National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Opening Ceremony - the Festiniog & District Heroes Memorial Hospital
A procession makes it way to the hospital for the opening ceremony, led by a horse-drawn fire tender and including bands, schoolchildren, masons and the Ffestiniog Shepherds.
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Overview
Footage shot by the local cinema operator, Thomas Ellis Griffiths and his son, Mervyn Griffiths, showing the procession to, and ceremonial opening of, the hospital in Blaenau Ffestiniog on Saturday 11th June 1927. It was Col. David Davies, MP, Llandinam, who, according to the official programme, declared "this Heroes' Memorial Hospital duly open in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost".
Oakley Hospital in Blaenau Ffestiniog catered for sick and injured quarrymen but it had long been felt that a general hospital was also needed and building one was voted a fitting way of remembering the local men who died as soldiers during the 1914-18 war. Work started on the hospital in 1923, to a design by Clough Williams-Ellis (he was to start building Portmeirion in 1925). It was paid for through fund-raising and donations and maintained for many years by voluntary contributions.
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