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Key historic landscape features and
processes
- An important Norman motte and bailey castle, the only
visible evidence of a Norman foothold on Anglesey in the
eleventh century, besieged by Gruffydd ap Cynan.
- Trecastell was an important township, granted freely
to the heirs of Ednyfed Fychan in the thirteenth century.
It held its own court.
- Aberlleiniog was a location of one of the few incidents
of the Civil War on Anglesey
- Some of the largest historical fish traps on the
Menai Straits shoreline.
Aberlleiniog and Trecastell comprise an
area of around 110ha (272 acres), flat and low lying over most
of the area, rising slowly northwards towards the limestone
ridge near Penmon. The area is bounded on the east by the coastline
of the Menai Straits; on the south-west by a small stream which
flows, from Llangoed, into the Straits near Trecastell farm;
on the north-east by the Penmon character area and on the north-west
by another small stream which joins the Afon Lleiniog from
the north and the Afon y Brenhin which joins the Lleiniog at
the southern boundary of Llangoed. The Afon Lleiniog cuts a
ravine through this landscape dividing Trecastell to the south
and Aberlleiniog to the north. The north-west and south-east
boundaries are coterminous with both the parish boundaries
of Llangoed and Llanfaes and the traditional boundaries of
these medieval townships.
History
Castell Aberlleiniog is a large earthen castle raised by Earl Hugh of
Chester in the 1080s during one of several attempts to secure Norman
control of Gwynedd during the late eleventh century. The castle is
the only certain evidence of a Norman foothold on Anglesey but is sufficiently
substantial to suggest that this was an attempt at consolidation rather
than a campaign base. Domesday Book identifies that Robert of Rhuddlan,
Earl Hugh's military commander, held 'North Wales' directly from King
William at the fee-farm rent of £40. In this context we find that in
1093 Earl Hugh was able to redirect the revenues of two Anglesey manors
and the profits of fishing rights in the Straits to the building programme
at St. Werburgh's Abbey in Chester. During this period Gruffudd ap
Cyan, a legitimate claimant for the throne of Gwynedd, pursued his
entitlement and, in the process, attacked and burnt Aberlleiniog. In
1098 a strong Norman force from Chester and Shrewsbury, once again,
occupied Anglesey but on this occasion the fortuitous intervention
of Magnus Barelegs and his fleet of longships turned the tide against
the Normans who withdrew east across the River Conwy. These events,
which ultimately determined the fate of a hard pressed Gwynedd, were
played out, in large part, along the shoreline of the Aberlleiniog-Trecastell
character area.
Although Aberlleiniog and Trecastell, physically
divided by a steep-sided ravine of the Afon Lleiniog, are generally
considered to be two separate entities, it would seem reasonable
that the township or manor of Trecastell takes its name from
the earthwork and possibly incorporates it. Following the Norman
withdrawal the land would have come within the king, Gruffudd
ap Cynan's, interest. During the early thirteenth century, several
townships in the king's possession were granted to the heirs
of Ednyfed Fychan, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth's steward and principal
administrator. Trecastell was one of these grants, whereby the
land was held in exceptionally free tenure, requiring only suit
of court and an obligation on a member of the Trecastell family
to go to the lord's war, at his own cost within the Marches of
Wales and at the lord's cost outside it. Exceptionally, Trecastell
was granted the privilege of holding its own court, which the
tenants were required to attend, every three weeks.
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Goronwy, son of Ednyfed
Fychan, held Trecastell, Penmynydd and Erddreiniog, all in the
commote of Dindaethwy, in the thirteenth century. His grandson,
Goronwy ap Tudur similarly held those townships, together with
the township of Tregaian. These passed to Tudur Fychan who is
thought to have maintained Trecastell as his principal residence
and he was followed by Ednyfed Fychan ap Tudur in the later fourteenth
century. Ednyfed's daughter, Angharad, heiress of Trecastell
married Ieuan ap Adda ap Iorwerth Du of Pengwern in the late
fourteenth century and their son Ieuan Fychan, married another
Angharad, the daughter of Hywel ap Tudur. This Angharad, an heiress
of Mostyn, brought Trecastell into the Mostyn dynasty in the
first half of the fifteenth century.
Trecastell farmhouse stands close to the
shoreline, towards the southern end of the character area.
The house was rebuilt in more recent times but a sixteenth-century
depressed-arched fireplace has survived.
The castle of Aberlleiniog stood across the
Lleiniog ravine, 3.2km north of Beaumaris. The earthwork was
560 years old at the outbreak of civil war, yet it still had
a role to play. The masonry walls and circular corner towers
are of uncertain age but were probably in place by the sixteenth
century when Thomas Cheadle took it upon himself to fortify
the site. Cheadle had become deputy constable of Beaumaris
Castle, effectively the mayor, and subsequently sheriff, in
1642. He was not popular and many local people took the view
that his operations at Aberlleiniog were more to do with local
politics than with the defence of the island. The Bulkeley
faction's response was to dig earthwork defences on the hill
of Bryn Britain on the south side of the town, overlooking
the harbour. Beaumaris castle, itself, was in a poor state
of readiness.
Towards the end of the first Civil War, Cheadle
appears to have gone over to the Parliamentary side. Pennant,
quoting a, now lost, Plas Gwyn manuscript, believed that Sir
Thomas Cheadle had, in 1645-6, held Aberlleiniog for Parliament.
Chester had surrendered and the way lay open to north Wales.
A number of prominent men in the locality attempted to make
terms. In June 1649 a Captain Rich, on the Rebecca in Fryars'
Road, landed men and munitions at night, at Lleiniog. The following
week Parliamentary Commissioners were in Beaumaris to secure
terms but sensed hostility and returned to Lady Cheadle's House
and fort there. An agreement was reached, however, that same
day.
The Cheadles had several houses of which Lleiniog
was one. In the later seventeenth century, Lleiniog passed
to William Bold of Tre'r Ddol by purchase. In the first half
of the eighteenth century Lleiniog was in the hand of the Hughes
family, later by Rowland Williams and in the 1780s, in the
hand of the Revd. Edward Hughes. Lleiniog lands occupied around
100 acres and carried the highest assessment for land tax in
this character area, with only Tros yr Afon and Trecastell
coming close. Lord Dinorben, son of the Revd. Hughes, held
the property in the early nineteenth century. Tros yr Afon
was in the hand of Rowland Hughes in the third quarter of the
eighteenth century and was acquired by Henry Paget, Earl of
Uxbridge, in the 1780s.
Trecastell occupied 167 acres and was assessed
by for Land Tax between 17s (in 1752) and £1. 3. 0d. (in 1789).
William Hughes occupied the premises in the 1750s and it was
acquired by Richard Broadhead in 1756. Richard Owen was the
proprietor in the 1780s. Trecastell was owned by Henry Williams
in 1847 when the Tithe assessment was drawn up.
Trecastell has the outward appearance of a
19th century farmhouse. The front and rear elevations are of
roughly coursed limestone rubble with some gritstone. There
is a projecting wing at the rear south-west corner. The south
elevation which includes the south gable of the main house
and the south side of the wing, is cement-and-sand rendered
and the north gable is partly rendered. The visible quoins
on the main house are large dressed blocks. The facade has
a modern central door flanked by single large windows. The
first floor carries three windows, symmetrically arranged above
the ground floor openings. The lintels to door and windows
are voussoired blocks; the jambs are squared blocks. The chimneys
are built within the thickness of the end walls and these stacks
are slightly shouldered above the gable. The wing, however,
carries an externally projecting stack on the lateral south
wall, shouldered at first floor level and gabled at the eaves.
The stack continues as a tall and narrow shaft above the ridge.
The stack once served a wide four-centred derivative or, more
accurately, elliptical, arched fireplace of 16th century style.
The fireplace survives but it is now blocked. In 1810 Colt
Hoare saw more of the old house: ' there are remains of some
little consequence in the arches of two fireplaces, very similar
to that of Gloddaeth... an inscription over one... now quite
obliterated (Colt Hoare, 257).
Historic Landscape Character
Both Trecastell and Lleiniog are extensive farmlands, occupying most
of the character area between the two holdings. The fields are large
and the boundaries are, in general, ruler straight hedges. On Trecastell
lands, to the south, occasional trees have been allowed to grow out
of the hedges and there are occasional clumps of trees, in most cases
in the immediate vicinity of houses.
A similar pattern of large fields with straight,
hedged, boundaries characterise the Lleiniog holding. A number
of hedges, much more so than at Trecastell, have been allowed
to grow wild into bushes and trees over much of the area. The
Lleiniog ravine carries a stream from west to east, to the
sea at the northern end of the Menai Straits. The steep sides
of the ravine are covered with trees and bushes.
The earthwork motte and bailey castle on the
northern side of the ravine is an important landscape feature.
It is the only recognisable intrusive Norman fortification
on Anglesey, constructed at a time when the Normans believed
they had established control in Gwynedd. The motte has also
been a focus of activity during the Civil War when it was fortified
and munitioned for Parliament against the King, one of the
few incidents of the war to touch Anglesey.
The medieval township of Trecastell, which
can probably be taken as the entire character area, to include
Lleiniog, is an important construct at a time when the Princes
of Gwynedd were establishing a coherent feudal state. Trecastell
was in the hand of the king from the time when the Normans
were ousted from Gwynedd. The township was granted, along with
several others, to the progeny of Ednyfed Fychan, Llywelyn
ap Iorwerth's chief administrator, on exceptionally free terms,
in recognition of past, and expectation of future, service.
The Menai Straits fisheries were an important
resource. Fishing with nets from boats in the Straits is attested
in the eleventh century. The location is likely to have been
between Penmon and Trecastell. More precisely, an exceptional
concentration of large fish traps lie on the shoreline north
and south of the outflow of the Afon Lleiniog. The date of
these weirs is uncertain but their origins are likely to have
been in the middle ages. There is clear evidence for their
repair and realignment.
Back to Penmon Landscape Character
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