Bee Hotel

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 27 Jun 2021

The Bee Hotel was one of the largest coaching inns in the area. In 1840 a guidebook said it and the Union Hotel were "superior inns affording unusual comforts". In 1801 the proprietor, John Davies, advertised that he had started hiring coaches (chaises) and horses to travellers at rates which undercut his rivals between Holywell and the Bangor ferry (where passengers for Holyhead would cross the Menai Strait). His advert – a copy of which is on display inside the Bee Hotel – reminded travellers that his rivals demanded gentlemen pay the full fare between St Asaph and Conwy before setting out from either of those towns. Once they had paid, the travellers couldn't break the journey at Abergele to take on fresh horses, he claimed. "When the distance between St Asaph and Conway is considered, it is presumed a change of horses nearly midway, will greatly contribute to the ease and expedition of gentlemen travelling that road." After the railway replaced long-distance coach travel, the Bee provided a horse-drawn omnibus which shuttled between Abergele and the railway station at Pensarn. The Bee was the venue for the inquest after the 1868 train crash in Llanddulas, which killed 33 people. The extensive land associated with the Bee Hotel included a large garden on the opposite side of the road, known as Pendre Bach or the Bee Gardens. North-west of the inn was the Bee Inn farm, which covered 149 acres (600,000 square metres) according to tithe records from 1840. The property belonged to the Kinmel Estate until it was sold in an auction – held at the Bee Hotel – in 1896. History Points: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=bee-hotel-abergele More recently it was a J W Lees house from 1943 until 2017 when it closed down. It appears to have been bought and re-sold at least once since then and is now boarded up and in a sorry state. Image

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