C O N T E X T 1 2 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 23 IHBC Annual School Annual School 2011 School 2011 IHBC An 2011 IHBC Annual S IHBC Annual School School 2011 IHBC IHBC Annual Scho architects Owen Ellis; Robert Owen, principal architect, led our tour of the site. Although the charity needed 40 bedrooms, the same as originally in the building, an extension was required to meet modern standards and provide en-suite bathrooms. The carefully designed extension was and is now almost complete. While modern in appearance, it replicates the verticality and range of materials and colours of the original building. The most heartening point is that the building once again fulfils its original purpose. It will provide breaks for the elderly and rehabilitation for younger residents. The success of the project emphasises the importance of the pre-application discussions between the architects and the local authority. The tour of the St George’s National School of Llandudno illustrated how a local community can save a much loved historic building. The Llandudno Seaside Building Preservation Trust rose to the challenge. Over a seven-year period, it organised the project, raised the money, acquired the building and finally completed the renovation works. Stuart Rivers of the trust explained the history of the building and its restoration for use as an EarlyYears Learning Centre. Barbara Hornbrook Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda Our drive from Llandudno took us along the coast and through lush countryside, rolling hills and solid rock, up to the quarry which dominates the town of Bethesda. On the last day of the Annual School, a group of us was on a journey to the centre of North Wales’s geological and industrial heritage. On our way we passed Penrhyn Castle, a mock-medieval mansion completed in 1837 for George Hay Dawkins-Pennant and later owned by the Douglas-Pennant family, proprietors of Penrhyn Quarry until 1973. Our guide at the quarry was managing director Alan Smith. He explained that the slate at Penrhyn derived from fine-grained mudstones which underwent lowgrade metamorphosis and deformation due to tectonic compression up to 590 million years ago. At its height in the 1890s, the industry in Wales produced half a million tons and employed nearly 17,000 men. Cheap imports from countries such as France and Spain forced the closure of most of the quarries ofWales, but Penrhyn survives. Booted and suited in our protective wear, we were Delegates examining the work to convert Lady Forester’s Convalescent Home (Photo: Richard Cartwright) Delegates at St George’s National School (Photo: Ron Douglass)
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