Historical background
A low-lying area which in its present form is largely a creation
of the growth of the railway network. The area in the south-western
part of the Creuddyn peninsula which is now covered by the
nineteenth and twentieth century dwellings of Deganwy and Llandudno
Junction is known to have been granted to the Cistercian monastery
of Aberconwy by Llywelyn. The monastic presence is recorded
in the name Sarn y Mynach, by which the A47 is known at the
point where it crosses the main line railway and the Afon Ganol.
Another axis which predates the Modern period is the north-south
road through Llandudno Junction known as Marl Lane which formerly
connected the dwelling Marl (2021) with the ferry. The Telford
post road passes through the character area, which includes
the embankment over the Conwy on which the Telford suspension
bridge and the Stephenson tubular bridge are built.
The main-line railway from Chester to Bangor was opened in
1848, and the branch to Llandudno in 1858; Llandudno Junction
station was opened in 1860, and was upgraded several times,
including the construction of a locomotive shed in the 1880s.
The construction of the branch-line railway to Llandudno, opened
in 1858, made possible the development of a resort on the western-facing
shores of the peninsula at Deganwy; a station was opened in
1866. After the opening of the branch line railway to Blaenau
Ffestiniog in 1879, the railway company also began the construction
of a wharf to ship the slate at Deganwy in 1882, using spoil
from the Belmont tunnel in Bangor . This saw comparatively
little use, and now services pleasure craft.
The settlements have continued to grow into the twentieth century.
Whereas Deganwy has been largely a holiday and retirement area,
Llandudno Junction was also the home to a considerable number
of railway employees and more recently to workers in the Hotpoint
factory. The North Wales Weekly News building is also a prominent
local landmark
Key historic landscape characteristics
19th and 20th century houses, shops, chapels, transport routes
The area is characterised by suburban housing stock which
dates almost entirely from the late nineteenth or twentieth
centuries, and is constructed
largely of brick. Roofing materials are a mixture of tiles
and slates. A distinctive feature is the row of houses built
by the Llanfairfechan architect North at SH 781 804, which
makes distinctive use of rustic slates, some of them from the
Tal y Fan quarry (area 24). Here and there earlier houses or
chapels built out of local limestone and roofed with more common
commercially available slates are evident. The shops on the
front at Deganwy incorporate an attractive cast-iron canopy
over the pavement.
The area is also characterised by the transport routes which
pass through it - the Telford road, the railway, the modern
A55T, which passes under the Conwy in a tunnel, and the quays
at Deganwy and by Conwy bridge. As well as the two bridges
over the Conwy, there are a number of other items of transport
infrastructure, such as the signal box at Deganwy, the locomotive
sheds at the Junction, and in various bridges. Llandudno Junction
station is an unusual example for the area of a Victorian station-building
with Modernist accretions, and the Modernist style is also
evident in the extensive Hotpoint factory at SH 803 777, now
disused.
Back to Creuddyn
and Arllechwedd Landscape Character Map
