NAMHO Conference 2025, 28th to 29th June

Fifteen club members ventured into North Wales for this year’s conference organised by the NAMHO Committee at the Clwb Rygbi Nant Conwy (Nant Conwy Rugby Club) on the B5106 just south of Trefriw.

The conference was well-attended, enjoyable and smoothly run. The Nant Conwy Rugby Club venue was rather isolated like our own had been at Norbury Village Hall, but provided a large room for displays, socialising, lectures and meals, a large field for camping (without too many burly men running about and throwing things), excellent catering and a tasty real ale. Several members took advantage of the camping while others opted for B&Bs in Llanrwst and Trefriw.

All the talks were interesting and well-presented, starting with our own Rob Vernon linking North Wales to Southern India via John Taylor and Sons; and ending with our own Roger Gosling on toxic mine gases.

The weather was many degrees cooler than England until Monday and there was some rain (despite all the news reports of a ‘second heat wave’). All the trips succeeded and were appreciated, even when they were a long drive (2+ hours) through very thick mist from Llanrwst.

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Snailbeach Weekend 10th-11th June, 2023

The Club along with the Shropshire Mines Trust and Shropshire Bat Group organised a number of activities over the weekend for members of the public. Ranging from underground trips, to surface tours and activities, plus demonstrations.

On the Saturday evening members of all three organisations came together for a social event in Snailbeach Village Hall. Luckily, as the thunderstorms broke out the public events had finished - Snailbeach also managed to dodge the worst of the rain.

The event involved a lot of members of the Club along with the Shropshire Mines Trust and Shropshire Bat Group, and numerous members of the public were welcomed to Snailbeach over the two days. The weekend saw the first outing for the Trust’s newly refurbished electric loco Red Dwarf with Stuart Tomlins operating it on the dressing floor. Andy Harris has done an amazing job on the restoration.

Alan Cureton volunteered to work in the Blacksmiths’ shop for the weekend. Although, he began to regret it towards the end of a very hot Saturday! It has been a long time since the Blacksmith’s forge has been used in anger and luckily the squirrels that were living above the chimney had moved out a couple of weeks before the event.

On Saturday the Shropshire Wildlife Trust put up their display outside the visitor centre. Their animal bone exhibits elicited a lot of interest from the younger visitors! Unfortunately they were not able to be at the site on the Sunday.

On the Saturday, Julian Bromhead lead the last tour of the day to the Snailbeach smelter, just as the sky went very dark and thunder started rumbling around the hills. We escaped the worst of the rain - Shrewsbury and all points east seemed to have been subjected to very heavy downpours. The amount of vegetation on the smelter site now makes it almost impossible to see the remains of the reverberatory hearths and flues.

The Saturday evening social in Snailbeach Village Hall for members of all three organisations was well attended. The food was very good - there were even seconds and thirds (of the desserts) for some!

On Sunday, the underground trips and surface tours started all over again. The cottages at Blakemore Gate were also open, so visitors were able to combine their visit to the mine site with the cottages.

One of the highlights of the weekend was Gareth Rushton’s steam locomotive display. This was set-up on large sheets of chipboard outside the Snailbeach District Railway locomotive shed. The SDR hopper wagon was also wheeled out of the loco shed and the railway display panels brought outside for people to look at, without disturbing the bats inside the loco shed.

Thanks

The very hectic weekend seems to have been enjoyed by all the visitors that came over the two days. Some only came for the morning, but ended up staying for the whole day!

Thank you to everyone who helped out in all the various roles, hopefully you found it enjoyable too.

Finally, special thanks to Julian for organising the ‘schedule’ of events and who was doing what, so that those on support duties weren’t stuck doing the same thing for the whole weekend.

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