About The Automobile Club of North Wales

Club History

Our club was formed in 1982 by a group of enthusiasts who were mainly owners of Rover cars. In 1953 the Rover Sports Register was first formed, catering for all vehicles with a Rover badge. The club had a number of regional sections – one of these was RSR North Wales.

In 1981 the North Wales section decided to change from being a one make club to an all makes club because it was thought the number of members was too low to be viable. Their RSR affiliation therefore became defunct.

The title of the club goes back much further than 1982. The original club of the same name and very similar logo was formed in 1904 at, it is believed, the Faenol Estate near Bangor. The first AGM took place at the Waterloo Hotel in Betws y Coed on 1 May 1905. A membership list dated 1916 shows there were 182 members mainly from North Wales but also from as far as Cheshire, The Wirral and even London many of whom owned more than one car, some families as many as five!

It is not known when this original club ceased to exist or for what reason. However, the last date known was 1916 and this being the middle of the 1914 to1918 war it may be understandable that their priorities lay elsewhere! Within this period it was discovered that a motor battalion was formed with its base on the Faenol Estate in which owners of private cars and commercials were required to volunteer their services for the movement of munitions and ambulance duties.

We are extremely proud to carry the same title of a club formed at the birth of motoring history.

Present Day

Currently the club consists of around 190 members. We hold social meetings on the last Tuesday of selected months at The Split Willow Hotel in Llanfairfechan. During spring, summer and autumn we hold static displays of our vehicles, some for charitable causes. We organise road runs and various coach trips.
Some of our events are for members only and some of the larger ones are open to non members. As a member you are entitled to take part in any or all of our programme of events which we publish and distribute to members in early spring. We issue a monthly newsletter to keep members informed of what’s going on.

Many of our members are skilled in restoration and therefore may be able to give advice. If you require help on motoring matters in general, you only have to ask and we can usually point you in the right direction.

Interested in joining? Visit our Join Our Club page