By the 1850’s Blaenau Ffestiniog had a population of over 3,000. Thirty years later, it was one of the largest towns in North Wales with a population in excess of 11,000. Llan Ffestiniog remained a village with a population of less than a thousand. It is likely that Beatrice and Annie would have made the short trip from Llanystumdwy to Porthmadog, caught the train to Blaenau Ffestiniog and then on to Llan Ffestiniog where these paintings were done.