Looking Back - Local Research

An essential book for anyone interested in Colwyn Bay's history is "Colwyn Bay: Its history across the years" by Ivor Wynne Jones & Norman Tucker. It's actually an updated edition of Norman Tucker's excellent "Colwyn Bay: its origin and growth", published back in 1953.

The two Spirit of Colwyn Bay books contains a wealth of old photographs of the town:
The Spirit of Colwyn Bay 1 (20th Century in Photographs)
The Spirit of Colwyn Bay 2 (20th Century in Photographs)

Far harder (and more expensive) to find is`Colwyn Bay Before the Houses Came` by George Porter, published in 1938. George's father, John Porter, ran the Pwllycrochan Hotel (now Lyndon Preparatory School) and he has many memories of Colwyn Bay back in the days when it consisted of a handful of houses.

Also worth looking at is Geoffrey Edwards' "Colwyn Bay: 1934-1974 A social history", which covers the post war years and complements "Colwyn Bay: Its history across the years".

Colwyn Bay & District - A collection of Pictures: Volume One by Graham Roberts

Around Old Colwyn by Patrick Slattery - Not a particularly accurate title as half of the photos are of Colwyn Bay and Rhos! Overlooking that, an interesting collection of photos.

Alan Godfrey Maps publishes three 1911 maps of Colwyn Bay, as below:

Colwyn Bay North:
www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/denb0303.htm

Colwyn Bay South-West:
www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/denb0307.htm

Colwyn Bay & Colwyn South-East:
www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/denb0308.htm

I have all three (you can also get them on ebay for about £2-3 each)and they are well produced, not to mention very interesting!

Also worth a look is 'Walks from Colwyn Bay' by Christopher Draper, a series of 12 self-guided walks with lots of historical snippets and trivia about the area.