Britain's Own 'Valley Of Adventure'???

[pete9012S]

Storing the art in the quarry during World War Two improved the National Gallery's understanding of preserving art.

Almost 80 years ago Snowdonia prepared to keep a welcome in the hillside for some of the world's most treasured paintings.

Across Europe the advancing Nazis had already looted or destroyed millions of pounds worth of art.

As Allied troops fled Dunkirk, bombs fell on London and a German invasion seemed inevitable, attention turned to how to protect the National Gallery's collection.

Since the beginning of World War Two, the paintings had been stored in various temporary Welsh locations but they were not entirely suitable for long-term use.

In 1940, Winston Churchill famously said of the nation's art treasures: "Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall leave this island."

Experts scoured the UK for a hiding place - until they found Manod Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd.

Manod Mountain had been a working quarry for over a century.

Its excavations created a cavernous space at the heart of the mountain, and covered with hundreds of feet of slate and granite it was virtually impregnable to bombing.

Also, its very remoteness made it easier to keep the mission top secret.

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[Courtenay]

Wow!!! A "Valley of Adventure" story indeed... thanks for sharing, Pete.

The government retained its lease on Manod until the 1950s, and it was to have performed the same role in the event of a third world war.

However, the quarry and the huts within are in a poor state of repair and access is strictly controlled.

Ms Bosman became one of the few people who have been inside in a quarter of a century, when she joined writer and explorer Will Millard as part of his BBC Wales series, Hidden Wales.

Mr Millard described it as one of the most moving experiences of his professional life.

"I was in absolute awe of what had been achieved there in just six months, it is truly a testament to the ingenuity and determination Britain showed during the War," he said.

"Inside you can still see the marks on the wall where the paintings hung, and the floor is littered with the hygrometers and thermometers which would have controlled every aspect of the conditions.

"It's such a shame that very few people will get to see it in the future. We've let a piece of our national heritage slip away."

So why are they apparently not doing anything much to preserve the site and its history? Couldn't the National Trust or Cadw (Welsh equivalent of English Heritage), for example, have a hand in it and make it safe to open to the public, even for part of the year, so people today and in the future can appreciate what an undertaking it was? Just seems sad to me, especially when so many other important sites from British history (like the Cabinet War Rooms and Bletchley Park, to give two other WW2 examples) are well looked after...

[Rob Houghton]

Interesting story! My dad said he remembered hearing about this when he was younger, though he wasn't ever sure whether it was true or not.

[number 6]

A great factual story, Pete. I've known of the Manod Mawr quarry and its war time secrets for a number of years.
The next best thing to Manod is the Llechwedd Slate Quarry, which is nearby. This is open to the public. Here you can enter the mines and get a taste of the atmosphere that you would have experienced at Manod.

[timv]

For that matter, could Manod Mawr have inspired The Mountain of Adventure? It's in the right area, as this is the most heavily Welsh-speaking region of Wales and also has the highest mountains and remotest countryside. It would be interesting to know if the storeage of the national treasures there was ever discussed in magazine or radio stories in the years after 1945, so Enid could have picked up on it as an idea to use. Or perhaps someone at her publishers or an acquaintance with 'in the know' museum curator friends like Sir Mortimer Wheeler mentioned it.

The only clue Enid gives us is that it's a few days' walk from the farm where the Trents and Mannerings and Bill are staying, and is a mostly mountainous region with a few farms. Whether Enid ever spent a holiday there or entirely used her imagination is intriguing. She seems to have had some idea of the geography of the Criccieth coastal area by the late 1950s as this seems to be reflected in The Ragamuffin Mystery, where the chatty and excitable hotelier's wife and her mother-in-law seem to use genuine North Welsh speech patterns though their language is bit stereotyped.

I've always assumed that the mystery hideout of the 'King of the Mountain' and his gang was logically some abandoned industrial/ mining site , otherwise how did they get the heavy equipment into the caves? Logically they would have needed an access road!

[number 6]

Interesting points regarding Enid and Criccieth, Tim. I'm just wondering if she ever saw posters advertising 'Butlins holiday camp' in Pwllheli, which were displayed in most main Railway Stations and on billboards, etc, in the Summer seasons from 1947 onwards. These eye catching posters of the newly opened Pwllheli camp (1947), surrounding Coastal scenes and Criccieth Castle could well have made an impression on Enid if she saw them when she travelled through towns by car or by railway. She could've also seen similar posters advertising Wales at Swanage Station when she took the train up to Corfe Castle with her Daughters. With her impressive imagination, She probably never needed to actually visit a place for inspiration. A brightly coloured poster would do! The posters also advertised places such as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, too, which could've given her a few ideas for backdrops for stories as well. I've never thought of this possibility before. Just a suggestion.

[Rob Houghton]

I've always presumed that Enid must have visited Wales a few times...it's almost unlikely that she didn't, as it was always popular as a holiday destination, and also with walkers. I wonder if she ever visited Snowdonia? It would have been a place she would have enjoyed walking, I should imagine.

Reading the car journey taken in The Ragamuffin Mystery, I get the impression Enid had made the same journey - although it could just be in her imagination, of course! She describes the travellers coming to 'a big seaside town, packed with trippers, noisy and full of litter' - which Mr Martin drives straight through. He says they will drive through 'the next one too' and explains that after this they will come to 'a lonely part of the coast'. This area is populated by 'deserted bays, lonely sweeps of sand, tiny villages and fishing hamlets' with hills rising up from the coast. Much of this description sounds based on fact - the big towns being maybe Prestatin and Rhyl, which were well-known tourist places even back then, followed by a quieter stretch of coast heading towards Colwyn Bay -- but this is only in my imagination of course...it could really be anywhere!

[IceMaiden]

I've passed that quarry tons of times, never dreamt it was used for such a task . I can see why it would be such a good hiding place though as nothing could get to it under the vast piles of slate.

I would put The Mountain of Adventure further up than Blaenau, somewhere around Llanberis way as it's even more mountainous with the Snowdon ranges. Funnily enough there is a mountain near Llanberis that is worked in, 'Electric Mountain' Dinorwig is a hydroelectric power station built deep inside the mountain itself. As it only opened in 1984, Enid obviously can't have been inspired by it but it does show that her idea of someone constructing and working inside a mountain isn't as far-fetched or fictional as it sounds!

Regarding the location of Ragamuffin, I've always thought the 'big seaside town' was Llandudno and the next one Bangor with the 'lonely part of the coast with bays, villages, fishing hamlets and hills rising up from the coast' either on the Llyn or somewhere between Criccieth and Penrhyndeudraeth.

This is Porthdinllaen on the Llyn but it's exactly how I picture the location of Ragamuffin:

[Rob Houghton]

Regarding the location of Ragamuffin, I've always thought the 'big seaside town' was Llandudno and the next one Bangor with the 'lonely part of the coast with bays, villages, fishing hamlets and hills rising up from the coast' either on the Llyn or somewhere between Criccieth and Penrhyndeudraeth.

I guess that also makes sense, considering the Ragamuffin inn is called Penrhyndendraith Inn!