Isambad Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), whose statue stands on Paddington station, built the railway lines west from Paddington to Bristol, across bridges he built, such as the Bristol Suspension Bridge (opened 1864), on to Wales, where ships such as the passenger ships Brunel designed were to carry passengers to the USA (SS Great Britain 1843).
This was around more than a century ago.
Fishguard Harbour railway station opened 1906 jot serve the ferry service to Ireland.
Today the Fishguard ferry and ship port, still runs a ferry service to Ireland. The trains from London are designed to meet the ferries. That explains why the second train I could have caught on a Saturday arrived at 1.30 in the morning. I thought the Fishguard Bay hotel would be locked up for the night, and nobody would be pleased to see me. The reason is that the ferry leaves at 2 am. The train passengers are expected to have time to get into the ferry.
Why do boats and trains leave late at night or early in the morning? No, it's not so that your taxi has a clear run racing you to or from the airport of ferry port. It's so that your boat or plane disgorges its business passengers at the right time for them to arrive at the office in the morning.
The Railway lines had transformed travel in the UK since the 1860s, when the world's perception of time changed. No longer could every town time itself independently and accurately in time with the sunlight. Instead the towns across Britain had to co-ordinate their clocks and watches with Greenwich mean time abbreviated to GMT.
From the port of Fishguard the ships left for the USA. In WWI the ill-fated Lusitania sank. Later ships left from the port of Southampton. The Titanic left in 1913, an unlucky year for her passengers, although lucky for anybody who missed catching the ship.
Today the train lines still take you from London, England, to Fishguard in Wales. The big hotel on the hillside overlooking the bay is Fishguard Bay hotel. By the bar are accounts and pictures of famous films made in the area. Moby Dick was filmed in the bay which you can see from the hotel's front windows and terrace. So was Under Milk Wood in 1971, starring Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Glynis Johns who stayed at the hotel. The old newspaper accounts tell of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton staying at the hotel. In 1979 the hotel was designated a building of Historic and Architectural and Interest.
Fishguard Bay Hotel is a popular spot for weddings of local people. A bride was on the terrace greeting her guests, when I arrived in July 2015.
Her white dress contrasting with the green trees Wales, like England, is green from abundant rainfall. Wales is the land which inspired the best-selling book How Green Was My Valley.
The bride could have served a wedding breakfast of meet or fish, followed by a disco with a buffet of hamburgers. Not everybody wants to get all dressed up and then eat with their fingers, but finger food is the fashion nowadays and cocktail parties have always served canapes. As Marie Antoinette never said, Let them eat burgers.
Fishguard bay serves freshly cooked food. I was particularly partial to the plum tart with cream. Does the Fishguard Bay Hotel serve fish? (The phrase is the pope a Catholic springs to mind.) Yes, sometimes salmon, sometimes trout, almost always a meat dish a fish dish and a vegetarian dish.
The hotel is currently being upgraded. The sea view from the terrace and dining room are delightful. But the rooms are a mixture. A group of us were playing musical bedrooms. A previous year I was sharing a room so we had a front room with sea view and sea gulls looking through the window at us trying to get in.
I asked one of the seagulls if he'd been an unpaid extra in a famous film. But he didn't answer. I think that was before his time.
This year I had a room at the back, 119, no sea view, a sheer cliff of greenery. Ideal if you want to write a script for a horror movie. Things brightened up literally, when I discovered two spotlights over the bed. I complained that the light over the mirror was not working. Immediately up came a desk lamp. A day late (Sunday) the manager produced a replacement bulb. My room had a double bed and bath. TV. All day seaside music from gulls outside.
Several rooms are singles. One of the front single rooms has the view obscured by a tree which apparently has a preservation order on it.
The room with the least outside light is ground floor room number three, which has two high windows, like being in a castle with narrow high windowed, except you are on the ground floor. Oddly enough, I thought this was an ideal room for a honeymoon couple, romantic anniversary, or jolly dirty weekend, where you want total privacy. It was also the best decorated room, not that Victorian royalty carpet and with cream walls so loved by old hotels, and whoever decorated other parts of this hotel, instead bright white and brand new contrasting colours, delightful.
See the hotel whilst it still has the old atmosphere and creaking stairs. The downstairs front room with the magnificent decorated ceiling is already modernised at great expense. The old high ceiling has been replaced by a part false ceiling suspended to reveal the old high ceiling around the edges. The modernisation includes a handy a screen for showing football films, a screen which can be let down to conceal the view of the carved wooden fireplace.
The staff can't do enough for you. I asked for a couple of extra hangers and got half a dozen. Slices of lemon for the water jug. They have weddings many weekends in summer, just when two or more members of staff take off on their own holidays or family weddings.
The Visit Wales awards the hotel a 3 star rating. When the hotel first opened, it had a designated smoking room. Now it is entirely non-smoking.
Writers' Holiday is held here annually, attracting visitors from Wales, England, Scotland and as far away as Australia.
For the 2016 programme - see Writers' Holiday website.
writersholiday.net
(Writers Holiday 2015 July Monday 27 to Saturday Aug 1st courses include Writing Children's books and Travel photos.)
Writers Holiday Feb 2016 19-21 £229, or day delegate £129.
Writers Holiday Monday 25th July to Saturday 30th 2016 £499 full board and accommodation or day guest only rate of £299 (Courses include writing ebooks.)
www:fishguardtrains.info
wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishguard_Harbour_railway_station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
Fishguard Bay Hotel
Quay Road
Goodwick
Pembrokeshire
Wales
SA64 OBT
Tel:01348 873571
email:reservationsfbh@gmail.com
Website www.fishguardbayhotel.co.uk
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, speaker.
