The Conway Centre at Plas Newydd, Conway’s old New Block, is now one of the UK’s largest children’s outdoor activities centre visited by up to 20K young people every year. In 2025 the Friends created two large permanent Conway displays there.
The Entrance Hall has a large display of Conway artefacts including two large models, one of Conway II (ex Winchester) and one of Conway III (ex Nile). It can listed on request to the Centre. The second display is in the backstage area and consists of 13 large wall mounted illustrated information boards about Conway and her cadets, a full set of ship’s company photos (1949-74), three more large display cases of artefacts, 11 framed QB oars, a section of cutter mast and several paintings of the ship including an 8’ by 8’ copy of Shoesmith’s (06-08) painting of Conway and Mauretania kindly donated by Haydn Lockwood (46-47). The boards describe all aspects of Conway life. Some cover specific periods like ‘Life Onboard Ship’ and ‘Life in the Camp’. Others cover general themes like ‘Cooks to the Galley’, ‘QBs & CCs’, ‘New Chums’ and ‘Daily Routine’. The boards encourage visiting children to compare their own daily lives with that of cadets, and each board contains a secret message spelt out in signal flags which they are encouraged to decode. Child safety protection requirements means that this display is not open to visitors if there are children onsite. Please contact the Centre before you visit to see if it will be poissble to view the backstage area.
