The Vickers-Armstrong VA3 hovercraft on Rhyl beach. The world's first passenger hovercraft service. Photo: Brian Whitehead.

On 20 July 1962 a large crowd gathered on Rhyl beach and marveled as the newly developed , or hovercoach, as it powered up its two roaring engines. The machine signalled a new chapter in the future of transport, making sci-fi dreams reality.

The hovercraft was a huge technological leap forward. As it was being developed in the 1950s the Patent Office was unsure whether to class it as aircraft or boat. Prior to this, various attempts were made to build a craft capable of traversing land, water and anything in between, using a cushion of air and a skirt that lifted the craft above the terrain. In 1959 a hovercraft crossed the English Channel and, like the recent advances in jet-engine technology, enthusiasm was huge.

Half a century ago, traversing the Dee Estuary took over two hours by road. The new hovercoach could, it was claimed, carry 24 passengers at up to 70mph, taking 30 minutes with a scheduled 12 trips per day. The journey cost 拢2 for a return ticket, with a 20 minute turnaround. It was on an overcast August morning the first two dozen passengers made history, encountering a bumpy crossing to the then bustling seaside town of Rhyl.

Weighing in at 12 tons and spanning 54 feet in length and 27 feet in breadth, the Vickers-Armstrong VA3, run by British United Airways, was one of the first commercially viable hovercrafts rolled out for use. From the summer of 1962 it was constantly at the mercy of the weather, operating for just 19 days out of a scheduled 54 and only managing the proposed dozen trips on two of those days.

Ultimately it was the elements that proved the end of this innovative service. On the afternoon of 14 September the VA3 left the Wirral shore to head for Rhyl, and halfway across the 17 mile journey one of the lift engines failed, soon followed by the second. Eventually the craft made its way to Rhyl. For the next three days, the three captains, along with other helpers frantically attempted to moor the craft, but despite limited success the craft broke free and drifted nearly half a mile out to sea.

Brian Whitehead remembers the fateful few days that brought the curtain down on the world's first passenger hovercraft. "I well remember that night in September 1962, a friend and I were returning home from Prestatyn when we saw the maroons go up at Rhyl lifeboat station.

"We decided to drive the car on to the prom by the lifeboat station and were waved by some of the crew to follow them and drive along the prom shining our headlights to where the hovercraft was slamming into the sea wall. When they had finished lashing it to the prom railings, we were thanked and we left. The next day we read about the incident, stating that there was hundreds of gallons of kerosene on board!"

In the hands of the gales and tides of the Irish Sea, the VA3 was smashed into Rhyl's promenade wall, followed by a further pounding from the waves and a heroic intervention from the Rhyl lifeboat crew.

The ordeal signalled a premature end to the world's first passenger hovercraft service. The accident happened a few days before the service's trial period was up, and signalled an end to the prospect of gliding over the waves for the people of Rhyl.

The dashing but unassuming Pryce was a popular figure in the paddock, but it was his speed and car control that had everyone talking.

At the 1975 British Grand Prix he became the first and only Welshman ever to take an F1 pole, driving the little-fancied Shadow. An accident brought his race to a premature end, but earlier that year he had shown what he was really capable of.

At the annual non-championship Race of Champions, in his black Shadow emblazoned with the Welsh flag, he started from pole position. He slithered on the damp and cold Brands Hatch circuit, the famous, undulating stripe of Kentish tarmac, and beat some of the greatest names in the history of motor racing, including the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Jacky Ickx and Ronnie Peterson.

This 成人论坛 Wales News video from 1975 catches a rare interview with Pryce as his star burned brightest. Here he reflects in a typically understated way about his victory at Brands Hatch. The clip also includes some high praise from none other than three-time champion Jackie Stewart:

Rival, friend and five-time Grand Prix winner John Watson confirms Pryce's reticence towards the jet-setting world of Formula One. "Tom was possessed of a huge talent," remembered Watson. "We spent a bit of time together because we both did Formula Two in 1974 and traveled around a bit together.

"I remember one time having dinner in Italy, and what Tom wanted was chicken and chips. And there in Italy you had the choice of the most incredible food - but that was all he wanted."

Pryce was killed aged just 27 in baffling circumstances in the 1977 South African Grand Prix. He fell victim to the decade's lackadaisical approach to safety in one of the most horribly bizarre accidents ever to befall motor racing. Cresting a rise at Kyalami, he was unable to dodge a teenage marshall running across the track to attend a small fire on his team-mate Renzo Zorzi's Shadow.

Jansen van Vuuren, the 19 year old marshall, was killed instantly. Pryce was struck on the head by the heavy fire extinguisher van Vuuren was carrying, also killing him instantly. His car carried on down to the next corner, collecting Jacques Laffites' Ligier and knocking him out of the race, before coming to a halt.

As Grand Prix racing is now a safer and more affluent world, it will forever be poorer for the absence of one of Wales' greatest and most unassuming sportsmen many tipped as a future world champion.

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People could take a helicopter flight to Liverpool's Speke Airport (now John Lennon Airport)

Wrexham, in those far off days just after the war, was a fairly large industrial centre and the company decided that the helicopters would land, shortly after take off from Liverpool's Speke Airport (now the John Lennon Airport) to pick up any businessmen who wished to journey quickly to south Wales.

Hindsight is always the only exact science and, as might be expected, the service was not a success. There simply weren't the number of potential passengers. The route was flown for just under a year, closing in March 1951.

In that time only 219 passengers were carried. Perhaps the failure was a portent of things to come. Scheduled helicopter flights have never really been established, although there are plenty of private machines and commercial helicopter companies operating in the United Kingdom. Perhaps one day in the future...

The enterprise might have been short lived but it did at least give Wales another important first - the first helicopter passenger service in the world.

Wrexham County Borough Museum and Archives

You can from inside the newly-refurbished museum on the 成人论坛 North East News website.

Designed to engage and appeal to all the family, new exhibits include 'Smelly Old Wrexham' where visitors can follow their nose through the streets of the Victorian town and take in the aroma of the famous Wrexham Brewery.

The National Museum and National Library for Wales will also have a presence in the Wrexham building to exhibit collections.

Wrexham Mayor Jim Kelly was joined by Welsh historian John Davies for the official opening.

The funding came from which contributed 拢950,000, and .

You can find visitor times and exhibition details on the .

The life-size statue will be on display in six weeks' time.

The commissioning of the Henry Morton Stanley statue has proved controversial. Last year, 50 eminent people, including travel writer Jan Morris and poet , signed a letter of protest against the statue, claiming Morton's expeditions contributed to the "racist" ideas of the day.

The statue captures the moment Morton stretches out his hand to greet Dr Livingstone.

Speaking to , sculptor said: "It's at the point where he meets Livingstone and I wanted the whole interaction."

Elphick resisted elevating the figures of Stanley on a plinth to emphasise his humanity. "I wanted him down on the same level as everyone else," he said. "Instead of putting these people up on plinths I wanted to show that we're all part of humanity and can strive to achieve whatever we chose to."

Llandudno-based sculptor Nick Elphick has created the statue.

Speaking on the controversy surrounding the statue, Elphick said: "I think it's wrong to judge people by our own understanding today because they were brought up very differently."

on Henry Morton Stanley.

Sir Hugh Middleton ensured that the people of London finally got decent drinking water.

Sir Hugh was the sixth son of Richard Middleton, MP for the Denbigh Boroughs and governor of , and spent his childhood in the beautiful Clywd countryside.

He was born in 1560, right in the middle of Queen Elizabeth's traumatic and glorious reign, an age when Britain first achieved world, as opposed to European, significance.

His name is often spelled Myddelton, such variations in spelling being quite common at the time - no less a person than William Shakespeare even spelled his name in at least half a dozen different ways.

Hugh Middleton, in the fashion of most younger sons, had to leave home to make his way in the world and he decided to try his hand in London.

There he was apprenticed to a goldsmith - presumably his father paid the necessary fees for indentures - and in time became so successful that he was appointed Royal Jeweller to Elizabeth's successor, .

As a successful businessman Hugh Middleton moved easily between London and Denbigh, becoming an Alderman and, eventually, succeeding his father as MP for the Welsh town.

He was not just a goldsmith: his interests and business concerns stretched into many diverse areas. He also traded as a cloth maker, a banker, a mine owner and as an engineer. It was in this last capacity that Middleton really made his name.

London had been, for many years, a stinking and filthy community where the infrastructure was incapable of dealing with or supporting the thousands who flocked to the city every year.

The lack of clean water - for drinking and for washing - was a major problem. The Thames was, literally, a floating sewer. Small wonder that disease was rife and that the plague visited almost every year.

Hugh Middleton became the driving force behind the plan to create a clean water supply for London. It was not his idea and he only became involved once the original designers found themselves in financial difficulties. However, once he was part of the project Middleton drove it forward with an almost raging intensity.

The plan was to construct something called New River, a culvert that would bring water from the River Lea at Ware to what was soon being described as New River Head in London.

This "new river" was dug out and constructed between 1608 and 1613, being 38 miles in length and used by people who lived on its route as well as householders in the city.

The project took both time and money. Much of this was provided by Hugh Middleton although the king - who had always been a supporter of the scheme - was also induced to lend a financial hand in 1612.

New River was finally completed and officially opened on 23 September 1613, giving Londoners their first clean water for dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of years.

Hugh Middleton was a true Renaissance Man. He was interested in art and literature and also, as well as his traditional business interests in London and his community work in Denbigh, he developed and ran lead and silver mines in Ceredigion.

He also found time to sire 10 sons and six daughters, their survival into adulthood - always a perilous process in the 17th century - undoubtedly being helped by the clean water supply that their father had created.

Sir Hugh Middleton was created Baronet in 1622, a clear sign of the position he held and his significance in Stuart England. He died on 10 December 1631 and was buried in London.

There is a memorial to Sir Hugh on Islington Green and several streets have been named after him in the capital - and in the small Hertfordshire town of Ware.

Yet surely the greatest memorial to this Welshman of drive and vision has to be the fact that, thanks to his efforts, the people of London finally got decent drinking water.

The system he created kept the capital supplied until the middle years of the 19th century. A far sighted man indeed.

The hillfort glow experiment takes place in December

and will attempt to communicate by torchlight between 10 ancient hillforts.

The experiment, funded by the , willl involve local people close to 10 hillforts on the Sandstone Ridge, the , and the Wirral and aims to see if glowing fires could have been seen across the hills and acted as a communication or warning system.

Iron Age settlements can be found on many of the summits of the Sandstone Ridge, Clwydian Range and surrounding hills, dating back around 2,500 years.

Flares will be launched from the hillforts followed by torch light at Maiden Castle, Beeston Castle, Kelsborrow, Helsby, Burton Point, Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor, Penycloddiau, Moel Arthur, Moel Fenlli and Caer Drewyn.

Volunteers can help with this mass experiment by helping to man each of the 10 hilltop signaling points. Places are strictly limited, so to register to help as a volunteer for your local hillfort, visit..

Once registered, volunteers will be sent information packs with exact timings to meet and what to bring.

Further details about the can be found on the .

The Kathleen and May was renamed the Charlotte Rhodes for the 成人论坛 Show.

Made of oak and pine, it was found derelict back in 1998 by her owners Steve and Marilyn Clarke, who restored it over a period of two years. It was completed at a cost of 拢2 million.

From next March, the ship will based at Liverpool's Cannign Dock but will be used for overnight trips along the north Wales coast, as well as making journeys to Cumbria, the Isle of Man and Ireland.

Peter Gilmore as Captain James Onedin and Anne Stallybrass as Anne

The Onedin Line was a popular British television series that ran from 1971 through 1980.

Set in the 1860s, the drama followed the fortunes of James Onedin (played by Peter Gilmore), an ambitious, clever and determined shipowner whose private life was as tempestuous than the seas he sailed.

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From July 1940 Britain's cities burned as the Luftwaffe's incendiary bombs fell from Heinkel bombers and repelling the German threat was imperative to national survival. The main RAF bases in Wales included RAF Pembrey in Carmarthenshire, in the Vale of Glamorgan, RAF Hawarden and RAF Sealand near the Dee estuary.

As raids on Britain increased, RAF Hawarden and Sealand, situated just a few miles apart and separated by the River Dee near Deeside were integral cogs in the Battle of Britain - a fact underlined by aviation historian and author Mike Grant.

"They couldn't have won the Battle of Britain without RAF Sealand and RAF Hawarden and places like it," states Mike. "They were training stations, but sometimes whole squadrons were moved to these places to regroup. They would be on the alert. We were the back up service."

Throughout 1940, the whole of North East Wales was populated with a variety of aircraft, airmen and ground crews. As Liverpool was blitzed in July 1940, the land mass of North Wales came under the command of the RAF's 9 Group which incorporated Lancashire and parts of Cheshire.

Mike's co-author and fellow historian Derrick Pratt alludes to the ways and reasons North Wales became increasingly defended.

"It was a resting place," offers Derrick, "all the squadrons that came into Wales were battle weary...shot to pieces and farmed into back areas to maintain a defensive presence, but also to rest.

"The bombs that fell on Merseyside are as vital to the make up of the Battle of Britain as the bombs that fell on the East End of London," says Derrick. "9 Group, which was very late being formed covered north Wales and that wasn't formed until August 1940; half way through the Battle of Britain.

"However, it wasn't formed in response to the Battle of Britain," continues Derrick, "it was formed in response to the attacks on Liverpool. Airfields in France fell with France, and the Germans were gifted 30 to 40 French military airfields and instead of attacking via London and South East England (where 11 and 12 Group were waiting for them), they flew from France, across the English Channel and across the south West peninsular where hopefully they would be intercepted by RAF pilots."

The exploits of 11 Group have, historically, become the focus of memory. It was the airmen of this group and their planes that faced the brunt of the Luftwaffe threat during the summer and early autumn of 1940.

A couple of hundred miles away from the Kent airfields of Biggin Hill and West Malling some of that would win the Battle of Britain cut their teeth at Hawarden and Sealand.

"Since 1920, pilots trained in three ways," confirms Mike. "Trainees started off on a Tiger Moth and after your basic training, you'd move on to an elementary flight training school where you were taught the basics of flight. The first aircraft you would have been introduced to, would have been a Tiger Moth or a Miles Master.

"If you managed to survive the initial training, you would now know how to fly a fighter aircraft," adds Mike. "The type of fighters trainees commonly used were the Spitfire and the Hurricane. Trainees would then be transferred to an operational training unit, and if you were lucky enough not to have to travel far, you would pass over the river to Hawarden and fly Spitfires, or a Hurricane in the early days."

The training at Sealand and Hawarden was, in many ways, as dangerous as the combat that pilots were training for. Thousands of young pilots faced using the much more powerful Spitfires and Hurricanes for the first time, and many wouldn't make it.

"They were taught total aerobatics at Sealand and expected to do it with the Spitfires at Hawarden," adds Mike, "and, the horrific number of accidents involving our own aircraft...over 4,000 were damaged ranging from just the undercarriage to complete write offs."

"If you went into the elementary training school at Sealand, you would have been introduced to the Master, which was a duplicated, down-rated Spitfire or Hurricane. During the training the losses in this particular area were heavy; especially during night exercises where there were some horrific accidents."

There will be more insights into how the bombs and destruction affected Wales 70 years ago on 成人论坛 Wales History, including .

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On this July day in 1975 amidst the girls, the celebrities, Ferrari, McLaren, Lotus, the historic tapestry of James Hunt, Stirling Moss, death-defying speed and derring-do, Tom Pryce, from Nantglyn, near in Denbighshire became the only Welshman ever to start from pole position in a Formula One Grand Prix.

The unassuming Pryce had previously graduated quickly from being a tractor mechanic in rural Wales to the pinnacle of motor racing. Cutting his teeth in lower formulae he astounded experts and fans the world over with his sideways car control and gentle demeanour out of the car.

By 1974 he had graduated to Formula One with the unfancied Token team and, following a brief demotion to Formula Three, a spellbinding performance on the streets of Monte Carlo caught the attention of all the major Formula One teams of the day. He was rewarded with a seat in the Shadow Formula One team, run by fellow Welshman Alan Rees.

In his first full season, in 1975, Pryce had already become the only Welshman to win a Formula One race. That it was the non-championship Race of Champions was academic. In his black Shadow, starting from pole position, he slithered on the damp and cold Brands Hatch circuit, the famous, undulating stripe of Kentish tarmac, and beat some of the greatest names in the history of motor racing. This included the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Jacky Ickx and Ronnie Peterson.

This 成人论坛 Wales News video from 1975 catches a rare interview with the shy, introverted Pryce as his star burned brightest. Here he reflects in a typically understated way about his victory at Brands Hatch. The clip also includes some high praise from none other than three-time champion Jackie Stewart.

Rival, friend and five-time Grand Prix winner John Watson confirms Tom's reticence towards the jet-setting world of Formula One. "Tom was possessed of a huge talent," remembered Watson, "We spent a bit of time together because we both did Formula Two in 1974 and traveled around a bit together. I remember one time having dinner in Italy, and what Tom wanted was chicken and chips. And there in Italy you had the choice of the most incredible food - but that was all he wanted."

With the Ford-powered Shadow, Pryce's potential came to the fore throughout 1975. Despite the odd crash and his car's dubious reliability his pole position achievement on that Saturday in July was something few men have achieved.

"He did it with a malfunctioning clutch, and a hitherto unseen smoothness in place of his trademark oversteering style," says journalist David Tremayne, author of The Lost Generation, a thrilling, forensic account of Pryce's career.

"The race marked another milestone for Tom: the only time a Welsh driver led a Grand Prix. He ran in the top three initially, as Ferrari's Clay Regazzoni led from Pace, but overtook the Brazilian on the 17th lap and went into the lead on the 19th when Regazzoni slid into the wall at Club Corner.

"He stayed there on lap 20, too. But on lap 21 he was the first to encounter an unexpected pool of rain at Becketts. This was deeply ironic, for he had a reputation as a genuine rainmaster. The Shadow twitched and slithered off into the catchfencing, and he was momentarily stunned as a pole struck his helmet. It was a sad end to a wonderful drive.

Pryce was one of many to crash that day as the heavens opened, but in the races that followed his stock rose with a podium place in Austria, a fourth in Germany and the following year in 1976, he claimed a third place in Brazil and some promising drives. Things were looking good for 1977, until tragedy struck.

Pryce was killed aged just 27 in baffling and tragic circumstances in the 1977 South African Grand Prix, detailed in this 成人论坛 News video and . As Grand Prix racing is now a safer and affluent world, it will forever be poorer for the absence of one of Wales' greatest and unassuming sportsmen many tipped as a future world champion.

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Many remember the Battle of Britain as a series of thousands of metres above the White Cliffs of Dover, with Spitfires and Hurricanes duking it out with Messerschmitts and Heinkels in the skies over Kent, Sussex and the English Channel. The reality is that between June and September 1940, the whole of the United Kingdom suffered at the hands of the Luftwaffe. Wales was no exception.

Between 28 August and 1 September 1940 Wrexham suffered a sustained period of bombing, a by-product of German raids on Liverpool. In fact, German planes had been sporadically bombing the border area of what is now Flintshire, Cheshire and Shropshire from the end of June 1940, and it was not until August 1940 that a defensive group of aircraft was dedicated to defending north Wales.

Derrick Pratt, author and historian who specialises in the histories of the Wrexham area provides an insight into the ease with which German fighters could attack north Wales in the summer of 1940.

"The first bombers followed the Bristol Channel, up the Severn River, that would appear like a silver thread at night - they could follow it," says Derrick. "Then they made the little hop from Shrewsbury where the Severn starts to flow back into Montgomeryshire and they picked up the River Dee. Then they followed the Dee to Shocklach and either took the River Mersey to Liverpool or headed right towards Crewe."

During the early phase of the battle the German aircraft could find their target by following the rivers and railways that criss-cross the Welsh border, relatively uncontested, to unload their deadly cargo.

"People speaking from Oswestry and Overton can remember half a dozen Heinkels flying very sedately in the dusk towards Liverpool and not a thing being done," stated Derrick. "They just flew up very steadily, following the River Dee towards Liverpool with nothing to shoot them down."

And it was these twin-engined Heinkel He 111 bombers, one of the Luftwaffe's workhorses during the Battle of Britain, that passed over Flintshire and Denbighshire to bomb Liverpool and her docks for three nights from 28 August 1940.

Mike Grant, who co-authored Wings Across The Border - A History Of Aviation In North Wales And The Northern Marchers with Derrick, sheds some light on how Wrexham and the surrounding area was caught up in the first German raids on Merseyside.

"Liverpool took quite a hammering, but the Wrexham area took a massive hit as well," said Mike. "That part of the world was absolutely peppered during those three days. For the inhabitants of those areas, the Battle of Britain was a wake up call."

The Liverpool attacks have been described as the first major night attack on the United Kingdom, and also marked a switch in strategy by the Luftwaffe as they began night time raids. German records state that some 446 tons of high explosive and 37,044 incendiary bombs were dropped on the Merseyside area in four nights. Many of these bombs fell on the Ruabon Mountains and the areas surrounding Wrexham.

" was nearly hit by a lone bomber," says Derrick. "It was 3.30pm on a Monday in early September. Kids had just started back at school and mums were collecting their kids form Llay Infants School when a Heinkel 111 passed low overhead. It was so close that everybody started waving, and the pilot nonchalantly waved back. As the aircraft passed the crowd, they suddenly saw the cross on the tail, and the Luftwaffe livery and the awful reality dawned."

The lone bomber - a frequent and dangerous reality during the early phase of the battles in the sky - headed along the Pen-y-Ffordd road on that autumn morning and dropped two bombs near the gates of Llay Main Colliery.

"If the bombs had gone 70 yards further south," continued Derrick, "it would have hit the winding gear and trapped 900 men underground, and you would have had a disaster worse than ."

Derrick's own childhood memories overlap with these tumultuous times. Born in Acrefair, near Wrexham he witnessed the bombs and burning borderland, shaping his career and lifelong interest in teaching, language and local history.

"I remember crying my eyes out!" revealed Derrick. "Lewis' department store in Liverpool was bombed. There was a Lone Ranger toy and a rocking horse. It was all burned! The toys, the pets corner. All these charred parrots and pets... oh, I cried my eyes out."

There will be more insights into how the bombs and destruction affected Wales 70 years ago on 成人论坛 Wales History. Feel free to comment on any personal or family-related memories by logging in sign in to your 成人论坛 iD account. If you don't have a 成人论坛 iD account, you can - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of 成人论坛 sites and services using a single login.

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