Agriculture
The present day landscape of the area is very much a product
of the late eighteenth and the early-to-mid nineteenth centuries.
This is not simply in terms of the arrival of large-scale industrialisation,
but also of a number of coincident and related factors, such
as: enclosure (both legal and illegal) of comparatively large
areas such as the Waun Wina, Moel Tryfan/Moel Smytho/Mynydd
Cilgwyn (area 14), Nebo (area 15) and Traeth Dinlle (areas
19 and 46); a more pro-active role towards land improvements
adopted by the gentry, which included the re-building of Plas
Brereton (area 26) and Glynllifon (area 10), as well as the
creation of specific estate styles of farmhouses and farm buildings
by Newborough and Vaynol; and a more pro-active role taken
on by professionals (for example a solicitor at Bryn Bras (area
45), and a land agent at Glan Gwna (area 29).
However, this said, there is substantial evidence for the
prehistoric origin of many of the field patterns in the marginal
parts of the area (i.e. the sea-facing slopes between the largely
unenclosed uplands, and the much-improved lowlands).
Evidence for prehistoric settlement and associated field systems
is perhaps most notable on the enclosed slopes below Mynydd
Tryfan, especially the areas around Rhosgadfan/ Rhostryfan
(area 22) and Mynydd y Cilgwyn (area 25), which are characterised
by stone-built walls, usually circular or irregular in pattern,
and often of orthostatic construction. Llwyndu-bach (see illustration
for area 25), which was excavated by Bersu in the 1940s, is
a good example of a concentric circle enclosure (late prehistoric
in date) which has an associated field pattern which radiates
out from it. There are other excellent examples to the north
(centred on SH505580) and the south (centred SH495570) of Rhostryfan,
where an essentially prehistoric fieldscape and settlement
landscape has been preserved below later walls.
Another large area of relict (prehistoric) fields associated
with settlements is Cae Rhonwy (area 38), although here the
relict fields, which appear as grassed-over lynchets rather
than in-use stone-walled fields, appear to be sub-rectangular
(rather than sub-circular) in shape.
Most of these settlements are scheduled and the scheduled
area often includes parts of the (presumably associated) field
system. Some of the early lynchets in the Rhostryfan area have
been recorded by the Royal Commission (RCAHMW 1960), although
unfortunately these are now out of date as much more information
has come to light, mainly from aerial reconnaissance. However,
other areas have not been adequately recorded, and as none
of the field boundaries have been investigated archaeologically,
dating is by association only.
It is also possible to detect prehistoric origins in some
of the enclosed fields at lower altitudes, again distinguished
by the characteristic curvilinear shape of the boundaries,
many of which appear to radiate out from circular hilltop enclosures.
There are examples around Gadlys (area 36 – SH481580) and probably
Llety (area 36 – SH501609).
There are no areas of recognisable former quillets visible
in the modern landscape, and indeed none are shown on the relevant
tithe maps, even around the farms and houses which preserve
medieval township names (such as Coedalun - SH475613, Castellmai
- SH498605, Rhedynogfelen - SH465575, Treflan - SH535585 (see
area 40), Dinlle - SH435565, Llanfaglan - see below, Llanwnda
- see below, Baladeulyn - SH493530, Dolbedin - SH478521, Eithinog
- SH455535, Bryn Cynan - SH440531, and Llanllyfni - SH470519
(a present-day settlement)).
Much of the land around and to the south of Caernarfon (areas
1, 28, 29, 30 and 36) was owned by the Church before the Dissolution.
Land here belonged to Aberconwy Abbey (Rhedynogfelen - SH465575:
the Cistercians came here first from Strata Florida in 1186),
Bangor (Llanfaglan - SH470600, and Llanwnda - SH475585) and
Clynnog Fawr (Bodellog - unlocated, Gored Gwyrfai - SH45610,
Llanfaglan church - SH455606 and Llanwnda church - unlocated).
Clynnog had disposed of all of its land in Arfon and Llyn by
the late fifteenth century, and all of the other church lands,
except those of the Bishops of Bangor, became crown property
after the Dissolution.
Vaynol and Glynllifon were the largest estates in the area.
The pattern of change on the Vaynol estate, which developed
from the Crown manor of Dinorwig, was profound. The earliest
maps are the surveys carried out in 1777, which enable a partial
reconstruction of the way in which agricultural practices on
the estate developed, and detailed surveys dated c. 1800, which
contain vast amounts of very useful and interesting material.
The estate surveys of 1869 show in some places very regular
enclosures which may represent deliberate policy by the estate,
elsewhere wandering walls which in some places represent pre-modern
settlement, and in others may be a consequence of squatter-encroachment
on the wastes before the parliamentary enclosure of 1808, which
benefited the Vaynol estate very considerably (CRO Vaynol 4194).
The pattern of small holdings established by the quarrymen
on the commons was to some extent confirmed and continued by
Thomas Assheton-Smith III in order to avoid creating nucleated
communities of landless men.
There are several descriptions of the state of agriculture
(which contain explicit and implicit references to the nature
of the landscape) in Caernarvonshire around the turn of the
eighteenth/nineteenth century. In 1794, George Kay produced
his General View of the Agriculture of Caernarvonshire (Kay,
1794). Hyde Hall made detailed observations on the state of
farming in the area as a result of his travels between 1808
and 1811 (Hyde Hall 1952) (which have been critically analysed
by Deiniol Williams (Williams, 1941)), and another contemporary
writer, the Revd. Walter Davies makes specific references to
Caernarvonshire in his report on north Wales to the Board of
Agriculture (Davies, 1810).
There appears to have been a close correlation between the
quality of the farming and the state of the fences (a term
which included stone walls (Kay, 1794, 146). Building the latter
was, of course, a considerable enterprise, as indicated in
the statement, relating to properties in the parish of Llanllyfni,
that 'a strong wall has been made at the joint expense of all
these tenants between the Upper Ffrith and sheepwalk and the
enclosed lands to keep off the sheep' (Kay, 1794, 72).
Other problems were perceived to have been caused by the 'intermixture
of holdings' (Roberts, 1973, 17), especially with regard to
access. This had roots in the past, with the subdivision of
a farm upon a lessee's death, but obviously caused innumerable
problems still.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that while the lowland areas have
been considerably improved in recent years (with field boundaries
being removed), marginal and upland zones have survived largely
intact (although a few instances of land clearance have resulted
in the loss of archaeological and historical features).
Relict archaeology
The early prehistoric period is relatively poorly represented
in the area. The only dated site from this period is the find
of a mid-bronze age urn near the base of the standing stone
in Glynllifon Park (RCAHMW, 1960, 198). There are also several
cairns in the marginal areas, such as the side of Dyffryn Nantlle
(areas 37 and 42), which may date from this period, but none
has been excavated.
Mention has already been made of the extensive prehistoric
settlements and associated field systems covering large areas
of the lower mountain slopes, around the edges of the unenclosed
mountain land, especially around Rhostryfan and Rhosgadfan.
The settlements at Hafotty Wernlas and Llwyndu Bach have been
excavated and produced material from the 2nd to 4th centuries
AD, but as these were not 'modern' excavations they cannot
be relied upon to have produced a detailed chronology (RCAHMW,
1960). This area contains some of the most extensive and well-preserved
prehistoric remains in north Wales.
Several similar, but now 'isolated', settlement sites exist
within both marginal areas (for example, areas 25, 37 and 42)
and to a lesser extent within the improved fieldscapes of the
lowlands (areas 34 and 36). Usually these sites comprise the
remains of (prehistoric) hut groups situated in the corners
of improved fields (for example near Saron, SH465592), but
single hut circles also survive (for example at Penbryn Mawr,
SH462539), often below later remains.
The lower part of the Arfon plateau is dominated by the huge
multivallate hillfort of Dinas Dinlle (SH550653 - also associated
with the Mabinogion), and there are several smaller 'ring forts’
on other hills inland, for example at Bryngwydion (SH441535),
Foel (SH450505), Gadlys (SH 481580) and Hen Gastell (SH471574).
Unfortunately, none of these small forts has been excavated,
and although they are assumed to be prehistoric in date they
do look remarkably similar to the Irish 'rath' sites, and the
relationship between them and the hut group settlements has
not been established: the potential for future analysis is
considerable.
There is an interesting (again undated) sub-square enclosure
at Dinas y Prif (SH460576), which occupies a low-lying position
just above the Foryd, and which is adjacent to a series of
hut circle settlements.
The distribution of deserted 'long hut' settlement sites,
usually taken to be medieval in date, coincides largely with
the relict prehistoric settlement remains, i.e. in marginal
areas around the edges of the unenclosed mountain land (areas
25, 37 and 42). There is a well-preserved series of sites,
along with ridge and furrow cultivation, which was recently
discovered along the southern ridges of Dyffryn Nantlle (in
an area around SH510520). They occur more rarely in improved
fields, usually as isolated features and often overlying earlier
sites (for example at Penbryn Mawr - SH462539). Again, the
precise date and nature of these sites has not been examined.
Recent aerial photography has begun to demonstrate the potential
for discovering further relict sites (mainly hut circle sites,
often with associated field system remains, within the improved
fieldscapes of the Arfon plateau just to the north of this
area, and it would seem likely that, given the right conditions,
there are plenty of buried sites awaiting discovery.
Settlement
Overview
As with other areas of Wales, the influence of powerful landowning
families remains very evident in the landscape. The most
powerful family within the study area were the Wynnes of
Boduan and of Glynllifon, ennobled as the Lords Newborough
from 1787, at a time when, ironically, their influence in
the county was beginning to wane. In addition, several substantial
Caernarvonshire estates, whose centres lay outside the present
study area, also held land here, primarily Vaynol, as well
as a number of gentry estates such as that of the Garnons
family, Griffith of Cefnamwlch and Bryncir of Bryncir and
their successors.
Archival coverage for the area is remarkably good, including
not only the very extensive Newborough and Vaynol archives
in the Caernarfon Record Office but also the papers of the
various smaller estates and the papers of the major legal practices
of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in particular
those of Henry Rumsey Williams, Caernarvonshire’s leading Tory
solicitor, of Owen Poole and of John Evans of the Porth yr
Aur practice. The importance of these three collections can
hardly be over-estimated, including as they do not only their
occasional consultancy on behalf of the largest estates but
also their work for the smaller landowners. In many instances
these archival holdings include map coverage from the late
eighteenth century, before the population explosion and quickening
of the pace of landscape change in the early nineteenth, as
well as documents from the medieval period.
Few of the farms recorded by estate or tithe maps in the eighteenth
and nineteenth century were large. Few were more than fifty
acres in extent, and many no more than twenty. In the case
of those which formed part of the greater estates, there is
occasionally some 'polite' architectural influence apparent
in the design of the farmhouse (e.g. Penbryn Mawr), and the
larger of these tend to have farmyards immediately adjacent,
sometimes including traces of an earlier dwelling.
A distinctive form of settlement, particularly evident on
Moel Tryfan (area 14), in Nebo (area 15) and above Waunfawr
(area 16), is the small cottage within a small regular enclosure
or parc, either by itself or as part of a broader pattern of
such small holdings. These reflect the growing demand for labour
in the slate industry and population pressures evident from
the late eighteenth century. Those on Moel Tryfan are believed
to have originated from 1798 onwards, and by and large the
present pattern of enclosure is already established by 1888
when the first 25 inch Ordnance Survey maps were produced.
The less complete map coverage for earlier years suggests that
enclosures were well advanced by the 1820s, and probably reached
more or less their present extent in the 1860s. Those on Nebo
are slightly later in origin than Moel Tryfan (Chapman 1992),
whereas those on Waunfawr are believed to represent encroachment
from the 1760s (Hobley 1921). Whilst many of these dwellings
are unimproved crog-lofftydd, sometimes with lateral extensions,
these areas are remarkable for the variety of housing styles
they exhibit. From the 1930s onwards, as smallholdings became
united, many of the associated dwellings ceased to be inhabited
and others were demolished to make way for more modern houses.
Isolated settlements
In a number of places within the study area, isolated farms
survive, such as at the head of the Nantlle valley (principally
areas 11 and 42), where the farms Ffridd, Gelli Ffrydiau,
Talmignedd and Drws y Coed preserve the boundaries evident
on estate maps of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
century, though the dwellings themselves are mostly substantial
nineteenth-century farmhouses.
Dispersed settlements
Over much of the study area, dispersed settlements, whether
of farmsteads or of high-status houses, are evident. These
include a number of substantial landowning houses.
The most important of all, in terms of political and economic
influence, was Glynllifon (area 10), where a house of c. 1600
was replaced by a more modern house c. 1761, apparently designed
by Sir John Wynne himself. A copy of the plan of the demesne
as it was in this period survives in the Caernarfon Record
Office. Part of this structure survives in the later Renaissance-style
house erected between 1836 and 1848; this, together with the
stable of 1849 (RCAHMW 1960, 186) and the slightly later estate
workshops and other buildings, were taken over by the County
Agricultural College after the war, but the future of the entire
complex is currently uncertain. The demesne was emparked in
the 1830s, which resulted in the demolition of a number of
smaller farms.
Lesser landowning houses were Parkia (Parciau - now demolished),
Plas Brereton (both area 26, near Caernarfon), and Dinas (area
36), typically late eighteenth-century or nineteenth-century
dwellings in which the influence of polite architectural style
is manifest. Polite influence is apparent in diminishing degree
to the level of their larger tenanted farms.
Denser settlements of dwellings with smallholdings attached
are evident above the former mountain wall on Moel Tryfan (area
14), at c. 250m OD, typically crog-lofftydd, sometimes with
lateral extensions and perhaps a beudy. The social and economic
pressures which brought these into being are mentioned above.
In a number of locations, short terraces of two-up-and-two-down
dwellings have been constructed, possibly representing speculative
building by cottagers with little capital (see Tal y Sarn -
area 7).
Nucleated - village settlements
The villages of Llandwrog (area 5), Dinas-Llanwnda (area 3)
and Llanllyfni (area 12) are centred on churches which are
probably in each case an early Christian foundation (all
have Celtic dedications). However, all three settlements
assumed their present form in the nineteenth century, Llandwrog
as an estate village under the patronage of the Lords Newborough
of Glynllifon, with its substantial church, designed by Kennedy,
and its markedly estate-derived architecture, Dinas-Llanwnda
owing to its location on a road- and later also a rail-junction,
and Llanllyfni as a dormitory village within the Nantlle
slate quarrying belt.
Otherwise nucleated settlements within the study area are
of purely nineteenth-century origin and came into being to
service the slate industry. Several different examples are
to be found within the Nantlle area. As well as Llanllyfni,
where the nineteenth-century houses spread out as a ribbon
development from the medieval core, settlements include Pen
y Groes (area 6), originally a smithy on a road junction, developed
as a village by the Bryncir estate from c. 1820 onwards (NLW
H.Rumsey Williams papers), Tal y Sarn (area 7), constructed
by speculative builders in the 1850s and ‘60s on the lands
of Coedmadog farm, and Nantlle (area 13), in part an ad-hoc
development of the 1850s, in part a ‘company village’ erected
by the socially-conscious Unitarian management of Pen yr Orsedd
quarry from the 1860s onwards. At Drws y Coed (area 11) are
the remains of a miners’ village, dating perhaps from c. 1830
(CRO Vaynol Papers 6871), in which a number of houses remain
inhabited, though others are roofless and dilapidated. These
various settlements demonstrate the varieties of nucleation
and building in communities associated with extractive industry
and community infrastructure in the shape of chapels, shops,
banks and post offices.
Other specifically quarry- or mine-nucleations within the
area are Waunfawr (area 16), Rhostryfan, Rhosgadfan (area 22),
Fron (area 21) and Carmel (area 24). These came into being
as a result of encroachment on common land, and represent clusters
of tai moel (landless houses) within areas otherwise colonised
by smallholdings (Gilbert Williams 1983). In many instances
the original vernacular dwellings of the early nineteenth century
survive, mixed in with later structures; in the case of Waunfawr,
the pattern of the village is dominated by the late nineteenth
century ribbon development, which partly obscures the ad-hoc
and disordered community which preceded it and which survives
upslope from the road.
The village of Groeslon (area 4) appears to have grown up
around a smithy situated on the crossroads of the main north-south
turnpike and the side roads to Llandwrog and to the Moel Tryfan
commons. Land here was released for building, under strict
quality controls, by Lord Newborough from 1870 onwards (CRO:
XD2/6656, 6657, 6659).
One nucleated community has largely disappeared. The Foryd
creek (largely area 31), as well as being the landing place
for agricultural produce and lime in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth century, had also been used since time
immemorial to ship slates from Cilgwyn. Though it was only
suitable for vessels of shallow draught, it continued to
perform this function until the opening of the Nantlle Railway
in 1828, its relative inconvenience compared with Caernarfon
outweighed by the fact that the roads which led to it made
it possible to avoid paying tolls at Dolydd and Pont Seiont
gates. However, the houses and taverns which formerly stood
along the shore are now no longer extant, leaving only the
lime-kiln as evidence for its former role (UWB: Porth yr
Aur 1937).
Nucleated - urban settlements
The only pre-modern nucleated settlement in the study area
is Caernarfon (area 01), traditionally ‘the town’, y dre’,
as Bangor is ‘the city’, y ddinas. The site of a Roman fort,
later of a Welsh royal llys and its associated settlement,
the present town preserves its medieval street pattern within
the town walls and is dominated by the Edwardian castle and
those walls. Early maps, such as Speed’s of 1612, show the
town beginning to grow beyond its medieval confines, a process
that only accelerates in the early nineteenth century, with
the increase in slate, and to some extent copper, exports.
The bulk of the surviving housing stock dates from this period,
though some older town houses survive within the town walls,
in some cases in a state of extreme disrepair.
Building types
Even though the great bulk of surviving housing stock in the
study area reflects the growth of the slate industry between
1800 and 1900, types of housing vary considerably. In terms
of the morphology of individual dwellings, they vary from
two-room structures in the miners’ village at Drws y Coed
(area 11), through crog-lofftydd (area 14), to two-up-and-two
down types and to substantial double-fronted dwellings which
nevertheless retain something of the vernacular. Examples
of all these different types can be seen as detached dwellings
or forming part of a row, generally a short one. A distinctive
type which is particularly common on Moel Tryfan (area 14)
is built to the traditional crog-lofft pattern but has noticeably
large windows. This may represent the activities of one particular
jobbing builder, but the size of the windows, especially
compared to the small windows of earlier encroachment dwellings,
may suggest a drop in the price of fuel, possibly a transition
from locally-dug and -carted peat to coal brought in by rail.
A number of anomalous housing types were identified. The pyramid-roofed
one-chimney house seems to have been a favourite of the Glynllifon
estate in the 1820s; local tradition connects them with the
architectural taste of Maria Stella Petronilla, Lady Newborough,
and examples were noted at Llandwrog (area 5) as well as elsewhere
on the estate outside the present study area. Another instance
survives at Rhosgadfan (area 22), a rare example of a gentry-inspired
design on the mountain commons, sitting incongruously amongst
vernacular-derived terraces. A tall three-storey terrace at
Pen y Groes (area 6) is known locally as the tai American (‘American
houses’), and may well represent the work, or at least the
inspiration, of an emigrant builder who decided to return to
his roots. Patterns of emigration are evident in house names
like ‘Spokane’ (Pen y Groes) and ‘Dakota’ (Llanberis).
The coming of the national railway system is also clearly
reflected in building materials. Brick, mainly yellow but some
red as well, is commonly used in later nineteenth-century buildings,
but instances of its use decline markedly more than a mile
or two from the nearest station. Local field stones are very
common, though there are some instances of coursed stone, and
the use of quarry ‘rags’ (waste blocks), to build sheds and
outhouses, and occasionally dwellings. In Caernarfon (area
1) the use of the locally-quarried pink sandstone is common.
Most of the buildings in the quarry villages which came into
being, or expanded rapidly, in the 1860s are stuccoed, and
it is clear that this is due to the poor quality of the stone
available by that stage, combined with the pressure to complete
buildings cheaply.
The purple-blue-grey Arfon slate is practically universal
as a roofing material, with the larger and less finely-grained
slates predominating on buildings from before the 1840s. Patterned
slate roofs are very rare.
Decoration on the more architecturally pretentious housing
erected in the late nineteenth century remains very common.
Wrought-iron work, in the shape of canopies, fencing and gates,
is frequently very elaborate, the product of local smithies
or of the (still operational) Brunswick Ironworks at Caernarfon
(area 1).
Within the study area, the 'traditional vernacular' can perhaps
be defined as dwellings that effectively represent a development
from the medieval conception of the house as a one-cell unit,
through the division into two cells, as at Drws y Coed (vide
Jeremy Lowe), then into two cells, one of which is sub-divided
horizontally by a loft. They can be characterised by their
use of locally-available building materials. In its pure form,
each house is conceived as a separate, free-standing unit.
In the 'industrial' tradition, however, the dwelling is conceived
as part of a larger planned group, generally a terrace or row
(though blocks of flats are evident elsewhere in Wales from
the late eighteenth century), making use of limited ground
space by developing on two- or three-stories, and also making
use of commercially available, non-local building materials.
However, there are few examples of this type within the study
area.
In the 'industrial vernacular' tradition, however, the dwelling
combines elements of both of the above. Typically in Gwynedd,
the vernacular element is the use of stone as the main building
material, while the industrial element is the two-up-and-two-down
unit. The move from the strictly vernacular to this sort of
building is perhaps the most significant step taken locally
in building tradition, there are, elsewhere in Gwynedd (Cwm
Penmachno for instance) some interesting stages on the way.
The earliest distinctly 'industrial' building in the Nantlle-Caemarfon
area is probably Treddafydd in Pen y Groes (1837- area 6).
However, there are also interesting examples of the development
of local building traditions, such as the industrial interpretations
of the vernacular exemplified in the cottages alongside, but
at right-angles to, the road from Rhos Isa’ to Rhosgadfan (area
22).
One final category which can be identified is the 'estate
vernacular' in which dwellings re-interpret vernacular features
in a consciously polite way, a style which could be described
as the cottage ornée. These are probably best exemplified in
this area by the ty uncorn, whether in rows as at Llandwrog
(area 5), or singly as at Rhosgadfan (area 22 - a most unusual
and striking building). Again, these are characterised by the
use of local materials and/or the discreet use of commercially-produced
materials, and consciously picturesque detailing.
Place-name evidence
Few published studies have explicitly analysed place-name evidence
within the study area, although Melville Richards’s Enwau
Tir a Gwlad (Richards 1998) is a valuable source, and the
Ar Draws Gwlad (Pierce and Roberts 1997) series includes
a number of Arfon place names.
Industrial
The chief industry of the study area was the quarrying of
slate, which has now practically come to an end. The Nantlle
(area 9) and Moel Tryfan regions (area 14) together represented
the fourth most productive area of slate quarries in Wales,
after the Ogwen and Peris areas and Blaenau Ffestiniog. Since
they were the property of many different owners – the crown,
minor local gentry, or wealthier magnates such as Lord Dinorben
– the slate veins had to be exploited in a number of different
but immediately adjacent quarries, with the result that the
area never realised its full economic potential. This fact
is reflected in the dual economy of quarry and smallholdings
which persisted well into the twentieth century, and which
has still not entirely died out, and in the strong vernacular
character of the housing stock which the quarrymen constructed
for themselves.
In the Nantlle area (areas 9, 13 and 14), by the early eighteenth
century, gangs of quarrymen were working the rocks on the upland
Cilgwyn common, paying no rent and calling no man master, and
before the end of the century quarries had also been opened
on the valley floor (area 9), where the excellent quality of
the rock made quarrying profitable despite the problems of
pumping and raising rock from the pits.
The extensive map coverage for this area in the period 1813
to 1816 (CRO Glynllifon 8356, NLW: Garnons estate survey, UWB
Llysdulas ) reveals a number of quarries already developed,
alongside tiny scratchings which in some cases later grew to
a considerable size. By this period the original benches on
hillsides or shallow diggings in the river meadows had given
way to the area’s characteristic deep pits, making use of pump-machinery
and rope-ways for haulage. The use of chain inclines (from
c. 1842) and blondins (from 1898) bequeathed some of the distinctive
industrial archaeology of the region, including the enormous
slate bastions used to tip rubble. The early (1868 onwards)
use of mills and an intensive factory-type approach to processing
slate, compared with other slate quarrying regions, is also
reflected in the surviving archaeology (CRO Pen yr Orsedd 375).
A feature of the industry in Dyffryn Nantlle is the reliance
of the quarries on water-power, mostly fed by an extensive
system of leats from Llyn Ffynnonhonau, dating from 1816. Quarrying
has now all but ceased in Nantlle.
Of the independent slate mills which formerly flourished in
the area, one, the Inigo Jones slate works, remains in production,
processing blocks brought in by road from Aberllefenni Quarry
in Corris. Two writing slate mills on the banks of the Llyfni
have been converted into dwellings; one is situated between
Pen y Groes and Llanllyfni, the other at Pont y Cim.
Mineral extraction was carried out on an extensive
scale at the head of the Nantlle valley, on Drws y Coed, Simdde
Dylluan, Tal Mignedd and Benallt farms (area 11), where mines
yielded copper, some lead and a little gold. Medieval working
is indicated by a number of coffin adits on the higher reaches
of Drws y Coed, and the mine was worked extensively from 1768
to the later eighteenth century (CRO: Vaynol 5047), a phase
of working which is evident in the distinctive adit entrances,
shelters and
anvil stones for breaking ore (bucking stones)
on Fron Felen, and in early phases of mechanisation.
Operations were revived in the Victorian period, and continued
as late as 1920 at Simdde Dylluan and Drws y Coed and as late
as 1931 at Benallt (Bick 1985, 33-50). The ironstone mine at
Garreg Fawr forms a spectacular landscape feature, with its
series of openings following the vein up the hillside and the
incline system.
The brickworks at Caernarfon (area 28) continue to operate
and have now grown to a considerable size. Clay is extracted
from a pit on site, and the entire process of brick-manufacture
is carried out in one large building. The Hoffman kilns associated
with the earlier phase of operations have been demolished.
Water-powered corn milling is attested from 1283, with the
establishment of the royal mills on the Cadnant brook at Caernarfon,
though it is possible that they were preceded by a Cistercian
mill, possibly at Felinwnda (area 36) (Williams 1990, 36).
Legal papers record the construction of corn mills on the rivers
that flowed through Caernarfon in the late sixteenth century,
when the Puleston family were forced to defend their monopoly
(Taylor 1986, 80; Jones 1939, 49, 65-6; Lewis and Davies 1954,
275, 284). The sites of, and in many cases the buildings associated
with, corn mills survive in a number of locations. The surviving
structures are for the most part nineteenth-century, and vary
in size from the comparatively small as at Melin Nantlle through
Melin Llwyn y Gwalch, with its distinctive low-pitched regency
roof, to the substantial box-like mills at Bontnewydd and at
Seiont nurseries (area 30 - see photograph).
Of the area’s textile mills and pandai, little remains, though
a considerable number of sites are recorded. A number of structures
are identifiable and the sites of water-courses survive.
Communications
There is comparatively little evidence for pre-modern transport
routes. The Roman roads from Caerhun to Segontium (Caernarfon),
and from Segontium to Pen Llystyn (Bryncir) passed through
the area, and it is reasonable to suppose that the latter route
lay in part on the same general alignment as the modern A487
(Waddelove 1999, 223-45). Late eighteenth-century maps (CRO:
XD2A/1643) show a presumably ancient route from Caernarfon
to Penmorfa (where a Roman bath house was discovered in the
nineteenth century), sending off branches in the direction
of Clynnog and Rhyd Ddu, and it is known that this route was
realigned and substantially upgraded by Huddart of Bryncir
and Newborough of Glynllifon in the 1820s, with some of the
survey work being carried out by Provis, Telford’s assistant
(CRO XD2A/1646). This road, and the Caernarfon-Beddgelert road,
upgraded c. 1806 (CRO X/Plans/RD/1), preserves much of the
engineering of an early nineteenth-century turnpike, in the
shape of bridges and embankments, as well as some of the associated
infrastructure, such as taverns.
More recent road-building includes the Nantlle diversion,
constructed in the 1920s as a result of the collapse of the
old turnpike into Dorothea Quarry, and the Llanllyfni by-pass,
on which work began in the autumn of 1999.
The Nantlle Railway, constructed between 1825 and 1828 from
the Nantlle quarries to the sea at Caernarfon to plans drawn
up by Provis and the Stephensons, survives as a landscape feature
thoughout most of its length, though some of its assets are
under threat from modern road construction (Gwyn 1999). Road
schemes are having an adverse impact on its successor, the
standard-gauge Caernarfon to Afonwen line. The track-bed of
the Welsh Highland Railway is currently (2001) being relaid
by an organisation which is well aware of the heritage significance
of the route, though it has proved necessary to alter some
of the bridges in order to accommodate locomotives larger than
the originals. One section of the route which it is not proposed
to revive is the branch to Bryngwyn and the tributaries to
the Moel Tryfan quarries, which combines both rope-worked inclines
and corkscrew curves, and illustrates the development of narrow
gauge railway technology as it grew from the hybrid systems
of the early nineteenth century into a form which was adapted
for British imperial needs in Africa and India (Martin 2000).
Caernarfon (area 1) also preserves an outstanding nineteenth-century
dock landscape, including the sites of engineering works, still
active in the case of the Brunswick Ironworks, the port office
and warehousing.
Air transport is represented by the airfield at Llandwrog
(area 46), now marketed as Caernarfon Airport, a site which
was extensively developed by the RAF during the Second World
War from 1940 onwards (it became the largest airfield in Wales),
and in 1946 became a storage area for chemical weapons (loan
1991, 79-105). Many of the buildings and runways survive; one
of the former is the recording studios of Recordiau Sain.
Other forms of communication system which have left their
mark on the area include the pioneering Marconi wireless station
between Waunfawr and Llanrug (area 42).
Defence
The huge hillfort of Dinas Dinlle (area 19) dominates the
low-lying area south of the Foryd, and probably dates from
the late prehistoric period. In addition to this, a number
of small hilltop enclosures are known within the area (see
above, paragraph 8.2.4).
Caernarfon itself (area 1) forms the most prominent defensive
site within the area, in the form of the Edwardian castle and
town walls built in conscious imitation not only of the Theodosian
walls at Constantinople but possibly also the caer at the mouth
of the Afon Seiont described in ‘Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig’.
The castle is a World Heritage site.
Other defensive sites from the modern period are represented
in the area. In the demesne at Glynllifon is Fort Williamsburg
(area 10), constructed c. 1761 with additions in 1773, a rectangular
enclosure indented to form angle bastions with an ornamental
gatehouse. This was an elaborate folly, and Lord Newborough
even raised his own regiment to garrison it.
The other defensive site associated with Glynllifon is Fort
Belan (area 46) at the western approach to the Menai straits,
believed to have been constructed during the American revolutionary
war, but also garrisoned in readiness to repel invaders during
the Napoleonic wars. A dock was added in 1824. The fort itself
is a north-south orientated rectangular structure with salients
in the shorter sides, and contains early cannon and marine
machinery. A gun battery was also established outside the Caernarfon
town walls (area 1) between Porth yr Aur and the Eagle Tower
during the Napoleonic period.
Caernarfon Airport was established as RAF Llandwrog, a training
airfield, in July 1941, and went on to become the largest airfield
in Wales during WWII (Sloan 1991). Additional gun placements
were built in the lower slopes on the north side of Dinas Dinlle.
The airfield is now in civilian use.
Bibliography
Bick, D., 1985, The Old Copper Mines of Snowdonia (Newent)
Chapman, J., 1992, A Guide to the Parliamentary Enclosures
in Wales
Davies, W., 1810. General View of the Agriculture and Domestic
Economy of North Wales, The Board of Agriculture and Internal
Improvement, London
Gilbert Williams, W., 1983, Moel Tryfan i’r Traeth (Penygroes)
Gwyn, D.Rh., 1999, ‘Transitional Technology: the Nantlle Railway’,
Proceedings of the Durham International Early Railways Conference
1998 (Beamish).
Hobley, W., 1921, Hanes Methodistiaeth Arfon
Hyde Hall, E., 1952. A Description of Caernarvonshire (1809-1811),
Caernarvonshire History Society, Caernarfon
Jones, E.G., 1939, Exchequer Proceedings (Equity) Concerning
Wales (Cardiff)
Kay, G., 1794. General View of the Agriculture of North Wales,
Great Britain Board of Agriculture and Internal Trade, Edinburgh
Lewis, E. A. and Davies, J.C., 1954, Records of the Court of
Augmentations Relating to Wales and Monmouthshire (Cardiff).
Martin, T., 2000, Halfway to Heaven: Darjeeling and Its Remarkable
Railway
Pierce, G.O. and Roberts, T., 1997, H.W.Owen, Ar Draws Gwlad:
Ysgrifau ar Enwau Lleoedd cyf. 1 (Llanrwst).
Richards, M., 1998, Enwau Tir a Gwlad, Caernarfon
Roberts, R. O. (ed), 1973. Farming in Caernarvonshire around
1800, Caernarvonshire Record Office, Caernarfon
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of
Wales (RCAHMW) 1960. Inventory of Caernarvonshire: Centre,
volume II, HMSO, Cardiff
Sloan, R., 1991, Wings of War over Gwynedd (Llanrwst)
Taylor, A.J., 1986, The Welsh Castles of Edward I
Waddelove, E., 1999, The Roman Roads of North Wales: Recent
Discoveries (privately published)
Williams, D., 1941, An Eye witness account of agrarian conditions
in Caernarvonshire during the Napoleonic era, Caernarvonshire
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Williams, D., 1990, Atlas of Cistercian Lands (Cardiff)
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