Carn Fadryn, Llaniestyn enclosures
Llaniestyn
Cottages, Llaniestyn
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Historic background
Llaniestyn is a large parish and was, in
the middle ages, an extensive township populated by the free
tenants of the Bishop of Bangor. The Llaniestyn character area
is bounded on the west by the narrow valley of the headwaters
of the Soch and, on the south-east, by the Horon gorge. To
the north-east stands the very conspicuous volcanic intrusion
of Carn Fadryn, rising to 350m. OD. The southern limit of this
character area is defined by the same Soch, turning to the
south east at Sarn Meyllteyrn towards Botwnnog.
Early settlement and activity in the Llaniestyn
area is indicated by a possible Neolithic chambered tomb and
a barrow at Tregarnedd (PRN 428,), recorded by Richard Fermington
in the late eighteenth century and by cist burials at Ffridd
Cefn y Gaer (PRN 4023). A bronze spearhead was found nearby
(PRN 4022). Further indications of Bronze Age activity have
been recorded on Carn Fadryn and are disused within that character
area.
Nucleated hut circle settlements are known from the vicinity of Pen
Bodlas on the eastern flank of a spur above the Horon gorge (PRN 418,
PRN 4017) of late Iron Age or Romano-British date. In the summer of
2006 aerial photography undertaken by RCAHMW identified a cropmark
enclosure on the north west flank of a low spur overlooking the headwaters
of the Soch at Penybryn (225030 334470). Geophysical survey undertaken
by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust added more detail, identifying at least
one round house within the 0.7ha enclosure.
Llaniestyn church is an ancient foundation. It is first recorded in
1254 when the value of the resources accruing to it amounted to 40s.,
along with Llangian and Llannor. Only Nefyn, valued at 60s. and Aberdaron
at £6. were worth more. It is possible that Llaniestyn had early
medieval origins. In 1306 Llaniestyn is recorded as being a free township
of the Bishop of Bangor. The freeholding nature of the tenure, the
extensive reach of its tenants and the distinction between those of
the laity and those who were not, suggests the possibility that Llaniestyn
had once been a ‘clas’ or quasi-monastic community, organised
for the benefit and maintenance of the church. By the early thirteenth
century such institutions were considered to be an anachronism and
in decay. Some such churches were replaced by communities of Augustinian
canons, others, perhaps like Llaniestyn, became parish churches.
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A possible further indication of an early
origin, or at least an early religious focus at Llaniestyn,
may lie with the place name Myfyr at Myfyr Mawr and Myfyr Bach
farms. Myfyr is an ancient designation of the site of a memorial
or shrine (Lat: memoria; Welsh: myfyr) or, more colloquially,
grave, and can be associated with grave chapels and the early
presence of a church (Roberts, T., 1992, ‘Welsh Ecclesiastical
Place-names and Archaeology’ in The Early Church in Wales
and the West, ed. Edwards., N., 41-44. Oxbow).
The earliest identifiable masonry at Llaniestyn
is of the mid-thirteenth century. The nave and chancel was
one continuous structural unit, although there would have been
some definition of the chancel space; a differentiation in
the roof trusses or ornamentation of the window openings. The
church was extended further eastward by about 1300 and the
east gable supports a triple lancet window of that date. At
that time, the free tenants of the Bishop, in Llaniestyn, numbered
almost 100 families across the township, organised in six kinship-related
gwelyau, working a total of 40 bovates or around 320 acres
of arable land. Two centuries later a second aisle was added
on the south side, flush with the earlier eastern gable at
the east end but two bays short at the west end. The south
aisle communicates with the north aisle through an arcade of
five four-centred arches supported by octagonal columns. There
is an early sixteenth-century octagonal font with recessed
designs, reflecting the windows of the church and with the
addition of a design incorporating perpendicular fenestration.
In 1399, at about the date when the south aisle was added, the churches
of Bangor diocese suffered a further taxation. Llaniestyn was valued
at 12 marks and 10s. (£8.10s.), the second wealthiest church
in the Deanery of Llyn. In 1535 the rectory of Llaniestyn encompassed
the chapels of Penllech to the west and Llandegwnning to the south
and was valued at £21.3s.11d.
The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries saw the enclosure of open arable fields, their subdivision
and the consolidation of parcels which gave opportunity for
the creation of larger holdings. During the nineteenth century,
the patchwork of very many small fields which characterised
the early nineteenth-century landscape of Llaniestyn, saw the
removal of banks in the creation of still larger fields, many
with ruler straight boundaries. The parish of Llaniestyn, an
area considerably larger than the character area, extends over
3387 acres. By 1840, fifty-four percent of those acres were
in the hands of three individual landowners and had become
part of the landed estate of Cefn Amwlch to the west, Nanhoran
to the south-east and Madryn to the north. The improving landowners
of the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries saw 2300 acres
of the parish under the plough in 1840s.
Key historic landscape characteristics
•Field boundaries define predominantly
small enclosures, stone built close to the mountain and clawdd-style,
capped with bracken on the main plateau. In the immediate
vicinity of Llaniestyn village, the enclosed boundaries of
former sinuous quillets in arable open field still remain
to be identified.
•Traditional cottages are few but
a scatter survive to lend character to the landscape.
•Llaniestyn is a very important church
with possible Early Medieval origins and has retained its
thirteenth- to late fifteenth-century character at the focus
of a small village. Immediately adjacent to the church stand
two substantial cottages, Ty’n Llan and Ty’n
Llan Bach of probable eighteenth-century date.
The area between Carn Fadryn and the Soch
at Sarn Meyllteyrn is an undulating plateau between 110m and
140m OD, rising above the coastal plains of Tudweiliog to the
north and Neigwl to the south. The plateau forms a saddle between
Carn Fadryn and Mynydd Cefnamwlch, to the west, at 180m.
The drainage is predominantly southwards, feeding the Soch on its long
traverse across the Neigwl plateau. The gorges to the west and east are
matched by the valley, Nant Llaniestyn, which transects the area on its
winding route to the Soch at Botwnnog. Field boundaries define predominantly
small enclosures, stone built close to the mountain and clawdd-style,
capped with bracken on the main plateau. Albeit small in comparison with
the present scale of enclosures on the adjacent coastal plains, it can
be shown that even the larger fields, a percentage of which are under
the plough, were, in the early nineteenth century, much smaller and field
boundaries have been removed. Nevertheless, in the immediate vicinity
of Llaniestyn village, the enclosed boundaries of former sinuous quillets
in arable open field still remain to be identified. Particularly good
examples also survive at Trefaes farm.
Not all the parcels of very small plots, described in the previous section,
need be the product of that process, however, and at certain locations,
Rhos Llandinwael, for example, the motive would be reclamation of poor
ground before 1840. The adjacent farm name, Ffridd (previously Ffridd
Cefn Gaer; ffridd = waste, uncultivated) is useful place-name corroboration.
The pattern of settlement is dispersed and is represented by farms and
smallholdings. The only village with a degree of nucleation is Llaniestyn
itself. Larger villages lie on the boundary of the area at Sarn Meyllteyrn
and Botwnnog. A scatter of small holdings on the south-western flank
of Carn Fadryn, characterised by very small rectilinear plots, represent
occupation following the enclosure of common land in Llaniestyn in the
nineteenth century. These holdings and the landscape they occupy have
a distinctive character and will be treated separately.
Traditional cottages are few but a scatter survive to lend character
to the landscape. At Cae Mur a single storey cottage with probable croglofft
has attached farm buildings on the same axis. One of the adjacent structures
has an earth wall. Penrhos is a larger farmhouse to the south, but listed
for its vernacular character. Bwlch Groes to the north, two-storied,
also retains a vernacular character.
Llaniestyn is a very important church with possible Early Medieval origins
and has retained its thirteenth- to late fifteenth-century character
at the focus of a small village. The curve of the road through the village
takes a wide turn along the north and, then, east side, prompting the
suggestion that the ecclesiastical enclosure may once have been more
extensive than at present. An ancient pathway approaches the church from
the south west.
Immediately adjacent to the church at the north-western corner of the
churchyard, stand two substantial cottages, Ty’n Llan and Ty’n
Llan Bach, of probable eighteenth-century date.
Llaniestyn saw little development during the
nineteenth century. In 1840, the two cottages of Ty’n
Llan stood to the north-west of the church. There was a small
structure across the road to the north and a small cluster
of three or four dwellings on the east side and at the south-east
corner of the churchyard. Four hundred metres to the west stood
a large eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century rectory, built
by the Revd. Owen, vicar of the parish around 1750. By the
1890s that cluster had grown, but only slightly. A post office
and shop was built, mid-century, now known as Hen Siop and
a school was built across the road on the east side. By the
late twentieth century, buildings had filled in, somewhat on
the east side of the church and behind, to the south of, Ty’n
Llan. A row of modern semi-detached houses has been built to
the south of the rectory, perpendicular to the road, at Pant
y Celyn.
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