A history festival brought people to Barmouth from far and wide.

On Thursday, 27 February, Barmouth History Fest - a Barmouth Town Council event – took place at the Dragon Theatre Arts Room.

The free event was a continuation of the Barmouth History Project which includes a display in St John’s, a website, Barmouth History books and the Barmouth History Facebook group.

The doors opened to the public at 12pm and the room was filled with people for the majority of the day until the doors closed at 7pm.

The event was extremely well attended and brought in local people, people from Barmouth that had moved away and visitors alike.

The displays on show included Keely Brazier art works and histories as well as histories of the Glandwr valley, maritime and local antiquities, the Jesuits, Sailors Institute, Barmouth Publicity Association past town guides, Barmouth RNLI history, carnival dresses, photos and artefacts, local history reference books and postcards. By far the largest array of items was from Daryl Edwards personal collection.

Tanio Bermo also provided two computers for people to have a go at their family histories.

As well as all the things on display the event sparked many conversations about local history, stories of people from the past and recollections. Local enthusiasts were on hand to try and answer any questions.

Some of the more notable items on display were Fifth Officer Lowe’s discharge papers from the Titanic, Bronze Bell wreck Carrere marble sculpted heads from offcuts of the last haul statue, Keely Brazier art, the cog that used to turn the Barmouth Bridge span, a painting of how St John’s church may have looked from the competition to design the church and Leah Robert’s carnival display.

Organiser Councillor Rob Williams said: “The event was a great success and goes to show the interest people have in their home town. I would like to extend a massive thank you to all the participants for sharing their items with the public and also to everyone who made the effort to attend; they all made the event what it was. There seems to be a great appetite to do it again next year!”