Member of the Association of Independent Museums
Affiliate Member of The Transport Trust
Member of the Heritage Railways Association
Founded 1974
Return to Home Page
The Glyn Valley Tramway Group, the only organisation dedicated to conserving the heritage of the unique Glyn Valley Tramway in North East Wales, is emerging with new vigour from recent problems caused by a breakaway faction.
Saturday 24 May saw the thirty-second Annual General Meeting for the Group, held at the Canolfan Community Centre in Glyn Ceiriog and attended by members who had travelled from all over the UK. Acting Chairman, David Perry, spoke of recent challenges to the Group posed by a small breakaway faction, and assured members that the Group will not be diverted from achieving its aims. [Click here for fuller extracts from the speech] He introduced the Group’s new President, His Honour Judge Geoffrey Kilfoil, a retired Circuit Judge and prominent member of the Ceiriog Valley community. Judge Kilfoil, who is also President of the Ceiriog Memorial Institute, is keenly interested in the heritage of the Valley and has pledged his full support for the GVT Group. Judge Kilfoil joins Vice-Presidents, Gwilym Hughes, well-known retired solicitor from Wrexham and grandson of a former GVT engine driver, and Peter Summers of the family-owned John Summers Steelworks, Shotton, who has supported the Group for many years.
With a new and revitalised committee, the Group is now forging ahead with its project to create a Heritage Centre for the Ceiriog Valley in the old Tramway engine shed in the centre of Glyn Ceiriog. The Centre will provide a new heritage focus for visitors to the Valley, together with educational and learning facilities for schools; in the longer term, a fully working replica section of Tramway will be constructed to the line’s unusual 2ft 4½in gauge, together with a replica steam tram engine and vehicles.
The Group is developing a full Business Plan for its project, as a basis for approaches to various grant funding agencies, with the help of specialist consultants in both Wrexham and York. Volunteers have already started restoration work on the shed building – the largest original GVT structure still extant – which will continue over the coming months. The Centre will embrace all facets of the Industrial Heritage of the Ceiriog Valley – including the famous steam Tramway which closed down in 1935 but is still remembered with affection by many. The new book, ‘Slates from Glyn Ceiriog’ by the Group’s Archivist, local author and noted historian John Milner, is the first of three describing this amazing industrial past, set in what is today a peaceful beauty spot.
END
2008 AGM heralds new spirit