Coed y Bleiddiau

From Festipedia, hosted by the FR Heritage Group

Coed y Bleiddiau
Earl Of Merioneth passing Coed y Bleiddiau Photo: Cyril Perrier 1969
Previous Station	Tan-y-Bwlch
Previous Location	Garnedd Tunnel
Status	Private Halt
Next Location	Dduallt Manor
Next Station	Campbell's Platform
Latitude	52:57:23.13N
Longitude	03:59:22.60W
Grid Reference	SH664417
Stations Locations	Harbour Station

OSGrid:SH664417 Latt / Long :52.95647 / -3.98946

Coed y Bleiddiau ('Wood of the Wolves') is a remote location just down the line from Dduallt and there is evidence of ancient forest in the area. Local legend has it that the last wolf to be killed in Wales met its end nearby. There is a small halt here, serving a cottage which was built around 1860 for the use of the Superintendent of the Line.

The current Festiniog Railway Company Rule Book spells the name of this location as either "Coed-y-Bleddiau" or "Coed y Bleddiau". However, the correct spelling of the Welsh word for "wolves" is "bleiddiau". The location is also occasionally referred to as either "Coedybleddiau" or "Coedybleiddiau".

The railway crosses a small side valley on a curved, dry-stone, embankment here and the extra width on the outside of the curve is evidence of its having been eased at some time, probably after 1869 when a lot of improvements were made to make locomotive working easier.

Contents 1 Early history 2 Late 1920s - present 3 Current status 4 See also

[edit]Early history

The cottage at Coed y Bleiddiau was built around 1860 on land bought from Colonel Tottenham, who also owned land around Dduallt and required the establishment of the station there. At one time it was known as "Bridge House". The cottage was built for the use of the then Superintendent of Line, T. Henry Hovendon and, as a consequence, was sometimes known as Ty Hovendon during the 19th century. The reason for choosing such a remote location is not recorded.

There was an earlier cottage (now known as Old Coed y Bleiddiau) about 200 yards further up the line. Census records show this to have been occupied as early as 1841 but it could be older than that. O/S maps of around 1880 show this cottage as Coed y Bleiddiau Uchaf.

An article in FR Magazine 28, p26, contains the reminiscences of Henry Hovendon, a descendant of the Superintendent, who could remember living at the cottage and the arrangements for the delivery of shopping from the guards of passing trains.

In 1901 there was a derailment nearby, serious enough to warrant an investigation and report to the Board of Trade by one of their Railway Inspectors.

After the Hovendons the cottage was rented to a variety of tenants who were not employed by the railway. From around May 1913, the house was occupied by J. W. Sudbury, from Birmingham and in June 1918 the lease was transferred to a W. Wellings. He applied to purchase the property outright two months later, but this was refused.

[edit]Late 1920s - present

For some years from the late 1920s until 1937 Sir Granville Bantock (the composer and Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - CBSO) and his family rented the house. The reminiscences of his daughter, Myrnha, appear in FR Heritage Group Journal 34 (Summer 1993) and it is interesting to note that Lady Bantock employed the time honoured method of obtaining provisions, holding out a basket complete with list and money to the Guard of the Up train and receiving the full basket from the returning Down train.

Sir Granville was obviously very attached to the area around Coed y Bleiddiau; after his death in 1946 he was cremated and, at his request, the family scattered his ashes on the slopes of the Moelwyns, behind the cottage.

Sir Granville was followed as tenant, from 1937, by Harry St. John Bridger Philby (aka Haji Abdullah), a leading British fascist, Arabist, and father of the KGB agent, Kim Philby. St. John Philby had been a friend of William Joyce ('Lord Haw Haw') and local legend holds that Joyce stayed at Coed y Bleiddiau at least twice in the late 1930s and referred to the area in his wartime broadcasts. Both claims have, however, been shown to have no basis in fact according to research conducted at the Imperial War Museum by the BBC for the 1991 programme ‘Germany Calling’ and by both of Joyce’s biographers.

The most recent tenants of the cottage were Mr & Mrs Johnson who lived there from 1951 until 2006, when failing health made living in such a remote location impractical.

The house sits tantalisingly just off the curve before its tiny, 22ft long, slate-built, private platform.

[edit]Current status

Officially the platform is only for the use of residents of the cottage and FR staff (Rule Book General Appendix, 1.9,2), and the current Traveller's Guide no longer indicates that there is a halt. In spite of this, trains have stopped to pick up walkers on a few occasions.

[edit]See also

• FR Stations