Development of the estates
The growth of landed families in Merioneth during the course of the 16th-century was a relatively speedy process, but the shire's social structure militated against the creation of prosperous families with extensive material resources. At the end of the 16th century the majority of farmsteads in Merioneth were still owner-occupied, although a 1592 rental shows that several townships in the county had at least half of the householders as tenants, including Rhiwaedog in Penllyn (Thomas, 1972, 333).

The circumstances surrounding changing settlement in the Tudor period gave the gentry of Merioneth the basis upon which to develop their powers as landowners, exercise control over institutions of government and consolidate their status and leadership in local community life (J G Jones, 2001). For example, Huw Nannau Hen (d 1623) was very influential in county affairs, and took full advantage of changes in landowning in the county: he married his five daughters into substantial houses including Rhiwedog and Caer Gai). However, it was not until the 18th/19th centuries that their pre-eminent wealth and status were absolute.

It is quite clear from late 16th -century documents (mainly regarding the Forest of Snowdon (Thomas, ibid, 337)), that illegal encroachments had been made over the centuries, principally on areas of upland pasture which had once functioned as common grazings for medieval townships, and that monastic granges (including that in Penllyn) represented the greatest prizes, certainly in terms of area. Thomas opines that, in general, largely due to a combination of arranged marriages and 'financial dealings that aimed at consolidating family fortunes', the growth of estates in the later medieval period led to the creation of the modern landscape of Merioneth (Jones, ibid, 341).

The Rhiwlas estate has certainly played a major part in shaping the landscape of the area. The Prices of Rhiwlas, descended from Marchweithian, emerged in the 16th-century to achieve a position of some importance in Merioneth. During the period when Cadwaladr Price (who formally adopted the family name) was head of the household, Rhiwlas reached its ascendancy. Educated at Hart Hall, Oxford, he served as Deputy Lieutenant and Sheriff (1592-3) and was member of Parliament in 1584-6, and he was rated highest in the general subsidy in 1598, assessed then at £5 and in 1600 at £10. He and his son prospered from encroachments made into the Forest of Snowdon, especially the Ystrad Marchell possessions in Penllyn, which comprised some 1,400 acres in Llanfor, Llandderfel, Llanycil and Llanuwchllyn. Other lands were added, including holdings in Penllyn and adjacent properties. At this time, it represented perhaps the best example of wide dispersion of property interests in Merioneth (Jones, ibid, 338).

During the late 19th century, R J Lloyd Price successfully developed Rhiwlas estate, which then owned almost 16,500ha of land in Merionethshire, as a ‘shooting estate’, following examples set by Scotland, but positioned closer to England, and thus more affordable. The modern ‘coverts’ in the southern part of area 05 were developed for pheasant shooting, and the 2nd edition OS map shows a long row of pheasant-rearing cages along the northern side of what is still the main road out to the east. Cottages for several keepers were dotted around the estate (for example, at Tan-y-garth and Bryn-ffynnon), and these sometimes also acted as temporary accommodation for the servants of clients (‘big businesses’), who were attending shooting parties on the estate (and who mainly stayed in the main house or at the Goat in Bala). At the same time, a number of small tenements were consolidated (e.g. Ty’n garth) towards the same end. He also opened a short-lived Welsh Whiskey distillery at Fron Goch.

Further north (and outside the study area), the essential Rhiwlas ‘home territory’ was focused around Cwmtirmynach, former Basingwerk Abbey land which had been the first and principal acquisition of land in the Tudor period: the landscape remains of rabbit warrens is reflected in place-names such as Eglwys Anne Warren. However, despite Price's best efforts, the estate was actually only saved in 1887 by a wager laid on the horse Bendigo that won the Kempton Park Jubilee race in that year (the same one in which Price died), and it is entirely fitting that a memorial to the latter in Llanfor churchyard (area 06) includes an inscription which reads: ‘As to my latter end I go to seek my Jubilee, I bless the good horse Bendigo, who built this tomb for me’ (E Thomas, pers comm).

The Atlas Meirionnydd (Bowen, 1972) shows three (post-medieval) estates within the area: Caer Gai (home of the Vaughans, area 15), Glanllyn (with land around Llanuwchllyn, largely areas 14 and 16, latterly owned by the Williams Wynns of Wynnstay) and Rhiwlas (seat of the Prices, and spreading across areas 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11). In 1850, the estates of Rhiwlas and Glanllyn between them extended to more than 14,000 acres, possibly then the third largest in Meirionnydd. James (1966) lists Merioneth as having a total size of 302,657 acres in 1873, with an overall rental of £183,253, of which 137,698 acres and £80,711 belonged to the 'great landowners' (of which R J Lloyd Price and Sir W Williams Wynn had interests in this landscape area). Lower down the order were the Lloyds of Rhiwedog who, around the same time, increased their territory by 460 acres.

Kay (writing in 1794) reported that 'very few gentlemen reside in the county to look after their own interests, which may be the cause of much inattention. Their estates are run by agents who seldom look after anything but the rents, and thus great losses accrue'.

The land at this time was mostly enclosed, with the exception of the extensive sheep walks, although the enclosures were in general small. Kay extolled the virtue of improving the land by draining, but as few proprietors then lived in the county it was almost totally neglected. However, he does cite the examples of Oakley at Tan y Bwlch (‘embanking and draining a delightful vale’) and Corbett of Ynysmaengwyn (‘embanking and draining large tracts’).

The 19th-century was the great age of estate building (Alfrey, 1989), with estate building programmes which had distinctive architectural characteristics as well developing a vision for the countryside as a 'landscape aesthetic'. By this time,estates were conspicuously richer than ever before, and were developing as an expression of the power and influence of wealthy landlords, enlarged through acquisition and consolidation. From the beginning of the 19th-century, Snowdonia was 'being discovered' by growing numbers of tourists, and the estates had a major role in fostering tourism, with financial investment in turnpikes, and building their own roads and hotels (Alfrey, 1989). Their activities were being carried out under the eye of a discriminating public. Landowners were encouraging tourism, but also shaping its object: improved agriculture, plantations, enclosures, mansions and their offices, even industry, were every bit as interesting and fascinating to visitors as the mountains themselves.

However, cottage building did not appear to be a lucrative proposition for most estates: Alfrey (ibid) quotes the example of Mr Owen Slaney Wynne (Sir W Williams Wynn's agent in Merioneth) who thought that 'you cannot build a decent cottage of any kind under £140'. According to him, cottages were expensive to build 'and you get nothing for it'.

In 1859, there was a contested election in Merioneth, a county which, despite its being overwhelmingly Nonconformist, had become notorious for its reluctance to move against the no-less overpowering presence of landlordism. Now, a lawyer called David Williams was put up against W E E Wynne, the celebrated antiquarian from the mighty Peniarth estate. Williams stood for Nonconformist relief and he got within thirty-eight votes of the Tory. Following this, Price at Rhiwlas and other estate landlords evicted a dozen or so tenants and raised the rents of others, because they had refused to vote in the election as they had been instructed. The shock was considerable, as never before had landlords felt the need to carry their high-handedness that far, and a campaign was started across Wales. The Merioneth evictions became one of the most potent images in a new national mythology of particularly Nonconformist character and the landlords, for the first time, began to feel the ground shift under their feet.

The focus of a subsequent measured and cautious shift into political disaffection was Bala, with its increasing Methodist influence, and a successful campaign to restore the town’s incorporated borough status, which expanded into a careful reform campaign, made progress among the tenants and some of the lesser gentry. The response from the landlords was crushing, and the 'reformers' got no further in the election of 1865. However, two years later came the Reform Act which tripled the electorate, and many quarrymen in particular now had the vote.

The ‘peasants’ revolt’ in Merioneth had been partially won, but more evictions followed all over rural Wales. The new Welsh MPs got a Ballot Act, but it took another Reform Act, that of 1884 which turned Britain into a democracy, before, in 1886, Merioneth found its true man. Its voters elected Thomas Edward Ellis, the son of a tenant farmer on the Rhiwlas estate (and educated at Aberystwyth and Oxford) who was briefly to become the shining hope of a new Welsh radicalism before his early death (Williams, 1985).

The Return of owners of land, 1873 (James, 1966) recorded the landlords in Wales whose lands exceeded 3,000 acres, and had rentals of at least £3,000 per annum. In this part of Merioneth, the two 'great landowners' were R J Lloyd Price of Rhiwlas (who owned an estimated acreage of 18,403 with a rental value of £9,762), and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bt., of Wynnstay, Denbs. (with an estimated 87,919 acres with a rental value of £43,274).