£20,000 on purchasing the land and on building and decorating the opulent home, which had beds for 50 patients.

In 1900 Messrs Heath Bros, of Biddulph Ironworks, Staffordshire, invited the War Office to use the home temporarily for soldiers wounded in the South African (Boer) War. Later some soldiers who had been wounded in the First World War stayed at the home. In January 1919 they wrote to the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) saying that a YMCA room was needed in Llanfairfechan.

In 1940 the Heath Convalescent Home was requisitioned as an auxiliary hospital under the Emergency Medical Services Act. It was necessary because the Caernarvonshire and Anglesey Infirmary in nearby Bangor had to reserve many beds for air-raid casualties from English cities whose own hospitals had been damaged. 

After the war the Heath reverted to being a convalescent home. Numbers dwindled in the 1960s and by the end of that decade it had closed. During the 1970s a few of the many rooms were used by Llanfairfechan Social Club but the Heath was an expensive building to maintain and closed its doors in the 1980s.

It remained derelict for nearly 20 years before the recently formed Conwy County Borough Council bought the property and opened it as offices for their Highways Department in 1997.

With thanks to Adrian Hughes, of the Home Front Museum, Llandudno

Postcode: LL33 0PF    View Location Map

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