Toc H

This post was originally published in 2012. We received 23 responses and have since been able to date the photograph of Rhyl Toc H members and add some extra information. It is also a timely update as Armistice Day approaches.

Toc H and World War 1

British Science Week: Sir John Houghton 1931-2020

As we are now well into British Science Week, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to mark the work of Sir John Theodore Houghton CBE FRS FLSW. Sir Houghton was a Welsh atmospheric physicist who contributed to the development of climate science and to the creation of international collaboration based on climate research.

He was born on 30 December 1931 in Dyserth, Denbighshire. The family moved to Rhyl when John was two, and he later attended Rhyl Grammar School, which is where he discovered his interest in science. He was so capable at physics, that he got the highest marks in Wales and won a scholarship for Oxford University aged just 16 years, and embarked upon a degree in maths and physics in 1948.

Rhyl Grammar School Magazine 1949 (NEWA Hawarden Branch)

Rhyl Grammar School, Speech Day Pamphlet 1949 (NEWA Hawarden Branch)

Graduating at the top of…

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Christmas at the North Wales Hospital

Local history of interest to us all. What charming and uplifting recollections, which will bring a lump to your throat and reminds us of what Christmas should be about.

From the onset in 1848, the festive season was duly celebrated by both patients and staff at the North Wales Hospital. The senior staff decided to organise a dance during the first festive season, as detailed in the first annual report:-

“At the commencement of this year, we indulged the patients with a dance – seventy of the patients, males and females, assembled, about six o’clock in the evening, in the corridor on the female side of the house, which was decorated for the occasion with evergreens, &c. A piano forte was procured, and dancing was commenced with great spirit and was kept up till nine o’clock. During the evening the males were supplied with a moderate allowance of good ale, and the females with tea and a little negus. It was truly gratifying and affecting to witness the decorum as well as the joyous delight of these poor…

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Volunteers Needed!

Are you looking for a new volunteer opportunity? Would you like to join our Monday volunteer group?

We are currently looking for new volunteers to join our group sessions. Members of the team have become experts in cleaning, repackaging and box listing new archive collections and are currently working on a large collection of mid-19th to early 20th Century records of Denbighshire County Clerk’s Department. Past tasks have included box listing various collections and the creation of the North Wales Patient Index.

The Clerk’s collection is one of our largest uncatalogued collections and we are eager to get the material listed and available to the public. It consists of hundreds of boxes full of files which reveal the County during a period when there were major developments in medicine and public health, the telephone network, new schools building, motor cars and roads and the outbreak of war.

The County Clerk…

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How well do you know Denbighshire’s past?

Are you a local history genius? Complete our quiz to find out how well you know the history of Denbighshire…

This week (14-22 November) is explore your archive  week, which is a joint campaign delivered by The National Archives and the Archives and Records Association across the UK and Ireland. It aims to showcase the unique potential of archives to excite people, bring communities together, and tell amazing stories.

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BBC World War One At Home at Rhyl Air Show

In Rhyl this weekend, one of only eight of these events in the U.K. Don’t miss it!

Actor Larry Lamb and The One Show reporter Lucy Siegle will appear at the BBC World War One At Home Tour when it heads to The Rhyl Air Show on Saturday 30^th and Sunday 31^st August from 10am-6pm.

This free family-friendly event will include hands-on activities, performances and interactive sessions designed to appeal to everyone from 8 to 80.

Larry Lamb will host the Briefing Room, on Saturday, with Lucy Siegle taking up the reins on the Sunday. They’ll be presenting a series of enlightening talks with expert contributors covering a whole host of World War One topics.

The event will offer the opportunity to reflect on the dramatic impact the war had on families and communities, as well as helping people to explore their own relatives’ links to the war with Imperial War Museums’ ‘Lives of the First World War’ activity.

Visitors can volunteer to be put…

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