Miriam Jones

From Festipedia, hosted by the FR Heritage Group
The commemorative plaque on one of the benches at Beddgelert station

Miriam Jones (née Roberts) was the Welsh Highland Railway's equivalent of the more famous Bessie Jones, who worked at Tan y Bwlch in the 1930s, dressed in Welsh costume.

Essentially a publicity gimmick to boost trade in the latter days of the WHR, Miriam worked at Beddgelert station as station mistress from 1934 to 1936, and was often called "The Girl Stationmaster" on account of her youth; indeed she was still at school at the time. She attracted nationwide publicity, and photographs and postcards survive which show her at the station dressed in traditional Welsh costume, meeting and greeting trains and their passengers, and posing in scenes. She also sold tickets, and sold soft drinks and postcards.

A talented musician, during the 1920s and 1930s she competed in Eisteddfods - as a singer and harpist - under the name Llinos Glaslyn (The Glaslyn Nightingale).

She died in 1993, and a seat at the newly opened Beddgelert station, facing out over the village, carries a brass plaque to her memory.

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