Historic background

A burial chamber of the Neolithic period has been recorded at Cromlech Farm south of Y Ffôr (Four Crosses) and another at Pont Pensarn at the north-east end of Pwllheli (PRNs 437, 438). A standing stone is known 500m to the south east of Carnguwch Church; another at Pencaenewydd on the Afon Erch north of Y Ffôr and a third at Y Ffôr itself (PRNs 1286, 1308, 1333). Two standing stones are known from Tir Gwyn land, 174m apart on a north-south axis (PRNs 1553, 1534). There are other funerary associations at Tir Gwyn which are relevant to the Early Middle Ages.

Three Bronze Age barrows are recorded within a radius of 25m near the house of Cefn Mine, 600m west of the Afon Rhyd-hir. A cremation cemetery of broadly the same period is known to the south of Cefn Mine at 300m from the barrows (PRNs 16620, 16621, 1167, 3650).

A small embanked earthwork, Castell Gwgan, some 65m across may be a defended enclosure of the late Iron Age on a locally elevated position, 160m from the Afon Erch, near Pont Rhyd-goch (PRN 2256). Until 2006 very little was known of settlement in later prehistory in this area. However, in that year aerial reconnaissance, undertaken by RCAHMW, identified three cropmark enclosures indicative of small defended settlements at Y Ffôr, Efail Newydd and Pont Rhyd-hir. These discoveries were followed up with geophysical survey by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust. At Bwlch y Ffordd Isa, 700m north east of Y Ffôr, a circular enclosure, 40m across with asymmetric outer bank was identified on a low rise at 60m OD immediately above the west bank of the Afon Erch. At King George’s field, Efailnewydd, on the south side of the village, a circular ditched enclosure, 35m across, was identified on low-lying flat ground at c.12m OD. At Pont Rhyd-hir a bivallate, sub-polygonal enclosure, 55m by 35m, stood on the east bank of the Rhyd-hir, 170m south of the bridge and causeway, at 10m OD.

Two further enclosures are recorded but have not been investigated. One shows as a curvilinear cropmark, at Traian, between Mathan Isaf and Cefn Mine at 50m OD. The other, rectilinear, is at Mela, near Moel y Penmaen, at 80m OD. Both enclosures may have been occupied during the later prehistoric or Romano-British periods (PRNs 1156, 4383).

Hut circle settlements have been recorded to the north and east of Yoke House, near Pwllheli on rocky rising ground on the margins of arable cultivation at between 60m and 80m OD. Three of these settlements are nucleated and the polygonal enclosures of at least two of these groups of huts suggest occupation in the Romano-British period (PRNs 432, 433, 434, 435).

Early medieval activity is represented by funerary and religious associations rather than direct evidence of settlement. Inscribed memorial stones of fifth-sixth-century date are known from Llanaelhaearn, Penprys and Llannor. There are three stones now housed within the church or churchyard at Llanaelhaearn. The monument of Aliortus (ALIORTUS ELMETIACO / HIC IACET) was discovered in the nineteenth century in an adjacent field called Gardd y Sant which had recently been enclosed to provide additional graveyard space. A second stone, a monument to Melitus, was found while a grave was being dug in the churchyard. The discovery of one of the stones outside the graveyard as it was then, raises the question of whether it predated the establishment of a church on that site or whether the original ecclesiastical precinct or noddfa was, at one time, larger.

At Llannor a monument to Figulinus (FIGULINI FILI LOCULITI HIC IACIT = Here lies the grave of Figulinus son of Loculitus) was recorded, in use as the jamb of a gate at the entrance to the churchyard in the mid-nineteenth century.

At Penprys two stone-lined graves were found in the early nineteenth century, in the process of pulling down a cottage called Beudy’r Mynydd, near Tir Gwyn. The graves lay between the two standing stones mentioned previously and one of the graves, at least, had been placed at a north-south alignment, on-line, no doubt with the two orthostats. One of the graves had re-used two inscribed stones as side slabs. The second grave re-used a third inscribed stone in an unspecified position. The original memorials were: VENDESETLI (the grave of VENDESETLUS = Gwynhoedl (possibly)) and IOVENALI FILI ETERNI HIC IACIT (the grave of Iovenalis, son of Eternus, here he lies). The second grave incorporated the re-used memorial of Devorus (DEVORI HIC IACET). It cannot be said with certainty that the fifth and sixth-century stones originally stood close to the location of the graves. It is, however, probable that they represent gentlemen of some status in the locality.

The origins of churches in this character area are obscure. Nevertheless, the church of Llannor was in existence by the late thirteenth century and is identified as a possession of Clynnog in the mid-fourteenth century. Clynnog had been a clas church and, as Llannor, was an ecclesiastical township with dependant hamlets, it is probable that Llannor had clas origins too. Abererch had also been a clas community. In 1308, in Abererch, there were 85 freeholding tenants of the Bishop of Bangor (the residue of the claswyr)..

There are holy wells at Ffynnon Aelhaearn, Llanaelhaern; at Ffynnon Gwynedd south of Llwyndyrus; Ffynnon Gadfarch, south-east of Pont Rhyd Goch and Ffynnon Cawrdaf, north-east of Abererch. Divination was practised at Ffynnon Gwynedd. Although some distance from the parish church at Abererch (3.3kms) water was carried from the well to the church for baptisms. The water from Ffynnon Cawrdaf was thought to be a cure-all. Cawrdaf and Cadfarch are said to have been saintly brothers (Jones 1954, 148). It is possible that the presence of a holy well or spring at Llanaelhaearn was contributory to the establishment of a church there (PRNs 2232, 2254, 2255, 2262).

An earthwork castle mound was built near Moelypenmaen in the late eleventh or twelfth century but there is no record as to who built it (PRN 1532). Penmaen Beuno at Moelypenmaen was a hamlet of the township of Llannor in the early fourteenth century.

The greater part of this character area falls across the parishes of Llanor and Abererch and the former townships of Llannor, Abererch and part of Glasfryn in Eifionnydd. The reach of these medieval townships was extensive. The tenants of Glasfryn were freeholders of the gwely Wyrion David. Their landed interests ranged across Glasfryn itself, Chwilog, Cadairelwa, Llecheiddion and Pennarth. Llannor’s hamlets ran from Bodfaelion, above Penprys in the north, to Penmaen Beuno and Bodegroes near Pwllheli in the south and to the coast at Pistyll and Bodeilas. Abererch lay west of the River Erch comprising 85 freeholding tenants in two gwelyau with around 720 acres of arable land and 21 bond tenants.

Bodfel and Boduan
In the southern part of this character area, bordering on Cors Geirch, lay two important secular townships, Boduan and Bodfel. Boduan in the fourteenth century was a bond township comprising demesne land of the former Prince in the commote of Dinllaen. Bodfel, lying adjacent, was a free township within the commote of Afloegion, with its own mill. In 1293, ten years after the conquest of Gwynedd, the townships were assessed as to the value of their moveable assets in order to raise a subsidy for the expense of Edward I’s Scottish campaign. Twenty-one tenants were found in Bodfel, with moveable assets worth more than 15d, (the worth of two sheep or two or three crannocks of oats). In total, these twenty-one taxpayers owned 70 bulls, 117 cows and 24 horses. They also had sheep and 39 draught animals and milled oat and wheat flour and some barley.

The Bodfel family are first noticed in the 1530s in the person of John ap Madog ap Howell of Pennarth. John is described by Leland as living at Bodfel. His grandson, John Wyn ap Hugh, distinguished himself in the service of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and was granted Bardsey and Cwrt, Aberdaron, in recognition. John Wyn’s son, Hugh Gwyn, fell out of favour in the late sixteenth century when he opposed Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester’s attempt to sequester alleged encroached lands in the forest of Snowdon. His younger brother, Thomas Wynn, settled at Boduan.

Hugh’s great grandson, Colonel John Bodfel, initially supported the Puritans at the beginning of the Civil War but soon went over to the Royalist cause. His wife was a staunch Puritan, however, and irreconcilable philosophical differences ultimately led to the sell-off of the Bodfel lands at the end of the seventeenth century. The Bodfel and Boduan estates vied with each other during the seventeenth century. Bodfel had originally been pre-eminent but by the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century Boduan’s star was in the ascendant. Thomas Wynn of Boduan, great, great, great grandson of John Wyn ap Hugh Bodfel married Frances Glynne, heiress of Glynllivon. Frances’ grandson, Sir Thomas Wynn was created First Baron Newborough in 1776.

Llanaelhaearn
Llanaelhaearn is an ancient church and community. The nave of the church is twelfth or perhaps thirteenth century with a fourteenth-century window in the east gable of the chancel. The east end was dramatically re-worked in the sixteenth or seventeenth century when transepts were added, north and south. Windows of this date were inserted into the west end and the south side of the early masonry at this time. In the late nineteenth century the church was renovated and the fourteenth-century chancel was lengthened.

During the second half of the eighteenth century road improvements were being made across North Wales in response to the requirements of commerce and industry. New roads along the North Wales coast to Bangor and Caernarfon were carried south to Pwllheli, through Clynnog and Llanaelhaearn. After 1802, William Maddocks’ venture to create an Irish Sea crossing from Porthdinllaen required good communications. These were achieved via routes through Pwllheli and, further north, through Chwilog. The northernmost of these two east-west routes crossed the north-south route to Pwllheli between Bwlch y Ffordd and Plas Gwyn, creating, or certainly leading to the development of, the crossroads which came to be known as Four Crosses.

Y Ffôr
Y Ffôr developed at the intersection of two turnpike roads, built at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. There was a crossing of north-south and west-east routes before 1800 but the turnpikes made a considerable difference. By 1840 there was an Inn, the ‘Four Crosses’, a stable yard and a few houses on the south-east corner of the crossroads. A row of four substantial terraced houses were attached to the Inn on the east side of the Pwllheli road and represent a contemporary development. During the second half of the nineteenth century there had been some filling in at the south-east corner which may have included a row of ten smaller, two-storey terraced houses on the Chwilog road. More extensive development had taken place at the north-west and north-east corners of the crossroads. This includes the construction of a Calvinistic Methodist chapel, Ebenezer, on the crossroads, a smithy adjacent and a terrace of about a dozen houses on the west side of the Llanaelhaearn and Chwilog roads, with the addition of a public house and second chapel (Salem, Independent).

By the present day the original roadside development has expanded into a reasonable-sized residential community with road access to areas of employment. In the 1830s there were, perhaps, a dozen properties close to the Inn at Y Ffôr. By the 1880s, the village had expanded to about 50 properties, including two chapels, an Inn, a public house, a smithy and a post office. At the beginning of the twenty-first century there are 160 premises, including a local shop, roadside garage, factory, warehouses, shop for agricultural equipment and two schools.

Abererch
Abererch was almost certainly an ancient clas community which had come within the holdings of the Bishop of Bangor by the early fourteenth century. Abererch’s land was extensive but the focus of the community spiritually, if not geographically, lay in the bend of the Erch near its estuary. The church of St. Cawrdaf is first recorded in the thirteenth century. The earliest part of the present church is at the west end of the nave. The nave was extended eastward by a further four bays in the late fifteenth century and in the following century a northern aisle was added which communicated with the nave through an arcade of sixteenth-century, four-centred arches. The roof comprises twenty collar-beam trusses with arched braces and raking struts. The first seven from the west end of the nave are of the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries; the remainder are sixteenth century, associated with the enlargement of the church. A large sixteenth-century, perpendicular-style, window was inserted into the east gable of the nave, to light the chancel.

In the 1830s Abererch comprised around 30 to 40 premises, clustering at the west end of the churchyard and extending along the main street, on the north side of the churchyard, from the church to Pont Abererch (Abererch bridge). A mill stood close to the stream on the west side. Towards the end of the nineteenth century very little expansion had taken place. A Calvinistic Methodist chapel had already been built, a Congregational chapel, Ebenezer, was added in 1868, by the western church gate. By the twenty-first century, however, another 70 houses have been added in estates across the bridge at Ger-y-Bont and Lôn Glen Elen; another 20 near the old corn mill and six at Tan yr Eglwys, next to the churchyard.

Llannor
The church of Llannor is large (Llannor = Llan Fawr), but the village always seems to have been relatively small. Llannor’s significance is that it provides a symbol and a contextual focus in the landscape for the wide ranging reach of its tenants and possessions in the middle ages albeit held ultimately from the church of Clynnog Fawr. In other words this is the landscape of ecclesiastical tenure as seen from the perspective of quasi-monastic clas communities.

The village clusters around the church. The dedication is to the Holy Cross which, perhaps, suggests that the church was not always aligned with Clynnog. The nave is long, with no structural division to differentiate the chancel. It is probably of thirteenth-century date. A tower was added at the west end in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

The graveyard is curvilinear, abutting roads on the west and south side, where at the south-western boundary of the graveyard there is a staggered crossroads. In the 1830s there were about 20 premises in the village, mostly at the roadside end of long, narrow, garden plots. By the 1880s the village had hardly grown at all. By the present day there are about 50 premises in the village, mostly through the development of a small estate on the eastern side of the village and to the north west of the church. Many of the early nineteenth-century tenements, identifiable on the Tithe Survey map, have been replaced.

Efail Newydd
Efail Newydd is positioned on a convergence of old routes. These roads were used by drovers, bringing cattle from southern Llyn. The drovers’ roads passed through Sarn, through Botwnnog and from Llangian and Llanengan, crossing Cors Geirch at or near Rhydyclafdy to reach Efail Newydd. Here the smithy could fit the beasts with small cattle shoes which would provide some protection for their hooves on the long journey to the English markets (Efail Newydd = New Smithy).

There were 16 or 17 properties at Efail Newydd in the 1830s, almost all to the west of the Pwllheli-Nefyn road. The early tenements are distinguishable by their long narrow back plots. Two-storey terraced houses on both sides of the Rhyd-y-Clafdy road are later Victorian. Eighteenth or early nineteenth-century single storey cottages occupy the southern corner of the crossroads, with others on the north side. The large, former public house, The Farmer’s Arms stands opposite, occupying the entire corner. In the early nineteenth century it stood alone; now it is accompanied by the spread of more recent housing. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century there were 24 families in Efail Newydd; four buildings were uninhabited. At the beginning of the twenty-first century there are about 115 properties in Efail Newydd with most residential development expanding to the south and east of the village.

Key historic landscape characteristic