Historical background
Much of the area south of Conwy is characterised by rolling
improved pasture and corn-fields, containing a number of small
nucleated communities, such as Ro Wen and Henryd, and substantial
farms. This area formed the location of many of the Medieval
townships of Arllechwedd Isaf, and it is probable that the
commotal centre was at one time established within this area,
at Tal y Cafn.1
The importance of corn-growing and the flow of the rivers
which cross this area has also meant that there is a long tradition
of milling, represented in the surviving buildings at Melin
Bulkeley, Melin Gwenddar and Melin Pont Wgan, all of which
are in re-use as dwellings. Lead mining was also carried out,
at Trecastell. These workings may be Medieval or even Prehistoric
in origin, but as the Pwllycochion mine these workings had
functioned on a small scale in the early nineteenth century.
Work began again in 1892, and the mine produced 6,425 tons
of lead ore and 12,554 of blende by 1913, making it one of
the most profitable concerns of its sort in Wales 2.
It closed in 1920, and reopened in 1948, only to be finally
abandoned after exploration in the lower levels in 1956.3 The
site has been extensively landscaped but a smelter flue and
a square-plan chimney survive, probably dating from between
1913 and 1920, together with three levels immediately to the
south.
1 C. Gresham,
‘The Commotal Centre of Arllechwedd Isaf' TCHS 40
(1979), pp. 11-16.
2 W.J. Lewis, Lead
Mining in Wales (UWP Cardiff, 1967),
pp. 238-40.
3 C.J. Williams, Metal
Mines of North Wales (Rhuddlan, 1980).
Key historic landscape characteristics
Degraded fields, scattered settlement, villages, routeways
Area of ancient settlement, encompassing both ‘villages' and
scattered dwellings (mainly farms, but including other types),
as well as terraced housing, which is increasingly favoured
by the better-off (symbolised by the preponderance of horses
in the fields and out-of-character housing developments).
Field pattern largely disintegrated as fields have been amalgamated:
preponderance of post-and-wire fences.
Many types of routeways, from footpaths to major road running
north-south (replacing earlier routes across the mountains
from the valley which can still be traced running east-west.
Back to Creuddyn
and Arllechwedd Landscape Character Map
