You can keep your tourist hot spots – We can’t get over just how good this trip and Anglesey is.
Hello and welcome to the Great British Biking Adventures Coast Series. In this series we are travelling around the coast on our motorcycle, a Honda VFR1200X Crosstourer.
A lot of our viewers are bike enthusiasts but this series will appeal to a wider audience. Why? Because thereβs so much more to the Coast series than motorcycles. Thereβs the challenges, the journey, geography, history and people. You get to travel the entire coast of England and Wales with us, see how we did it, share our ups and downs, experience English culture, the history and hear about the people that made Britain βGreatβ!
Whatβs also good about the coast series is it doesnβt matter when you start watching, itβs like one of those open top bus tours – you can get on at any point and just keep going until you arrive back where you started.
Who are we? Weβre a husband & wife living in an unremarkable coastal town in England. Weβve been married 35 years and were brought together by motorcycles. One day, Estherβs Honda Melody broke down and she brought it to Jarrodβs motorcycle shop – the rest (as they say) is history.
One cold February day, we started riding along the seafront and just kept going. We wanted to record the experience to have something to watch in the future – the YouTube channel was an afterthought. Take a look at those first few episodes to see just how novice we were, cobbling together what little phone footage we had to try to make a story. To make up for our amateur recording and shyness we added information in the editing. This set the tone and style of our videos, we hope you like it. We like to think weβve improved and hopefully youβll agree, take a look, compare our earlier videos with the later ones and let us know in the comments.
Thereβs also the filming and production journey. When we started we knew nothing about filming, video and audio production, editing, YouTube and the like. Weβve learnt loads and spent loads in time and money along the way but itβs been almost as enjoyable as the journey itself. Youβll hopefully appreciate how far weβve come.
But whatβs with all those bible verses we hear you say. We know some of you donβt appreciate this aspect, one or two have told us in the comments! Thatβs fine – it really is. All are equally welcome here, believers and unbelievers. It would be a pity if you enjoyed everything else but just stopped watching because of the Christian references but we completely accept youβre free to do as you please.
Our faith has prompted us to include a bible verse in our videos and sometimes a Christian perspective on the things we talk about. The channel is not about Christianity but our faith cannot be separated from it. We hope and pray that it will make you think, inquire and even bring you into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Hello and welcome back if you’re new to this series we’re traveling around the coastline of England and Wales on our Honda VFR 1200X cross Tor this is episode 57 and we’ve pretty much just got whales left to do we’re currently on the island of angle SE at
The Northwest tip of Wales just about to turn the corner and head south along the west coast we were hoping to complete Angley in one episode but there was just so much to explore last time so we split it into two parts you join us having just left amuch and entering
Kis stick around enjoy the ride and listen to the fascinating stories of this almost forgotten part of Great Britain for a cottage sat there all by itself yeah overlooking the bay got you right yeah and then coming back yeah oh which one now I reckon they there to the right it to the
Beach it says to the beach walking well what’s this reminiscent all first few episodes when we were in cornal are you nice lovely yeah what little village as well isn’t it yeah colorful buildings there are 15 past and present Nuclear Power locations in the UK all but one
Are next to the coast because they need lots of water for cooling with the exception of the four sites in Scotland we have passed eight to the power station the one we’re approaching will be the ninth and last the two we will miss are Barkley and oldb construction of the two nuclear
Reactors here at wilfur started in 1963 and they became operational in 1971 in 2012 reactor 2 was shut down reactor 1 was switched off on the 30th of December 2015 they are now in their decommission phase which is expected to last 100 years oh I nearly forgot the one nuclear
Power station that was not built on the coast isn’t that far from here in the middle of the snowdonia national park it was one of the earliest nuclear power stations it closed in 1991 and is currently being decommissioned but there are now plans to reestablish a nuclear power plant there Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah we don’t want to go on that we want to turn around doing that maybe even in there it’s very shingly yeah klin’s enchanting curved Bay is unique with its shingle Ridge known as escar chemlin dividing the Open Sea from a saline Coastal Lagoon
Yeah there the Lagoon wow beautiful wonder what made that the Lagoon was created in the 1930s by the wealthy Captain Vivan huitt he lived nearby and had a keen interest in birds so he built a dam and a we at chemlin to create this birdlife Sanctuary today the
Area is protected and managed as a nature reserve in the summer months it is home to the only breeding colony of Sandwich turns in Wales over a little Bridge yeah gorgeous look I’m in another prison I’m only teasing I know it’s not something though is it
Yeah don’t build a wall like that for nothing no pretty impressive maybe it is a prison maybe I was right wow have a look what is going on it’s pretty secure isn’t it no clues lots of CCTV yeah um can’t park at the wow absolutely no clues at the
Moment on that one is there no what you wonder oh look sell duck oh a oyster catcher just there yeah yeah there he goes and oh turns as well oh no they’re not blackheaded seagulls pick aod there was nothing obvious indicating what this place is or was but the high
Wall and CCTV all the way out here intrigued us even after some research with the help from a subscriber local to the area it Still Remains a mystery on Old Maps it’s shown as a Lifeboat station but some later Maps simply mark it is a wireless station if you know
Anything about it let us know in the comments oh baby ducks baby shell duck that’ll be duck clings but I don’t think I’ve ever seen shell duck ducklings before as you can tell I’m the nature lover and Jared is the world war one and two and prison
L sorry jar I don’t mean to be rude look at those cars they’re looking for the cool Church Bay it said this way yeah I can see Church spire Church Bay in that goes up to the church up to the right doesn’t it oh yeah we go there the
Church there you go dead end what does it say Church Bay Very nice that is idic Absolutely that’s Holly head over there yes definitely I thought that was Mainland but it’s not fairies isn’t it hollyhead is a ferry port yeah it’s a big place isn’t it so was there a have a little Peninsula Beyond hollyhead I think there is isn’t there and that’s yeah that’s
Why it takes a long time to get from hollyhead Round to canavan because you I thought that was Mainland looking over to Mainland Spain Wales but we’re not still angle see You may be familiar with the connection between angle SE and Druids The Druids were a high ranking Priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures they are known to be pagans but but a long time ago the island of anguli was their spiritual home and they were Heroes to the Kelts
We have to go back 2,000 years to find out why by the year 50 ad most of southern England had fallen to the Roman Empire in the wild areas of the West however the legions had made little progress and the Celtic tribes in Wales held out fiercely against the Invaders
Love them or not the Romans achieved quite a lot that we still rely on today for example they accurately recorded events at the time consequently we have an account of what happened here in the year 57 ad the Roman general suoni paulinus decided that enough was enough and the
Ks needed to be finally crushed he led his Legions out from The Fortress Town of Chester heading for a final Reckoning on the island of angos or Mona as it was then known the Celtic tribesmen regarded the island is sacred and they had used it as a handy bolt hole to conduct their
Guerilla Warfare from hardly Paragons of virtue themselves the Romans Justified their attack by saying The Druids practiced all sorts of sorcery and sacrifice wow that was the pot call in the kettle black what happened next was described in some detail by the Roman historian tacitus when suoni paulinus
And his Legions reached the the shores of the meni Straits there was a standoff knowing that the time had come to make a final stand the tribesmen and their priests gathered on the opposite Shore tacitus gave the following description on the shore stood the forces of the
Enemy a dense array of arms and men with women dashing through the ranks like furries The Druids pouring forth dire imprecations with their hands uplifted towards the heavens struck Terror into the soldiers The Druids the supposedly human sacrificing enemy priests struck a chill in everyone’s Hearts but it was
The appearance of the women wild head and all bearing torches that most frightened the legion they were not used to facing such an enemy but such faar did not last long urged on by their officers the Roman caval men swam their horses across the streets while the
Infantry made the Crossing in small flat bottom boats and when they reached the angle SE side their blood BL lust knew no bounds tacitus writes they bore down upon them smoked all who opposed them to the Earth and wrapped them in the Flames they had themselves kindled what
Happened was a massacre men women and children armed and unarmed young and old fell under the swords of the Romans the bodies of the dead and dying were unceremoniously hled onto makeshift funeral PES the Romans then roamed the island destroying the druid sacred Oak Groves smashing their altars and temples
And killing anyone they could find the Romans established a Garrison on angos SE to keep the native tribes in total subjugation but elsewhere in Britain bodia was causing trouble so the Romans had to leave but not before having smashed the heart out of the Welsh resistance and with the demise of The
Druids the people of Britain had lost their spiritual driving force 20 years later the Romans were able to reest established their presence on the island and built a fort at chemlin in about the year 77 lovely landscape isn’t it just Rolling Hills and Little Farms yeah and the coast just
Gorgeous and the old Power Station thrown in and what looks like a prison but isn’t oh rabbit hair hair yeah we got a hair wow don’t see hairs very often he’s just oh there he is oh sorry Mr hair oh go on in the field you go that’s
Brilliant oh is he gone now he jumped oh we don’t want to be stuck here we we can turn around at the end distracted with the hair I’m supposed to be looking at the beach there are actually two islands we’re leaving Angley and crossing the Stanley embankment known locally as the
Cob to get to Holy Island the cob was opened in 1822 as part of the A5 route from London to hollyhead that we covered in episode 55 and of course was built by Thomas talford in 1848 a railway was added and the wall to the left was built so that
The horses wouldn’t be startled by the trains there’s now also another embankment running parallel with the cob that carries the main North Wales Expressway we’ll be returning to angle SE by crossing the original Bridge Later most people will probably associate the name holy island with Linda faran on the Northeast Coast that we covered back in episodes 39 and 40 if you haven’t already seen those episodes please check them out they are possibly our personal favorites unlike Linda fan it’s called holy because of its pagan and not
Christian history there’s a high concentration of pagan Standing Stones burial Chambers and other religious sites on this small Island I think I’ve got us going down to the key side that makes sense so we’ve arrived in hollyhead come down to the harbor side which is where the Stenner link fairies leave from to go to Ireland holy Ireland and angle se’s Commerce and economy is heavily
Dependent on the ferry port we took a quick look and pressed On oh that’s lovely smell smell at the sea I’m going to go this way H there CL going up there but this is the coast must be at the harbor we’ve left Holly head and we’re just completing this side of angle see before we leave it’s actually quite a long way
Around well it is when you’re trying to stick to the coast should I have gone right back then should you have gone right back then I don’t know I think uh I don’t know how do we find out no it’s not trying to turn us around is it
No although it did look there was a brain side so it look like it was something quite nice there thankfully it hasn’t happened very often but every now and again on this Coast tour we miss something and by the time we’ve realized it’s too late to go back mostly it’s
Places of interest that despite our planning we didn’t know about however on this occasion we had South stack Lighthouse as a waypoint on the map as you just saw we paused and you may have sensed our hesitancy unfortunately we didn’t trust our Instinct and pressed on
It’s only now back at home while editing this episode that I was reminded of what was there and why I had it in the plan we could kick ourselves for missing safe stack Lighthouse but worse things have happened at sea saat Lighthouse was built in 1809 and was electrified in
1938 there are 365 steps down to a Gantry bridge and the views are spectacular we’ve just got our excuse to go back later this year and we probably combine it with a bike event at the angle SE Motor Racing circuit I know Jared said this would be
The second and final part of angle SE and we were hoping to get back to the mainland and show you the lavish hotel we ended up at but we’ve run out of time and we still have a few more bits of Angy we need to show you including us trying to
Pronounce the longest place name in Europe join us next time when we promise we’ll get off this island
6 Comments
Another great and interesting video, Anglesey certainly has more to offer than I imagined.
We just went straight to Holyhead to get the ferry to Dublin.
I still haven't the words to describe how good these videos are!!!! What did the Romans ever do for usπ€£? You two deserve some sort of medal,each week i'm blown away by the history and coastline. Enjoy your weekend and many thanks for sharing. See you next Friday.
Blows my mind it takes 100 years to decom a Power Station. Just checked the half life of Uranium and it's 700 million years, so quite a bit more than 100 years π€― You should stop distracting me with your brilliant videos, my Honda heated grips have just arrived for the X-ADV so I should be out fitting them π§π "Prison & war lover" π€£π Yikes, those Druid Women were real scary π You may not have been in Spain but it certainly looked like Spain, the weather & roads are amazing there.π Shame you missed the light house, I love a good Windmill & light house. Thanks GBBA π
π π π π I'm looking forward to that pronunciation… its where i live
Da iawn am hanas sir fon thank you very interesting espacially the roman history which i like very much they crossed to brynseicyn anglesey from caernarfon segontium roman fort i have walked to roman in Anglsey for charity take care
Wonderful videos and I'm quite enjoying the Scripture quotes. Thank you both.