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The Queen's Visit to North Wales
1889

Scanned from the
Illustrated London News
August 1889

NB: the engravings below illustrated an account of Queen Victoria's visit
which is transcribed here

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In this first table are six ILN engravings showing Queen Victoria at
Bala, Llandderfel, Rhiwlas, Ruabon and Wrexham.
Other scenic illustrations then follow.

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	Queen Victoria's reception while passing through Bala
	Bala: presentation of an address to Queen Victoria
	Queen Victoria leaving Llandderfel Railway Station
	Queen Victoria's welcome at Rhiwlas, Bala, the residence of Mr. R. J. Lloyd Price [Richard John Lloyd Price of Rhiwlas, with Robert Willis, is credited with setting up the first commercial whisky distillery in Wales. The Queen's visit took place not long after production commenced, and a special cask of the Welsh whisky was presented to her on this occasion. There's an interesting illustrated account of the story at the Celtic Malts website.]
	Queen Victoria leaving Ruabon Station on her journey to Wrexham
	The Queen at Acton Park, Wrexham: here the Town Clerk reads the address of the Corporation. The Mayor, Mr. Evan Morris, was knighted on this occasion. The Queen's escort was provided by the Denbighshire Hussars, and the guard of honour formed by the Welsh Fusiliers. [At this time 'Welsh' was the correct spelling, having been changed from 'Welch' in about 1880; only later did the regiment regain the traditional spelling.]

In addition to their illustrations of the Queen, the ILN included a number of scenic views of Palé Hall and the general Bala/Corwen/Llangollen areas.

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	Palé Mansion House, Llandderfel, occupied by the Queen during her visit. Palé Hall was the home of Scottish railway pioneer and engineer Henry Robertson, who had come to North Wales as a young man in 1842. Robertson, a pupil of Robert Stephenson, was a contemporary of the equally illustrious younger Stephenson, George. Apart from extensive railway-building in Wales and the border counties (including viaducts on the Shrewsbury-Chester line at Chirk and Cefn Mawr — even the great Stephenson had been unable to carry through the difficult crossing at Cefn), it was under Robertson's direction that steelmaking was established at what had been the Iron Works at Brymbo. Robertson had also been a Liberal MP, first for Shrewsbury then Merionethshire. He died in 1888, so did not live to see the Queen's visit to Palé the following year — that pleasure (or duty?) fell instead to his son, Henry Beyer Robertson, upon whom the Queen conferred a knighthood during her visit, partly in recognition of his father's services to the development of North Wales. Sir Henry lived at Palé until his death in 1948, having continued his father's many enterprises: the Brymbo Steel Company's undertakings, the Minera Lime Company and the Broughton & Plas Power and other collieries occupied his attention, but he was also a partner in the Beyer Peacock company of locomotive builders in Manchester, and on the board of the Great Western Railway for more than half a century. Two earlier illustrations of Palé from a different source can be seen at the foot of this page, together with links to more information.
	The Dee, near Bala Lake, Merionethshire, with Palé in the distance
	Bridge of Llandderfel, on the Dee
	Llan-y-Cil Bay, Bala Lake
	Outlet of Bala Lake
	A picture of Bala Lake, by Mr. E. A. Pettit, presented to the Queen by Welsh Ladies
	On the shore of Lake Bala
	A house on the shore of Bala Lake
	View of Corwen
	The Holyhead Road between Llangollen and Llandderfel, originally constructed by Thomas Telford
	Vale of Glyndyfrdwy, near Llangollen
	A view on the Dee
	Rocks on the Dee
	Between Llangollen and Berwyn Station
	The Dee at Berwyn Station, near Bryntisilio, the residence of Sir Theodore Martin
	The Dee at Berwyn Station [this is the left hand section of the illustration above, showing the Station building enlarged]
	The Horse-shoe Falls, Llangollen, constructed by Telford to supply water to the Ellesmere Canal
	Pontcysyllte Aqueduct over the Dee [in the ILN, this illustration was mistakenly captioned as 'The Viaduct over the Dee at Chirk, near Llangollen. The engineer was Mr. Henry Robertson']
	A view of Llangollen, with the bridge over the Dee
	The village of Llangollen, on the Dee: a view from the Hand Hotel
	Crow Castle [Castell Dinas Bran], from the Vale of Glyndyfrdwy
	Castell Dinas Bran, or Crow Castle, near Llangollen
	Vale of Llantysilio, near Llangollen
	Valle Crucis Abbey, Llangollen
	The Canal near Llangollen

The ILN articles that accompanied these illustrations can be found here.

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Henry Robertson acquired the Palé estate in 1869 (having been residing at Crogen, a couple of miles away) and set about rebuilding the mansion house: it was subsequently featured in The Building News of 3 July 1875 with the following illustrations, and captioned:
Pale Hall, Merionethshire – The Seat of H. Robertson, Esqr., M.P.
S. Pountney Smith, Archt., Shrewsbury & London

Click images for enlargement in a separate window

Palé/Robertson related links:

Palé Hall, Llandderfel, is now a country hotel and restaurant, and private residence. The link is to the history page of the website which shows the property as it is today, with interior photos elsewhere on the site.

Since 1857 the Crogen Estate has been, and still is, home to the Robertson family. The hall and private estate are available as a venue for activity breaks, sporting weekends, private functions etc.

Llandrillo: great local website with plenty of photos and information about the village.

Further links in connection with the other illustrations above can be found at the end of the text of the articles which accompanied them, at this separate page.

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