View allAll Photos Tagged Tuthill
Carnegie Hall at 881 7th Ave. was designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The venue has 3,671 seats, divided among three auditoriums: Stern Auditorium, a five-story auditorium with 2,804 seats; 599-seat Zankel Hall; and 268-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall.
Carnegie Hall, originally the Music Hall, was constructed between 1889 and 1891 as a venue shared by the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society. The hall was owned by the Carnegie family until 1925, after which Robert E. Simon and then his son, Robert E. Simon Jr., became owner. Carnegie Hall was proposed for demolition in the 1950s in advance of the New York Philharmonic relocating to Lincoln Center in 1962. Though Carnegie Hall is designated a National Historic Landmark and protected by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, it has not had a resident company since the New York Philharmonic moved out. Carnegie Hall was renovated multiple times throughout its history, including in the 1940s and 1980s.
Photographs during the highly recommended tour of the Stern Auditorium and Carnegie Hall Museum.
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, north-west Wales cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service. It was a motte-and-bailey castle from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began to replace it with the current stone structure. The Edwardian town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales, and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon's Roman past, and the Roman fort of Segontium is nearby.
While the castle was under construction, town walls were built around Caernarfon. The work cost between £20,000 and £25,000 from the start until the work ended in 1330. Although the castle appears mostly complete from the outside, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The town and castle were sacked in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn led a rebellion against the English. Caernarfon was recaptured the following year. During the Glyndŵr Rising of 1400–1415, the castle was besieged. When the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne in 1485, tensions between the Welsh and English began to diminish and castles were considered less important. As a result, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Despite its dilapidated condition, during the English Civil War Caernarfon Castle was held by Royalists, and was besieged three times by Parliamentarian forces. This was the last time the castle was used in war. The castle was neglected until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. The castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and again in 1969. It is part of the World Heritage Site "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd".
The first fortifications at Caernarfon were built by the Romans. Their fort, which they named Segontium, is on the outskirts of the modern town. The fort sat near the bank of the River Seiont; the fort was probably built here due to the sheltered position and because it could be resupplied via the river Seiont. Caernarfon derives its name from the Roman fortifications. In Welsh, the place was called y gaer (lenition of caer) yn Arfon, meaning "the stronghold in the land over against Môn"; Môn is the Welsh name for Anglesey. Little is known about the fate of Segontium and its associated civilian settlement after the Romans departed from Britain in the early 5th century.
Following the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror turned his attention to Wales. According to the Domesday Survey of 1086, the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan was nominally in command of the whole of northern Wales. He was killed by the Welsh in 1088. His cousin Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, reasserted Norman control of north Wales by building three castles: one at an unknown location somewhere in Meirionnydd, one at Aberlleiniog on Anglesey, and another at Caernarfon. This early castle was built on a peninsula, bounded by the River Seiont and the Menai Strait; it would have been a motte and bailey, defended by a timber palisade and earthworks. The motte, or mound, was integrated into the later Edwardian castle, but the location of the original bailey is uncertain, although it may have been to the north-east of the motte. Excavations on top of the motte in 1969 revealed no traces of medieval occupation, suggesting any evidence had been removed. It is likely that the motte was surmounted by a wooden tower known as a keep. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115, and Caernarfon Castle came into the possession of the Welsh princes. From contemporary documents written at the castle, it is known that Llywelyn the Great and later Llywelyn ap Gruffudd occasionally stayed at Caernarfon.
War broke out again between England and Wales on 22 March 1282. The Welsh leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died later that year on 11 December. His brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd continued to fight against the English, but in 1283 Edward I was victorious. Edward marched through northern Wales, capturing castles such as that at Dolwyddelan, and establishing his own at Conwy. War finally drew to a close in May 1283 when Dolbadarn Castle, Dafydd ap Gruffudd's last castle, was captured. Shortly afterwards, Edward began building castles at Harlech and Caernarfon. The castles of Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech were the most impressive of their time in Wales, and their construction—along with other Edwardian castles in the country—helped establish English rule. The master mason responsible for the design and construction of the castle was probably James of Saint George, an experienced architect and military engineer who played an important role in building the Edwardian castles in Wales. According to the Flores Historiarum, during the construction of the castle and planned town, the body of the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus was discovered, and Edward I ordered its reburial in a local church.
The construction of the new stone castle was part of a programme of building which transformed Caernarfon; town walls were added, connected to the castle, and a new quay was built. The earliest reference to building at Caernarfon dates from 24 June 1283, when a ditch had been dug separating the site of the castle from the town to the north. A bretagium, a type of stockade, was created around the site to protect it while the permanent defences were under construction. Timber was shipped from as far away as Liverpool. Stone was quarried from nearby places, such as from Anglesey and around the town. A force of hundreds worked on the excavation of the moat and digging the foundations for the castle. As the site expanded, it began to encroach on the town; houses were cleared to allow the construction. Residents were not paid compensation until three years later. While the foundations for the stone walls were being created, timber-framed apartments were built for Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, his queen. They arrived at Caernarfon on either 11 or 12 July 1283 and stayed for over a month.
Construction at Caernarfon Castle continued over the winter of 1283–84. The extent of completion is uncertain, although architectural historian Arnold Taylor speculated that when Edward and Eleanor visited again in Easter 1284 the Eagle Tower may have been complete. The Statute of Rhuddlan, enacted on 3 March 1284, made Caernarfon a borough and the administrative centre of the county of Gwynedd.[Gwynedd was not a county.] According to tradition, Edward II was born at Caernarfon on 25 April 1284. Edward was created Prince of Wales in 1301, with control over Wales and its incomes. Since then the title has traditionally been held by the eldest son of the monarch. According to a famous legend, the king had promised the Welsh that he would name "a prince born in Wales, who did not speak a word of English" and then produced his infant son to their surprise; but the story may well be apocryphal, as it can only be traced to the 16th century. In 1284, Caernarfon was defended by a garrison of forty men, more than the thirty-strong garrisons at Conwy and Harlech. Even in peace time, when most castles would have a guard of only a few men, Caernarfon was defended by between twenty and forty people due to its importance.
By 1285, Caernarfon's town walls were mostly complete. At the same time work continued on the castle. Spending on construction was negligible from 1289 and accounts end in 1292. Edward I's campaign of castle-building in Wales cost £80,000 between 1277 and 1304, and £95,000 between 1277 and 1329; by 1292 £12,000 had been spent on the construction of Caernarfon's castle—of which the southern façade was furthest along—and town walls. As the southern wall and town walls completed a defensive circuit around Caernarfon, the plan was to build the castle's northern façade last.
In 1294, Wales broke out in rebellion led by Madog ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. As Caernarfon was the centre of administration in Gwynedd and a symbol of English power, it was targeted by the Welsh. Madog's forces captured the town in September, and in the process heavily damaged the town walls. The castle was defended by just a ditch and a temporary barricade. It was quickly taken and anything flammable was set alight. Fire raged across Caernarfon, leaving destruction in its wake. In the summer of 1295, the English moved to retake Caernarfon. By November the same year, the English began refortifying the town. Rebuilding the town walls was a high priority, and £1,195 (nearly half the sum initially spent on the walls) was spent on completing the job two months ahead of schedule. Attention then shifted to the castle and on finishing the work that had halted in 1292. Once the rebellion was put down, Edward began building Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey. The work was overseen by James of Saint George; as a result, Walter of Hereford took over as master mason for the new phase of construction. By the end of 1301, a further £4,500 had been spent on the work; the focus of the work was on the northern wall and towers. The accounts between November 1301 and September 1304 are missing, possibly because there was a hiatus in work while labour moved north to help out with England's war against Scotland. Records show that Walter of Hereford had left Caernarfon and was in Carlisle in October 1300; he remained occupied with the Scottish wars until the autumn of 1304 when building at Caernarfon resumed. Walter died in 1309 and his immediate subordinate, Henry of Ellerton, took over the position of master mason. Construction continued at a steady rate until 1330.
From 1284 to 1330, when accounts end, between £20,000 and £25,000 was spent on Caernarfon's castle and town walls. Such a sum was enormous and dwarfed the spending on castles such as Dover and Château Gaillard, which were amongst the most expensive and impressive fortifications of the later 12th and early 13th centuries. Subsequent additions to Caernarfon were not major, and what remains of the castle is substantially from the Edwardian period. Despite the expense, much of what was planned for the castle was never carried out. The rears of the King's Gate (the entrance from the town) and the Queen's Gate (the entrance from the south-east) were left unfinished, and foundations in the castle's interior mark where buildings would have stood had work continued.
For around two centuries after the conquest of Wales, the arrangements established by Edward I for the governance of the country remained in place. During this time the castle was constantly garrisoned, and Caernarfon was effectively the capital of north Wales.[30] There was a degree of discrimination, with the most important administrative jobs in Wales usually closed to Welsh people. Tension between the Welsh and their English conquerors spilled over at the start of the 15th century with the outbreak of the Glyndŵr Rising (1400–1415). During the revolt, Caernarfon was one of the targets of Owain Glyndŵr's army. The town and castle were besieged in 1401, and in November that year the Battle of Tuthill was fought nearby between Caernarfon's defenders and the besieging force. In 1403 and 1404, Caernarfon was besieged by Welsh troops with support from French forces;[30] the garrison at the time was around thirty. The accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne in 1485 heralded a change in the way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result, castles such as Caernarfon, which provided secure centres from which the country could be administered, became less important. They were neglected, and in 1538 it was reported that many castles in Wales were "moche ruynous and ferre in decaye for lakke of tymely reparations".
In Caernarfon's case the walls of the town and castle remained in good condition, while features which required maintenance—such as roofs—were in a state of decay and much timber was rotten. Conditions were so poor that of the castle's seven towers and two gatehouses, only the Eagle Tower and the King's Gate had roofs by 1620. The domestic buildings inside the castle had been stripped of anything valuable, such as glass and iron. Despite the disrepair of the domestic buildings, the castle's defences were in a good enough state that during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century it was garrisoned by Royalists. Caernarfon Castle was besieged three times during the war. The constable was John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, who surrendered Caernarfon to Parliamentarian forces in 1646. It was the last time Caernarfon Castle saw fighting. Although it was ordered in 1660 that the castle and town walls should be dismantled, the work was aborted early on and may never have started.
Despite avoiding slighting, the castle was neglected until the late 19th century. From the 1870s onwards, the government funded repairs to Caernarfon Castle. The deputy-constable Llewellyn Turner oversaw the work, in many cases controversially restoring and rebuilding the castle, rather than simply conserving the existing stonework. Steps, battlements, and roofs were repaired, and the moat to the north of the castle was cleared of post-medieval buildings that were considered to spoil the view, despite the protest of locals. Under the auspices of the Office of Works and its successors since 1908, the castle was preserved due to its historic significance. In 1911, Caernarfon was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales for the first time for Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), eldest son of the newly crowned King George V; the ceremony was held there at the insistence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, a Welshman raised in Caernarfonshire. In 1969, the precedent was repeated with the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales. Although Caernarfon Castle has been the property of the Crown since it was built, it is currently cared for by Cadw (English: to keep), the Welsh Government's historic environment division, responsible for the maintenance and care of Wales' historic buildings. In 1986, Caernarfon was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as part of the "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" in recognition of its global importance and to help conserve and protect the site. The castle houses the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum. During 2015 a new "entrance pavilion" was built, designed by architects Donald Insall Associates.
Caernarfon Castle is now a major tourist attraction, with over 205,000 people visiting the attraction in 2018.
Caernarfon is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the island of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) to the north-east, while Snowdonia (Eryri) fringes Caernarfon to the east and south-east.
Abundant natural resources in and around the Menai Strait enabled human habitation in prehistoric Britain. The Ordovices, a Celtic tribe, lived in the region during the period known as Roman Britain. The Roman fort Segontium was established around AD 80 to subjugate the Ordovices during the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans occupied the region until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 382, after which Caernarfon became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. In the late 11th century, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a motte-and-bailey castle at Caernarfon as part of the Norman invasion of Wales. He was unsuccessful, and Wales remained independent until around 1283.
In the 13th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd, refused to pay homage to Edward I of England, prompting the English conquest of Gwynedd. This was followed by the construction of Caernarfon Castle, one of the largest and most imposing fortifications built by the English in Wales. In 1284, the English-style county of Caernarfonshire was established by the Statute of Rhuddlan; the same year, Caernarfon was made a borough, a county and market town, and the seat of English government in north Wales.
The ascent of the House of Tudor to the throne of England eased hostilities with the English and resulted in Caernarfon Castle falling into a state of disrepair. The town has flourished,[when?] leading to its status as a major tourist centre and seat of Gwynedd Council, with a thriving harbour and marina. Caernarfon has expanded beyond its medieval walls and experienced heavy suburbanisation. The community of Caernarfon's population includes the highest percentage of Welsh-speaking citizens anywhere in Wales. The status of Royal Borough was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and amended to Royal Town in 1974. The castle and town walls are part of a World Heritage Site described as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
The town's name consists of three elements: caer , yn, and arfon. "Caer' means 'fortress", in this case either the Roman fort of Segontium, which lies on the outskirts of the modern town, or the Norman castle erected near the mouth of the Afon Seiont. "Arfon" means "opposite Môn (Anglesey)", and the full name therefore means "the fortress in the land opposite Anglesey".
The earlier British and Romano-British settlement at Segontium was named Cair Segeint ("Fort Seiont") after the river. It was also known as Cair Custoient ("Fortress of Constantine"), after a belief that it was the capital of Gwynedd under Constantine, a supposed son of Saint Elen and the Emperor Magnus Maximus. Both names appear in the Historia Brittonum traditionally ascribed to Nennius. A medieval romance about Maximus and Elen, Macsen's Dream, calls her home Caer Aber Sein ("Fort Seiontmouth" or "the fortress at the mouth of the Seiont") and other pre-conquest poets such as Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd used the name Caer Gystennin. A 1221 charter by Llywelyn the Great to the canons of Penmon priory on Anglesey mentions Kaerinarfon, and the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion mentions both Kaerenarvon and Caerenarvon.
The town and the county named after it were officially spelled "Carnarvon" until 1926. At a meeting on 10 November 1925 the borough council resolved to ask the county council to change the spelling to "Caernarvon". The county council gave permission for the change of spelling for the name of the borough with effect from 14 January 1926, and at the same time decided to ask the government to also change the spelling of the county's name to Caernarvon. The government confirmed the change in the spelling of the county's name with effect from 1 July 1926.
The municipal borough was designated a royal borough in 1963. When the borough was abolished in 1974 the status of "royal town" was granted to the new community which succeeded it. The spelling of both borough and county remained "Caernarvon" until they were abolished in 1974. The spelling of the community's name was changed from "Caernarvon" to "Caernarfon" with effect from 2 June 1975 by order of Arfon Borough Council.
Caernarfon contains a Roman fort, Segontium, and a Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built at the mouth of the River Seiont.
In 1283, King Edward I completed his conquest of Wales which he secured by a chain of castles and walled towns. The construction of a new stone Caernarfon Castle seems to have started as soon as the campaign had finished. Edward's architect, James of St. George, may well have modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople, possibly being aware of the town's legendary associations. Edward's fourth son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward II of England, was born at the castle in April 1284 and made Prince of Wales in 1301. A story recorded in the 16th century suggests that the new prince was offered to the native Welsh on the premise "that [he] was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", however, there is no contemporary evidence to support this.
Caernarfon was constituted a borough in 1284 by a charter of Edward I. The charter, which was confirmed on a number of occasions, appointed the mayor of the borough Constable of the Castle ex officio.
On 2 November 1401, 'Y Ddraig Aur' (The golden dragon) of Owain Glyndŵr was attested to have been flown during the Battle of Tuthill at Caernarfon, it is also likely that it was also flown throughout the Welsh independence campaign.
In 1911, David Lloyd George, then Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon boroughs, which included various towns from Llŷn to Conwy, agreed to the British Royal Family's idea of holding the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony took place on 13 July, with the royal family visiting Wales, and the future Edward VIII was duly invested.
In 1955, Caernarfon was in the running for the title of Capital of Wales on historical grounds but the town's campaign was heavily defeated in a ballot of Welsh local authorities, with 11 votes compared to Cardiff's 136. Cardiff therefore became the Welsh capital.
On 1 July 1969, the investiture ceremony for Charles, Prince of Wales was again held at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony went ahead without incident despite terrorist threats and protests, which culminated in the death of two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, who were killed when their bomb – intended for the railway line at Abergele in order to stop the British Royal Train – exploded prematurely. The bombing campaign (one in Abergele, two in Caernarfon and finally one on Llandudno Pier) was organised by the movement's leader, John Jenkins. He was later arrested after a tip-off and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
In July 2019, Caernarfon hosted a rally for Welsh independence. The event, organised by AUOB (All Under One Banner) Cymru, included a march through the town centre. Organisers estimated that roughly 8,000 people joined the march on the town square; local authorities confirmed at least 5,000 attendees. The event featured a number of speakers including Hardeep Singh Kohli, Evra Rose, Dafydd Iwan, Lleuwen Steffan, Siôn Jobbins, Beth Angell, Gwion Hallam, Meleri Davies and Elfed Wyn Jones. Talks covered criticism of Brexit and Westminster with advocating Welsh Independence.
The history of Caernarfon, as an example where the rise and fall of different civilizations can be seen from one hilltop, is discussed in John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent. He writes of Caernarfon:
Spread out below us in an unexpected glory of sunlight was the whole recorded history of that little corner of the world. The ground beneath us still rippled with earthworks from the Celtic hill fort that guarded the Menai Strait more than two and a half millennia ago. The Roman fort that replaced it was now the dim brown mark of an old archaeological site on low hills off to the left. Edward I’s great grey castle rose up in the middle foreground, and the high contrails of RAF jets on a training exercise out over the Irish Sea showed that the town’s current overlords still maintained the old watch. Houses and shops from more than half a dozen centuries spread eastward as they rose through the waters of time, from the cramped medieval buildings of the old castle town straight ahead to the gaudy sign and sprawling parking lot of the supermarket back behind us.
Caernarfon is situated on the southern bank of the Menai Strait facing the Isle of Anglesey. It is situated 8.6 miles (13.8 km) south-west of Bangor, 19.4 miles (31.2 km) north of Porthmadog and approximately 8.0 miles (12.9 km) west of Llanberis and Snowdonia National Park. The mouth of the River Seiont is in the town, creating a natural harbour where it flows into the Menai Strait. Caernarfon Castle stands at the mouth of the river. The A487 passes directly through Caernarfon, with Bangor to the north and Porthmadog to the south.
As the crow flies, the summit of Snowdon lies a little over 9.6 miles (15.4 km) to the southeast of the town centre.
Caernarfon's historical prominence and landmarks have made it a major tourist centre. As a result, many of the local businesses cater for the tourist trade. Caernarfon has numerous guest houses, inns and pubs, hotels, restaurants and shops. The majority of shops in the town are located either in the centre of town around Pool Street and Castle Square (Y Maes), on Doc Fictoria (Victoria Dock) or in Cei Llechi (Slate Quay). A number of shops are also located within the Town Walls.
The majority of the retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria was opened in 2008. The retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria is built directly beside a Blue Flag beach marina. It contains numerous homes, bars and bistros, cafés and restaurants, an award-winning arts centre, a maritime museum and a range of shops and stores.
Pool Street and Castle Square contain a number of large, national retail shops and smaller independent stores. Pool Street is pedestrianised and serves as the town's main shopping street. Castle Square, commonly referred to as the 'Maes' by both Welsh and English speakers, is the market square of the town. A market is held every Saturday throughout the year and also on Mondays in the summer. The square was revamped at a cost of £2.4 million in 2009. However, since its revamp the square has caused controversy due to traffic and parking difficulties. During the revamp, it was decided to remove barriers between traffic and pedestrians creating a 'shared space', to force drivers to be more considerate of pedestrians and other vehicles. This is the first use of this kind of arrangement in Wales, but it has been described by councillor Bob Anderson as being 'too ambiguous' for road users. Another controversy caused by the revamp of the Maes was that a historic old oak tree was taken down from outside the HSBC bank. When the Maes was re-opened in July 2009 by the local politician and Heritage Minister of Wales, Alun Ffred Jones AM, he said, "the use of beautiful local slate is very prominent in the new Maes."
There are many old public houses serving the town, including The Four Alls, The Anglesey Arms Hotel, The Castle Hotel, The Crown, Morgan Lloyd, Pen Deitch and The Twthill Vaults. The oldest public house in Caernarfon is the Black Boy Inn, which remained in the same family for over 40 years until sold in 2003 to a local independent family business. The pub has stood inside Caernarfon's Town Walls since the 16th century, and many people claim to have seen ghosts within the building.
In and around the Town Walls are numerous restaurants, public houses and inns, and guest houses and hostels.
Gwynedd Council's head offices are situated in the town. The Caernarfon parliamentary constituency was a former electoral area centred on Caernarfon. Caernarfon is now part of the Arfon constituency for both the UK Parliament and the Senedd. The town is twinned with Landerneau in Brittany. Caernarfon was the county town of the historic county of Caernarfonshire.
At the local level, Caernarfon Royal Town Council consists of 17 town councillors, elected from the wards of Cadnant (3), Canol Tref Caernarfon (3), Hendre (3), Menai (4) and Peblig (4). The current Mayor is Councillor Maria Veronica Sarnacki.
The population in 1841 was 8,001.
The population of Caernarfon Community Parish in 2001 was 9,611. Caernarfon residents are known colloquially as "Cofis". The word "Cofi" /ˈkɒvi/ is also used locally in Caernarfon to describe the local Welsh dialect, notable for a number of words, not in use elsewhere.
Within Wales, Gwynedd has the highest proportion of speakers of the Welsh language. The greatest concentration of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd is found in and around Caernarfon.
According to the 2011 census, 85.8% of residents were born in Wales, one of the highest proportions in Gwynedd, and 77.0% reported a 'Welsh only' national identity.
The present castle building was constructed between 1283 and 1330 by the order of King Edward I. The banded stonework and polygonal towers are thought to have been in imitation of the Walls of Constantinople. The impressive curtain wall with nine towers and two gatehouses survive largely intact. Caernarfon Castle is now under the care of Cadw and is open to the public. The castle includes the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The medieval town walls, including eight towers and two twin-towered gateways, form a complete circuit of 800 yards (730 m) around the old town and were built between 1283 and 1285. The walls are in the care of Cadw but only a small section is accessible to the public. The town walls and castle at Caernarfon were declared part of a World Heritage Site in 1986. According to UNESCO, the castle and walls together with other royal castles in Gwynedd "are the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe".
Dedicated to Saint Peblig, the son of Saint Elen and Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus), the church is built on an important early Christian site, itself built on a Roman Mithraeum or temple of Mithras, close to the Segontium Roman Fort (200m away, in the care of Cadw). A Roman altar was found in one of the walls during 19th-century restoration work. The present church dates mainly from the 14th century and is a Grade I listed building.
The statue in Castle Square was sculpted by W. Goscombe John and was erected in 1921 when Lloyd George was Prime Minister. David Lloyd George was the Member of Parliament for the area from 1890 to 1945.
The Old Market Hall in Hole-in-the-Wall Street and Crown Street was built in 1832, but the interior and roof were rebuilt later in that century. It is a Grade II listed building. It now acts as a pub and music venue.
A small Victorian urban park, Morfa was laid out in 1888. It stands to the south of the town, bordered by the 'Ysbyty Eryri' hospital [see below] at its southern edge. It is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The old County Hall, which went on to become a courthouse, is situated inside the castle walls, next door to the Anglesey Arms Hotel. The old courthouse was built in the Neo-classical style. The courthouse was replaced by the new Caernarfon Criminal Justice Centre on the former Segontium School site in Llanberis Road in 2009. The old courthouse adjoins what used to be Caernarfon Gaol, which has been closed since the early 20th century and was subsequently converted into council offices.
There is a small hospital in the town, 'Ysbyty Eryri' (i.e. "Snowdonia Hospital"). The nearest large regional hospital is Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor.
Caernarfon Barracks was commissioned by John Lloyd, County Surveyor of Caernarfonshire, as a military headquarters and completed in 1855.
Caernarfon was at one time an important port, exporting slate from the Dyffryn Nantlle quarries. This traffic was facilitated from 1828 by the Nantlle Railway which predated far more widely known ventures such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway.
Five passenger stations have served the town. Caernarvon railway station opened in 1852 as the western terminus of the Bangor and Carnarvon Railway. This connected the town with the North Wales coast and the expanding national network. Carnarvon Castle railway station opened in 1856 as the northern passenger terminus of the 3ft 6in narrow gauge Nantlle Railway. This service ended in 1865 when the line being built from the south by the standard gauge Carnarvonshire Railway took over most of its trackbed. The Carnarvonshire Railway's temporary northern terminus was at Pant to the south of the town. Pant station opened in 1867. At the same time, the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway built its line from Llanberis to Caernarfon. Its temporary western terminus was called Carnarvon (Morfa). It opened in 1869 near the modern road bridges over the Afon Seiont. For a short period, therefore, Caernarfon had three terminating stations on its edges. Records are contradictory, but this ended in either 1870 or 1871 when they were connected by a line through the town using the tunnel which survives, having been converted in 1995 for road traffic. When the through route was opened Pant and Morfa stations closed and the original station became the town's only station. The London and North Western Railway also took over all the lines mentioned leaving one station and one service provider by 1871.
The services to Llanberis and south to Afon Wen closed progressively from the 1930s, with tracks being lifted in the mid-1960s, but Caernarvon station survived until 1970, with Bangor to Caernarvon one of the last passenger services to be closed under the Beeching Axe; it is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. In November 2020 the Welsh Government stated 'further consideration' should be given to reopening the line. The fifth station was opened in 1997 on the old trackbed in St. Helen's Road. It is the northern terminus of the 2ft narrow gauge Rheilffordd Eryri / Welsh Highland Railway. Work began on a permanent station for the town in February 2017. The new station opened to passengers in the Spring of 2019. Heritage steam services provide links to Porthmadog, where passengers can change for services on the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Bus services in the town are provided by Arriva Buses Wales, and a number of smaller, local operators. Longer distance, cross-country services are operated by Lloyds Coaches, and connect the town with Bangor to the north, and Aberystwyth via Porthmadog, Dolgellau and Machynlleth to the south. These services are part of the Welsh Government funded TrawsCymru network.
The A487 trunk road bisects the town, providing access to major urban areas along the North Wales coast and the Port of Holyhead, via the A55 expressway. Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon can be reached via the A4086, which heads east out of the town towards Capel Curig.
Heading north out of the town is the Lôn Las Menai cycle path to nearby Y Felinheli. Heading south out of the town is the Lôn Eifion cycle path, which leads to Bryncir, near Criccieth. The route provides views into the Snowdonia mountains, down along the Llŷn Peninsula and across to the Isle of Anglesey.
Caernarfon Airport is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the southwest, and offers pleasure flights and an aviation museum.
The Aber Swing Bridge is a pedestrian swing bridge that crosses over the Afon Seiont to connect pedestrians from the foreshore to the Watergate entrance in the centre of Caernarfon by the Caernarfon Castle.
There are four primary schools in Caernarfon, Ysgol yr Hendre being the largest. The others are Ysgol y Gelli, Ysgol Santes Helen and Ysgol Maesincla. Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is the single secondary school serving Caernarfon and the surrounding areas and currently has between 900 and 1000 pupils from ages 11 to 18. Ysgol Pendalar is a school for children with special needs. Coleg Menai is a further education college for adult learners.
Notable people
Lewis Jones, 1898
Saint Elen, late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales.
Edward II of England (1284–1327), King of England from 1307 to 1327.
Morris Williams (1809–1874), clergyman and writer, known by his bardic name Nicander
William Henry Preece (1834–1913), an electrical engineer and inventor.
Lewis Jones (1837-1904), one of the founders of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia.
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 to 1922.
Gwilym Edwards (1881–1963), Presbyterian minister, writer and academic
Lionel Rees (1884–1955), aviator, flying ace and recipient of the Victoria Cross
Maureen Peters (1935–2008), an historical novelist
Dafydd Wigley (born 1943), politician, MP for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001
Sian Eleri, BBC Radio 1 presenter
Sport
Bryan Orritt (1937–2014), a professional footballer with over 370 club caps
Barry Hughes (1937–2019), a professional footballer and manager, active primarily in the Netherlands
Wyn Davies (born 1942), a footballer with 611 club caps and 34 for Wales
Tom Walley (born 1945) footballer with over 410 club caps
Catrin Thomas (born 1964), ski mountaineer and mountain climber.
Waynne Phillips (born 1970), a professional footballer with over 470 club caps
Nathan Craig (born 1991), a professional footballer.
Osian Dwyfor Jones Wales Commonwealth Hammer Thrower
Caernarfon Town F.C. (Welsh: Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Caernarfon) is a Welsh football club based in the town, which currently plays in the Cymru Premier, the top level for football in Wales. The club is nicknamed "the Canaries" because of its yellow and green strip. Caernarfon Town plays at The Oval which has a capacity of 3000 people and 250 seated people.
Caernarfon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1862, 1894, 1906, 1921, 1935, 1959 and 1979. Unofficial National Eisteddfod events were also held there in 1877 and 1880. Caernarfon also hosted the 30th annual Celtic Media Festival in March 2009. Cultural destinations include Galeri and Oriel Pendeitsh. Galeri is a creative enterprise centre that houses a gallery, a concert hall, a cinema, a number of companies, and a range of other creative and cultural spaces. Oriel Pendeitsh is a ground-floor exhibition space adjoining the Tourist Information Centre opposite Caernarfon Castle. The gallery has a varied and changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year.
The Caernarfon Food Festival takes place in the town's streets including The Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and Castle Square (the Maes), which is pedestrianised for the event. Stalls are also located along the promenade next to the Menai Strait towards the marina and Doc Fictoria.
The festival was formed in 2015 as a result of public consultation within the town. The first festival was held in 2016. It is organised by the Caernarfon Food Festival Group which is made up of local volunteers who hold regular meetings to plan each festival. The festival has a number of support groups, including a content group, sponsorship group, technical group, communication group and volunteer group. These groups feed into the main group's monthly meetings. The festival logo was inspired by contributions from pupils at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen and designed by Iestyn Lloyd of Cwmni Da. The festival has been supported by Welsh Government through the Food Festival Grant Scheme and was highly commended by Food Awards Wales in 2019, Car parking is provided at the Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and at other car parks around the town while the Welsh Highland Railway provides transport from Porthmadog. Cycle access is by the cycle tracks along the disused railway lines which include Lôn Las Eifion, which runs from Porthmadog, by-passing Penygroes and on to Caernarfon, Lôn Las Menai from Y Felinheli to Caernarfon and Lôn Las Peris from Llanberis to Caernarfon.
Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.
Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.
The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).
The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.
In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.
Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.
The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.
The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.
A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.
The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.
There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.
The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.
Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.
The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.
Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.
The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.
Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.
It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.
The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.
The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.
Notable people
Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth
Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon
Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle
Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University
Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.
Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog
Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy
Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion
Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.
Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI
Cornish House
This iconic residence, now long empty, sits along the Sacramento River near Clarksburg. Built around 1868 by George Cornish, the history is well summarized here: www.calexplornia.com/clarksburgs-mighty-cornish-house-and...
The house has been featured in paintings by prominent local artists including Gregory Kondos and William Tuthill, usually from across the river. The tree in front of the small building has now grown so large so this building can hardly be seen from the other side of the river any longer.
Last evening we finally got some clouds. I was thinking the sunflowers were past their prime from my trip last week so I sought a different location. The clouds did mostly disappear before the actual sunset but there were interesting skies during the golden hour...
A clearer edit of a previous pic. Barclay diesel no 706 running light from Tuthill Quarry back to Hawthorn. 1989
Ex Dawdon Colliery Barclay diesel rolls over the bridge at South Hetton en route to Tuthill Quarry. This loco was nicknamed "Big Momma" by the staff at Hawthorn. It survives in preservation on the Battlefield Railway.
2024 Rali Ceredigion, round 7 of the European Rally Championship and Round 5 of the British Rally Championship.
Car: MG ZR +.
Class: M1 (National rally).
Driver: Charlie Tuthill (GBR).
Co-Driver: Ben Wild (GBR).
Overall result: 31st.
Position in class: 1st.
Date taken: 31st August 2024.
Album: Rali Ceredigion August 2024
The Hawthorn Combined Mine first drew coal in September 1959 and from January 1960 coal was subsequently brought to the surface there from the collieries at Elemore, Eppleton and Murton. This, and the adjoining coking plant, which had opened slightly earlier, were fully colour-light signalled and were worked by locos from South Hetton loco-shed of South Hetton Railways until March 1987, when this shed was closed after a new stabling point had been installed at Hawthorn Combined Mine. Most of the coal and coke was despatched through the BR exchange sidings at South Hetton, with internal trains of stone and washery waste being sent the four miles via the two self-acting Cold Hesledon inclines (Stony Cut and Swine Lodge) to Dawdon for disposal at sea via conveyor (see previous page), and from 1985 to Tuthill Quarry due to the closure of the Hesledon inclines. Andrew Barclay 400hp 0-6-0 diesel-hydraulic (W/No.594 built in 1974), originally supplied new to Dawdon colliery, stands at Hawthorn Combined Mine, probably in the late-1970s, with two hopper wagons of track ballast. Hawthorn coke works ceased production around 1985 and the Combined Mine was closed in November 1991.
© Gordon Edgar collection - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
Bicester Heritage Sunday Scramble - 7th January 2018
"An original 2.0-litre 911 swb left-hand drive coupe sold in April 1965 by Brumos Porsche, Jacksonville, USA.
FIA documented, this beautifully presented racing 911 is eligible for numerous international historic GT racing series, as well as the highly competitive, award winning 911 2 Litre Cup series of which Sports Purpose is joint promoter.
Early 911s are commonly referred to as short-wheelbase (swb) cars. This was applied in hindsight as Porsche lengthened the wheelbase by 67mm in 1969.
As standard, pre-1966 911s are powered by a 130bhp 2.0-litre flat-six, this air-cooled engine being mated to a 901/00 five-speed manual transmission.
Power for this racing 911 is increased to around 200bhp, its detailed specification outlined in six pages of invoices amounting to a cost in excess of £75,000.
The fully rebuilt five-speed 901 gearbox features race ratios, while a Tuthill Porsche limited-slip differential and racing exhaust system is also fitted.
The braking system is to FIA specifications, with solid discs, adjustable brake bias and a competition pedal box, the suspension comprising a bespoke EXE-tc adjustable damper set-up.
An original matching number, 1965, 2.0-litre coupe, chassis 301085 has been built as a pure competition car by acknowledged race and rally preparation experts Tuthill Porsche.
It is eligible for a number of classic GT race and rally series, including the 2.0L Cup that features grids exclusively comprising short-wheelbase 911s.
Campaigned in various historic racing series in 2016, 2017 and 2018 by the current owner and his driving partner Nigel Greensall, this 2.0-litre 911 swb has proven to be a consistent, reliable front-running car in every series it has entered.
Boasting an impressive race history it set the fastest racing lap for an FIA-approved 2.0-litre 911 around Spa in 2018, before taking a 2nd place overall in the 2L Cup race."
PRICE: £249,950
sports-purpose.com/cars/forsale/carDetail.php?1965-Porsch...
Carnegie Hall at 881 7th Ave. was designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The venue has 3,671 seats, divided among three auditoriums: Stern Auditorium, a five-story auditorium with 2,804 seats; 599-seat Zankel Hall; and 268-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall.
Carnegie Hall, originally the Music Hall, was constructed between 1889 and 1891 as a venue shared by the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society. The hall was owned by the Carnegie family until 1925, after which Robert E. Simon and then his son, Robert E. Simon Jr., became owner. Carnegie Hall was proposed for demolition in the 1950s in advance of the New York Philharmonic relocating to Lincoln Center in 1962. Though Carnegie Hall is designated a National Historic Landmark and protected by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, it has not had a resident company since the New York Philharmonic moved out. Carnegie Hall was renovated multiple times throughout its history, including in the 1940s and 1980s.
Photographs during the highly recommended tour of the Stern Auditorium and Carnegie Hall Museum.
The Munsey Building or “Mohican Hotel”
281 State Street, New London, CT.
Frank Munsey built this Renaissance Revival building in 1896 as a production facility for his New York based publishing house. The designer was architect William Tuthill (designer of Carnegie Hall). Unfortunately things did not work out as planned and a new use for the building would become necessary. Thus, in 1898, Munsey converted the building into a hotel but that also proved to be unsuccessful. By 1900 it was transformed into a department store - again without success. Eventually it was reopened as the Mohican Hotel which turned out to be one of the finest hotels in Connecticut.
Since 1980 the building has been used as a senior center and assisted living facility.
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, north-west Wales cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service. It was a motte-and-bailey castle from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began to replace it with the current stone structure. The Edwardian town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales, and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon's Roman past, and the Roman fort of Segontium is nearby.
While the castle was under construction, town walls were built around Caernarfon. The work cost between £20,000 and £25,000 from the start until the work ended in 1330. Although the castle appears mostly complete from the outside, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The town and castle were sacked in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn led a rebellion against the English. Caernarfon was recaptured the following year. During the Glyndŵr Rising of 1400–1415, the castle was besieged. When the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne in 1485, tensions between the Welsh and English began to diminish and castles were considered less important. As a result, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Despite its dilapidated condition, during the English Civil War Caernarfon Castle was held by Royalists, and was besieged three times by Parliamentarian forces. This was the last time the castle was used in war. The castle was neglected until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. The castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and again in 1969. It is part of the World Heritage Site "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd".
The first fortifications at Caernarfon were built by the Romans. Their fort, which they named Segontium, is on the outskirts of the modern town. The fort sat near the bank of the River Seiont; the fort was probably built here due to the sheltered position and because it could be resupplied via the river Seiont. Caernarfon derives its name from the Roman fortifications. In Welsh, the place was called y gaer (lenition of caer) yn Arfon, meaning "the stronghold in the land over against Môn"; Môn is the Welsh name for Anglesey. Little is known about the fate of Segontium and its associated civilian settlement after the Romans departed from Britain in the early 5th century.
Following the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror turned his attention to Wales. According to the Domesday Survey of 1086, the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan was nominally in command of the whole of northern Wales. He was killed by the Welsh in 1088. His cousin Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, reasserted Norman control of north Wales by building three castles: one at an unknown location somewhere in Meirionnydd, one at Aberlleiniog on Anglesey, and another at Caernarfon. This early castle was built on a peninsula, bounded by the River Seiont and the Menai Strait; it would have been a motte and bailey, defended by a timber palisade and earthworks. The motte, or mound, was integrated into the later Edwardian castle, but the location of the original bailey is uncertain, although it may have been to the north-east of the motte. Excavations on top of the motte in 1969 revealed no traces of medieval occupation, suggesting any evidence had been removed. It is likely that the motte was surmounted by a wooden tower known as a keep. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115, and Caernarfon Castle came into the possession of the Welsh princes. From contemporary documents written at the castle, it is known that Llywelyn the Great and later Llywelyn ap Gruffudd occasionally stayed at Caernarfon.
War broke out again between England and Wales on 22 March 1282. The Welsh leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died later that year on 11 December. His brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd continued to fight against the English, but in 1283 Edward I was victorious. Edward marched through northern Wales, capturing castles such as that at Dolwyddelan, and establishing his own at Conwy. War finally drew to a close in May 1283 when Dolbadarn Castle, Dafydd ap Gruffudd's last castle, was captured. Shortly afterwards, Edward began building castles at Harlech and Caernarfon. The castles of Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech were the most impressive of their time in Wales, and their construction—along with other Edwardian castles in the country—helped establish English rule. The master mason responsible for the design and construction of the castle was probably James of Saint George, an experienced architect and military engineer who played an important role in building the Edwardian castles in Wales. According to the Flores Historiarum, during the construction of the castle and planned town, the body of the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus was discovered, and Edward I ordered its reburial in a local church.
The construction of the new stone castle was part of a programme of building which transformed Caernarfon; town walls were added, connected to the castle, and a new quay was built. The earliest reference to building at Caernarfon dates from 24 June 1283, when a ditch had been dug separating the site of the castle from the town to the north. A bretagium, a type of stockade, was created around the site to protect it while the permanent defences were under construction. Timber was shipped from as far away as Liverpool. Stone was quarried from nearby places, such as from Anglesey and around the town. A force of hundreds worked on the excavation of the moat and digging the foundations for the castle. As the site expanded, it began to encroach on the town; houses were cleared to allow the construction. Residents were not paid compensation until three years later. While the foundations for the stone walls were being created, timber-framed apartments were built for Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, his queen. They arrived at Caernarfon on either 11 or 12 July 1283 and stayed for over a month.
Construction at Caernarfon Castle continued over the winter of 1283–84. The extent of completion is uncertain, although architectural historian Arnold Taylor speculated that when Edward and Eleanor visited again in Easter 1284 the Eagle Tower may have been complete. The Statute of Rhuddlan, enacted on 3 March 1284, made Caernarfon a borough and the administrative centre of the county of Gwynedd.[Gwynedd was not a county.] According to tradition, Edward II was born at Caernarfon on 25 April 1284. Edward was created Prince of Wales in 1301, with control over Wales and its incomes. Since then the title has traditionally been held by the eldest son of the monarch. According to a famous legend, the king had promised the Welsh that he would name "a prince born in Wales, who did not speak a word of English" and then produced his infant son to their surprise; but the story may well be apocryphal, as it can only be traced to the 16th century. In 1284, Caernarfon was defended by a garrison of forty men, more than the thirty-strong garrisons at Conwy and Harlech. Even in peace time, when most castles would have a guard of only a few men, Caernarfon was defended by between twenty and forty people due to its importance.
By 1285, Caernarfon's town walls were mostly complete. At the same time work continued on the castle. Spending on construction was negligible from 1289 and accounts end in 1292. Edward I's campaign of castle-building in Wales cost £80,000 between 1277 and 1304, and £95,000 between 1277 and 1329; by 1292 £12,000 had been spent on the construction of Caernarfon's castle—of which the southern façade was furthest along—and town walls. As the southern wall and town walls completed a defensive circuit around Caernarfon, the plan was to build the castle's northern façade last.
In 1294, Wales broke out in rebellion led by Madog ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. As Caernarfon was the centre of administration in Gwynedd and a symbol of English power, it was targeted by the Welsh. Madog's forces captured the town in September, and in the process heavily damaged the town walls. The castle was defended by just a ditch and a temporary barricade. It was quickly taken and anything flammable was set alight. Fire raged across Caernarfon, leaving destruction in its wake. In the summer of 1295, the English moved to retake Caernarfon. By November the same year, the English began refortifying the town. Rebuilding the town walls was a high priority, and £1,195 (nearly half the sum initially spent on the walls) was spent on completing the job two months ahead of schedule. Attention then shifted to the castle and on finishing the work that had halted in 1292. Once the rebellion was put down, Edward began building Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey. The work was overseen by James of Saint George; as a result, Walter of Hereford took over as master mason for the new phase of construction. By the end of 1301, a further £4,500 had been spent on the work; the focus of the work was on the northern wall and towers. The accounts between November 1301 and September 1304 are missing, possibly because there was a hiatus in work while labour moved north to help out with England's war against Scotland. Records show that Walter of Hereford had left Caernarfon and was in Carlisle in October 1300; he remained occupied with the Scottish wars until the autumn of 1304 when building at Caernarfon resumed. Walter died in 1309 and his immediate subordinate, Henry of Ellerton, took over the position of master mason. Construction continued at a steady rate until 1330.
From 1284 to 1330, when accounts end, between £20,000 and £25,000 was spent on Caernarfon's castle and town walls. Such a sum was enormous and dwarfed the spending on castles such as Dover and Château Gaillard, which were amongst the most expensive and impressive fortifications of the later 12th and early 13th centuries. Subsequent additions to Caernarfon were not major, and what remains of the castle is substantially from the Edwardian period. Despite the expense, much of what was planned for the castle was never carried out. The rears of the King's Gate (the entrance from the town) and the Queen's Gate (the entrance from the south-east) were left unfinished, and foundations in the castle's interior mark where buildings would have stood had work continued.
For around two centuries after the conquest of Wales, the arrangements established by Edward I for the governance of the country remained in place. During this time the castle was constantly garrisoned, and Caernarfon was effectively the capital of north Wales.[30] There was a degree of discrimination, with the most important administrative jobs in Wales usually closed to Welsh people. Tension between the Welsh and their English conquerors spilled over at the start of the 15th century with the outbreak of the Glyndŵr Rising (1400–1415). During the revolt, Caernarfon was one of the targets of Owain Glyndŵr's army. The town and castle were besieged in 1401, and in November that year the Battle of Tuthill was fought nearby between Caernarfon's defenders and the besieging force. In 1403 and 1404, Caernarfon was besieged by Welsh troops with support from French forces;[30] the garrison at the time was around thirty. The accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne in 1485 heralded a change in the way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result, castles such as Caernarfon, which provided secure centres from which the country could be administered, became less important. They were neglected, and in 1538 it was reported that many castles in Wales were "moche ruynous and ferre in decaye for lakke of tymely reparations".
In Caernarfon's case the walls of the town and castle remained in good condition, while features which required maintenance—such as roofs—were in a state of decay and much timber was rotten. Conditions were so poor that of the castle's seven towers and two gatehouses, only the Eagle Tower and the King's Gate had roofs by 1620. The domestic buildings inside the castle had been stripped of anything valuable, such as glass and iron. Despite the disrepair of the domestic buildings, the castle's defences were in a good enough state that during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century it was garrisoned by Royalists. Caernarfon Castle was besieged three times during the war. The constable was John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, who surrendered Caernarfon to Parliamentarian forces in 1646. It was the last time Caernarfon Castle saw fighting. Although it was ordered in 1660 that the castle and town walls should be dismantled, the work was aborted early on and may never have started.
Despite avoiding slighting, the castle was neglected until the late 19th century. From the 1870s onwards, the government funded repairs to Caernarfon Castle. The deputy-constable Llewellyn Turner oversaw the work, in many cases controversially restoring and rebuilding the castle, rather than simply conserving the existing stonework. Steps, battlements, and roofs were repaired, and the moat to the north of the castle was cleared of post-medieval buildings that were considered to spoil the view, despite the protest of locals. Under the auspices of the Office of Works and its successors since 1908, the castle was preserved due to its historic significance. In 1911, Caernarfon was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales for the first time for Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), eldest son of the newly crowned King George V; the ceremony was held there at the insistence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, a Welshman raised in Caernarfonshire. In 1969, the precedent was repeated with the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales. Although Caernarfon Castle has been the property of the Crown since it was built, it is currently cared for by Cadw (English: to keep), the Welsh Government's historic environment division, responsible for the maintenance and care of Wales' historic buildings. In 1986, Caernarfon was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as part of the "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" in recognition of its global importance and to help conserve and protect the site. The castle houses the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum. During 2015 a new "entrance pavilion" was built, designed by architects Donald Insall Associates.
Caernarfon Castle is now a major tourist attraction, with over 205,000 people visiting the attraction in 2018.
Caernarfon is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the island of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) to the north-east, while Snowdonia (Eryri) fringes Caernarfon to the east and south-east.
Abundant natural resources in and around the Menai Strait enabled human habitation in prehistoric Britain. The Ordovices, a Celtic tribe, lived in the region during the period known as Roman Britain. The Roman fort Segontium was established around AD 80 to subjugate the Ordovices during the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans occupied the region until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 382, after which Caernarfon became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. In the late 11th century, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a motte-and-bailey castle at Caernarfon as part of the Norman invasion of Wales. He was unsuccessful, and Wales remained independent until around 1283.
In the 13th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd, refused to pay homage to Edward I of England, prompting the English conquest of Gwynedd. This was followed by the construction of Caernarfon Castle, one of the largest and most imposing fortifications built by the English in Wales. In 1284, the English-style county of Caernarfonshire was established by the Statute of Rhuddlan; the same year, Caernarfon was made a borough, a county and market town, and the seat of English government in north Wales.
The ascent of the House of Tudor to the throne of England eased hostilities with the English and resulted in Caernarfon Castle falling into a state of disrepair. The town has flourished,[when?] leading to its status as a major tourist centre and seat of Gwynedd Council, with a thriving harbour and marina. Caernarfon has expanded beyond its medieval walls and experienced heavy suburbanisation. The community of Caernarfon's population includes the highest percentage of Welsh-speaking citizens anywhere in Wales. The status of Royal Borough was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and amended to Royal Town in 1974. The castle and town walls are part of a World Heritage Site described as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
The town's name consists of three elements: caer , yn, and arfon. "Caer' means 'fortress", in this case either the Roman fort of Segontium, which lies on the outskirts of the modern town, or the Norman castle erected near the mouth of the Afon Seiont. "Arfon" means "opposite Môn (Anglesey)", and the full name therefore means "the fortress in the land opposite Anglesey".
The earlier British and Romano-British settlement at Segontium was named Cair Segeint ("Fort Seiont") after the river. It was also known as Cair Custoient ("Fortress of Constantine"), after a belief that it was the capital of Gwynedd under Constantine, a supposed son of Saint Elen and the Emperor Magnus Maximus. Both names appear in the Historia Brittonum traditionally ascribed to Nennius. A medieval romance about Maximus and Elen, Macsen's Dream, calls her home Caer Aber Sein ("Fort Seiontmouth" or "the fortress at the mouth of the Seiont") and other pre-conquest poets such as Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd used the name Caer Gystennin. A 1221 charter by Llywelyn the Great to the canons of Penmon priory on Anglesey mentions Kaerinarfon, and the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion mentions both Kaerenarvon and Caerenarvon.
The town and the county named after it were officially spelled "Carnarvon" until 1926. At a meeting on 10 November 1925 the borough council resolved to ask the county council to change the spelling to "Caernarvon". The county council gave permission for the change of spelling for the name of the borough with effect from 14 January 1926, and at the same time decided to ask the government to also change the spelling of the county's name to Caernarvon. The government confirmed the change in the spelling of the county's name with effect from 1 July 1926.
The municipal borough was designated a royal borough in 1963. When the borough was abolished in 1974 the status of "royal town" was granted to the new community which succeeded it. The spelling of both borough and county remained "Caernarvon" until they were abolished in 1974. The spelling of the community's name was changed from "Caernarvon" to "Caernarfon" with effect from 2 June 1975 by order of Arfon Borough Council.
Caernarfon contains a Roman fort, Segontium, and a Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built at the mouth of the River Seiont.
In 1283, King Edward I completed his conquest of Wales which he secured by a chain of castles and walled towns. The construction of a new stone Caernarfon Castle seems to have started as soon as the campaign had finished. Edward's architect, James of St. George, may well have modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople, possibly being aware of the town's legendary associations. Edward's fourth son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward II of England, was born at the castle in April 1284 and made Prince of Wales in 1301. A story recorded in the 16th century suggests that the new prince was offered to the native Welsh on the premise "that [he] was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", however, there is no contemporary evidence to support this.
Caernarfon was constituted a borough in 1284 by a charter of Edward I. The charter, which was confirmed on a number of occasions, appointed the mayor of the borough Constable of the Castle ex officio.
On 2 November 1401, 'Y Ddraig Aur' (The golden dragon) of Owain Glyndŵr was attested to have been flown during the Battle of Tuthill at Caernarfon, it is also likely that it was also flown throughout the Welsh independence campaign.
In 1911, David Lloyd George, then Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon boroughs, which included various towns from Llŷn to Conwy, agreed to the British Royal Family's idea of holding the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony took place on 13 July, with the royal family visiting Wales, and the future Edward VIII was duly invested.
In 1955, Caernarfon was in the running for the title of Capital of Wales on historical grounds but the town's campaign was heavily defeated in a ballot of Welsh local authorities, with 11 votes compared to Cardiff's 136. Cardiff therefore became the Welsh capital.
On 1 July 1969, the investiture ceremony for Charles, Prince of Wales was again held at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony went ahead without incident despite terrorist threats and protests, which culminated in the death of two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, who were killed when their bomb – intended for the railway line at Abergele in order to stop the British Royal Train – exploded prematurely. The bombing campaign (one in Abergele, two in Caernarfon and finally one on Llandudno Pier) was organised by the movement's leader, John Jenkins. He was later arrested after a tip-off and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
In July 2019, Caernarfon hosted a rally for Welsh independence. The event, organised by AUOB (All Under One Banner) Cymru, included a march through the town centre. Organisers estimated that roughly 8,000 people joined the march on the town square; local authorities confirmed at least 5,000 attendees. The event featured a number of speakers including Hardeep Singh Kohli, Evra Rose, Dafydd Iwan, Lleuwen Steffan, Siôn Jobbins, Beth Angell, Gwion Hallam, Meleri Davies and Elfed Wyn Jones. Talks covered criticism of Brexit and Westminster with advocating Welsh Independence.
The history of Caernarfon, as an example where the rise and fall of different civilizations can be seen from one hilltop, is discussed in John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent. He writes of Caernarfon:
Spread out below us in an unexpected glory of sunlight was the whole recorded history of that little corner of the world. The ground beneath us still rippled with earthworks from the Celtic hill fort that guarded the Menai Strait more than two and a half millennia ago. The Roman fort that replaced it was now the dim brown mark of an old archaeological site on low hills off to the left. Edward I’s great grey castle rose up in the middle foreground, and the high contrails of RAF jets on a training exercise out over the Irish Sea showed that the town’s current overlords still maintained the old watch. Houses and shops from more than half a dozen centuries spread eastward as they rose through the waters of time, from the cramped medieval buildings of the old castle town straight ahead to the gaudy sign and sprawling parking lot of the supermarket back behind us.
Caernarfon is situated on the southern bank of the Menai Strait facing the Isle of Anglesey. It is situated 8.6 miles (13.8 km) south-west of Bangor, 19.4 miles (31.2 km) north of Porthmadog and approximately 8.0 miles (12.9 km) west of Llanberis and Snowdonia National Park. The mouth of the River Seiont is in the town, creating a natural harbour where it flows into the Menai Strait. Caernarfon Castle stands at the mouth of the river. The A487 passes directly through Caernarfon, with Bangor to the north and Porthmadog to the south.
As the crow flies, the summit of Snowdon lies a little over 9.6 miles (15.4 km) to the southeast of the town centre.
Caernarfon's historical prominence and landmarks have made it a major tourist centre. As a result, many of the local businesses cater for the tourist trade. Caernarfon has numerous guest houses, inns and pubs, hotels, restaurants and shops. The majority of shops in the town are located either in the centre of town around Pool Street and Castle Square (Y Maes), on Doc Fictoria (Victoria Dock) or in Cei Llechi (Slate Quay). A number of shops are also located within the Town Walls.
The majority of the retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria was opened in 2008. The retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria is built directly beside a Blue Flag beach marina. It contains numerous homes, bars and bistros, cafés and restaurants, an award-winning arts centre, a maritime museum and a range of shops and stores.
Pool Street and Castle Square contain a number of large, national retail shops and smaller independent stores. Pool Street is pedestrianised and serves as the town's main shopping street. Castle Square, commonly referred to as the 'Maes' by both Welsh and English speakers, is the market square of the town. A market is held every Saturday throughout the year and also on Mondays in the summer. The square was revamped at a cost of £2.4 million in 2009. However, since its revamp the square has caused controversy due to traffic and parking difficulties. During the revamp, it was decided to remove barriers between traffic and pedestrians creating a 'shared space', to force drivers to be more considerate of pedestrians and other vehicles. This is the first use of this kind of arrangement in Wales, but it has been described by councillor Bob Anderson as being 'too ambiguous' for road users. Another controversy caused by the revamp of the Maes was that a historic old oak tree was taken down from outside the HSBC bank. When the Maes was re-opened in July 2009 by the local politician and Heritage Minister of Wales, Alun Ffred Jones AM, he said, "the use of beautiful local slate is very prominent in the new Maes."
There are many old public houses serving the town, including The Four Alls, The Anglesey Arms Hotel, The Castle Hotel, The Crown, Morgan Lloyd, Pen Deitch and The Twthill Vaults. The oldest public house in Caernarfon is the Black Boy Inn, which remained in the same family for over 40 years until sold in 2003 to a local independent family business. The pub has stood inside Caernarfon's Town Walls since the 16th century, and many people claim to have seen ghosts within the building.
In and around the Town Walls are numerous restaurants, public houses and inns, and guest houses and hostels.
Gwynedd Council's head offices are situated in the town. The Caernarfon parliamentary constituency was a former electoral area centred on Caernarfon. Caernarfon is now part of the Arfon constituency for both the UK Parliament and the Senedd. The town is twinned with Landerneau in Brittany. Caernarfon was the county town of the historic county of Caernarfonshire.
At the local level, Caernarfon Royal Town Council consists of 17 town councillors, elected from the wards of Cadnant (3), Canol Tref Caernarfon (3), Hendre (3), Menai (4) and Peblig (4). The current Mayor is Councillor Maria Veronica Sarnacki.
The population in 1841 was 8,001.
The population of Caernarfon Community Parish in 2001 was 9,611. Caernarfon residents are known colloquially as "Cofis". The word "Cofi" /ˈkɒvi/ is also used locally in Caernarfon to describe the local Welsh dialect, notable for a number of words, not in use elsewhere.
Within Wales, Gwynedd has the highest proportion of speakers of the Welsh language. The greatest concentration of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd is found in and around Caernarfon.
According to the 2011 census, 85.8% of residents were born in Wales, one of the highest proportions in Gwynedd, and 77.0% reported a 'Welsh only' national identity.
The present castle building was constructed between 1283 and 1330 by the order of King Edward I. The banded stonework and polygonal towers are thought to have been in imitation of the Walls of Constantinople. The impressive curtain wall with nine towers and two gatehouses survive largely intact. Caernarfon Castle is now under the care of Cadw and is open to the public. The castle includes the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The medieval town walls, including eight towers and two twin-towered gateways, form a complete circuit of 800 yards (730 m) around the old town and were built between 1283 and 1285. The walls are in the care of Cadw but only a small section is accessible to the public. The town walls and castle at Caernarfon were declared part of a World Heritage Site in 1986. According to UNESCO, the castle and walls together with other royal castles in Gwynedd "are the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe".
Dedicated to Saint Peblig, the son of Saint Elen and Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus), the church is built on an important early Christian site, itself built on a Roman Mithraeum or temple of Mithras, close to the Segontium Roman Fort (200m away, in the care of Cadw). A Roman altar was found in one of the walls during 19th-century restoration work. The present church dates mainly from the 14th century and is a Grade I listed building.
The statue in Castle Square was sculpted by W. Goscombe John and was erected in 1921 when Lloyd George was Prime Minister. David Lloyd George was the Member of Parliament for the area from 1890 to 1945.
The Old Market Hall in Hole-in-the-Wall Street and Crown Street was built in 1832, but the interior and roof were rebuilt later in that century. It is a Grade II listed building. It now acts as a pub and music venue.
A small Victorian urban park, Morfa was laid out in 1888. It stands to the south of the town, bordered by the 'Ysbyty Eryri' hospital [see below] at its southern edge. It is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The old County Hall, which went on to become a courthouse, is situated inside the castle walls, next door to the Anglesey Arms Hotel. The old courthouse was built in the Neo-classical style. The courthouse was replaced by the new Caernarfon Criminal Justice Centre on the former Segontium School site in Llanberis Road in 2009. The old courthouse adjoins what used to be Caernarfon Gaol, which has been closed since the early 20th century and was subsequently converted into council offices.
There is a small hospital in the town, 'Ysbyty Eryri' (i.e. "Snowdonia Hospital"). The nearest large regional hospital is Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor.
Caernarfon Barracks was commissioned by John Lloyd, County Surveyor of Caernarfonshire, as a military headquarters and completed in 1855.
Caernarfon was at one time an important port, exporting slate from the Dyffryn Nantlle quarries. This traffic was facilitated from 1828 by the Nantlle Railway which predated far more widely known ventures such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway.
Five passenger stations have served the town. Caernarvon railway station opened in 1852 as the western terminus of the Bangor and Carnarvon Railway. This connected the town with the North Wales coast and the expanding national network. Carnarvon Castle railway station opened in 1856 as the northern passenger terminus of the 3ft 6in narrow gauge Nantlle Railway. This service ended in 1865 when the line being built from the south by the standard gauge Carnarvonshire Railway took over most of its trackbed. The Carnarvonshire Railway's temporary northern terminus was at Pant to the south of the town. Pant station opened in 1867. At the same time, the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway built its line from Llanberis to Caernarfon. Its temporary western terminus was called Carnarvon (Morfa). It opened in 1869 near the modern road bridges over the Afon Seiont. For a short period, therefore, Caernarfon had three terminating stations on its edges. Records are contradictory, but this ended in either 1870 or 1871 when they were connected by a line through the town using the tunnel which survives, having been converted in 1995 for road traffic. When the through route was opened Pant and Morfa stations closed and the original station became the town's only station. The London and North Western Railway also took over all the lines mentioned leaving one station and one service provider by 1871.
The services to Llanberis and south to Afon Wen closed progressively from the 1930s, with tracks being lifted in the mid-1960s, but Caernarvon station survived until 1970, with Bangor to Caernarvon one of the last passenger services to be closed under the Beeching Axe; it is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. In November 2020 the Welsh Government stated 'further consideration' should be given to reopening the line. The fifth station was opened in 1997 on the old trackbed in St. Helen's Road. It is the northern terminus of the 2ft narrow gauge Rheilffordd Eryri / Welsh Highland Railway. Work began on a permanent station for the town in February 2017. The new station opened to passengers in the Spring of 2019. Heritage steam services provide links to Porthmadog, where passengers can change for services on the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Bus services in the town are provided by Arriva Buses Wales, and a number of smaller, local operators. Longer distance, cross-country services are operated by Lloyds Coaches, and connect the town with Bangor to the north, and Aberystwyth via Porthmadog, Dolgellau and Machynlleth to the south. These services are part of the Welsh Government funded TrawsCymru network.
The A487 trunk road bisects the town, providing access to major urban areas along the North Wales coast and the Port of Holyhead, via the A55 expressway. Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon can be reached via the A4086, which heads east out of the town towards Capel Curig.
Heading north out of the town is the Lôn Las Menai cycle path to nearby Y Felinheli. Heading south out of the town is the Lôn Eifion cycle path, which leads to Bryncir, near Criccieth. The route provides views into the Snowdonia mountains, down along the Llŷn Peninsula and across to the Isle of Anglesey.
Caernarfon Airport is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the southwest, and offers pleasure flights and an aviation museum.
The Aber Swing Bridge is a pedestrian swing bridge that crosses over the Afon Seiont to connect pedestrians from the foreshore to the Watergate entrance in the centre of Caernarfon by the Caernarfon Castle.
There are four primary schools in Caernarfon, Ysgol yr Hendre being the largest. The others are Ysgol y Gelli, Ysgol Santes Helen and Ysgol Maesincla. Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is the single secondary school serving Caernarfon and the surrounding areas and currently has between 900 and 1000 pupils from ages 11 to 18. Ysgol Pendalar is a school for children with special needs. Coleg Menai is a further education college for adult learners.
Notable people
Lewis Jones, 1898
Saint Elen, late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales.
Edward II of England (1284–1327), King of England from 1307 to 1327.
Morris Williams (1809–1874), clergyman and writer, known by his bardic name Nicander
William Henry Preece (1834–1913), an electrical engineer and inventor.
Lewis Jones (1837-1904), one of the founders of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia.
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 to 1922.
Gwilym Edwards (1881–1963), Presbyterian minister, writer and academic
Lionel Rees (1884–1955), aviator, flying ace and recipient of the Victoria Cross
Maureen Peters (1935–2008), an historical novelist
Dafydd Wigley (born 1943), politician, MP for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001
Sian Eleri, BBC Radio 1 presenter
Sport
Bryan Orritt (1937–2014), a professional footballer with over 370 club caps
Barry Hughes (1937–2019), a professional footballer and manager, active primarily in the Netherlands
Wyn Davies (born 1942), a footballer with 611 club caps and 34 for Wales
Tom Walley (born 1945) footballer with over 410 club caps
Catrin Thomas (born 1964), ski mountaineer and mountain climber.
Waynne Phillips (born 1970), a professional footballer with over 470 club caps
Nathan Craig (born 1991), a professional footballer.
Osian Dwyfor Jones Wales Commonwealth Hammer Thrower
Caernarfon Town F.C. (Welsh: Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Caernarfon) is a Welsh football club based in the town, which currently plays in the Cymru Premier, the top level for football in Wales. The club is nicknamed "the Canaries" because of its yellow and green strip. Caernarfon Town plays at The Oval which has a capacity of 3000 people and 250 seated people.
Caernarfon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1862, 1894, 1906, 1921, 1935, 1959 and 1979. Unofficial National Eisteddfod events were also held there in 1877 and 1880. Caernarfon also hosted the 30th annual Celtic Media Festival in March 2009. Cultural destinations include Galeri and Oriel Pendeitsh. Galeri is a creative enterprise centre that houses a gallery, a concert hall, a cinema, a number of companies, and a range of other creative and cultural spaces. Oriel Pendeitsh is a ground-floor exhibition space adjoining the Tourist Information Centre opposite Caernarfon Castle. The gallery has a varied and changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year.
The Caernarfon Food Festival takes place in the town's streets including The Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and Castle Square (the Maes), which is pedestrianised for the event. Stalls are also located along the promenade next to the Menai Strait towards the marina and Doc Fictoria.
The festival was formed in 2015 as a result of public consultation within the town. The first festival was held in 2016. It is organised by the Caernarfon Food Festival Group which is made up of local volunteers who hold regular meetings to plan each festival. The festival has a number of support groups, including a content group, sponsorship group, technical group, communication group and volunteer group. These groups feed into the main group's monthly meetings. The festival logo was inspired by contributions from pupils at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen and designed by Iestyn Lloyd of Cwmni Da. The festival has been supported by Welsh Government through the Food Festival Grant Scheme and was highly commended by Food Awards Wales in 2019, Car parking is provided at the Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and at other car parks around the town while the Welsh Highland Railway provides transport from Porthmadog. Cycle access is by the cycle tracks along the disused railway lines which include Lôn Las Eifion, which runs from Porthmadog, by-passing Penygroes and on to Caernarfon, Lôn Las Menai from Y Felinheli to Caernarfon and Lôn Las Peris from Llanberis to Caernarfon.
Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.
Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.
The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).
The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.
In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.
Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.
The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.
The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.
A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.
The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.
There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.
The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.
Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.
The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.
Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.
The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.
Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.
It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.
The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.
The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.
Notable people
Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth
Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon
Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle
Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University
Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.
Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog
Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy
Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion
Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.
Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI
One of the once common 21 tonne wagons widely used by the NCB. This one has an "instanter" coupling instead of the usual 3-link type. 1989
Built in 1924, this Art Deco and Classical Revival-style monument was built around the tomb of William Henry Harrison (1773-1841). Harrison was the ninth United States President, a General in the United States Army, and first governor of Indiana Territory. Harrison died in 1841, a month after being sworn in as president, after falling ill, in what remains the shortest presidency in the nation’s history. Harrison was the first president to die while in office, causing a constitutional crisis, as the specifics of presidential succession had not been made clear in the constitution. Harrison was many things during his life, but spent much of his adult life owning a farm North Bend, Ohio, a town founded by his father-in-law, John Cleves Symmes, and which his wife, Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison, was an early resident, which included the land where his tomb now stands.
The legacy of Harrison is a complicated and controversial one, as he was inconsistent and acted with great contradiction on one of the most significant issues of his lifetime - Slavery in the United States. Harrison was born in Virginia in 1773 to a wealthy slave-owning planter family, and inherited slaves when his mother died in 1793. Thereafter, despite selling the property and slaves he inherited to his brother, he still tried to legalize slavery in Indiana Territory between 1803 and 1810, claiming it would boost the economic development of the state, but was unsuccessful in these attempt. Despite slavery not being legal in Ohio or Indiana, Harrison continued to own slaves whom lived on property outside those two states, which are the same two states where he primarily resided during his adult life. In 1822, he told Ohio voters that he opposed slavery to get elected as a representative, and he later wrote a statement that suggests that he did not support slavery lasting indefinitely and wished for eventual abolition. However, as a politician, did not take a hard stance for or against slavery, often making the assertion that states should decide for themselves. He made few concrete actions that challenged the status quo of slavery existing as an institution within the United States. However, to keep this in context, the time, a politician wanting to get elected as President of the United States would not have succeeded if they had been too pro-slavery or too pro-abolition, and thus a neutral middle ground was the most pragmatic choice, especially as a Whig like Harrison. Being neutral was far from the best choice or most moral choice, which would have been a pro-abolition stance on the issue. In addition to his problematic relationship with slavery, Harrison also participated in wars against indigenous peoples in Indiana and Ohio, being a lieutenant during the Battle of Fallen Timbers of the Northwest Indian War in 1794, at what is today Maumee, Ohio, as well as being a general during Tecumseh’s War during the period between 1810 and 1813, defeating Tecumseh’s Confederacy, and destroying the indigenous village of Prophetstown near what is today Battle Ground, Indiana during the notable Battle of Tippecanoe, a victory that Harrison later played up with his catchy presidential campaign slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” celebrating the slaughter and displacement of the indigenous people of the land conquered in favor of white settlement. Harrison would later defeat Tecumseh’s Confederacy at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, during the War of 1812, which resulted in the death of the confederacy’s leader, Tecumseh, and the signing of a peace treaty that ceded vast areas of land previously inhabited by indigenous peoples to white settlement.
Harrison primarily became the President of the United States during the 1840 election due to his neutrality on Slavery and his reputation as a victorious military commander whom conquered land for additional white settlement, which were both seen as politically expedient in the United States in the first half of the 19th Century. Harrison also served as the Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County, Ohio from 1836 to 1840, the third United States Minister to Gran Colombia, a diplomatic position, in 1829, a Senator representing the state of Ohio from 1825 to 1828, member of the Ohio State Senate representing Hamilton County from 1819 to 1821, member of the United States House of Representatives representing Ohio’s 1st District from 1816 to 1819, a delegate to the United States House of Representatives representing the Northwest Territory from 1799 to 1800, and as the second Secretary of the Northwest Territory from 1798 to 1799. His biggest legacies, however, are the treaties he signed with indigenous tribes that ceded large areas of the Midwest in the modern states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois to white settlement, turning the former Northwest Territory of the late 18th Century into the modern-day Midwest. Harrison’s usage of novel and effective campaign tactics when running for president was precedent-setting, with many of those tactics still utilized today, and was the oldest person to be elected president, doing so at age 68, until Ronald Regan became president at age 69 in 1981. His son, John Scott Harrison, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857, representing Ohio, and his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, was the 23rd President of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893.
The tomb sits atop a hill known as Mount Neo on the former Harrison family farm in North Bend, and was initially a simple rusticated stone vault partially buried in the hillside with a gated entrance. In 1871, John Scott Harrison sold all of the farm except the six acres surrounding the tomb, and offered it to the State of Ohio in exchange for the state taking on the maintenance of the tomb. However, the state was not very concerned with these obligations, and the site was severely neglected, with the tomb in disrepair and the surrounding area becoming overgrown. In 1919, the Ohio General Assembly, driven by the fervor of American Nationalism in the wake of World War I, finally allocated funding for the maintenance and repair of the tomb, with the newfound attention leading to the reconstruction and expansion of the tomb. By 1924, the tomb had been repaired, with a new limestone monolith pillar, Art Deco in character, being built in front of the tomb’s entrance that bears several carved writings that list the various accomplishments and important positions held by Harrison, with his military positions and victories listed on the north side of the pillar and his political positions listed on the south side of the pillar. The sides of the pillar feature two pilasters, with two stars on the taller, wider pilaster and the dates 1773 and 1841 engraved at the top of the shorter and narrower pilaster, with the north and south facades of the pillar featuring arrow slit openings at the top, and the base of the monument featuring a wrought iron gate that serves as an entrance to the tomb, with an antechamber in the bottom of the pillar and the original tomb belong, which still features the original arched brick burial vaults, the rusticated stone walls, and the stone lintel over the entrance with the name “Harrison” emblazoned on it. South of the tomb is an elliptical stone terrace, enclosed by a stone balustrade on the south side and a stone bench to the north, centered on the pillar and tomb. To the west of the terrace is a stone walkway to the parking area on Cliff Road, which features an ornate cast iron flagpole on an octagonal concrete base in the middle of the walkway slightly east of the terrace, on which are displayed the flags of the United States of America and the State of Ohio, with a series of three stone steps with intermediate landings cascading down to the west of the flagpole, framed by Magnolia Trees. Next to Cliff Road is a set of steps leading up to a stadium-shaped lower terrace that is partially covered in grass with a stone walkway in the middle, at which are located two pillars with statues of eagles atop them which have his various accomplishments carved into their western faces, with stone benches running around the east side for he terrace and a stone wall with bushes running around the west side of the terrace. Additionally, a more modern asphalt path with no stairs runs to the north of the historic grand entrance walk, before looping around to the east side of the upper terrace at the tomb, allowing for access to the site for people with physical disabilities and to allow better pedestrian traffic circulation through the site. This modern path connects directly to both parking areas of the site, as well as the site’s nature trail, located in the valley behind the hill.
The tomb was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and today is managed by the Harrison-Symmes Memorial Foundation, in partnership with the Ohio History Connection. The site does not appear to see a ton of visitation, as Harrison is not as significant of a historical figure as many other presidents from the early United States, but nonetheless, he did make some major contributions to history, both for better and for worse.
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, north-west Wales cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service. It was a motte-and-bailey castle from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began to replace it with the current stone structure. The Edwardian town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales, and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon's Roman past, and the Roman fort of Segontium is nearby.
While the castle was under construction, town walls were built around Caernarfon. The work cost between £20,000 and £25,000 from the start until the work ended in 1330. Although the castle appears mostly complete from the outside, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The town and castle were sacked in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn led a rebellion against the English. Caernarfon was recaptured the following year. During the Glyndŵr Rising of 1400–1415, the castle was besieged. When the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne in 1485, tensions between the Welsh and English began to diminish and castles were considered less important. As a result, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Despite its dilapidated condition, during the English Civil War Caernarfon Castle was held by Royalists, and was besieged three times by Parliamentarian forces. This was the last time the castle was used in war. The castle was neglected until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. The castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and again in 1969. It is part of the World Heritage Site "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd".
The first fortifications at Caernarfon were built by the Romans. Their fort, which they named Segontium, is on the outskirts of the modern town. The fort sat near the bank of the River Seiont; the fort was probably built here due to the sheltered position and because it could be resupplied via the river Seiont. Caernarfon derives its name from the Roman fortifications. In Welsh, the place was called y gaer (lenition of caer) yn Arfon, meaning "the stronghold in the land over against Môn"; Môn is the Welsh name for Anglesey. Little is known about the fate of Segontium and its associated civilian settlement after the Romans departed from Britain in the early 5th century.
Following the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror turned his attention to Wales. According to the Domesday Survey of 1086, the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan was nominally in command of the whole of northern Wales. He was killed by the Welsh in 1088. His cousin Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, reasserted Norman control of north Wales by building three castles: one at an unknown location somewhere in Meirionnydd, one at Aberlleiniog on Anglesey, and another at Caernarfon. This early castle was built on a peninsula, bounded by the River Seiont and the Menai Strait; it would have been a motte and bailey, defended by a timber palisade and earthworks. The motte, or mound, was integrated into the later Edwardian castle, but the location of the original bailey is uncertain, although it may have been to the north-east of the motte. Excavations on top of the motte in 1969 revealed no traces of medieval occupation, suggesting any evidence had been removed. It is likely that the motte was surmounted by a wooden tower known as a keep. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115, and Caernarfon Castle came into the possession of the Welsh princes. From contemporary documents written at the castle, it is known that Llywelyn the Great and later Llywelyn ap Gruffudd occasionally stayed at Caernarfon.
War broke out again between England and Wales on 22 March 1282. The Welsh leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died later that year on 11 December. His brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd continued to fight against the English, but in 1283 Edward I was victorious. Edward marched through northern Wales, capturing castles such as that at Dolwyddelan, and establishing his own at Conwy. War finally drew to a close in May 1283 when Dolbadarn Castle, Dafydd ap Gruffudd's last castle, was captured. Shortly afterwards, Edward began building castles at Harlech and Caernarfon. The castles of Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech were the most impressive of their time in Wales, and their construction—along with other Edwardian castles in the country—helped establish English rule. The master mason responsible for the design and construction of the castle was probably James of Saint George, an experienced architect and military engineer who played an important role in building the Edwardian castles in Wales. According to the Flores Historiarum, during the construction of the castle and planned town, the body of the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus was discovered, and Edward I ordered its reburial in a local church.
The construction of the new stone castle was part of a programme of building which transformed Caernarfon; town walls were added, connected to the castle, and a new quay was built. The earliest reference to building at Caernarfon dates from 24 June 1283, when a ditch had been dug separating the site of the castle from the town to the north. A bretagium, a type of stockade, was created around the site to protect it while the permanent defences were under construction. Timber was shipped from as far away as Liverpool. Stone was quarried from nearby places, such as from Anglesey and around the town. A force of hundreds worked on the excavation of the moat and digging the foundations for the castle. As the site expanded, it began to encroach on the town; houses were cleared to allow the construction. Residents were not paid compensation until three years later. While the foundations for the stone walls were being created, timber-framed apartments were built for Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, his queen. They arrived at Caernarfon on either 11 or 12 July 1283 and stayed for over a month.
Construction at Caernarfon Castle continued over the winter of 1283–84. The extent of completion is uncertain, although architectural historian Arnold Taylor speculated that when Edward and Eleanor visited again in Easter 1284 the Eagle Tower may have been complete. The Statute of Rhuddlan, enacted on 3 March 1284, made Caernarfon a borough and the administrative centre of the county of Gwynedd.[Gwynedd was not a county.] According to tradition, Edward II was born at Caernarfon on 25 April 1284. Edward was created Prince of Wales in 1301, with control over Wales and its incomes. Since then the title has traditionally been held by the eldest son of the monarch. According to a famous legend, the king had promised the Welsh that he would name "a prince born in Wales, who did not speak a word of English" and then produced his infant son to their surprise; but the story may well be apocryphal, as it can only be traced to the 16th century. In 1284, Caernarfon was defended by a garrison of forty men, more than the thirty-strong garrisons at Conwy and Harlech. Even in peace time, when most castles would have a guard of only a few men, Caernarfon was defended by between twenty and forty people due to its importance.
By 1285, Caernarfon's town walls were mostly complete. At the same time work continued on the castle. Spending on construction was negligible from 1289 and accounts end in 1292. Edward I's campaign of castle-building in Wales cost £80,000 between 1277 and 1304, and £95,000 between 1277 and 1329; by 1292 £12,000 had been spent on the construction of Caernarfon's castle—of which the southern façade was furthest along—and town walls. As the southern wall and town walls completed a defensive circuit around Caernarfon, the plan was to build the castle's northern façade last.
In 1294, Wales broke out in rebellion led by Madog ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. As Caernarfon was the centre of administration in Gwynedd and a symbol of English power, it was targeted by the Welsh. Madog's forces captured the town in September, and in the process heavily damaged the town walls. The castle was defended by just a ditch and a temporary barricade. It was quickly taken and anything flammable was set alight. Fire raged across Caernarfon, leaving destruction in its wake. In the summer of 1295, the English moved to retake Caernarfon. By November the same year, the English began refortifying the town. Rebuilding the town walls was a high priority, and £1,195 (nearly half the sum initially spent on the walls) was spent on completing the job two months ahead of schedule. Attention then shifted to the castle and on finishing the work that had halted in 1292. Once the rebellion was put down, Edward began building Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey. The work was overseen by James of Saint George; as a result, Walter of Hereford took over as master mason for the new phase of construction. By the end of 1301, a further £4,500 had been spent on the work; the focus of the work was on the northern wall and towers. The accounts between November 1301 and September 1304 are missing, possibly because there was a hiatus in work while labour moved north to help out with England's war against Scotland. Records show that Walter of Hereford had left Caernarfon and was in Carlisle in October 1300; he remained occupied with the Scottish wars until the autumn of 1304 when building at Caernarfon resumed. Walter died in 1309 and his immediate subordinate, Henry of Ellerton, took over the position of master mason. Construction continued at a steady rate until 1330.
From 1284 to 1330, when accounts end, between £20,000 and £25,000 was spent on Caernarfon's castle and town walls. Such a sum was enormous and dwarfed the spending on castles such as Dover and Château Gaillard, which were amongst the most expensive and impressive fortifications of the later 12th and early 13th centuries. Subsequent additions to Caernarfon were not major, and what remains of the castle is substantially from the Edwardian period. Despite the expense, much of what was planned for the castle was never carried out. The rears of the King's Gate (the entrance from the town) and the Queen's Gate (the entrance from the south-east) were left unfinished, and foundations in the castle's interior mark where buildings would have stood had work continued.
For around two centuries after the conquest of Wales, the arrangements established by Edward I for the governance of the country remained in place. During this time the castle was constantly garrisoned, and Caernarfon was effectively the capital of north Wales.[30] There was a degree of discrimination, with the most important administrative jobs in Wales usually closed to Welsh people. Tension between the Welsh and their English conquerors spilled over at the start of the 15th century with the outbreak of the Glyndŵr Rising (1400–1415). During the revolt, Caernarfon was one of the targets of Owain Glyndŵr's army. The town and castle were besieged in 1401, and in November that year the Battle of Tuthill was fought nearby between Caernarfon's defenders and the besieging force. In 1403 and 1404, Caernarfon was besieged by Welsh troops with support from French forces;[30] the garrison at the time was around thirty. The accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne in 1485 heralded a change in the way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result, castles such as Caernarfon, which provided secure centres from which the country could be administered, became less important. They were neglected, and in 1538 it was reported that many castles in Wales were "moche ruynous and ferre in decaye for lakke of tymely reparations".
In Caernarfon's case the walls of the town and castle remained in good condition, while features which required maintenance—such as roofs—were in a state of decay and much timber was rotten. Conditions were so poor that of the castle's seven towers and two gatehouses, only the Eagle Tower and the King's Gate had roofs by 1620. The domestic buildings inside the castle had been stripped of anything valuable, such as glass and iron. Despite the disrepair of the domestic buildings, the castle's defences were in a good enough state that during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century it was garrisoned by Royalists. Caernarfon Castle was besieged three times during the war. The constable was John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, who surrendered Caernarfon to Parliamentarian forces in 1646. It was the last time Caernarfon Castle saw fighting. Although it was ordered in 1660 that the castle and town walls should be dismantled, the work was aborted early on and may never have started.
Despite avoiding slighting, the castle was neglected until the late 19th century. From the 1870s onwards, the government funded repairs to Caernarfon Castle. The deputy-constable Llewellyn Turner oversaw the work, in many cases controversially restoring and rebuilding the castle, rather than simply conserving the existing stonework. Steps, battlements, and roofs were repaired, and the moat to the north of the castle was cleared of post-medieval buildings that were considered to spoil the view, despite the protest of locals. Under the auspices of the Office of Works and its successors since 1908, the castle was preserved due to its historic significance. In 1911, Caernarfon was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales for the first time for Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), eldest son of the newly crowned King George V; the ceremony was held there at the insistence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, a Welshman raised in Caernarfonshire. In 1969, the precedent was repeated with the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales. Although Caernarfon Castle has been the property of the Crown since it was built, it is currently cared for by Cadw (English: to keep), the Welsh Government's historic environment division, responsible for the maintenance and care of Wales' historic buildings. In 1986, Caernarfon was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as part of the "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" in recognition of its global importance and to help conserve and protect the site. The castle houses the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum. During 2015 a new "entrance pavilion" was built, designed by architects Donald Insall Associates.
Caernarfon Castle is now a major tourist attraction, with over 205,000 people visiting the attraction in 2018.
Caernarfon is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the island of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) to the north-east, while Snowdonia (Eryri) fringes Caernarfon to the east and south-east.
Abundant natural resources in and around the Menai Strait enabled human habitation in prehistoric Britain. The Ordovices, a Celtic tribe, lived in the region during the period known as Roman Britain. The Roman fort Segontium was established around AD 80 to subjugate the Ordovices during the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans occupied the region until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 382, after which Caernarfon became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. In the late 11th century, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a motte-and-bailey castle at Caernarfon as part of the Norman invasion of Wales. He was unsuccessful, and Wales remained independent until around 1283.
In the 13th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd, refused to pay homage to Edward I of England, prompting the English conquest of Gwynedd. This was followed by the construction of Caernarfon Castle, one of the largest and most imposing fortifications built by the English in Wales. In 1284, the English-style county of Caernarfonshire was established by the Statute of Rhuddlan; the same year, Caernarfon was made a borough, a county and market town, and the seat of English government in north Wales.
The ascent of the House of Tudor to the throne of England eased hostilities with the English and resulted in Caernarfon Castle falling into a state of disrepair. The town has flourished,[when?] leading to its status as a major tourist centre and seat of Gwynedd Council, with a thriving harbour and marina. Caernarfon has expanded beyond its medieval walls and experienced heavy suburbanisation. The community of Caernarfon's population includes the highest percentage of Welsh-speaking citizens anywhere in Wales. The status of Royal Borough was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and amended to Royal Town in 1974. The castle and town walls are part of a World Heritage Site described as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
The town's name consists of three elements: caer , yn, and arfon. "Caer' means 'fortress", in this case either the Roman fort of Segontium, which lies on the outskirts of the modern town, or the Norman castle erected near the mouth of the Afon Seiont. "Arfon" means "opposite Môn (Anglesey)", and the full name therefore means "the fortress in the land opposite Anglesey".
The earlier British and Romano-British settlement at Segontium was named Cair Segeint ("Fort Seiont") after the river. It was also known as Cair Custoient ("Fortress of Constantine"), after a belief that it was the capital of Gwynedd under Constantine, a supposed son of Saint Elen and the Emperor Magnus Maximus. Both names appear in the Historia Brittonum traditionally ascribed to Nennius. A medieval romance about Maximus and Elen, Macsen's Dream, calls her home Caer Aber Sein ("Fort Seiontmouth" or "the fortress at the mouth of the Seiont") and other pre-conquest poets such as Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd used the name Caer Gystennin. A 1221 charter by Llywelyn the Great to the canons of Penmon priory on Anglesey mentions Kaerinarfon, and the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion mentions both Kaerenarvon and Caerenarvon.
The town and the county named after it were officially spelled "Carnarvon" until 1926. At a meeting on 10 November 1925 the borough council resolved to ask the county council to change the spelling to "Caernarvon". The county council gave permission for the change of spelling for the name of the borough with effect from 14 January 1926, and at the same time decided to ask the government to also change the spelling of the county's name to Caernarvon. The government confirmed the change in the spelling of the county's name with effect from 1 July 1926.
The municipal borough was designated a royal borough in 1963. When the borough was abolished in 1974 the status of "royal town" was granted to the new community which succeeded it. The spelling of both borough and county remained "Caernarvon" until they were abolished in 1974. The spelling of the community's name was changed from "Caernarvon" to "Caernarfon" with effect from 2 June 1975 by order of Arfon Borough Council.
Caernarfon contains a Roman fort, Segontium, and a Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built at the mouth of the River Seiont.
In 1283, King Edward I completed his conquest of Wales which he secured by a chain of castles and walled towns. The construction of a new stone Caernarfon Castle seems to have started as soon as the campaign had finished. Edward's architect, James of St. George, may well have modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople, possibly being aware of the town's legendary associations. Edward's fourth son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward II of England, was born at the castle in April 1284 and made Prince of Wales in 1301. A story recorded in the 16th century suggests that the new prince was offered to the native Welsh on the premise "that [he] was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", however, there is no contemporary evidence to support this.
Caernarfon was constituted a borough in 1284 by a charter of Edward I. The charter, which was confirmed on a number of occasions, appointed the mayor of the borough Constable of the Castle ex officio.
On 2 November 1401, 'Y Ddraig Aur' (The golden dragon) of Owain Glyndŵr was attested to have been flown during the Battle of Tuthill at Caernarfon, it is also likely that it was also flown throughout the Welsh independence campaign.
In 1911, David Lloyd George, then Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon boroughs, which included various towns from Llŷn to Conwy, agreed to the British Royal Family's idea of holding the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony took place on 13 July, with the royal family visiting Wales, and the future Edward VIII was duly invested.
In 1955, Caernarfon was in the running for the title of Capital of Wales on historical grounds but the town's campaign was heavily defeated in a ballot of Welsh local authorities, with 11 votes compared to Cardiff's 136. Cardiff therefore became the Welsh capital.
On 1 July 1969, the investiture ceremony for Charles, Prince of Wales was again held at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony went ahead without incident despite terrorist threats and protests, which culminated in the death of two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, who were killed when their bomb – intended for the railway line at Abergele in order to stop the British Royal Train – exploded prematurely. The bombing campaign (one in Abergele, two in Caernarfon and finally one on Llandudno Pier) was organised by the movement's leader, John Jenkins. He was later arrested after a tip-off and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
In July 2019, Caernarfon hosted a rally for Welsh independence. The event, organised by AUOB (All Under One Banner) Cymru, included a march through the town centre. Organisers estimated that roughly 8,000 people joined the march on the town square; local authorities confirmed at least 5,000 attendees. The event featured a number of speakers including Hardeep Singh Kohli, Evra Rose, Dafydd Iwan, Lleuwen Steffan, Siôn Jobbins, Beth Angell, Gwion Hallam, Meleri Davies and Elfed Wyn Jones. Talks covered criticism of Brexit and Westminster with advocating Welsh Independence.
The history of Caernarfon, as an example where the rise and fall of different civilizations can be seen from one hilltop, is discussed in John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent. He writes of Caernarfon:
Spread out below us in an unexpected glory of sunlight was the whole recorded history of that little corner of the world. The ground beneath us still rippled with earthworks from the Celtic hill fort that guarded the Menai Strait more than two and a half millennia ago. The Roman fort that replaced it was now the dim brown mark of an old archaeological site on low hills off to the left. Edward I’s great grey castle rose up in the middle foreground, and the high contrails of RAF jets on a training exercise out over the Irish Sea showed that the town’s current overlords still maintained the old watch. Houses and shops from more than half a dozen centuries spread eastward as they rose through the waters of time, from the cramped medieval buildings of the old castle town straight ahead to the gaudy sign and sprawling parking lot of the supermarket back behind us.
Caernarfon is situated on the southern bank of the Menai Strait facing the Isle of Anglesey. It is situated 8.6 miles (13.8 km) south-west of Bangor, 19.4 miles (31.2 km) north of Porthmadog and approximately 8.0 miles (12.9 km) west of Llanberis and Snowdonia National Park. The mouth of the River Seiont is in the town, creating a natural harbour where it flows into the Menai Strait. Caernarfon Castle stands at the mouth of the river. The A487 passes directly through Caernarfon, with Bangor to the north and Porthmadog to the south.
As the crow flies, the summit of Snowdon lies a little over 9.6 miles (15.4 km) to the southeast of the town centre.
Caernarfon's historical prominence and landmarks have made it a major tourist centre. As a result, many of the local businesses cater for the tourist trade. Caernarfon has numerous guest houses, inns and pubs, hotels, restaurants and shops. The majority of shops in the town are located either in the centre of town around Pool Street and Castle Square (Y Maes), on Doc Fictoria (Victoria Dock) or in Cei Llechi (Slate Quay). A number of shops are also located within the Town Walls.
The majority of the retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria was opened in 2008. The retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria is built directly beside a Blue Flag beach marina. It contains numerous homes, bars and bistros, cafés and restaurants, an award-winning arts centre, a maritime museum and a range of shops and stores.
Pool Street and Castle Square contain a number of large, national retail shops and smaller independent stores. Pool Street is pedestrianised and serves as the town's main shopping street. Castle Square, commonly referred to as the 'Maes' by both Welsh and English speakers, is the market square of the town. A market is held every Saturday throughout the year and also on Mondays in the summer. The square was revamped at a cost of £2.4 million in 2009. However, since its revamp the square has caused controversy due to traffic and parking difficulties. During the revamp, it was decided to remove barriers between traffic and pedestrians creating a 'shared space', to force drivers to be more considerate of pedestrians and other vehicles. This is the first use of this kind of arrangement in Wales, but it has been described by councillor Bob Anderson as being 'too ambiguous' for road users. Another controversy caused by the revamp of the Maes was that a historic old oak tree was taken down from outside the HSBC bank. When the Maes was re-opened in July 2009 by the local politician and Heritage Minister of Wales, Alun Ffred Jones AM, he said, "the use of beautiful local slate is very prominent in the new Maes."
There are many old public houses serving the town, including The Four Alls, The Anglesey Arms Hotel, The Castle Hotel, The Crown, Morgan Lloyd, Pen Deitch and The Twthill Vaults. The oldest public house in Caernarfon is the Black Boy Inn, which remained in the same family for over 40 years until sold in 2003 to a local independent family business. The pub has stood inside Caernarfon's Town Walls since the 16th century, and many people claim to have seen ghosts within the building.
In and around the Town Walls are numerous restaurants, public houses and inns, and guest houses and hostels.
Gwynedd Council's head offices are situated in the town. The Caernarfon parliamentary constituency was a former electoral area centred on Caernarfon. Caernarfon is now part of the Arfon constituency for both the UK Parliament and the Senedd. The town is twinned with Landerneau in Brittany. Caernarfon was the county town of the historic county of Caernarfonshire.
At the local level, Caernarfon Royal Town Council consists of 17 town councillors, elected from the wards of Cadnant (3), Canol Tref Caernarfon (3), Hendre (3), Menai (4) and Peblig (4). The current Mayor is Councillor Maria Veronica Sarnacki.
The population in 1841 was 8,001.
The population of Caernarfon Community Parish in 2001 was 9,611. Caernarfon residents are known colloquially as "Cofis". The word "Cofi" /ˈkɒvi/ is also used locally in Caernarfon to describe the local Welsh dialect, notable for a number of words, not in use elsewhere.
Within Wales, Gwynedd has the highest proportion of speakers of the Welsh language. The greatest concentration of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd is found in and around Caernarfon.
According to the 2011 census, 85.8% of residents were born in Wales, one of the highest proportions in Gwynedd, and 77.0% reported a 'Welsh only' national identity.
The present castle building was constructed between 1283 and 1330 by the order of King Edward I. The banded stonework and polygonal towers are thought to have been in imitation of the Walls of Constantinople. The impressive curtain wall with nine towers and two gatehouses survive largely intact. Caernarfon Castle is now under the care of Cadw and is open to the public. The castle includes the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The medieval town walls, including eight towers and two twin-towered gateways, form a complete circuit of 800 yards (730 m) around the old town and were built between 1283 and 1285. The walls are in the care of Cadw but only a small section is accessible to the public. The town walls and castle at Caernarfon were declared part of a World Heritage Site in 1986. According to UNESCO, the castle and walls together with other royal castles in Gwynedd "are the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe".
Dedicated to Saint Peblig, the son of Saint Elen and Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus), the church is built on an important early Christian site, itself built on a Roman Mithraeum or temple of Mithras, close to the Segontium Roman Fort (200m away, in the care of Cadw). A Roman altar was found in one of the walls during 19th-century restoration work. The present church dates mainly from the 14th century and is a Grade I listed building.
The statue in Castle Square was sculpted by W. Goscombe John and was erected in 1921 when Lloyd George was Prime Minister. David Lloyd George was the Member of Parliament for the area from 1890 to 1945.
The Old Market Hall in Hole-in-the-Wall Street and Crown Street was built in 1832, but the interior and roof were rebuilt later in that century. It is a Grade II listed building. It now acts as a pub and music venue.
A small Victorian urban park, Morfa was laid out in 1888. It stands to the south of the town, bordered by the 'Ysbyty Eryri' hospital [see below] at its southern edge. It is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The old County Hall, which went on to become a courthouse, is situated inside the castle walls, next door to the Anglesey Arms Hotel. The old courthouse was built in the Neo-classical style. The courthouse was replaced by the new Caernarfon Criminal Justice Centre on the former Segontium School site in Llanberis Road in 2009. The old courthouse adjoins what used to be Caernarfon Gaol, which has been closed since the early 20th century and was subsequently converted into council offices.
There is a small hospital in the town, 'Ysbyty Eryri' (i.e. "Snowdonia Hospital"). The nearest large regional hospital is Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor.
Caernarfon Barracks was commissioned by John Lloyd, County Surveyor of Caernarfonshire, as a military headquarters and completed in 1855.
Caernarfon was at one time an important port, exporting slate from the Dyffryn Nantlle quarries. This traffic was facilitated from 1828 by the Nantlle Railway which predated far more widely known ventures such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway.
Five passenger stations have served the town. Caernarvon railway station opened in 1852 as the western terminus of the Bangor and Carnarvon Railway. This connected the town with the North Wales coast and the expanding national network. Carnarvon Castle railway station opened in 1856 as the northern passenger terminus of the 3ft 6in narrow gauge Nantlle Railway. This service ended in 1865 when the line being built from the south by the standard gauge Carnarvonshire Railway took over most of its trackbed. The Carnarvonshire Railway's temporary northern terminus was at Pant to the south of the town. Pant station opened in 1867. At the same time, the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway built its line from Llanberis to Caernarfon. Its temporary western terminus was called Carnarvon (Morfa). It opened in 1869 near the modern road bridges over the Afon Seiont. For a short period, therefore, Caernarfon had three terminating stations on its edges. Records are contradictory, but this ended in either 1870 or 1871 when they were connected by a line through the town using the tunnel which survives, having been converted in 1995 for road traffic. When the through route was opened Pant and Morfa stations closed and the original station became the town's only station. The London and North Western Railway also took over all the lines mentioned leaving one station and one service provider by 1871.
The services to Llanberis and south to Afon Wen closed progressively from the 1930s, with tracks being lifted in the mid-1960s, but Caernarvon station survived until 1970, with Bangor to Caernarvon one of the last passenger services to be closed under the Beeching Axe; it is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. In November 2020 the Welsh Government stated 'further consideration' should be given to reopening the line. The fifth station was opened in 1997 on the old trackbed in St. Helen's Road. It is the northern terminus of the 2ft narrow gauge Rheilffordd Eryri / Welsh Highland Railway. Work began on a permanent station for the town in February 2017. The new station opened to passengers in the Spring of 2019. Heritage steam services provide links to Porthmadog, where passengers can change for services on the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Bus services in the town are provided by Arriva Buses Wales, and a number of smaller, local operators. Longer distance, cross-country services are operated by Lloyds Coaches, and connect the town with Bangor to the north, and Aberystwyth via Porthmadog, Dolgellau and Machynlleth to the south. These services are part of the Welsh Government funded TrawsCymru network.
The A487 trunk road bisects the town, providing access to major urban areas along the North Wales coast and the Port of Holyhead, via the A55 expressway. Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon can be reached via the A4086, which heads east out of the town towards Capel Curig.
Heading north out of the town is the Lôn Las Menai cycle path to nearby Y Felinheli. Heading south out of the town is the Lôn Eifion cycle path, which leads to Bryncir, near Criccieth. The route provides views into the Snowdonia mountains, down along the Llŷn Peninsula and across to the Isle of Anglesey.
Caernarfon Airport is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the southwest, and offers pleasure flights and an aviation museum.
The Aber Swing Bridge is a pedestrian swing bridge that crosses over the Afon Seiont to connect pedestrians from the foreshore to the Watergate entrance in the centre of Caernarfon by the Caernarfon Castle.
There are four primary schools in Caernarfon, Ysgol yr Hendre being the largest. The others are Ysgol y Gelli, Ysgol Santes Helen and Ysgol Maesincla. Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is the single secondary school serving Caernarfon and the surrounding areas and currently has between 900 and 1000 pupils from ages 11 to 18. Ysgol Pendalar is a school for children with special needs. Coleg Menai is a further education college for adult learners.
Notable people
Lewis Jones, 1898
Saint Elen, late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales.
Edward II of England (1284–1327), King of England from 1307 to 1327.
Morris Williams (1809–1874), clergyman and writer, known by his bardic name Nicander
William Henry Preece (1834–1913), an electrical engineer and inventor.
Lewis Jones (1837-1904), one of the founders of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia.
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 to 1922.
Gwilym Edwards (1881–1963), Presbyterian minister, writer and academic
Lionel Rees (1884–1955), aviator, flying ace and recipient of the Victoria Cross
Maureen Peters (1935–2008), an historical novelist
Dafydd Wigley (born 1943), politician, MP for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001
Sian Eleri, BBC Radio 1 presenter
Sport
Bryan Orritt (1937–2014), a professional footballer with over 370 club caps
Barry Hughes (1937–2019), a professional footballer and manager, active primarily in the Netherlands
Wyn Davies (born 1942), a footballer with 611 club caps and 34 for Wales
Tom Walley (born 1945) footballer with over 410 club caps
Catrin Thomas (born 1964), ski mountaineer and mountain climber.
Waynne Phillips (born 1970), a professional footballer with over 470 club caps
Nathan Craig (born 1991), a professional footballer.
Osian Dwyfor Jones Wales Commonwealth Hammer Thrower
Caernarfon Town F.C. (Welsh: Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Caernarfon) is a Welsh football club based in the town, which currently plays in the Cymru Premier, the top level for football in Wales. The club is nicknamed "the Canaries" because of its yellow and green strip. Caernarfon Town plays at The Oval which has a capacity of 3000 people and 250 seated people.
Caernarfon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1862, 1894, 1906, 1921, 1935, 1959 and 1979. Unofficial National Eisteddfod events were also held there in 1877 and 1880. Caernarfon also hosted the 30th annual Celtic Media Festival in March 2009. Cultural destinations include Galeri and Oriel Pendeitsh. Galeri is a creative enterprise centre that houses a gallery, a concert hall, a cinema, a number of companies, and a range of other creative and cultural spaces. Oriel Pendeitsh is a ground-floor exhibition space adjoining the Tourist Information Centre opposite Caernarfon Castle. The gallery has a varied and changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year.
The Caernarfon Food Festival takes place in the town's streets including The Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and Castle Square (the Maes), which is pedestrianised for the event. Stalls are also located along the promenade next to the Menai Strait towards the marina and Doc Fictoria.
The festival was formed in 2015 as a result of public consultation within the town. The first festival was held in 2016. It is organised by the Caernarfon Food Festival Group which is made up of local volunteers who hold regular meetings to plan each festival. The festival has a number of support groups, including a content group, sponsorship group, technical group, communication group and volunteer group. These groups feed into the main group's monthly meetings. The festival logo was inspired by contributions from pupils at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen and designed by Iestyn Lloyd of Cwmni Da. The festival has been supported by Welsh Government through the Food Festival Grant Scheme and was highly commended by Food Awards Wales in 2019, Car parking is provided at the Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and at other car parks around the town while the Welsh Highland Railway provides transport from Porthmadog. Cycle access is by the cycle tracks along the disused railway lines which include Lôn Las Eifion, which runs from Porthmadog, by-passing Penygroes and on to Caernarfon, Lôn Las Menai from Y Felinheli to Caernarfon and Lôn Las Peris from Llanberis to Caernarfon.
Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.
Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.
The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).
The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.
In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.
Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.
The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.
The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.
A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.
The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.
There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.
The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.
Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.
The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.
Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.
The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.
Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.
It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.
The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.
The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.
Notable people
Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth
Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon
Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle
Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University
Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.
Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog
Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy
Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion
Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.
Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI
Photo Theo Kastner collection and kindly provided by him for inclusion on this page.
München-Riem
1981
D-CCDB
Dassault Falcon 20F-5
381
Daimler-Benz AG
D-CCDB is taxiing to Riem’s runway 25 for take-off.
Registered as D-CCDB for Daimler-Benz AG in May 1979, went on to Tuthill Corp. as N20TZ in August 1994. Later N20T, N85TZ, N602LP and N840DP.
Registration details for this airframe
rzjets.net/aircraft/?reg=187865
D-CCDB with Daimler-Benz at GRO in May 1993 (later colours):
www.flickr.com/photos/jordi757/3988608748
This airframe as N840DP at BWI in November 2009.
www.flickr.com/photos/bwi2muc/4113004723
Scan from Kodachrome slide.
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, north-west Wales cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service. It was a motte-and-bailey castle from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began to replace it with the current stone structure. The Edwardian town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales, and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon's Roman past, and the Roman fort of Segontium is nearby.
While the castle was under construction, town walls were built around Caernarfon. The work cost between £20,000 and £25,000 from the start until the work ended in 1330. Although the castle appears mostly complete from the outside, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The town and castle were sacked in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn led a rebellion against the English. Caernarfon was recaptured the following year. During the Glyndŵr Rising of 1400–1415, the castle was besieged. When the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne in 1485, tensions between the Welsh and English began to diminish and castles were considered less important. As a result, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Despite its dilapidated condition, during the English Civil War Caernarfon Castle was held by Royalists, and was besieged three times by Parliamentarian forces. This was the last time the castle was used in war. The castle was neglected until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. The castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and again in 1969. It is part of the World Heritage Site "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd".
The first fortifications at Caernarfon were built by the Romans. Their fort, which they named Segontium, is on the outskirts of the modern town. The fort sat near the bank of the River Seiont; the fort was probably built here due to the sheltered position and because it could be resupplied via the river Seiont. Caernarfon derives its name from the Roman fortifications. In Welsh, the place was called y gaer (lenition of caer) yn Arfon, meaning "the stronghold in the land over against Môn"; Môn is the Welsh name for Anglesey. Little is known about the fate of Segontium and its associated civilian settlement after the Romans departed from Britain in the early 5th century.
Following the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror turned his attention to Wales. According to the Domesday Survey of 1086, the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan was nominally in command of the whole of northern Wales. He was killed by the Welsh in 1088. His cousin Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, reasserted Norman control of north Wales by building three castles: one at an unknown location somewhere in Meirionnydd, one at Aberlleiniog on Anglesey, and another at Caernarfon. This early castle was built on a peninsula, bounded by the River Seiont and the Menai Strait; it would have been a motte and bailey, defended by a timber palisade and earthworks. The motte, or mound, was integrated into the later Edwardian castle, but the location of the original bailey is uncertain, although it may have been to the north-east of the motte. Excavations on top of the motte in 1969 revealed no traces of medieval occupation, suggesting any evidence had been removed. It is likely that the motte was surmounted by a wooden tower known as a keep. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115, and Caernarfon Castle came into the possession of the Welsh princes. From contemporary documents written at the castle, it is known that Llywelyn the Great and later Llywelyn ap Gruffudd occasionally stayed at Caernarfon.
War broke out again between England and Wales on 22 March 1282. The Welsh leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died later that year on 11 December. His brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd continued to fight against the English, but in 1283 Edward I was victorious. Edward marched through northern Wales, capturing castles such as that at Dolwyddelan, and establishing his own at Conwy. War finally drew to a close in May 1283 when Dolbadarn Castle, Dafydd ap Gruffudd's last castle, was captured. Shortly afterwards, Edward began building castles at Harlech and Caernarfon. The castles of Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech were the most impressive of their time in Wales, and their construction—along with other Edwardian castles in the country—helped establish English rule. The master mason responsible for the design and construction of the castle was probably James of Saint George, an experienced architect and military engineer who played an important role in building the Edwardian castles in Wales. According to the Flores Historiarum, during the construction of the castle and planned town, the body of the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus was discovered, and Edward I ordered its reburial in a local church.
The construction of the new stone castle was part of a programme of building which transformed Caernarfon; town walls were added, connected to the castle, and a new quay was built. The earliest reference to building at Caernarfon dates from 24 June 1283, when a ditch had been dug separating the site of the castle from the town to the north. A bretagium, a type of stockade, was created around the site to protect it while the permanent defences were under construction. Timber was shipped from as far away as Liverpool. Stone was quarried from nearby places, such as from Anglesey and around the town. A force of hundreds worked on the excavation of the moat and digging the foundations for the castle. As the site expanded, it began to encroach on the town; houses were cleared to allow the construction. Residents were not paid compensation until three years later. While the foundations for the stone walls were being created, timber-framed apartments were built for Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, his queen. They arrived at Caernarfon on either 11 or 12 July 1283 and stayed for over a month.
Construction at Caernarfon Castle continued over the winter of 1283–84. The extent of completion is uncertain, although architectural historian Arnold Taylor speculated that when Edward and Eleanor visited again in Easter 1284 the Eagle Tower may have been complete. The Statute of Rhuddlan, enacted on 3 March 1284, made Caernarfon a borough and the administrative centre of the county of Gwynedd.[Gwynedd was not a county.] According to tradition, Edward II was born at Caernarfon on 25 April 1284. Edward was created Prince of Wales in 1301, with control over Wales and its incomes. Since then the title has traditionally been held by the eldest son of the monarch. According to a famous legend, the king had promised the Welsh that he would name "a prince born in Wales, who did not speak a word of English" and then produced his infant son to their surprise; but the story may well be apocryphal, as it can only be traced to the 16th century. In 1284, Caernarfon was defended by a garrison of forty men, more than the thirty-strong garrisons at Conwy and Harlech. Even in peace time, when most castles would have a guard of only a few men, Caernarfon was defended by between twenty and forty people due to its importance.
By 1285, Caernarfon's town walls were mostly complete. At the same time work continued on the castle. Spending on construction was negligible from 1289 and accounts end in 1292. Edward I's campaign of castle-building in Wales cost £80,000 between 1277 and 1304, and £95,000 between 1277 and 1329; by 1292 £12,000 had been spent on the construction of Caernarfon's castle—of which the southern façade was furthest along—and town walls. As the southern wall and town walls completed a defensive circuit around Caernarfon, the plan was to build the castle's northern façade last.
In 1294, Wales broke out in rebellion led by Madog ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. As Caernarfon was the centre of administration in Gwynedd and a symbol of English power, it was targeted by the Welsh. Madog's forces captured the town in September, and in the process heavily damaged the town walls. The castle was defended by just a ditch and a temporary barricade. It was quickly taken and anything flammable was set alight. Fire raged across Caernarfon, leaving destruction in its wake. In the summer of 1295, the English moved to retake Caernarfon. By November the same year, the English began refortifying the town. Rebuilding the town walls was a high priority, and £1,195 (nearly half the sum initially spent on the walls) was spent on completing the job two months ahead of schedule. Attention then shifted to the castle and on finishing the work that had halted in 1292. Once the rebellion was put down, Edward began building Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey. The work was overseen by James of Saint George; as a result, Walter of Hereford took over as master mason for the new phase of construction. By the end of 1301, a further £4,500 had been spent on the work; the focus of the work was on the northern wall and towers. The accounts between November 1301 and September 1304 are missing, possibly because there was a hiatus in work while labour moved north to help out with England's war against Scotland. Records show that Walter of Hereford had left Caernarfon and was in Carlisle in October 1300; he remained occupied with the Scottish wars until the autumn of 1304 when building at Caernarfon resumed. Walter died in 1309 and his immediate subordinate, Henry of Ellerton, took over the position of master mason. Construction continued at a steady rate until 1330.
From 1284 to 1330, when accounts end, between £20,000 and £25,000 was spent on Caernarfon's castle and town walls. Such a sum was enormous and dwarfed the spending on castles such as Dover and Château Gaillard, which were amongst the most expensive and impressive fortifications of the later 12th and early 13th centuries. Subsequent additions to Caernarfon were not major, and what remains of the castle is substantially from the Edwardian period. Despite the expense, much of what was planned for the castle was never carried out. The rears of the King's Gate (the entrance from the town) and the Queen's Gate (the entrance from the south-east) were left unfinished, and foundations in the castle's interior mark where buildings would have stood had work continued.
For around two centuries after the conquest of Wales, the arrangements established by Edward I for the governance of the country remained in place. During this time the castle was constantly garrisoned, and Caernarfon was effectively the capital of north Wales.[30] There was a degree of discrimination, with the most important administrative jobs in Wales usually closed to Welsh people. Tension between the Welsh and their English conquerors spilled over at the start of the 15th century with the outbreak of the Glyndŵr Rising (1400–1415). During the revolt, Caernarfon was one of the targets of Owain Glyndŵr's army. The town and castle were besieged in 1401, and in November that year the Battle of Tuthill was fought nearby between Caernarfon's defenders and the besieging force. In 1403 and 1404, Caernarfon was besieged by Welsh troops with support from French forces;[30] the garrison at the time was around thirty. The accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne in 1485 heralded a change in the way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result, castles such as Caernarfon, which provided secure centres from which the country could be administered, became less important. They were neglected, and in 1538 it was reported that many castles in Wales were "moche ruynous and ferre in decaye for lakke of tymely reparations".
In Caernarfon's case the walls of the town and castle remained in good condition, while features which required maintenance—such as roofs—were in a state of decay and much timber was rotten. Conditions were so poor that of the castle's seven towers and two gatehouses, only the Eagle Tower and the King's Gate had roofs by 1620. The domestic buildings inside the castle had been stripped of anything valuable, such as glass and iron. Despite the disrepair of the domestic buildings, the castle's defences were in a good enough state that during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century it was garrisoned by Royalists. Caernarfon Castle was besieged three times during the war. The constable was John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, who surrendered Caernarfon to Parliamentarian forces in 1646. It was the last time Caernarfon Castle saw fighting. Although it was ordered in 1660 that the castle and town walls should be dismantled, the work was aborted early on and may never have started.
Despite avoiding slighting, the castle was neglected until the late 19th century. From the 1870s onwards, the government funded repairs to Caernarfon Castle. The deputy-constable Llewellyn Turner oversaw the work, in many cases controversially restoring and rebuilding the castle, rather than simply conserving the existing stonework. Steps, battlements, and roofs were repaired, and the moat to the north of the castle was cleared of post-medieval buildings that were considered to spoil the view, despite the protest of locals. Under the auspices of the Office of Works and its successors since 1908, the castle was preserved due to its historic significance. In 1911, Caernarfon was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales for the first time for Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), eldest son of the newly crowned King George V; the ceremony was held there at the insistence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, a Welshman raised in Caernarfonshire. In 1969, the precedent was repeated with the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales. Although Caernarfon Castle has been the property of the Crown since it was built, it is currently cared for by Cadw (English: to keep), the Welsh Government's historic environment division, responsible for the maintenance and care of Wales' historic buildings. In 1986, Caernarfon was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as part of the "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" in recognition of its global importance and to help conserve and protect the site. The castle houses the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum. During 2015 a new "entrance pavilion" was built, designed by architects Donald Insall Associates.
Caernarfon Castle is now a major tourist attraction, with over 205,000 people visiting the attraction in 2018.
Caernarfon is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the island of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) to the north-east, while Snowdonia (Eryri) fringes Caernarfon to the east and south-east.
Abundant natural resources in and around the Menai Strait enabled human habitation in prehistoric Britain. The Ordovices, a Celtic tribe, lived in the region during the period known as Roman Britain. The Roman fort Segontium was established around AD 80 to subjugate the Ordovices during the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans occupied the region until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 382, after which Caernarfon became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. In the late 11th century, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a motte-and-bailey castle at Caernarfon as part of the Norman invasion of Wales. He was unsuccessful, and Wales remained independent until around 1283.
In the 13th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd, refused to pay homage to Edward I of England, prompting the English conquest of Gwynedd. This was followed by the construction of Caernarfon Castle, one of the largest and most imposing fortifications built by the English in Wales. In 1284, the English-style county of Caernarfonshire was established by the Statute of Rhuddlan; the same year, Caernarfon was made a borough, a county and market town, and the seat of English government in north Wales.
The ascent of the House of Tudor to the throne of England eased hostilities with the English and resulted in Caernarfon Castle falling into a state of disrepair. The town has flourished,[when?] leading to its status as a major tourist centre and seat of Gwynedd Council, with a thriving harbour and marina. Caernarfon has expanded beyond its medieval walls and experienced heavy suburbanisation. The community of Caernarfon's population includes the highest percentage of Welsh-speaking citizens anywhere in Wales. The status of Royal Borough was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and amended to Royal Town in 1974. The castle and town walls are part of a World Heritage Site described as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
The town's name consists of three elements: caer , yn, and arfon. "Caer' means 'fortress", in this case either the Roman fort of Segontium, which lies on the outskirts of the modern town, or the Norman castle erected near the mouth of the Afon Seiont. "Arfon" means "opposite Môn (Anglesey)", and the full name therefore means "the fortress in the land opposite Anglesey".
The earlier British and Romano-British settlement at Segontium was named Cair Segeint ("Fort Seiont") after the river. It was also known as Cair Custoient ("Fortress of Constantine"), after a belief that it was the capital of Gwynedd under Constantine, a supposed son of Saint Elen and the Emperor Magnus Maximus. Both names appear in the Historia Brittonum traditionally ascribed to Nennius. A medieval romance about Maximus and Elen, Macsen's Dream, calls her home Caer Aber Sein ("Fort Seiontmouth" or "the fortress at the mouth of the Seiont") and other pre-conquest poets such as Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd used the name Caer Gystennin. A 1221 charter by Llywelyn the Great to the canons of Penmon priory on Anglesey mentions Kaerinarfon, and the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion mentions both Kaerenarvon and Caerenarvon.
The town and the county named after it were officially spelled "Carnarvon" until 1926. At a meeting on 10 November 1925 the borough council resolved to ask the county council to change the spelling to "Caernarvon". The county council gave permission for the change of spelling for the name of the borough with effect from 14 January 1926, and at the same time decided to ask the government to also change the spelling of the county's name to Caernarvon. The government confirmed the change in the spelling of the county's name with effect from 1 July 1926.
The municipal borough was designated a royal borough in 1963. When the borough was abolished in 1974 the status of "royal town" was granted to the new community which succeeded it. The spelling of both borough and county remained "Caernarvon" until they were abolished in 1974. The spelling of the community's name was changed from "Caernarvon" to "Caernarfon" with effect from 2 June 1975 by order of Arfon Borough Council.
Caernarfon contains a Roman fort, Segontium, and a Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built at the mouth of the River Seiont.
In 1283, King Edward I completed his conquest of Wales which he secured by a chain of castles and walled towns. The construction of a new stone Caernarfon Castle seems to have started as soon as the campaign had finished. Edward's architect, James of St. George, may well have modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople, possibly being aware of the town's legendary associations. Edward's fourth son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward II of England, was born at the castle in April 1284 and made Prince of Wales in 1301. A story recorded in the 16th century suggests that the new prince was offered to the native Welsh on the premise "that [he] was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", however, there is no contemporary evidence to support this.
Caernarfon was constituted a borough in 1284 by a charter of Edward I. The charter, which was confirmed on a number of occasions, appointed the mayor of the borough Constable of the Castle ex officio.
On 2 November 1401, 'Y Ddraig Aur' (The golden dragon) of Owain Glyndŵr was attested to have been flown during the Battle of Tuthill at Caernarfon, it is also likely that it was also flown throughout the Welsh independence campaign.
In 1911, David Lloyd George, then Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon boroughs, which included various towns from Llŷn to Conwy, agreed to the British Royal Family's idea of holding the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony took place on 13 July, with the royal family visiting Wales, and the future Edward VIII was duly invested.
In 1955, Caernarfon was in the running for the title of Capital of Wales on historical grounds but the town's campaign was heavily defeated in a ballot of Welsh local authorities, with 11 votes compared to Cardiff's 136. Cardiff therefore became the Welsh capital.
On 1 July 1969, the investiture ceremony for Charles, Prince of Wales was again held at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony went ahead without incident despite terrorist threats and protests, which culminated in the death of two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, who were killed when their bomb – intended for the railway line at Abergele in order to stop the British Royal Train – exploded prematurely. The bombing campaign (one in Abergele, two in Caernarfon and finally one on Llandudno Pier) was organised by the movement's leader, John Jenkins. He was later arrested after a tip-off and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
In July 2019, Caernarfon hosted a rally for Welsh independence. The event, organised by AUOB (All Under One Banner) Cymru, included a march through the town centre. Organisers estimated that roughly 8,000 people joined the march on the town square; local authorities confirmed at least 5,000 attendees. The event featured a number of speakers including Hardeep Singh Kohli, Evra Rose, Dafydd Iwan, Lleuwen Steffan, Siôn Jobbins, Beth Angell, Gwion Hallam, Meleri Davies and Elfed Wyn Jones. Talks covered criticism of Brexit and Westminster with advocating Welsh Independence.
The history of Caernarfon, as an example where the rise and fall of different civilizations can be seen from one hilltop, is discussed in John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent. He writes of Caernarfon:
Spread out below us in an unexpected glory of sunlight was the whole recorded history of that little corner of the world. The ground beneath us still rippled with earthworks from the Celtic hill fort that guarded the Menai Strait more than two and a half millennia ago. The Roman fort that replaced it was now the dim brown mark of an old archaeological site on low hills off to the left. Edward I’s great grey castle rose up in the middle foreground, and the high contrails of RAF jets on a training exercise out over the Irish Sea showed that the town’s current overlords still maintained the old watch. Houses and shops from more than half a dozen centuries spread eastward as they rose through the waters of time, from the cramped medieval buildings of the old castle town straight ahead to the gaudy sign and sprawling parking lot of the supermarket back behind us.
Caernarfon is situated on the southern bank of the Menai Strait facing the Isle of Anglesey. It is situated 8.6 miles (13.8 km) south-west of Bangor, 19.4 miles (31.2 km) north of Porthmadog and approximately 8.0 miles (12.9 km) west of Llanberis and Snowdonia National Park. The mouth of the River Seiont is in the town, creating a natural harbour where it flows into the Menai Strait. Caernarfon Castle stands at the mouth of the river. The A487 passes directly through Caernarfon, with Bangor to the north and Porthmadog to the south.
As the crow flies, the summit of Snowdon lies a little over 9.6 miles (15.4 km) to the southeast of the town centre.
Caernarfon's historical prominence and landmarks have made it a major tourist centre. As a result, many of the local businesses cater for the tourist trade. Caernarfon has numerous guest houses, inns and pubs, hotels, restaurants and shops. The majority of shops in the town are located either in the centre of town around Pool Street and Castle Square (Y Maes), on Doc Fictoria (Victoria Dock) or in Cei Llechi (Slate Quay). A number of shops are also located within the Town Walls.
The majority of the retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria was opened in 2008. The retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria is built directly beside a Blue Flag beach marina. It contains numerous homes, bars and bistros, cafés and restaurants, an award-winning arts centre, a maritime museum and a range of shops and stores.
Pool Street and Castle Square contain a number of large, national retail shops and smaller independent stores. Pool Street is pedestrianised and serves as the town's main shopping street. Castle Square, commonly referred to as the 'Maes' by both Welsh and English speakers, is the market square of the town. A market is held every Saturday throughout the year and also on Mondays in the summer. The square was revamped at a cost of £2.4 million in 2009. However, since its revamp the square has caused controversy due to traffic and parking difficulties. During the revamp, it was decided to remove barriers between traffic and pedestrians creating a 'shared space', to force drivers to be more considerate of pedestrians and other vehicles. This is the first use of this kind of arrangement in Wales, but it has been described by councillor Bob Anderson as being 'too ambiguous' for road users. Another controversy caused by the revamp of the Maes was that a historic old oak tree was taken down from outside the HSBC bank. When the Maes was re-opened in July 2009 by the local politician and Heritage Minister of Wales, Alun Ffred Jones AM, he said, "the use of beautiful local slate is very prominent in the new Maes."
There are many old public houses serving the town, including The Four Alls, The Anglesey Arms Hotel, The Castle Hotel, The Crown, Morgan Lloyd, Pen Deitch and The Twthill Vaults. The oldest public house in Caernarfon is the Black Boy Inn, which remained in the same family for over 40 years until sold in 2003 to a local independent family business. The pub has stood inside Caernarfon's Town Walls since the 16th century, and many people claim to have seen ghosts within the building.
In and around the Town Walls are numerous restaurants, public houses and inns, and guest houses and hostels.
Gwynedd Council's head offices are situated in the town. The Caernarfon parliamentary constituency was a former electoral area centred on Caernarfon. Caernarfon is now part of the Arfon constituency for both the UK Parliament and the Senedd. The town is twinned with Landerneau in Brittany. Caernarfon was the county town of the historic county of Caernarfonshire.
At the local level, Caernarfon Royal Town Council consists of 17 town councillors, elected from the wards of Cadnant (3), Canol Tref Caernarfon (3), Hendre (3), Menai (4) and Peblig (4). The current Mayor is Councillor Maria Veronica Sarnacki.
The population in 1841 was 8,001.
The population of Caernarfon Community Parish in 2001 was 9,611. Caernarfon residents are known colloquially as "Cofis". The word "Cofi" /ˈkɒvi/ is also used locally in Caernarfon to describe the local Welsh dialect, notable for a number of words, not in use elsewhere.
Within Wales, Gwynedd has the highest proportion of speakers of the Welsh language. The greatest concentration of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd is found in and around Caernarfon.
According to the 2011 census, 85.8% of residents were born in Wales, one of the highest proportions in Gwynedd, and 77.0% reported a 'Welsh only' national identity.
The present castle building was constructed between 1283 and 1330 by the order of King Edward I. The banded stonework and polygonal towers are thought to have been in imitation of the Walls of Constantinople. The impressive curtain wall with nine towers and two gatehouses survive largely intact. Caernarfon Castle is now under the care of Cadw and is open to the public. The castle includes the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The medieval town walls, including eight towers and two twin-towered gateways, form a complete circuit of 800 yards (730 m) around the old town and were built between 1283 and 1285. The walls are in the care of Cadw but only a small section is accessible to the public. The town walls and castle at Caernarfon were declared part of a World Heritage Site in 1986. According to UNESCO, the castle and walls together with other royal castles in Gwynedd "are the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe".
Dedicated to Saint Peblig, the son of Saint Elen and Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus), the church is built on an important early Christian site, itself built on a Roman Mithraeum or temple of Mithras, close to the Segontium Roman Fort (200m away, in the care of Cadw). A Roman altar was found in one of the walls during 19th-century restoration work. The present church dates mainly from the 14th century and is a Grade I listed building.
The statue in Castle Square was sculpted by W. Goscombe John and was erected in 1921 when Lloyd George was Prime Minister. David Lloyd George was the Member of Parliament for the area from 1890 to 1945.
The Old Market Hall in Hole-in-the-Wall Street and Crown Street was built in 1832, but the interior and roof were rebuilt later in that century. It is a Grade II listed building. It now acts as a pub and music venue.
A small Victorian urban park, Morfa was laid out in 1888. It stands to the south of the town, bordered by the 'Ysbyty Eryri' hospital [see below] at its southern edge. It is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The old County Hall, which went on to become a courthouse, is situated inside the castle walls, next door to the Anglesey Arms Hotel. The old courthouse was built in the Neo-classical style. The courthouse was replaced by the new Caernarfon Criminal Justice Centre on the former Segontium School site in Llanberis Road in 2009. The old courthouse adjoins what used to be Caernarfon Gaol, which has been closed since the early 20th century and was subsequently converted into council offices.
There is a small hospital in the town, 'Ysbyty Eryri' (i.e. "Snowdonia Hospital"). The nearest large regional hospital is Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor.
Caernarfon Barracks was commissioned by John Lloyd, County Surveyor of Caernarfonshire, as a military headquarters and completed in 1855.
Caernarfon was at one time an important port, exporting slate from the Dyffryn Nantlle quarries. This traffic was facilitated from 1828 by the Nantlle Railway which predated far more widely known ventures such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway.
Five passenger stations have served the town. Caernarvon railway station opened in 1852 as the western terminus of the Bangor and Carnarvon Railway. This connected the town with the North Wales coast and the expanding national network. Carnarvon Castle railway station opened in 1856 as the northern passenger terminus of the 3ft 6in narrow gauge Nantlle Railway. This service ended in 1865 when the line being built from the south by the standard gauge Carnarvonshire Railway took over most of its trackbed. The Carnarvonshire Railway's temporary northern terminus was at Pant to the south of the town. Pant station opened in 1867. At the same time, the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway built its line from Llanberis to Caernarfon. Its temporary western terminus was called Carnarvon (Morfa). It opened in 1869 near the modern road bridges over the Afon Seiont. For a short period, therefore, Caernarfon had three terminating stations on its edges. Records are contradictory, but this ended in either 1870 or 1871 when they were connected by a line through the town using the tunnel which survives, having been converted in 1995 for road traffic. When the through route was opened Pant and Morfa stations closed and the original station became the town's only station. The London and North Western Railway also took over all the lines mentioned leaving one station and one service provider by 1871.
The services to Llanberis and south to Afon Wen closed progressively from the 1930s, with tracks being lifted in the mid-1960s, but Caernarvon station survived until 1970, with Bangor to Caernarvon one of the last passenger services to be closed under the Beeching Axe; it is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. In November 2020 the Welsh Government stated 'further consideration' should be given to reopening the line. The fifth station was opened in 1997 on the old trackbed in St. Helen's Road. It is the northern terminus of the 2ft narrow gauge Rheilffordd Eryri / Welsh Highland Railway. Work began on a permanent station for the town in February 2017. The new station opened to passengers in the Spring of 2019. Heritage steam services provide links to Porthmadog, where passengers can change for services on the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Bus services in the town are provided by Arriva Buses Wales, and a number of smaller, local operators. Longer distance, cross-country services are operated by Lloyds Coaches, and connect the town with Bangor to the north, and Aberystwyth via Porthmadog, Dolgellau and Machynlleth to the south. These services are part of the Welsh Government funded TrawsCymru network.
The A487 trunk road bisects the town, providing access to major urban areas along the North Wales coast and the Port of Holyhead, via the A55 expressway. Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon can be reached via the A4086, which heads east out of the town towards Capel Curig.
Heading north out of the town is the Lôn Las Menai cycle path to nearby Y Felinheli. Heading south out of the town is the Lôn Eifion cycle path, which leads to Bryncir, near Criccieth. The route provides views into the Snowdonia mountains, down along the Llŷn Peninsula and across to the Isle of Anglesey.
Caernarfon Airport is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the southwest, and offers pleasure flights and an aviation museum.
The Aber Swing Bridge is a pedestrian swing bridge that crosses over the Afon Seiont to connect pedestrians from the foreshore to the Watergate entrance in the centre of Caernarfon by the Caernarfon Castle.
There are four primary schools in Caernarfon, Ysgol yr Hendre being the largest. The others are Ysgol y Gelli, Ysgol Santes Helen and Ysgol Maesincla. Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is the single secondary school serving Caernarfon and the surrounding areas and currently has between 900 and 1000 pupils from ages 11 to 18. Ysgol Pendalar is a school for children with special needs. Coleg Menai is a further education college for adult learners.
Notable people
Lewis Jones, 1898
Saint Elen, late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales.
Edward II of England (1284–1327), King of England from 1307 to 1327.
Morris Williams (1809–1874), clergyman and writer, known by his bardic name Nicander
William Henry Preece (1834–1913), an electrical engineer and inventor.
Lewis Jones (1837-1904), one of the founders of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia.
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 to 1922.
Gwilym Edwards (1881–1963), Presbyterian minister, writer and academic
Lionel Rees (1884–1955), aviator, flying ace and recipient of the Victoria Cross
Maureen Peters (1935–2008), an historical novelist
Dafydd Wigley (born 1943), politician, MP for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001
Sian Eleri, BBC Radio 1 presenter
Sport
Bryan Orritt (1937–2014), a professional footballer with over 370 club caps
Barry Hughes (1937–2019), a professional footballer and manager, active primarily in the Netherlands
Wyn Davies (born 1942), a footballer with 611 club caps and 34 for Wales
Tom Walley (born 1945) footballer with over 410 club caps
Catrin Thomas (born 1964), ski mountaineer and mountain climber.
Waynne Phillips (born 1970), a professional footballer with over 470 club caps
Nathan Craig (born 1991), a professional footballer.
Osian Dwyfor Jones Wales Commonwealth Hammer Thrower
Caernarfon Town F.C. (Welsh: Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Caernarfon) is a Welsh football club based in the town, which currently plays in the Cymru Premier, the top level for football in Wales. The club is nicknamed "the Canaries" because of its yellow and green strip. Caernarfon Town plays at The Oval which has a capacity of 3000 people and 250 seated people.
Caernarfon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1862, 1894, 1906, 1921, 1935, 1959 and 1979. Unofficial National Eisteddfod events were also held there in 1877 and 1880. Caernarfon also hosted the 30th annual Celtic Media Festival in March 2009. Cultural destinations include Galeri and Oriel Pendeitsh. Galeri is a creative enterprise centre that houses a gallery, a concert hall, a cinema, a number of companies, and a range of other creative and cultural spaces. Oriel Pendeitsh is a ground-floor exhibition space adjoining the Tourist Information Centre opposite Caernarfon Castle. The gallery has a varied and changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year.
The Caernarfon Food Festival takes place in the town's streets including The Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and Castle Square (the Maes), which is pedestrianised for the event. Stalls are also located along the promenade next to the Menai Strait towards the marina and Doc Fictoria.
The festival was formed in 2015 as a result of public consultation within the town. The first festival was held in 2016. It is organised by the Caernarfon Food Festival Group which is made up of local volunteers who hold regular meetings to plan each festival. The festival has a number of support groups, including a content group, sponsorship group, technical group, communication group and volunteer group. These groups feed into the main group's monthly meetings. The festival logo was inspired by contributions from pupils at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen and designed by Iestyn Lloyd of Cwmni Da. The festival has been supported by Welsh Government through the Food Festival Grant Scheme and was highly commended by Food Awards Wales in 2019, Car parking is provided at the Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and at other car parks around the town while the Welsh Highland Railway provides transport from Porthmadog. Cycle access is by the cycle tracks along the disused railway lines which include Lôn Las Eifion, which runs from Porthmadog, by-passing Penygroes and on to Caernarfon, Lôn Las Menai from Y Felinheli to Caernarfon and Lôn Las Peris from Llanberis to Caernarfon.
Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.
Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.
The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).
The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.
In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.
Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.
The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.
The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.
A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.
The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.
There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.
The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.
Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.
The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.
Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.
The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.
Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.
It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.
The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.
The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.
Notable people
Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth
Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon
Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle
Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University
Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.
Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd
John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog
Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog
David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy
Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd
Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion
Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.
Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI
One of the many reasons we packed up and moved camp.
We planned on spending the weekend at the Fort Tuthill Luke AFB Recreation Area.
It's a campground that is ran by the Air Force, open to active duty personnel, retired personnel, and disabled veterans (30% or more). Really nice place up in the woods, quiet and secure. At least we thought so when we booked.
Come to find out there was a 3 day Electronic Music Festival at the Pepsi Amphitheater (next to the campground) the same weekend we decide to stay. Had it been an evening concert we probably would have stayed but 3 days of EDM combined with the "people" that were attending the festival was a bit too much.
If you're a seasoned citizen like myself you'll probably understand the following, if you're not just ask your favorite "boomer" what I'm talking about. Imagine spending 3 days amongst a modern version of the "Deadheads"....Not at all what we planned on so we wound up pulling out after the first night.
We'll be back there next year but you can rest assured that we'll be checking the amphitheater schedule before we book again.
forttuthill.com/happenings-at-the-fort/
Wish I could have got a better shot of the dog working the cars but sometimes we only get what we get.
We were booked for 3 days but only stayed for one. Why you ask????
We left Payson and headed to our final (we thought) destination, the Fort Tuthill Luke AFB Recreation Area.
It's a campground that is ran by the Air Force, open to active duty personnel, retired personnel, and disabled veterans (30% or more). Really nice place up in the woods, quiet and secure. At least we thought so when we booked.
Come to find out there was a 3 day Electronic Music Festival at the Pepsi Amphitheater (next to the campground) the same weekend we decide to stay. Had it been an evening concert we probably would have stayed but 3 days of EDM combined with the "people" that were attending the festival was a bit too much.
If you're a seasoned citizen like myself you'll probably understand the following, if you're not just ask your favorite "boomer" what I'm talking about. Imagine spending 3 days amongst a modern version of the "Deadheads"....Not at all what we planned on so we wound up pulling out after the first night.
We'll be back there next year but you can rest assured that we'll be checking the amphitheater schedule before we book again.
A Deadhead or Dead head is a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead. This is the modern day version.
If you're curious here's an interesting Wikipedia entry on the whole phenomenon:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadhead
Part of the reason we left our tranqul settting at Fort Tuthill and moved to a better place. There was a huge cloud of "Smoke" that wafted it's way over the dividing line (fence) and invaded our space. Smelled like someone was burning a hippie!
BTW, please don't zoom in to the lady on the left and her legs. I'm not sure that even a medical professional could explain it!
Said to have been erected in 1649 by John Budd, who later gave it to his daughter as a wedding present, this house is notable as one of the most distinguished surviving examples of English domestic architecture in America, according to the home’s application in the National Register of Historic Places.
The house was then moved from its original location and re-erected at a cost of twenty pounds "Boston Money," according to the application. “At the time of the move, the Old House was relocated on the northern outskirts of the Broadfields, a 240 acre tract of arable land which the local Indians had been cultivating for years. To the north of the house ran the King's Highway, now State Route 25."
The house was restored in 1940.
According to a 2018 Suffolk Times article, tests of the wood from the home revealed that it might have been constructed closer to 1699, 50 years after it was originally thought to have been built.
www.longisland.com/news/10-29-20/history-photos-of-old-ho...
This house, which notably commemorates English settlement on Long Island, is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished but least known examples of English domestic architecture in the United States. It was erected in 1649 by John Budd at Southold, some 10 miles northeast of its present site. A decade later, Budd built a more imposing home and gave his original house as a wedding gift to his daughter, Anna, bride of Benjamin Horton, who moved it to its present location and re-erected it. It subsequently passed into the hands of Joseph Wickham, a master tanner, who lived in it until his death, in 1734. Later, in 1784, it was confiscated from Parker Wickham, who had been a Loyalist during the War for Independence, after which its owners in turn were Jared Landon and William Harrison Case. The Case heirs donated it to the Congregational Society of Cutchogue.
Present Appearance. The house has two floors and an attic. On the first floor are the kitchen and "hall," and on the second floor are two bedrooms. The great brick chimney, whose top is pilastered, lies to the left of the center of the house. A steep winding stair leads to the second story. The stair from the second floor branches to give access to the attic, which is split in two by the great chimney.
The kitchen, on the left of the entrance, features a huge fireplace. The fireplace in the "hall," on the right of the entrance, is the same size. Both fireplaces have been somewhat reduced by the construction of smaller fireplaces inside the originals. The smaller fireplaces were added around the middle of the 18th century, probably when paneling was placed over the original walls.
The original random-width wallboards were removed and used on the exterior to replace the original hand-rived oak boards. The exterior was then lathed and plastered. Construction details throughout the house are unusually fine and reflect the work of a master builder. The three-part casement window frames on the north wall of the second floor are especially notable. Traces have also been found of the casement windows that were originally on the first floor.
The house was restored in 1940 in connection with the Southampton Old Town Tercentenary Celebration, through the efforts of the Tercentenary Committee, the Case family, and the Independent Congregational Church of Cutchogue. The church purchased the land and the Case family donated the building. Church funds and private contributions made the restoration possible. When the house was restored, the plastered walls and a saltbox roof were removed. The gunstock posts on the second floor and all interior framework were left exposed. Furnishings are of the 17th and 18th century. Among the historic items displayed is the original confiscation deed of 1784. The structure is in very good condition and is open to visitors on a regular schedule. [54]
www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/explorers/sitec46.htm
According to the results of a 2003 dendrochronology study, the house was built ca. 1699.[4] Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council, the owner of the house, commissioned a second dendrochronology study in July 2017 to verify the build date, with the same results.[5][6]
Prior to 2017 The Old House was thought to have been built by John Budd on land east of town near a pond that became known as Budd Pond. John Budd's daughter Anna and her husband Benjamin Horton were deeded a house in 1658 as a wedding present. They moved it to a location in the village of Cutchogue. Benjamin's brother John inherited the house and sold it to Joseph Wickham in 1699. These events and transactions are well documented.[7]
Post 17th century
Edit
Parker Wickham (February 28, 1727 – May 22, 1785), famous for being a Loyalist politician during the American Revolution and who was banished from the state of New York under dubious circumstances, owned and lived in the house.[3] It was damaged by the Hurricane of 1938 which swept away surrounding trees, leaving it visible from the street and coming to public attention,[6] restored in 1940, and restored again in 1968.[3]
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.[2] The house is located on the Cutchogue Village Green, along with the 1840 Old Schoolhouse, the 1704 Wickham Farmhouse, a barn, the Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library, a 19th-century carriage house, and the Old Burying Ground dating from 1717. The buildings are owned and maintained by the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council, which gives guided tours in the summer.
"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b c "The Old House (Cutchogue)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 18, 2007. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Greenwood, Richard (July 14, 1975). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: The Old House (pdf). National Park Service. and Accompanying 5 photos, exterior, from 1975. (1.53 MB)
^ "New York". Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
^ Wick, Steve (April 12, 2018). "North Fork History Project: When was Cutchogue's Old House built?". The Suffolk Times. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
^ Jump up to: a b Siford, Rachel (June 22, 2017). "Cutchogue's Old House losing distinction as oldest English-style home in NYS". The Suffolk Times. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
^ Hall, Warren (1975). Pagans, Puritans, and Patriots of Yesterday’s Southold. Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council. ASIN B0006CJTLS.
I am writing, not to argue “who came first” to Southold and Southampton, as debated in your article “So, who was really here first?” (Feb. 22), but to challenge the new assumption about Cutchogue’s venerable Old House, a National Historic Landmark, made by Zach Studenroth, director of the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council, who was featured in the article. Although I disagree with the current “reinterpreting” he is directing at the Old House that involves replacing longtime antique furnishings from local families with reproductions, I disagree even more strongly with the proposed renaming and redating of this National Historic Landmark based on inconclusive evidence from dendrochronology studies.
He now maintains, based on a dendrochronology study, that the Old House was not built in 1649 by John Budd, but in 1699 by Joseph Wickham when he came to Cutchogue 50 years later from Southampton. Mr. Studenroth and the recently hired curator now propose the landmark be renamed and redated the “1699 Joseph Wickham House.” Nor do I agree that some early local history was “little more than cheerleading” as stated in The Suffolk Times’ North Fork History Project article.
Mr. Studenroth’s assumption based wholly on dendrochronology is faulty. I believe the local historians, who have written that the Old House, built ca. 1649 in Southold by first settler John Budd, moved to its present site on the Cutchogue Village Green by Benjamin and Anna Budd Horton in 1660, and restored for the tercentenary celebration of Southold Town in 1940, are basically correct.
Although I’ve worked with Mr. Studenroth and respect his past work for the council, I believe strongly that he is incorrect in his new assumption about the Old House. How can he totally ignore the 50 years of documented residence of the Budds and Hortons, who lived there from 1649 to 1699, and just sweep them under the proverbial rug?
I have re-researched several local documents and histories, especially the transcription of the deed of sale of the property from John Horton (Benjamin’s brother and heir) to Joseph Wickham (1698-’99); “John Budd and Some of His Descendents,” by Lily Wright Budd; and “Pagans, Puritans, and Patriots of Yesterday’s Southold,” by Warren Hall. Both of the latter books by respected historians confirm the long-accepted history and dates of the Old House. I firmly believe the Old House was not built and first occupied by Joseph Wickham when he came to Cutchogue from Southampton in 1699.
Regrettably, Mr. Studenroth is basing his new assumption on a dendrochronology study, first conducted in 2007 when I was chair of the Old House Society, before we merged with the Historical Council. I basically ignored the study for reasons I’ll explain later. A more recent study supposedly was done under Mr. Studenroth’s direction.
Dendrochronology in its simplest form is a matter of counting tree rings — one ring, one year — on wood slivers or borings from timbers used in Colonial house framing. But it’s not always that simple. In fact, Dr. Ron Towner, associate professor of dendrochronology at the world-famous Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, states “Only about 40 percent of tree samples are successfully dated by dendrochronology. Natural variations, sudden climate changes, or if a tree is planted near a creek or river, for example, it may get so much water that the rings no longer equate to each year elapsed.”
However, in a recent phone conversation with Dr. Towner, he explained that counting rings alone does not tell dendrochronologists what time period the tree is from. To find that out, scientists must focus on the pattern of rings rather than the number of them. I can’t see how a small boring can show a pattern, but a slice of the tree could. The slice would have to have been taken before the timber was installed in the building.
Also, in the case of the Old House, there is some speculation that it was built on John Budd’s land near Budd’s Pond in Hashamomuck, where much of the land is near water and marshes, not on his home lot in the village of Southold. If so, the timbers may have gotten so much water that the rings no longer equated to each year elapsed, as Dr. Towner speculated.
The Old House, venerated by not only the residents of Cutchogue in particular but the North Fork in general, as well as by visitors and historians from all over the world, must not be incorrectly re-interpreted and re-named based on inconclusive, most likely incorrect, research.
Since there is no definite proof for changing the name and date of the Old House, they must not be tampered with. It should keep the honor and distinction of “the oldest English house in the state” built in 1649. I am confident that the trustees of the Historical Council will understand and appreciate my research and will direct Mr. Studenroth not to change the date and name of the Old House, our National Historic
suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2018/03/equal-time-theres-mo...
In May 1637, a ship called the “Hector” sailed out of London, bound for Boston in England’s newly established American colonies. Aboard this ship was a wealthy British shipping merchant, John Budd, his wife Katherine Browne (1606 – 1674, a woman possibly of royal ancestry), and their children. Together, they were among my earliest ancestors to sail to America.
In August 1637, an exploring party of English settlers sailed out of Boston Harbor, went down the coast several miles, and landed at a place that the Native Americans called “Quinnipiac” (or “Long Water Place”). The explorers liked what they saw and left seven of their men to prepare the area for occupation by Puritan colonizers. On March 30, 1638, a large company of settlers sailed out of Boston for the new site. Among them were the Budds. On April 16, 1638, they landed at the new site to found New Haven Colony. Other ships followed, bringing more settlers. The settlers quickly began their new colony. In late 1638, they purchased the land from the area’s Native Americans. John Budd was assigned lot no. 56. On October 25, 1639, the settlers elected their community government. John Budd was among the men signing a Fundamentalist Agreement formally establishing New Haven Colony.
Most of the first settlers at New Haven were Puritans — a strict religious group that later formed the basis for the Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) in the United States. John Budd, however, was a member of the Church of England, which became the Episcopal Church in America. Because he was not Puritan, Budd lived in some tension with his neighbors. At one point, he was fined by the New Haven magistrates for hiding and protecting Quakers, a Christian group that the Puritans opposed and were trying to keep out of New Haven. In September 1640, John Budd left New Haven with his and some other New Haven families on a ship bound for the northeastern edge of Long Island to establish a settlement there, which they named Southold. Once again, Budd was an Anglican adherent amid Puritans set on establishing a new community structured around their specific religious and moral beliefs. Most of the other Southold founders had originally sailed under the leadership of the Puritan cleric Christopher Youngs, first from England to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1637 and then from Salem to New Haven. In New
Haven, Puritan leaders intent on establishing new religious communities in New England persuaded Rev. Youngs to sail across Long Island Sound with his followers to settle land on the island’s North Fork that they had acquired from the island’s Corchaug natives.
John Budd, who was beyond doubt the wealthiest man in the new settlement, quickly established himself as one of the leaders of the new community. Because Southold was included in the United Colonies of New England, its residents were expected to select Deputies to attend the colonies’ General Court in Hartford, Connecticut. Budd was the first deputy appointed to the court by the people of Southold. Budd was also the town’s first authorized officer to train the local home guard, a responsibility which earned him the title of Lieutenant. Budd was apparently so highly respected and successful in this responsibility that, when he made a trip overseas in 1654, colonial records in New Haven recorded that “By reason of Budd’s absence Southold is left destitute of a fitt man to exercise the military company there since Lt. Budd went to England.”
In 1649, Budd built his family a home east of town near a pond which became known as Budd’s Pond. In 1658, he deeded the house to his daughter and son-in-law, Anna and Benjamin Horton, as a wedding gift. They moved the house 10 miles away to the village of Cutchogue.
By some point in the early 1660s, either Budd or his son, John Budd, Jr., had bought a plot of land just west of the Barnabas Horton home plot in Southold as a new home site. The Southold Historical Society’s manual, Guide to Historic Markers, described this house as “probably the most pretentious of the early settler homes.”
Despite his civic leadership, Budd’s tenure in Southold apparently was one of controversy as well. He was a major landholder in Southold. As such, he was legally accountable to the local general court (composed solely of church members) who were required to review and approve or deny any settler’s request to sell his home or land. Budd clearly possessed a strong independent spirit, and in 1657 he sold some of his land without asking “permission.” As a result, he was sued by three other Southold settlers; the final disposition of this case is not clear.
Budd clearly grew restless during his tenure at Southold. As in New Haven, Southold’s general court governed the town in accord with strict Puritan standards, and Budd was still an Anglican. He apparently explored the predominantly Anglican settlements in Virginia, but decided against settling there. Budd’s true desire seems to have been, in essence, to establish his own colony, where he would have been answerable to no one, and he was willing to use his wealth to create this personal domain. In 1661, he decided to leave Long Island and move to an area that was at the time on the very southwestern edge of the Connecticut Colony.
In January 1660, three residents of Greenwich, Connecticut — Peter Disbrow, John Coe, and Thomas Stedwell — negotiated and purchased from the area’s Mohegan natives a tract of land southwest of Greenwich known as Peningo Neck. The land stretched on the west from a stream known as Blind Brook east to Long Island Sound. The sale apparently did not include Manussing Island in the Sound, just off the shore, so in June 1660, the three men purchased this land as well. In May 1661, they purchased additional land on the north edge of Peningo Neck.
Disbrow and the others in his party were more interested in securing title to land than in settling it immediately. This created an opportunity for someone else to take the lead in establishing a new community, and as a
A abandoned centuries-old house found in the woods near Cutchogue in the early 1900s was long thought to be the house built by John Budd and given to his daughter and son-in-law. Known as “The Old House,” it was was listed on the Register of National Historic Sites in 1962 and is still maintained by the Cutchogue -New Suffolk Historical Council. However, two dendrochronology studies done on the house in 2008 and 2017 each confirmed that it was built from trees felled in 1698 and could not possibly have been built until 1699, when Budd’s house and the land it stood on had long passed out of Budd and Horton family ownership.
successful and wealthy businessman, John Budd was quick to take advantage of the opportunity. On November 8, 1661, Budd concluded his separate negotiation with a Mohegan chief to buy a large (4,800-acre) piece of land immediately across Blind Brook from the Disbrow company’s landholdings. This land became known as Budd’s Neck. On November 12, 1661, Budd added to his landholdings by purchasing from the area’s natives some islands in the immediate vicinity. In June 1662, Budd then acted with Disbrow, Coe, and Stedwell jointly to purchase yet more land directly north of Budd’s Neck.
One of the first buildings constructed in this new community was Budd’s Mill, at the mouth of Blind Brook. He operated the grist mill, which proved to be very successful with the new inhabitants of Peningo Neck.
Disbrow selected the name of Hastings for his new holdings. He apparently also considered Budd’s lands to be part of the new Hastings town, whose settlement he intended to oversee. Budd obviously had other ideas. He was determined that his personal landholdings would be a separately governed jurisdiction. By the fall of 1664, he had assigned to his lands the name of Rye, perhaps because of his family’s close connections with the town of Rye in his native England. Disbrow regarded this behavior as a threat to the future of “his” colony. For the next several years, Budd and Disbrow battled in court over whose approach was to predominate. In the course of that legal action, it was agreed that the name Rye would be assigned to the entire Peningo Neck settlement area. The more substantial issues, however, were still unresolved in 1669, when John Budd turned over his landholdings in both Southold and Rye to his son, John Budd, Jr., and retired from public life.
Despite his contentiousness with Disbrow and resulting legal conflicts, Budd quickly established himself as a political leader across the entire Hastings/Rye area (again, much as he
had in Southold). Biographer Lily Wright Budd describes his responsibilities:
... John Budd was elected as the first representative when Hastings [formally] submitted to the jurisdiction of Connecticut on 26 January 1662 and he was elected as Hastings’ first Deputy to the General Court in Hartford on 26 March 1663.... At the session of the General Court in Hartford on the 8th of October 1663, “Lnt John Bud” makes his appearance, and “is appointed Commisioner for the Town of Hastings, and is invested with Magistraticall power within the limits of that Town.”
As magistrate, Budd was “commis- sioned to grant warrants” and “to marry persons,” and he had clear authority to arrest “such as are ouer- taken with drinke, swearing, Sabboath breaking, slighting of the ordinances, lying, vagrant persons, or any other that shall offend in any of these.”
As noted above, John Budd retired from public life in 1669. He died in Rye in 1670 and is presumed to have been buried in a private family plot a short distance north of Budd’s Mill.
The Budd family estate in Budd’s Neck was passed down through the generations to John Budd, Jr., then to Joseph Budd, then to his son John Budd
TO LEARN MORE
(1696–1757), my great-great-great- great-great-grandfather. In 1745, this latter John Budd sold the land — the bulk of it (over 250 acres) to a local merchant, Peter Jay, who named it “The Locusts.” The estate then became the childhood home to Peter’s son, John (1745–1827) — who was President of the Continental Congress (1778–1779), U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1784– 1789), the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789–1795), and Governor of New York (1795–1801). Thus, much of the original Budd family estate in Rye, New York, is now a National Historic Landmark as the Jay Heritage Center.
Baird, Charles W. History of Rye, Westchester County, New York, 1660– 1870. Camden, ME: Picton Press, 1994 reprint.
Bayles, Donald M. Southold’s Founders and Their Home Lots. Southold, NY: Southold Historical Society, 2000.
Budd, Lily Wright. John Budd, 1599- 1670, and Some of His Descendants. Franktown, CO: 1992. Chapter 1, “John Budd and Katherine Browne”; “Katherine’s Legend: The Story of the Brownes and the Fitzalans.”
Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council. “The Old House.” ( www.cutchoguenewsuffolkhistory.org /timeline/the-old-house-2/)
Frost, Josephine C. The Frost Genealogy: Descendants of William Frost of Oyster Bay, New York. New York: Frederick H. Hitchcock, 1912.
Hall, Warren. Pagans, Puritans, and Patriots of Yesterday’s Southold. Cutchogue, NY: Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council, 1975.
Jay Heritage Center. Web page — “Biographical Sketches: Residents and Succession of Ownership of the Jay Estate in Rye” ( www.jaycenter.org/bio.html).
Rymph, Levi Budd. Come In and Sit a Spell! Wichita, KS: 1973. Basic genealogy of the ancestors of Levi Budd Rymph and Jessie Mae Hershey.
Siford, Rachel. “Cutchogue’s Old House Losing Distinction as Oldest English- style Home in NYS.” The Suffolk Times. June 22, 2017 (suffolktimes. timesreview.com/2018/04/north-fork -history-project-cutchogues-old- house-built/)
Southold Historical Society. Guide to Historic Markers: First List of Historic Markers Placed in Southold, Peconic, and Arshamomaque. Southold, NY: Southold Historical Society.
Wick, Steve. “North Fork History Project: When Was Cutchogue’s Old House Built?” The Suffolk Times. April 12, 2018 (suffolktimes. timesreview.com/2018/04/north-fork -history-project-cutchogues-old- house-built/)
bradleyrymph.com/genealogy_budd-john.pdf
Parker Wickham was born in Southold Town on eastern Long Island, New York on February 28, 1727. One of nine children, he was the son of Joseph Wickham and Abigail Parker. His father was a large landholder and area native who lived from 1701 to 1749, serving as a justice, town assessor, and commissioner of roads. Parker's grandfather, another Joseph Wickham, was a well-to-do master tanner who had moved from Connecticut to Southampton, Long Island before finally settling in the village of Cutchogue in Southold Town in 1699. Parker's great grandfather Thomas Wickham, a Puritan settler, emigrated to Wethersfield, Connecticut in about 1648 from England. One of Parker's brothers, Daniel Hull, was a New York City merchant, while his brother John was an Anglican minister. His sister Abigail was married to Rev. Thomas Paine, a son of Ruth Adams and a third cousin of President John Adams. Parker had a distinguished cousin in William Wickham, who belonged to an elite society called the Moot, of which Patriot leader John Jay was also a member. A Yale '53 graduate, William worked as an attorney in New York City and Orange County, where his son, George Duncan Wickham, later became a prominent businessman. Like Parker, William was a Loyalist during the American Revolution, but he emerged unscathed because he did not take an active role. His associate John Jay, who became President of the Continental Congress and first Chief Justice of the United States, was active after the war in working to repeal repressive anti-Loyalist laws that affected the Wickhams. Parker had another notable family member in Noyes Wickham, a second cousin who lived in Mattituck, a village about three miles from Parker's home that was also part of the Town of Southold. After the American Revolution, Noyes moved to Ridgebury in Orange County, New York, where he owned a 1,000 acre farm and was the head of a very large family with many descendants, as profiled in the book The Descendants of Noyes Wickham, Senior of Ridgebury, Orange Co., NY by Evelyn Wornham Wickham. Notable kin on Parker's mother's side includes Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States, who was a descendant of Parker's great grandparents Deliverance King and John Tuthill.
Parker resided in what was by then the ancestral home, a famous structure today known as the Old House (see picture), which is currently part of a museum complex on the village green of Cutchogue. Open to the public during the summer, it is considered one of the finest American examples of domestic 17th century English architecture, and was a mansion in its day when it was built in 1649 (see historic marker). One of the oldest houses in New York State, it had been constructed by prosperous shipping merchant John Budd, great grandson of the 16th Earl of Warwick, and given to his daughter Anna and son-in-law Benjamin Horton as a wedding present. The house was originally erected in the village of Southold, but in June of 1660 it was moved six miles to Cutchogue, then a wilderness area with no European settlers nearer than two days' journey to the west. The Hortons had no children, so Parker's grandfather purchased the house in 1699 and in 1749 it was inherited by Parker. As detailed below, the house was confiscated at the end of the American Revolution, and auctioned off in 1784 to Parker's nemesis Jared Landon, who because of Parker's efforts, had previously been imprisoned for guiding Patriot raids against Long Islanders. However, the Wickham family regained possession of the property in 1867, when it was purchased from Landon's grandnephew by William Harrison Case and his wife Hannah "Nancy" Wickham, Parker's great-granddaughter. They were the last family to live in the house, and by the early 1900's, the house was showing its age and became a storage facility for farm machinery. Eventually, its great historical value was recognized, and it was acquired from the Case family by the Independent Congregational Society of Cutchogue in 1939. With the help of many groups, it was restored and dedicated as part of the Tercentenary Celebration of Southold Town in 1940, became a National Historic Landmark in 1962 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in October, 1966. In 1999, the 350th anniversary of the construction of the Old House was celebrated, with descendants from the Budd, Horton, Wickham, Landon and Case families attending. The rectangular house, which features clapboard siding and a spectacular English-style chimney, measures 20 x 40 feet, and has two floors and an attic, but no cellar. The first floor contains a kitchen and parlor, each with large fireplaces, while the second floor contains two bedrooms. Of utmost significance are the three-part casement window frames on the north wall of the second floor, considered the most outstanding examples of this architecture in the country (see picture).
Parker's father died in only his 47th year, so at age 22, Parker inherited a sizable amount of property including 590 acres of farmland in Cutchogue, 900 acres of additional property in nearby Riverhead, and the storied 445 acre Robins Island, situated in the center of Long Island's Peconic Bay. Parker's grandfather Joseph Wickham had purchased the Cutchogue property in 1699 and Robins Island in 1715. The Riverhead property had been given to Parker's parents in 1727 by his maternal grandfather John Parker. As the eldest son, Parker received all of the ancestral landholdings because his family believed in the English aristocratic concept of primogeniture. On December 14, 1752, Parker married Mary Goldsmith and they eventually had six children: Joseph Parker, John, Thomas, Parnel, Hellen and Sarah. Parker had already begun a slow but relentless climb in local area politics, first being elected to the position of Fence Viewer and Prisor of Damage in 1751, responsible for establishing property boundaries. In the years 1754 and 1755, he was elected Overseer of the Poor, charged with providing for the area's paupers. He was appointed justice for the County of Suffolk in 1763. After being elected town assessor in 1765 and 1766, he was elected town supervisor of Southold Town for the first time in 1767, the highest post of the local government, and held the position for an impressive nine one-year terms. At the time, the Town of Southold included what is today the Town of Riverhead, so Parker oversaw an area stretching approximately 35 miles along the north-east coast of Long Island, a district of about 121 square miles of land. In his capacity as a public servant, Parker was active in working to improve the living conditions of Long Island's few remaining Native Americans. Working with a legal representative of New York's colonial governor, he took statements from local citizens about Indian properties and the documentation bearing his signature still survives. Parker was also commissioned a major in the local militia, after he and seven other townsmen petitioned the lieutenant governor of New York to form themselves into "a compleat organized company of Troopers" for the Town of Southold.
Just 19 days before the start of the American Revolution, Parker left elected office for two crucial years, from April 1775 to March 1777, although it was clear he at least tacitly supported the Loyalist cause, as did many other family members, including his nephew John Wickham, the prominent Federalist, who enlisted in a Loyalist regiment. In August of 1776, Washington was routed by the British in the Battle of Long Island, so the Town of Southold came under firm British control. Many die-hard Patriots moved to Connecticut, which was used as a staging ground to launch raids into Long Island. While some of these raids were directed against British military posts, often times the raiders would pillage the farms of suspected Loyalists and even kidnap the owners. This caused economic hardship for the affected families and created an atmosphere of public fear. In April of 1777, Parker came out of political retirement and was elected to his ninth term as town supervisor, during a time when British military fortunes were at their peak, shortly before the crushing British defeat in upstate New York at Saratoga in October of that year, an event which proved to be the turning point of the war. With a clear mandate to improve public security and proclaiming that "I will not raise my hand against my king," Parker, in his role as an elected government official, denounced those he suspected of guiding the raids against Long Islanders, causing some to be jailed and earning him considerable enmity from certain neighbors, especially the Landons, a politically active family committed to the Patriot cause who had publicly quarreled with Parker before. However, Southold at the time had a majority of Loyalist citizens and Parker enjoyed wide, though hardly universal, support in his efforts to protect citizens from what he saw to be a fringe minority breaking the law. But on December 13, 1777, a Patriot force from Connecticut raided Southold and kidnapped Parker, who was still serving out his term as town supervisor. He was taken back to Connecticut, where he has held captive in a house under armed guard. When Washington learned of the raid, which included additional objectives besides Parker's abduction, he was quick to express his concerns that these operations did more harm than good, writing to a subordinate that he has "ever been averse to these small excursions, especially when they divert our attention from more material Objects."
Parker was paroled later in the war, so he returned to Long Island, which remained under British control, but on October 22, 1779, New York's legislature passed a bill of attainder which named Parker as one of 59 English sympathizers (and one of three in Suffolk County), stripping him of his property and banishing him from the state. Bills of attainder were outlawed by Article I of the Constitution of the United States in 1789, but previous to that time they were frequently used by lawmakers to destroy the careers of political rivals by declaring them guilty of some crime, but without any burden of proof. With Long Island still under British control, Parker had little to fear of being attainted, but after the British defeat at Yorktown in 1781, it was clear what the future held. Meanwhile, Parker's wife Mary died on April 4, 1783 at age 49 and was buried in Cutchogue. After the British evacuation of eastern Long Island on November 22, 1783, New York State was finally able to enforce its bill and Parker's property was appraised and sold at auction in the late summer of 1784 by the commissioners of forfeiture. Political opponent Jared Landon moved into Parker's home, while Robins Island, after being purchased at auction by two of Washington's top spies, went to Ezra L'Hommedieu, a Southold native who had prepared the confiscation bill while in the state assembly. Parker's estate in Riverhead was turned into the downtown district of that growing village. An ailing Parker had already been forced to move to New London County, Connecticut, due to the banishment provision of the act of attainder, which reads: "Persons herein before particularly named, shall be, and hereby are declared to be forever banished from this State; and each and every of them, who shall at any time Time hereafter be found in any Part of this State, shall be, and are hereby adjudged and declared guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as in Cases of Felony, without Benefit of Clergy." Broken by the experience, Parker soon died in Connecticut on May 22, 1785 and was buried there in Waterford (see gravestone). Just before his death, he wrote a family member that "I have acted consistently and consciously throughout my whole conduct, with a firm belief there is a future existence, and defy the state to produce one instance wherein I have acted rigidly, defrauded, or abused one member of it, although it was in my power." His son Joseph, who had already sailed to Antigua to engage in trade, was clearly embittered by these events, writing from Dublin in October of 1790 that "I never more expect to see my Native Country. In short the suffering of our family have been so Great in it that I don't want to see it. I am a Single Man and the World is before me." But a year later he returned to Cutchogue and eventually purchased a farm there.
Ironically, the timing of Parker's death just after the close of the American Revolution helped enable the Wickham family to remain on Long Island, rather than moving to Nova Scotia or England, since only Parker had been named as a Loyalist. Furthermore, the British government agreed in December of 1789 to partially compensate Parker's son Joseph for the loss of property, paying him 2,800 pounds sterling, a modest fortune that was about half of his total losses. Before his death in 1785, Parker considered seeking additional relief from the State of New York, but decided it was unethical, writing: "As application is already made for redress of grievances to another quarter, I think it scandalous and hypocritical to apply for redress of grievances to two opposite parties for the same thing." Financially aided by the payment from the British government, members of the Wickham family, such as Parker's great-grandson William Wickham, a four-term district attorney, continued to be prominent in the Cutchogue area, somewhat to the surprise of Parker's political enemies. (Other descendants such as healthcare pioneer William Hull Wickham, farmer James Parker Wickham and banker spouse Matilda Briggs Wickham would also prosper in New York State.) Yet the confiscation of Parker's property has remained controversial over the centuries for a number of reasons, including that it occurred in violation of the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution. In addition, Parker's guilt was determined by a legislature rather than a court and there was no chance to appeal. No evidence or witnesses were ever presented and Parker's accusers were never identified. While at least one historian has chosen to label Parker as "notorious," this is an inappropriate characterization of a man who spent almost his entire career helping to improve the lot of fellow citizens and who, more than anything else, was simply opposed to violence against government officials. While many of those targeted by the attainder bill were royal appointees who were later shunned by society, Parker continued to command considerable local respect because he was a fourth-generation American who had achieved his positions by winning open elections. In recent years, Parker's iconic stature has grown, with a book about Parker's career and legacy, The Wickham Claim by legal scholar Dwight Holbrook, being published in 1984 which questions Parker's "guilt" and postulates that Parker was the victim of a machiavellian scheme hatched by covetous political rivals. Parker will always remain a complicated figure: a proper, ethical and democratic man advocating change through peaceful means who believed in a fundamentally undemocratic system, who was then persecuted for those beliefs and deprived of his civil liberties by those professing to be bringing liberty to all.
Not all of Parker's family shared his political views. His daughter Parnel was regarded as a staunch Patriot and married James Reeve, who served in the Third Regiment of Minute Men in Suffolk County. Perhaps more seriously, Parker's brother Thomas, a Yale graduate and formidable political figure in his own right, took an active role in the conflict on behalf of the Patriots. Prior to the American defeat at the Battle of Long Island, he was in charge of nearby Gardiners Island and the stock there, and served in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Provincial Congresses. Relocating to the safety of Stonington, Connecticut in September 1776, he was appointed Auditor of Refugees’ Claims, and became the captain of a privateer sloop called the Hampton Packet, which carried eight guns and a crew of thirty. During one raid, he seized Parker's cattle that were grazing on Robins Island. On another occasion, he captured the Peggy, a 50-ton schooner carrying flax-seed and oysters, off Fire Island Inlet. In his most audacious operation, he helped to lead a surprise boat attack on the Long Island port of Sag Harbor, which was guarded by Hessian troops. The other vessels were driven ashore, leading to the capture of their crews, but Thomas bravely succeeded in recapturing the lost vessels and rescuing all but one of the prisoners. Thomas was also appointed to a committee that advised General Washington on management of military supplies on Long Island and Staten Island. As a trophy, he kept a weight at his front gate made from grape shot fired by the British during their attack on Stonington. After the American Revolution, he served as a member of the New York Assembly in 1791.
In 1989, several of Parker's descendants filed a widely publicized claim in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, arguing that Robins Island, (see picture), then under the threat of development, was unlawfully seized from Parker and that it should be returned to his heirs, who remain numerous on Long Island. Considered one of the most valuable undeveloped islands in the United States, Robins Island occupies a unique place in eastern Long Island folklore, with those competing to own it over the years including Prince Moulay Abdullah of Morocco and John Jacob Astor, whose plans were cut short when he perished aboard the Titanic. Prior to 1850, Robins Island was mainly used for farming, cattle grazing and lumbering, as well as brick making, but in later years it was turned into a hunting preserve for wealthy sportsmen. But by the 1970's, rising property taxes made the shoots uneconomical and plans were made to build a few hundred houses there. To combat this, a non-profit corporation called Robins Island Preservation Fund, dedicated to the preservation of Robins Island in its natural state, was established as successor-in-interest to Parker. The group claimed that New York's Act of Attainder, under which the island was confiscated and sold, was invalid because New York had no sovereignty over Robins Island at the time, which was then under British control. They further argued that by the time New York did achieve sovereignty over Robins Island, the Treaty of Peace of 1783 between Great Britain and the United States had already been enacted, which prohibited future confiscations of British and Loyalist property. The group alternatively argued that the seizure was illegal because Parker had inherited the property as an estate tail, a form of ownership no longer allowed in the United States which was used by wealthy British settlers to keep ancestral lands in one family by having property without exception pass to the heirs. This would mean that even if Parker's property loss was lawful, his son Joseph would continue to maintain a future interest. Although he married twice, Joseph had no children and made no mention of Robins Island in his will, so presumably descendants of his siblings inherited any ownership interest. Because of the enormous lapse of time and the different legal standards of the day, the claim was found to be without merit, even though such a confiscation would be illegal today. However, the owner of Robins Island at the time of the trial, Southold Development Corporation, was battered by the protracted legal struggle and abandoned its plans to develop the island after collapsing into bankruptcy. Under new ownership, most of the island has since been reserved for open space conservation in perpetuity under an easement to The Nature Conservancy.
Marines use shovels to attempt to dig out a Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle in the rain Dec. 19 after it sunk into the soft mud flats near Observation Post "ManBearPig." The MRAP was freed with the help of a recovery vehicle. Marines say thick, deep mud like this is typical in the arid farming area in northwestern Nawa district.
Regimental Combat Team-7, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs
Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill
Date: 12.24.2009
Location: Nawa, AF
Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/cjcqrj
A Marine rifle honor guard from 3rd Marine Regiment prepares to greet the family of Pfc. Frank Cabiness as they carry his urn aboard the USS Arizona Memorial Dec. 23. Cabiness is the second Marine survivor to be buried with his shipmates.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill)
Howden Minster (St Peter), South aisle west window by J B Capronnier, 1888.
Detail: Jesus inviting Zacchaeus down from the tree.
Minster Church of St Peter & St Paul, Howden, East Yorkshire.
Memorial Window to George Tuthill (1817-1887)
By Jean-Baptiste Capronnier (1814-1891), 1888.
Jean-Baptiste Capronnier was born in Brussels in 1814. He took over his father's glass design and manufacturing business around 1840 and acquired an international reputation. He used intense acid colours and a highly pictorial style, using large pieces of glass with most detail added in enamel. He carried out windows for various churches in Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam and elsewhere, and his work was commissioned also for France and Italy. His reputation in England was highest in the 1860s and 1870s. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he won the only medal given for glass painting. He died in Brussels in 1891.