Historical Themes
Introduction
The area which forms the focus of this work
encompasses the whole of the area of Ardudwy which has been
identified on the Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic
Interest in Wales by Cadw, CCW and ICOMOS, HLW(Gw) 2, (Cadw:
Welsh Historic Monuments, 1995, p 74).
The study area is situated in the modern county
of Gwynedd, and the historic county of Meirionnydd. It stretches
from the vale of Ffestiniog (Afon Dwyryd) in the north to near
Barmouth in the south, and from the tops of the Rhinogau mountains
in the east down to the coast in the west. It includes a variety
of different terrains and habitats, and of different historic
landscape types, such as open mountain tops, heavily-wooded
valley sides, low-grade agricultural land, small villages and
beaches. It is particularly noted for its wealth of extensive
relict archaeological remains, mainly dating from the late
prehistoric period and for its World Heritage Site (Harlech).
There are few large towns within the area:
the major settlements are Harlech, Dyffryn Ardudwy, Tal y Bont,
Llanaber and Talsarnau, all of which are located on the area's
main north-south, coastal axis, the A496. Inland, the area
rises, sharply in places, to the tops of the Rhinogau range
at 500m plus. There are few significant industrial archaeological
landscapes in the area, the main exception being the Hafotty
Mines above Llanaber. The area also contains two registered
parks and gardens, Cors y Gedol and Glyn-Cywarch.
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Agriculture
In the medieval period, the cantref of Ardudwy
was sub-divided into the commotes of Uwch Artro and Is Artro
along the line of the eponymous river. The maerdref for Ardudwy,
which was considered part of Gwynedd, was at Ystumgwern (area
15). The project area falls entirely within this region. Originally,
before the Edwardian conquest and the subsequent formation
of the county of Merioneth, the name 'Meirionnydd' applied
to the cantref to the south of the Mawddach.
Following Edward I’s conquest of north
Wales in 1284, the three new counties were surveyed. The extent
of Merioneth being carried out by John de Havering, the justice
of north Wales, and Richard Abingdon, the chamberlain. It was
probably drawn up between March 1284 and November 1285. It
is arranged under commotes but there is only a summary entry
for each one, with few separate entries for the individual
townships.
The purpose of the Extent was to record the
rent, dues and services due a lord from his tenants, and Edward
wanted to ascertain what had been owed to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd
by his tenants in the post-1277 principality which would now
accrue to him. Although they do not yield any information about
the ‘gwely’ and the ‘gafael’ of individual
townships, the section relating to the commote of Ardudwy records
an annual payment of fourpence from each one of 80 tenements
which are called ‘gafaelion’.
By 1352, when new extents of Ardudwy and Caernarfonshire
were drawn up, Merioneth had been granted to Walter de Mauny
and was not re-surveyed. As new extent of the county, however,
was made in 1419-20 and this, too, contains details of ‘gwelyau’ and ‘gafaelion’.
Demesne lands appear to have been more dispersed here than
in other parts of Gwynedd, in Ardudwy at Ystumgwern, for example.
Thomas (1967b) has chronicled the extent of
16th-century (Tudor) enclosures of wasteland in Merioneth,
most of which were intakes from the waste. He points out that
the areal distribution of the encroachments reveals a heavy
concentration in the rugged uplands of Ardudwy (as well as
Penllyn). Here lay the greater number of the more extensive
parcels, together with a liberal scattering of small plots
reclaimed from barren patches in already long-settled lowland
margins and valleys which penetrate the moorland (most notably
the areas around Tyddyn Felin (ironically on the cusp between
areas 15, 25 and 26) above Cwm Bychan; the sea-facing hillslopes
between Afon Cwmnantcol and Afon Ysgethin (mainly areas 1 and
7); and on Mynydd Llanbedr (area 16 between Afon Cwmnantcol
and Afon Artro).
Activity on the edges of coastal and riverine
marsh is clearly revealed by the appearance of large intakes
on Morfa Dyffryn in particular (areas 10 and 11, and part of
14). Competition for upland grazing resulting from the expansion
of freehold properties, with all its costly litigation concerning
appurtenant rights of pasture on the commons, may have motivated
many tenants to cast their eyes in the direction of these marshes
in order to obtain unspectacular but profitable gains of land
in a less controversial area. With the most favourable pastures
and potential arable soils already occupied (roughly, areas
1 and 15, along the lower hill slopes) expansion from the medieval
bases could have proceeded in either of these directions (uplands
or marsh) and it is abundantly clear that available techniques
were too unsophisticated to permit large-scale marsh reclamation.
Where documentary evidence is available, it
is clear that colonization of the moorland fringe was directed
from existing farm holdings (see also below), whose limits
were extended in an irregular manner on to the commons, thus
providing a marked contrast with geometrical field patterns
associated with the implementation of 19th century Parliamentary
Enclosure Awards (upland areas 2 and 16 for example). A typical
example can be seen on the lower slopes of Mynydd Llanbedr,
at SH 620274 around Cae’r Cynog (area 16, but they exist
in patches right down the area.
Unfortunately we do not have any data for
the relative percentages of tenanted farms in Ardudwy in 1592,
but elsewhere in Merioneth (particularly in Ystumanner) it
is clear that where the percentage of tenanted land was high,
the average size of encroachment plots increased (see also
below).
At the same time there was a certain amount
of dispersion of settlement and definite indications that some
new homesteads were being built on recently-enclosed commons,
(see Cae’r Cynog above). However, recorded examples of
squatter settlement of this period are remarkably few and their
distribution quite haphazard.
Early medieval settlement had been concentrated
on the small scattered areas of well-drained soils on the lower
slopes (see above and below) and subsequent expansion of township
communities radiated from these zones. The product of this
activity was a new moorland edge, a ‘crenellated margin
of occupation’ (Thomas, 1967b) whose precise course and
position depended on a whole complex of interacting factors.
These included the tenurial history of encroachable land (since
properties associated with Crown Leases attracted more prominent
feeholders eager to carve out large enclosures), soil quality
and vegetation and the role of altitude.
The only substantial estates in post-medieval
period were at Maes-y-neuadd, Glyn Cywarch and Corsygedol (for
example, Griffith Vaughan of Corsygedol purchased 20 parcels
of ‘ffridd’ amounting to 533 acres in 1595, land
which had passed through various hands since being granted
by the Crown 20 years earlier).
During the Napoleonic Wars, demand for increased
productivity led to a re-assessment of agricultural resources,
particularly of the common lands, many of which had been eaten
away over several centuries by private Acts of Parliament and
illegal encroachments (Thomas, 1967). At the same time, in
1801, the Merioneth Agricultural Society founded.
The visible results of the partition of common
lands among private owners in both lowlands and uplands was
dramatic, since the long stone walls which seamed the ffriddoedd
and the drainage channels which enlightened land-owners caused
to be cut in embanked marshes, produced a network of large
rectilinear fields which contrasted sharply with the irregular
patchwork of the small older enclosures. Common land enclosed
at the beginning of the 19th century included Llanfihangel-y-traethu
(1806), Llandanwg (1806), Llanfair (1810), Llanbedr (1810),
Llanenddwyn (1810), Llanddwywe (1810) and Llanaber 1810)
The enclosure and draining of part of Morfa
Harlech (area 30) in 1789 by the Glyn Cywarch estate (area
31) meant that the burgesses of the town (Harlech, area 18)
lost rights of common there. As an inevitable concomitant to
these measures, rents increased rapidly and Kay (1794) observed
that they doubled or even trebled.
The beneficiaries of improved techniques,
enclosure, rising rents and prices were evidently not the smallholders
and tenants who formed the bulk of the population, but the
magnates who were enabled to entrench their position of wealth
and political power. Much of the newly enclosed land was unimprovable
under technological conditions then operative and in general
the new farms created were out-numbered by extensions of hafodau
and other pre-existing nuclei on the ffriddoedd, or of units
which formed part of the pre-enclosure web of settlement. Encroachments
of long standing were indeed recognised by the Commissioners
as being legal, but the expansion of the agricultural area
offered few possibilities for relieving population pressure,
because the price and rent mechanisms operated in the interests
of the large producers and great landlords against the peasantry,
whose clamour for new holdings and leases made the situation
worse.
At the other extreme there were those who
were prepared to bear the insecurity of fluctuating agricultural
prices, mortgages, leasehold problems and bad harvests. Often
these families deliberately flaunted the law and set up house
as squatters beyond the moorland edge, believing perhaps quite
sincerely the ‘ty un nos’ tradition gave them protection
when in dire need. To the many hafodau and lluestau which now
became permanently occupied farmsteads were thus added a new
settlement element, very similar in form and derived from similar
causes, the isolated cabins with one or two small fields or
gardens, cut off from the rest of the community in more senses
than one.
Such epidemic outbursts of squatting and the
more overt prodding of field boundaries into the commons gave
the moorland edge a very sinuous and ragged outline by the
1840s and from many a Tithe map one can mentally reconstruct
the emergence of the landscape by a study of settlement and
field patterns along the margins of surviving areas of common.
As an example of the size of farms in 1840s,
in Llanddwywe 27 were between 1-24 acres in size, 25 between
25-49, 20 between 50-99, 9 between 100-199 and 19 were larger
than 200 acres.
One of the consequences of encroachment onto
the commons and Crown lands in the sixteenth century was the
growth of large farms as part of the estates rather than among
other freeholders, and it was the landlords who gained most
from Parliamentary Enclosure in the early nineteenth century,
so that it is generally true that farms on the greater estates
in the 1840s tended to be larger than those owned by lesser
freeholders or smaller estates.
Thomas (ibid) has argued that in those parts
of Ardudwy which had a particularly complex tenurial history
since the medieval gafaelion were created, especially on the
lowland margins of the vast moorland blocks, the resistance
of lesser freeholders to estate building had been more effective
and that these localities were still areas where smallholdings
predominated.
The tithe schedules represent a source of
information which is post-enclosure and pre-railway in many
areas of the Highland Zone, the effect of wartime conditions
of artificially high grain prices is still much in evidence
right up to the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Nevertheless,
some farms on reclaimed marsh show very distinctive field patterns
and hence farm boundaries which might lead one to describe
them as a new morphological type within that group of holdings
where pasture was the over-riding feature of land use.
The whole structure, economy and related social
attitudes of the estate system had become deeply ingrained
not only in the minds of the people, but also in the landscape,
and one is constantly aware of looking at farmsteads that are
usually at least a hundred and seventy years old, and at field
boundaries that derive basically from the sixteenth century,
if not earlier.
In 1840s, according to the Tithe Estate maps
the largest farm in the county comprised the 1,425 acres of
Graig isaf, Graig uchaf and Graig Fforchog in Cwm Nantcol (area
17 but extending into area 16) leased by William Ormsby-Gore
to Morris Jones & Robert Owen. This is an example of another
feature of compact gentry estates; the demesne was kept on
hand, while other farmsteads were let to individual tenants
and, occasionally, even the demesne was tenanted, as at Corsygedol.
From the 13th century onwards there is evidence
of hendrefi and hafodydd not only as kinds of dwellings but
as particular places with specific names. By the 16th century,
hendre and hafod names occur frequently in records; hafod names
occur much more frequently than hendre names, which is to be
expected because the latter, being well established holdings,
were less prone to be subjects of litigation than were hafodydd
which were evolving as holdings on the edge of open moorland,
and not apparently without aggression and strife. It seems
fairly clear from instances noted above that by this time,
if not before, the places bearing hafod names are, like the
hendre, distinct places which are owned and let, and it may
be that some were already separate from the hendrefi.
Edward Llwyd in his Parochialia (1699) notes
several hendrefi and hafodydd in Meirionnydd, listing for example ‘Hendre’ in
Llanfihangel-y-traethau, as being among ‘Y Tai Kyvrivol’ or ‘The
Chief Houses’ in the county, and ‘Hafod y wern’ in
Llanfihangel-y-traethau amongst ‘other houses’.
It is clear that the hafodydd named by him were separate properties
and not the upland appendages of lower-lying farms. In short,
in many cases the hafod had become a separate farm, although
not in all cases.
While it would seem that some hafodydd were
already distinctive holdings even in the 13th century, and
that the process was well forward by the 16th century, it is
clear that other hafodydd continued to be used as centres to
tend the use of the upland pastures in summer until the early
part of the 19th century; several of the travellers in Wales
refer to it. The fullest and best-known description is that
given by Thomas Pennant and relates to the Snowdon massif.
He recorded also (1773) how the owner of Cwm Bychan ‘distributes
his hinds among the Hafotys, or summer dairy houses, for the
conveniency of attending his herds and flocks'.
It is clear that the practice of maintaining
a hafod and migrating to it for the summer grazing came to
an end at different times in different areas, and also that
the evolution of some of the hafodydd into separate, and eventually
independent, farms proceeded at different rates from, at the
latest, the 16th century onwards and probably from an earlier
date. It is clear also that not all hafodydd became separate
farms and it is more than likely that many hafodydd, when they
became separate holdings, dropped the name hafod or hafoty
and took other names.
The vertical distribution of hendre and hafod/hafoty
names in the area is significant. The hendre/hendy names lie,
in general, below 180m (Hendre-waelod in Cwm Nantcol is perhaps
the highest), while the hafod/hafoty and ffridd names lie predominantly
above 200m. Another occurrence which is worth noting briefly
is that of the name Meifod. This could mean ‘May dwelling’ or
it could mean ‘middle dwelling’ between a hendre
and a hafod. There is a pair of farms so named – Meifod-ucha
(72 acres) and Meifod-isa (73 acres) just north of Cors-y-gedol
on the middle hill slopes. Their location is consistent with
their being an early summer, or middle, station between winter
and summer dwellings but the evidence is very scanty.
A particularly significant characteristic
of the upland agricultural landscapes of Ardudwy is the detached
field barn, or beudy, which appears in considerable numbers
in association with later post-medieval upland farms such as
Gilfach Goch (area 15), as well as with others of identical
form at a greater distance (e.g. near Rhydgaled isaf (SH590313).
Typically they are built end-on to the hill slope, and the
lower part, accessed by a doorway at the lower end, was used
to over-winter cattle, while hay and fodder was stored on an
upper level access from the opposite gable end. Although these
have not been studied or closely-dated they would appear to
be late 18th or early 19th century in date (at the earliest)
and although some remain in use many of them are now in a ruinous
condition, particularly in the more remote locations. This
use of outfield barns is particularly characteristic of the
Meirionydd area in general, and contrasts with many similar
upland areas in Caernarfonshire.
The area has very characteristic ‘traditional’ field
walls, most of which are of some form of dry-stone construction.
In some areas (for example, 13 and 25) much of the current
field pattern is probably prehistoric in origin. Many of the
field boundaries appear as low rubble banks, now slightly spread,
and are in assocation with enclosed hut group settlements.
Many of these have later stone walls built on top and are still
in use, around Bron-y-foel (area 7) and Byrllysg (area 13)
for example, while others are relict features. Many of these ‘prehistoric’ boundaries
are of orthostatic construction in the foundation, at least
in part and particularly distinctive of the mid-upland, sea-facing
hill slopes. Thir distribution does seem to mirror that of
the hut group and curvilinear settlements and none so far observed
are in areas away from such sites.
There are very few earthen banks in the area,
and no cloddiau in the Llyn tradition, and those there are
are to be found in lowland settings, although many of the earlier
boundaries are now quite overgrown and do have this appearance.
Due to their continued use over centuries many appear now as
terraces or lynchets, with the ground surface on the upper
slope side often 2-3 feet above the ground level on the lower
side. These boundaries have a distinctive curlinear pattern
in plan, which often follow the grain of the land, which readily
marks them out from later boundaries which are principally
straight, often paying little or no heed to their landscape
setting (for example area 02). They are still recorded as ‘wandering
walls’ following Bowen and Gresham’s description
(1967).
Later (post-medieval) boundaries are again
typically dry-stone in construction, and are to be found in
a bewildering variety of local styles across the landscape,
probably marking both chronological development and local vernacular
traditions. They vary from the almost-white, straight walls
dividing the green fields of the lowland coastal strip (area
03) to the harsh, somewhat incongruous lines which run across
the remote uplands (area2). In between, distinctive styles
of construction (particularly the use of coping stones) and
technique, and their physical location (some are built to run
down slopes which are almost vertical) make these later stone
walls possibly the most distinctive historic landcape feature
of Ardudwy.
A regional survey of agriculture in Wales
conducted in the early 1940s (Ashby and Evans, 1944) came up
with a number of interesting statistics: these included the
fact that the average size of holdings in Merioneth as a whole
was 46.3 acres, over 56% of the land was rough grazing (the
second highest county in Wales), and that 29% of the land was
under cultivation (but that only 8.8% of cultivated land was
used for growing crops). The uplands of Merioneth had the lowest
percentage of cultivated land and the highest proportion of
sheep in Wales. Also, north-west Wales in general was the area
where large landowners were most prevalent and where there
was a significant number of small holdings.
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Settlement
Non-nucleated
settlements
Buildings (with the exception of churches)
begin to register in the history of the area from the sub-medieval
period (especially the later 16th century) onwards. The area
is comparatively rich in sub-medieval houses, including substantial
gentry estates (including Cors y Gedol (1576 - area 9) and
Egryn (area 1 – recently dated 1496, the earliest dated
house in Ardudwy (Smith, 2001, 424)), as well as more modestly
sized farm-houses (Uwchlaw’r coed, Cwm Bychan - area
28) and Lasynys-fach (area 30). This chronology reflects late
medieval and Tudor social changes associated with the formation
of small estates, and the establishment of a class of tenants
holding land on long leases.
By the accession of Elizabeth I the open hall
(such as that at Egryn) was beginning to lose favour amongst
the middle ranks of Merioneth society and a plan form appears
in the 16th century that is difficult to relate to the locally-common
types of medieval hall houses. This was the two-unit, end-chimney,
direct-entry house where the gound floor consists of a large
room heated by a fireplace and separate from a parlour and
store-room by a cross-passage, with two chambers on the first
floor. This is by far the commenest sub-medieval type in western
Merioneth (Smith, 2001, 432), and the earliest known example
(dated by inscription) is Uwchlaw’r-coed – area
28): there are many other undated examples such as Brynrodyn.
These houses are relatively small, and for this reason they
are often found incorporated in what has been described as
the ‘unit system’ where a second complete house
has been added to the first.
Many of the relict archaeological remains
(long huts and platform sites particularly) which survive in
marginal, upland areas (areas 6, 7 and 26 for example) are
probably the sites of contemporary, poorer dwellings.
The known homes of the 'Patrons of the Bards'
in the post-medieval period also give a flavour of which were
the houses of the relatively well-off. From north to south
these have been identified (Bowen, 1971) as Plas (probably
Llandecwyn), Maesyneuadd, Glyn (Cywarch), Cwmbychan, Gerddibluog,
Tyddynfelin, Cae-nest, Talwrn, Maesygarnedd, Taltreuddyn, Corsygedol,
Hendrefechan, Egryn and Llwyn-du.
Preliminary impressions suggest that most
farmsteads were established early on, as there is a high preponderance
of early (pre 19th century in this context) buildings including
farm-buildings. Amongst these are Caerwch (SH636369), Cefnfilltir
(SH 586337) and Hendre Fechan, Tal-y-bont (SH595212). Llandwywe
farm, with its complex of well-preserved agricultural buildings
(including barn, cart shed, beudy and potato clamp, next to
the church on the main road (area 14) is a remarkable survival.
There is also an important series of later, 18th and early
19th century, medium-sized and even large farms (see above),
many of which may be either re-builds or later established
farmsteads (e.g. at less-favoured locations). A particularly
striking example of a 17th/18th century farm which is architecturally
distinct with no obvious parallels is Penrallt (area 15, just
east of Llanbedr): it has a huge and imposing stableyard approached
through a grand gateway
These larger farms, by and large, are set
in lowland contexts, on lower hill slopes facing the sea or
in secluded valleys. In addition, the area is rich in well-preserved
small farms of a distinctive 'upland' character, many of which
have been listed. Some of the finest examples include Argoed
(a small unit-type farmstead with a fine collection of outbuildings
set around an irregular yard - area 25), Drws-yr-ymlid (dated
1735 onwards, again with a small collection of outbuildings
including pigsty, brewhouse and fowl house - area 25 again),
Merthyr (originally a single-storey farmhouse with end-on extensions
and a small, informal yard - also area 25), Foel (a simple,
small farmhouse with windows only in the front and no outbuildings)
and Nant Pasgan mawr and bach (two 18th or 19th century small
isolated farmsteads in the top of area 22).
There are some exceptions to the idea of early-established
farms: for example, there is a series of 19th century farmsteads
set out along the road on Morfa Harlech (Pen-y-waen, Ty'n-yr-acrau,
Ty'n-y-morfa, Ty-canol and so on) which demonstrate late settlement
of improved coastal lands. There are also several 'model estate'
farms dating from the same century, again on the lower, more
fertile land, purpose-built with large houses and usually set
around some form of courtyard: Felinrhyd-fawr on the roadside
in area 5 and particularly Plas y Bryn, just outside Llanbedr
(area 14) are good examples. The latter, a part of the Cors
y Gedol estate, still has an impressive range of agricultural
buildings including a circular dove-cot, cowhouses and a barn
with magnificent cast iron pillars.
There are very few small-holdings in the area:
a rare example is the listed farm Gilfach goch (SH587326),
which dates from the 17th century onwards, just above Llanfair
(area 15). There are, in addition a small number of wayside
cottages, but the growth of several villages in the second
half of the 19th century (see below) could to some extent represent
the replacement of earlier, poorer dwellings (a shift from
scattered settlement to villages being a well-known 19th century
pattern).
In the 19th century the emphasis on building
appears to have shifted in favour of, first, a village-based
followed by a coastal/leisure economy, still largely based
around the 19th century village nuclei (see next section).
This pattern is still very much in evidence today.
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Nucleated
settlements
Although, as we have seen, much of the area
is characterised by the scattered settlement of farming, nucleated
settlements are also a distinctive element of the historic
landscape. Almost without exception, all the nucleated settlements
lie on the lower, sea-facing slopes alongside the main (modern
A496) north-south road. The one exception is the small settlement
of Pentre Gwynfryn, east of Llanbedr and partway along the
road to Cwm Nantcol and Cwm Bychan, for which a 'medieval origin'
is claimed in the Atlas Meirionnydd (Bowen, 1971).
Original (and presumably early) 'Celtic' church
dedications are to be found associated with Llandecwyn (now
an isolated church in area 22), Llandanwg (now surrounded by
a 19th and 20th century 'holiday' settlement - area 4), Llanenddwyn
(now almost isolated below Dyffryn Ardudwy - area 14) and Llanddwywe
(also almost isolated below Cors y Gedol in area 8). Other
medieval dedications include Llanfihangel-y-traethu (on the
former island of Ynys, area 19) and Llanbedr (still a substantial
nucleated settlement, but with no medieval domestic buildings
- area 18). With the exception of Llandecwyn, all of these
are on the low-lying coastal strip, within easy access of the
sea. Llandecwyn probably lies on an early trackway which led
up from the sea (Traeth Bach, at the mouth of the Afon Dwyryd)
and across the mountains to Trawsfynydd (or earlier, possibly,
to Tomen y Mur).
The single, truly nucleated medieval settlement
in Ardudwy was Harlech (area 24, see below): however, even
here the ancient origins of the town have left no real trace
beyond the castle walls, although Speed's drawing of 1610 suggests
the original town was probably laid out along Stryd Fawr and
up Pen Dref. While there are some 18th century buildings here,
the vast majority are 19th and 20th century in date, and the
layout of the town and its building stock clearly reflect both
the precipitous location of the town on a steep slope, and
the expansion of the town following the coming of the railways
and road improvements in the mid-19th century.
The only other settlement which appears to
have a pre-19th century core is Llanfair (area 23). Here, the
church (13th century in origin but heavily restored in 1857)
is surrounded by an irregular cluster of probable 18th century
buildings, while the 19th and 20th century additions straggle
out across the hillside above to the north.
All the other nucleated settlements, from
small groupings of buildings, often no more than extended farmsteads
such as Glan-y-wern near Glyn Cywarch, through sizeable villages
such as Ynys, Talsarnau, Llanfair and Tal-y-bont to the largest
villages (Llanbedr and Dyffryn Ardudwy/Coed Ystumgwern) appear
to have grown up along the main road (but interestingly not
the railway) during the nineteenth century. As has already
been noted, this reflects the shift in emphasis at this time
in favour of, first, a village-based followed by a coastal/leisure
economy, still largely based around the nineteenth century
village nuclei.
All these settlements have a mixed artisan/holiday
architectural character, reflected in the incidence of chapels
and of terraced houses as evidence of the former (for instance
in Dyffryn Ardudwy on the eastern side of the road - area 12),
and taller terraces and bungalows for the latter (parts of
Harlech and Llandanwg/Llanfair - areas 24 and 4). The development
of the 'holiday' economy and it associated buildings can be
charted through several distinct phases and types (e.g. private
villas, seaside holidays, retirement bungalows and caravans).
Other nucleations are smaller clusters, perhaps
established around isolated rural chapels. The smallest nucleations
are the ‘unit system’ farmsteads, which are a significant
component of this area: several examples have already been
documented (e.g. Argoed, Tyddyn y felin and Llanfair Isaf).
A strong arts and crafts tradition in the
early 20th century continued an impressive formulation of an
architecture of stone: this is seen at its best in the series
of houses on the southern edge of Harlech (area 24) associated
with a cosmopolitan group of artists centred on the figure
of A. Davidson, whose home subsequently became the nucleus
of Coleg Harlech.
Finally, the new nucleated settlements of
the late 20th century are in all-to-conspicuous evidence all
along the coastline from Tal-y-bont down to Llanaber in the
form of vast, regulated static caravan sites (area 3). These
make few concessions to local landscape character and have
led to some extremely odd juxtapositions of traditional (field
walls and stone farm buildings) and modern (caravans, fish
and chip shops and entertainment complexes).
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Building
types and material
There is a distinctive agricultural economy
evident in the pattern of building in Ardudwy. In the upland
areas, many farms (e.g. Argoed and Drws yr Ymlid, both area
15; Cefnfilltir, area 7), are characterised by an informal
grouping of buildings in proximity to the house (e.g. Llecheiddor
Isaf, area 7) and sometimes, though not often, in-line with
it (e.g. Tyddyn Sion Wyn (area 25), Caerwch (area 22) and Llidiart
Garw (area 25). Often, a little further away, there is a detached
field beudy (Gilfach Goch (area 15) with others of identical
form at a greater distance (e.g. near Rhydgaled isaf (SH590313),
although many of these are now in a ruinous condition, particularly
in the more remote locations.
Ruined structures (e.g. at SH647317 in Cwm
Bychan) may be traces of an earlier agricultural economy involving
the hafod system of seasonal transhumance. The general upper
altitudinal limit for farms today is around 200m, and there
are none beyond 300m. However, there are recorded deserted
rural settlement sites at heights of up to 400m (for example
on the lower slopes of ) which have been interpreted as seasonal
dwellings (Kelly, 1982).
There are some tighter groupings of farm-buildings
in both upland and lowland settings. Buildings for stock, and
especially the field cow-house, predominate (see above), but
the incidence of threshing barns traces a mixed agriculture.
Open-sided hay-barns are also characteristic, mainly in the
lower lying areas (for example Felinrhyd fawr - area 5; and
Plas y Bryn - area 14) and associated with 19th century improved
agriculture.
Although there is ‘archaeological’ evidence
for a prior tradition of framing (e.g. the early building at
Egryn (area 1), a cruck-framed barn at Coed mawr (area 15),
and the high standards of internal carpentry in sub-medieval
houses generally), the dominant character of the area is given
by the use of stone. Nuances in its use are to be seen especially
in the farm buildings, which vary from dry-stone wall construction
(mainly upland farms such as Nant Pasgan-mawr), to mortared
walls (lowland farms such as Freedman Dolmygliw - near Llanbedr,
area 15): this variety is partly connected with the chronology,
but also relates to socio-economic factors. There is considerable
variety within each, relating primarily to the quality and
character of the locally-available stone.
Amongst the dwellings, the early development
of a compact storeyed house stands out (dating from the second
half of 16th century onwards), although there are some examples
of ground floor open halls (e.g. Egryn - area 1). Typically,
the ope hall was superseded by the storeyed end-chiney house,
typical of the Snowdonia area (Smith 1985). The earliest dated
example of the prevalent 2-unit storeyed house is Uwchlawr
coed (1585 - area 7). Others include Bron y foel isaf (also
area 7), Cwm Bychan (area 28), Penarth (area 15), Coed mawr
(also area 15), Plas Llandecwyn (area 22), Crafnant (area 28)
and Llwyn Hwlcyn (which also has an impressive array of outbuildings
which includes a threshing barn, cowhouse, stable and cartshed
- area 15). These ‘gentry-type’ houses appear in
a surprisingly wide range of geographical locations (upland
and lowland) suggesting small estates in scattered locations
in the post-medieval period: this might be supported by the
relative absence of small holdings on the upland fringes (a
landscape which is very different, again, from parts of Caernarfonshire).
It has been suggested (by Smith, 2001) that the relatively
small size of this house type may be connected with the numbers
of unit-system dwellings in this area (see below). This house
type readily assimilated the simplified Georgian form characteristic
of much of the 19th century, perhaps the most noticeable development
being a tendency towards a more compact plan.
The introduction of the Georgian traditional
to the regional vernacular tradition from the late 18th century
onwards (see above) had considerable impact on the appearance
of the buildings. This is probably most easily recognised in
the size and type of windows which vary, again according partly
to chronology, but partly to location. For example, late 18th
or early 19th century lowland farms such as Caerwych (area
22) are two-storeyed, have substantial 'Georgian' sash windows
and are of two or even three bays. Upland farms, on the other
hand (again probably 19th century in the main) are often single-story,
sometimes with projecting first floor dormer windows (such
as Nant Pasgan-mawr, further up area 22) or alternatively small
windows (such as Llecheiddor Isaf (area 7).
Roofs are generally of slate, but there is
a distinction between graded, random and often bedded slate
roofs, and the more regular machine-cut slates. Many farm-buildings
are now roofed in tin sheet (presumably replacing slate or
thatch) and its red colour is a distinctive element in the
landscape, especially amongst the smaller, upland farmsteads
(e.g. Argoed).
One point of interest is the almost complete
lack of the use of brick as a building material: with the exception
of a few houses in Harlech and Llanbedr (including the present
youth hostel), all of the building stock of the area is built
of stone, although some of the 19th-century farm buildings
on Morfa Harlech for instance (e.g. Tyn' y acrau - area 30)
may be of brick-build underneath their render. There is no
use of brick in the upland parts of the area, and no use has
been made of the usually-ubiquitous Victorian yellow-brick
associated with the coming of the railways outside Llanbedr.
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Relict
archaeology
The
coastal plain
Much of Ardudwy consists of upland (above
c. 240m), or hill slopes marginal to the upland. The lowland
area comprises only the coastal plain, narrow at the south
(area 3) but broadening to the north in Morfa Dyffryn (area
10 and 11) and Morfa Harlech (areas 30 and 32). These coastal
plains are very low-lying and level and the lowest parts have
a peat cover. They represent the fringe of a coastline drowned
by rising sea-levels during the post-glacial period. The peat
cover, with tree stumps of a ‘drowned forest’ and
an underlying salt-marsh clay are exposed occasionally in the
intertidal zone of the eroding coast edge. The clay has produced
red deer antler and deer and cattle bones that are as yet undated
(Kelly 1982) but they can be compared finds from similar deposits
studied in some detail at Ynyslas and Borth, further to the
south of Cardigan Bay. There, intertidal peats are exposed
for some 5km along the shore. They appear as outcrops on the
beach from beneath the adjoining Borth raised bog, under which
they must extend, and consist of fen, alder carr and forest
beds overlying salt marsh clay (Heyworth and Kidson 1982, 102).
Radiocarbon dates give a date of c. 6000 BP for the underlying
salt marsh and dates of c. 5400 BP to 3900 BP, at its lowest,
for the forest bed (ibid.). A number of casual archaeological
finds have been made from these peats, including a mesolithic
flint pick, flint flakes, an antler tool and a hearth which
produced a date of c. 4000 BP from the surrounding peat (Sambrook
and Williams 1996, 26) as well as bones of red deer and bos
primigenius (wild cattle).
In Ardudwy, the only humanly worked artefact
found is a perforated antler hammer from Mochras Island (Guilbert
1981), but its exact findspot is unknown. A timber trackway
in the intertidal area at Llanaber has been investigated and
this produced radiocarbon dates in the 12th to 14th centuries
AD. A nearby tree stump, however, produced a date within the
Roman period (Musson et al 1989). The inundation of the coast
created a marshland environment and this would have been little
used before large scale drainage in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Taking into account the finds from the peat exposed in the
intertidal fringe here and by comparison with those from wetland
environments from elsewhere in Wales and England, such as the
south Glamorgan and Somerset levels, the peat cover in Ardudwy
is likely to preserve an important buried archaeological landscape,
covering several millennia. This will include organic items
rarely preserved elsewhere inland, such as animal remains and
timber jetties, platforms and trackways.
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The
inland zone
Finds of flint and stone tools provide a useful
pointer to areas of earlier prehistoric activity during the
mesolithic and neolithic periods. Flint occurs occasionally
in fluvio-glacial clay but is most accessible where it is eroded
out of such deposits at the coast edge. Such deposits are directly
exposed in Ardudwy from Mochras to Llandanwg, but there are
some sea-deposited gravel deposits along much of the coast.
Despite the availability of raw material, flint finds are very
few in Ardudwy, with the only sizeable collection (now lost)
reported from Mochras Island (Ffoulkes 1852, 103) and a single
find from Llanaber (GAT SMR). To some extent this is due to
the lack of cultivated land in the area, so that exposures
are few, and partly due to the loss of the early prehistoric
coast edge, where the majority of activity would have been,
because of rising sea-levels.
Stray finds of neolithic stone axes can also
help to show wider exploitation of the inland areas but there
are only two from Ardudwy, one from Talsarnau and one from
Llanbedr (GAT SMR). The evidence for use of the upland interior
before, or even after, the establishment of the first farming
communities takes the form of a few flint tools and a radiocarbon
date deriving from activity found beneath structures of a settlement
of the second half of the first millennium BC at Moel y Gerddi,
Harlech (Kelly 1988 - area 26). Pollen studies of valley peats
near to Moel y Gerddi also hinted at some mesolithic activity
but more certainly of wider human interference in the form
of woodland decline and the presence of plants of pasture during
the Neolithic period, from c. 5140bp (about 4000BC, calibrated)
(Chambers and Price 1988).
Ardudwy has a remarkable and well-preserved
group of chambered tombs of the early neolithic period, all
within an area of some eight miles in extent, suggesting a
single population group, made up of several related local communities.
These seem to be focussed on rivers and perhaps originally
on harbour inlets, now lost to coastal erosion or silting.
One outlying tomb, at Gwern Einion to the north, is likely
to be focussed on the Afon Artro. To the south are five tombs,
around the Afon Ysgethin. Despite the proximity of these tombs
they vary considerably in style. Excavations at Dyffryn Ardudwy
demonstrated changes in style of building and a long period
of use, continuing into the second millennium BC (Powell 1963).
There is evidence that the earliest occupation was influenced
by western, Atlantic culture with similarities to tombs on
the Llyˆn peninsula, Anglesey and Ireland, while there
were later influences from mainland Britain (Lynch 1969, 124-5).
No settlement remains of this period have
yet been found but the immediate vicinity of the tombs has
generally been obscured by later cultivation. However, these
areas often retain much potential, particularly around the
tomb at Dyffryn Ardudwy where deep cultivation terraces are
likely to mask neolithic cultivation or settlement remains
and around the Carneddau Hengwm, in an uncultivated area where
survival may be more extensive, and research is currently under
way (Johnson and Roberts 2001 - area 2).
In contrast to the neolithic period, there
is a much greater range of evidence of occupation during the
second millennium BC, the early and middle bronze age, with
numerous funerary and ritual monuments, including 42 burial
mounds of a variety of styles, 19 standing stones and 4 stone
circles. Some of the burial mounds are very large cairns on
prominent isolated summits. The remainder fall into two geographical
groups. The first is in the upland around Moel Goedog (principally
area 25), the second in upland around Mynydd Egryn (principally
area 2). Both areas have very intense relict archaeology with
a variety of funerary monuments as well as areas of settlement
and fields. It seems significant that both areas adjoin major
natural routes and it may be that both are specialised funerary
centres somewhat distant from the main areas of population.
The Moel Goedog group appears to be deliberately
approached along a track defined by standing stones, possibly
originally an ‘avenue’ which leads between two
ring cairns, one of which has produced evidence of much ceremonial
as well as funerary activity and a range of dates between about
2000-1750BC (Lynch 1984). The Mynydd Egryn group is traversed
by a trackway, alongside which are several monuments that seem
closely related to the track, including two large embanked
stone circles, a small stone circle, Cerrig Arthur, and a ring
cairn or robbed cairn or ring cairn at the shoulder of the
pass over to Dyffryn Mawddach, where it has a very obvious
relation to the trackway. Neither of these areas is in the
most agriculturally favourable parts of Ardudwy and for this
reason an unparalleled wealth of upstanding relict archaeology
survives.
Environmental study has shown that these uplands
had seen a significant phase of woodland clearance during the
second millennium BC (Chambers and Price 1988). The woodland
soils would have been initially quite fertile and the clearance
can be inferred to mean quite intensive use of the uplands
for pasture. Numerous scattered, unenclosed stone-walled round
house settlements, or isolated round houses survive in these
uplands, none excavated, and some may be of bronze age date.
Excavations of later settlements have suggested that houses
in this phase would probably have been of timber construction
and therefore their remains would be difficult to identify
(Kelly 1988).
The bronze age clearance of the uplands continued
into the middle of the first millennium BC, when a deteriorating
climate or simply unsustainable agriculture on thin soils led
to the development of blanket peat as demonstrated at the settlements
of Erw-wen and Moel y Gerddi (Kelly 1988). These upland settlements
seem to have been mainly pastoral but with some evidence of
cultivation. However, there were other economic considerations
for use of the uplands at this time, as shown by the production
of iron from bog ore at the scattered settlement of Crawcwellt
in the upland at Trawsfynydd not far to the east (Crew 1998).
The main focus of settlement in this later
period was on the fringes of the upland, on the better- drained,
west-facing hill slopes with numerous settlements of various
forms surviving where modern agriculture has not been too intensive.
Population was dense enough to have some considerable social
organisation, focussed on several small hill forts at Moel
Goedog, Clogwyn Arllef, Byrllysg, Craig y Dinas, Pen y Dinas,
Castell and Dinas Oleu (Bowen and Gresham 1967). These all
overlook lower slopes, well-used for agriculture and in which
are numerous remains of round house settlement. The settlements
at Erw Wen and Moel y Gerddi were single, concentric enclosed
round houses and there are also remains of a range of sub-circular
settlements that are not unique to Ardudwy but are locally
typical. Some are quite substantially banked and in semi-defensive
positions, as at Erw Wen, Llandanwg and Ceunant Egryn, Llanaber.
There is some evidence that this settlement style continued
from bronze age styles. It evolved into more complex groups
of structures, incorporating strongly built stone-walled buildings
of different shapes and sizes for different purposes. The main
later style of settlement was of more nucleated groups of houses
in compact enclosed or unenclosed homesteads of which there
are some 25 surviving in Ardudwy. The majority of them still
retain a mainly curvilinear shape that can be seen as developed
from an original circular layout, for instance at Moel y Glo,
Llandecwyn and Muriau Gwyddelod, Llanfair.
The nucleated enclosed and unenclosed hut
settlements are to be found all along the west-facing margins
of the upland of Ardudwy (concentrated, but not exclusively,
in areas 7, 25 and 26). Close to many of them are remains of
strongly terraced field systems that indicate intensive arable
cultivation, and which give the current landscape much of its
distinctive local character. Two of the best preserved areas
of such fields are around Cors-y-gedol, Dyffryn Ardudwy (area
9), where one of the associated settlements has been excavated
and shown to be of the Romano-British period (Griffiths 1958)
and Mynydd Egryn, Llanaber (De Lewandowicz 1981- area 2). This,
and comparison with similar excavated examples in north-west
Wales shows that the bulk of the relict archaeological landscape
represented by these settlements and fields is of the Romano-British
period with underlying earlier elements. The same settlement
areas were also often re-used in the medieval period but generally
retained the outlines of the Romano-British enclosures or field
patterns.
Most of upland Ardudwy, over c. 240m OD had
no enclosed round house settlements in the Romano-British period
although there are remains of 15 groups of unenclosed round
houses and some 20 examples of isolated round houses (Smith
1999), without evidence of cultivation. These can be expected
to have been mainly pastoral settlements exploiting what by
now were impoverished moorland, much as today. Woodland appears
to have recovered to some extent in the later first millennium
BC following abandonment of the settlement at Moel y Gerddi,
although it declined again in the Romano-British period (Chambers
and Price 1988, 99). Some of these settlements may have been
seasonally occupied in association with grazing patterns, and
these upland round houses are noticeably smaller than those
of the lowland settlements. This, and the evidence of earlier
phases of timber-built houses demonstrated by excavation at
Moel y Gerddi, shows that the relict archaeology of Ardudwy,
represented visually mainly by stone-built structures such
as cairns, houses and fields is just the hard outline of a
much more intensively occupied landscape.
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Parks
and gardens
There are only two parks and gardens of particular
note in the study area, but both are of similar age and associated
with the major families of the area. Cors-y-Gedol is a Vaughan,
later Mostyn, house of the 16th century with a 17th-century
gatehouse, situated near the junction of cultivated land with
the open hillside; it retains large areas of ancient woodland
and the remnants of a probably contemporary garden, overlaid
by later features. Glyn Cywarch to the north is a 17th-century
house built by the Wynn family, whose descendant, Lord Harlech,
is the present owner; it too has a gatehouse and the garden
areas close to the house probably largely reflect the original
layout.
Both gardens are included in the Cadw/ICOMOS
Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic
Interest in Wales Part 1: Parks and Gardens, Glyn Cywarch at
grade II* and Cors-y-Gedol at grade II. The latter grade reflects
the state of preservation rather than the importance of the
site, which is certainly at least equal with Glyn Cywarch.
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Industrial
Ardudwy has remarkably little in the way of
an industrial archaeological heritage. There has been very
little industrial activity in the past which has left a mark
on the landscape. Probably the most significant in landscape
terms are the Hafoty manganese mines (area 2), but there are
also fairly extensive workings around Llyn Eiddew-mawr (area
33 and picture) and further north, on the east slopes of Y
Gyrn. There are also the remains of shafts and levels above
Coed Crafnant (area 28), and on the lower, northern slopes
of Moelfre (area 16) where there are the relatively extensive
remains of Moelfre mine along the contour near the modern road
(SH615255) and one or two other places.
There are several slate quarries at the bottom
of the sea-facing cliffs inland south of Llanfair, including
Llanfair, Coed y Llechau, Pantgwyn, Byrllysg and Byrdir, while
further inland are the remains of Graig Uchaf quarry. Llanfair
was a moderate-sized, almost totally underground working opened
in the 1860s. It closed after a few years, re-opened early
in the 20th century and finally closed during World War I.
It was used as an explosives store in World War II, and opened
as a visitor centre in the 1960s. Coed y Llechau, east of Llanbedr,
is a hillside quarry on two levels with an incline leading
down to a mill: it has been mush disturbed by later stone quarrying,
though the mill is in good condition. Pantgwyn and Byrdir were
small underground workings, while Graig Uchaf was a tiny pit.
There are three further small, slate quarries
in the south of the area, on the western fringes of Is Mynydd
(area 2), Ffridd Olchfa and Egryn (small hillside workings)
and Hendre Eirian (a small pit which produced green slate).
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Communications
The main communication routes in the area
are the A496 trunk road and the Cambrian Coastal Railway which
run more or less in parallel down the entire length of the
Ardudwy coastal plain. So, little has changed since Gerald
of Wales travelled northwards through Ardudwy following much
the same route in 1188. Other travellers who have visited and
described the area include Fenton, Thomas Pennant, who was
entertained 'for some days, in the style of an ancient baron'
at Cors y Gedol, and who described some of the 'British antiquities'
in the area and was beaten by 'the horror' of passing through
Drws Ardudwy (1771, 121ff), and George Borrow.
The sea-facing hill slopes are associated
with one of the principal drovers' routes, which led from the
coast across the mountains to Dolgellau (and ultimately to
the borders and the English markets). Traditionally cattle
were gathered near Llanfair (where the Pugh family, long associated
with droving, lived), and from here the herds were taken inland,
heading for Bron-y-foel, and then either over Pont Scethin
(there are the remains of an old inn, Ty-newydd, incongruously
nearby on the lower slopes of Moelfre) and across the mountain
ridge following the old coach road; or over Pont Fadog and
across the mountain side and over Bwlch y Rhiwgyr (Pass of
the Drovers - top of area 2), before coming down to Bontddu
on the Mawddach.
The Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway was authorised in 1861-2, begun
in 1863 and extended from Barmouth to Porthmadog and Pwllheli in 1867
when it was renamed the Cambrian Railway. Stations were built either
then or subsequently at (from south to north) Llanaber (just outside
the project area), below Llanddwywe, Llanenddwyn, two stations below
Llanbedr (one south of the Artro and one on the north side), Llandanwg,
Harlech, below Glan-y-wern, below Talsarnau and finally Llandecwyn
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