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From this month's featured article

Charles Easton Spooner

Charles Easton Spooner (1818-1889) was the Secretary and Engineer of the Festiniog Railway Company from 1856 until 1886. He was also Engineer to the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Company and was involved in the family company of Spooner & Co., which at times appeared to conflict with the FR.

Charles was the third son of James Spooner and was born in Maentwrog in 1818. As a teenager he, along with his oldest brother, James, assisted his father in laying out the Festiniog Railway. He and James continued to assist their father and Thomas Prichard during construction. Charles was thus trained as a civil engineer, gaining much practical experience that would stand him in good stead in his later life. During the early 1840s, Charles' training continued under both Joseph Locke and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He continued to be involved with the railway under his father, who was Secretary to the Company. (more...)

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Festipedia is dedicated to recording the history of the Festiniog Railway from the 19th Century to the present day. There is a user friendly index to help you find your way around the main categories. You will also find much detail on the Welsh Highland Railway.

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This month's featured picture

Bron y Garth

Bron-y-Garth is a house above Porthmadog. After the death of his wife in 1860, Charles Easton Spooner moved there and it was home to his miniature railway with Topsy. The house gets its name (in English "View of Garth") from the headland named Y Garth below. The headland blocked the extension of the slate quays. The house had previously been the home of Nathaniel N. Solley, agent to the Welsh Slate Company. Charles lived here long after his wife's death. On Charles's death in in 1889 the house passed to his sons Percy & Charles Edwin. They lived in it for a while and then sold it to Randal Casson, a solicitor with the partnership Breese, Jones & Casson. It passed down through the Casson family to actors Lewis Casson and his wife Sybil Thorndike in 1933, who used it as a summer residence until it was finally sold out of the family in 1950.

Photo credit: User:MarkTemple

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