Back to our visit to Wales in June.
The Home Front Museum in Llandudno is housed in an old garage which, during the second world war, was the town's auxiliary fire station. All the artefacts in the museum are from one man's collection.
You can find it in a little back street just a stone's throw from the main thoroughfayre of Gloddaeth Avenue. It is also quite close to the main town museum.
It was quite dark inside but a welcome relief from the midday heat. The dark made it hard to take photos but I've added a few here.
I
think I was most fascinated with the shop and the types of food
products available. Dreadnought Household flour and Marmite cubes.
'I make good soup says potato Pete. Save the fleet. Eat less wheat.'
We were left alone to wander around as we chose, sometimes doubling back to see something we'd missed or wanted to look at again. As you walk round you also hear the sound of radio announcements, musical entertainment, comedy shows, commentry from newsreels and also the sound of air raids, especially in the Anderson shelter. For some reason I only took a photo of the outside of it.
We then moved on to the Llandudno Museum. We'd visited the museum a few years ago and it had changed quite a lot since our last visit. I'll sort out some photos for a post at some point. In the meantime here is a collage of the little Welsh dragons which were dotted here and there around the museum.
I assume as a trail for children to follow.
Take care.
What an interesting museum - so many fascinating exhibits. Those Welsh dragons are really cute and a lovely idea for a trail for children. I look forward to some photos of Llandudno museum. Take care Rosie.
ReplyDeleteThank you Caroline. It was a fascinating museum, plenty of things rang a bell and were still around in the 1950s when I was a small child. Llandudno museum is fascinating with all the early and seafaring history, as well as it's tourism history. You too take care:)
DeleteHow interesting! Plenty to see and think about with the backdrop of all the sounds of the period and the temptation of marmite cubes! The cost of victory is chilling. Nice to visit Llandudno museum too, you never know what you'll find in these smaller museums and often find something you've seen when a child. 😊
ReplyDeleteThank you CK. Yes, it was interesting. Lots to see in both museums jogging memories from the past, thought provoking too:)
DeleteSo many things I recognise from childhood there - I still find it hard to believe that the war finished less than eight years before I was born, and my best friend at primary school was a boy whose parents were both Germans who spoke very little English.
ReplyDeleteThank you John, lots to remember, I was born five years after the war ended and I still have my identity card from then as there was still rationing of some items. I wonder what happened to your friend and his family?:)
DeleteI wonder what happened to Marmite cubes? Funny too see the old money signs '6D' . When I was small I didn't understand the money when I looked in shop windows. Decimalisation came in, I think, when I was about 7 years old. I feel so old these days as so much that was familiar to me has changed. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Simone. I remember decimal day or D day as it was called. I think it was in February 1971 and I was working in the office of a book shop in Nottingham. Things have changed so much over the years haven't they? Some things I miss others I don't:)
DeleteI don't miss the fog of smoke on upstairs buses or the cigarette butts and smell in telephone kiosks! I do miss the feeling of freedom but that is probably in my head rather than in reality. x
ReplyDeleteI remember as children we used to play around the woods in the village, paddle in the brook and the sheep wash, play in each others gardens and at the end of the street. We were safe as there weren't many cars. Parents can't let their children do any of that now so there is a loss of freedom. I remember the smell of cigarettes on the upstairs of buses, we had one an hour through the village. I don't miss coal fires, hot water bottles, cold bedrooms with icy windows inside and out during the winter nor outside loos on cold, dark nights visited with a torch. Take care, Simone:)
DeleteThis museum would fascinate me. I prefer seeing history through the eyes of the common person. And one man collected all of this? Remarkable. Thank you for sharing this, Rosie.
ReplyDeleteThank you Granny Sue, It is a fascinating museum, it is apparently from one man's collection over about 40 years. Like you I prefer social and local history, when we visit a grand house or building I always think about the people who kept it going and enjoy the kitchens and servants quarters more than the grand rooms:)
DeleteWhat a wonderful museum to visit. A real gem.Thank you for sharing the pictures. I'm not surprised that you kept going back to see things again.
ReplyDeleteCute little Welsh dragon at the other museum.
Thank you Beverley, it was a good job there was just us two in the museum so we could pop backwards and forwards and not get in the way of other visitors. The dragons were cute:)
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