Historical background
Llanegryn church is the centre of one of the historic parishes
of the Register area, though it lies some little way from the
main nucleation of Llanegryn village. The church itself, listed
in the 1253 Taxatio, is Medieval; most of the fabric probably
dates from the fourteenth century. It seems likely that Llanegryn
grew up as a mainly unplanned ribbon settlement where a secondary
road crosses a stream, although as noted below it seems likely
that the Peniarth estate constructed some of the dwellings in
it. Sixteenth century documents refer to the building of a new
mill within the parish of Llanegryn and to the destruction of
the old mill during the Glyndwr uprising; it is possible that
these were situated within the present village, given that it
offers an advantageous site for water-power. The Llanegryn tithe
map of 1842 emphasises the mill-streams and indicates a small
ribbon settlement. There are indications of a nucleated village
in 1627, and in 1761 a Llanegryn shop sold snuff and tobacco
imported from Caernarfon. The local historian David Williams
suggests that most of the houses within the core of the village
date from 1815 to 1870. He indicates that the distinctive estate
cottages built by Peniarth at the eastern extremity of the village
(Preswylfa, Bryn Meirion and Maes yr Haf) were built shortly
after 1870.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Historic village
The church is situated at some little distance from the village,
which effectively straggles along a secondary road leading
to Peniarth and Pont y Garth at a point where it crosses a
small tributary of the Dysynni. Llanegryn is fundamentally
vernacular in character. Houses are mainly stone-built and
two-storey, individually constructed but apparently of nineteenth
century date.
An unusual feature of the village is the creation of a small
square at its eastern end, formed by two chapels of different
denominations and a shared vestry. A 1950s village hall, ‘Neuadd
Egryn', completes the sense of a square, though it clashes
with the Victorian architecture of the religious buildings,
now out of use and decaying.
An exception to the unplanned character of the village is
the two rows of Peniarth estate-sponsored houses at the eastern
extremity of the village at SH 6035 0559, with their self-consciously
faux-vernacular style and distinctive cast-iron windows. The
modern dwellings to the east of these stand on the site of
the tai pridd, the earth-walled houses.
Back to Dysynni
Landscape Character Map
