News

Unusual Award for Porthmadog Museum

The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway has beaten off some of the largest towns in the UK to win an unusual competition - best town crier.

The Porthmadog-based museum is the only steam railway in the UK to have its own resident crier. Martin Hallett beat off a strong field of sixteen other criers, including both the current and a former British Champion to win the prestigious competition at Biddulph in Staffordshire.

He said: "It was a very close competition, held in lovely summer sunshine, and in the end, the top three criers were separated by mere fractions of a point. I was particularly pleased to win, because I'd been fighting off a throat infection for two weeks before the competition."

Martin, who lives in Rhosgadfan near Caernarfon, was the only Welsh entry in the competition, beating other large towns such as Bristol, Halifax and Gainsborough. Each crier in the competition had to deliver two themed cries of no more than 125 words on a theme of "What's Great About Britain" and "The Traditional British Seaside - Why We Love It"

Martin is a regular volunteer at the WHHR, showing visitors round the new museum building. But he's often regularly seen on the streets of Porthmadog in his crimson costume and distinctive black and gold tricorn hat, telling the world about the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway

James Hewett, Chairman of the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, said: "we're really pleased that Martin has been able to put Porthmadog, and the WHHR, on the map. He has only been our official railway town crier since the start of 2009, but we're really pleased with the way he's become part of the community here."

The glass trophy will now take its place alongside a number of other awards that the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway has won in the last year, including a Wales in Bloom award for best station flower displays, and a place in the Wales Volunteer of the Year awards.