Introduction

penucha'r llan

The following period sections are intended to set out the general background to the development of the landscape over time, rather than describing the physical attributes of what is visible today. The thematic landscapes are included in the following section, as well as the individual character area descriptions.

There are few monuments from the prehistoric period in this landscape. A complex of Roman military structures were discovered at Llanfor in 1976 (area 07), and Llanfor continued to be of importance during the early middle ages. A 6th century AD early Christian inscribed stone (area 06) ia now housed in the present church porch. An oval earthwork (Pen Ucha'r Llan) north of the church may be of medieval or early medieval date, possibly the centre of an early lordship in the area. There was obviously an important focus of settlement and a market here before the foundation of Bala as a borough and the latter's emergence as the major nucleated settlement in the area.

The Roman road ran from Llanfor (ultimately from Chester) along the north-west side of the lake to Caer Gai (and subsequently on to Brithdir (near Dolgellau)), which occupies a spur above the other end of the lake (area 15). Caer Gai represents the consolidation of the Roman conquest of the area, being a permanent auxiliary fort, replacing the short-lived works at Llanfor. A vicus, or civilian settlement, is known to exist to the south and also possibly to the east of the fort, while again there is evidence to suggest that the site persisted as a centre of activity and cultural importance in the post-Roman period.

Castell Carndochan to the south west of Caer Gai (outside the current project area) was built in the mid-13th century, under Welsh rule. It occupies a strong, commanding position on a high spur overlooking the entrance of the Lliw valley. Notwithstanding, the borough of Bala (area 02) emerged as the nucleus of the area.

In the 16th- and 17th-centuries, Caer Gai was the home of the Vaughan family, Royalist sympathisers who suffered when the house was sacked and burned by Parliamentarian troops in 1645.

The town of Bala, now the major settlement focus in the area, lies along the course of the main road from England (Shrewsbury) to Dolgellau, sandwiched between the north-east end of Llyn Tegid and the Afon Tryweryn. From the early 13th century, Bala was the royal administrative centre of the commote. Two mottes, presumed to be of Norman origin, stand close to each other here (see below). Thus the landscape themes of fortification and the subtle shift of the focus of (administrative and military) control continues over a thousand years.

Bala is undoubtedly the best example of a planned English borough in Meirionnydd. It was founded by Roger Mortimer, ostensibly to bring law and order to the surrounding commote of Penllyn for which it became the administrative centre. It was initially successful, with all but nine of its 53 burgages taken up within a year of its foundation, and the markets and fairs previously held at Llanfor (see above) were transferred here and the borough was given formal grant of privileges in 1324. However, the town declined during the later middle ages as its military functions became superfluous, although it retained some administrative status and later attracted renewed commercial activities which caused it to assume a more urban character. During the 18th-century, for example, a hosiery industry developed which led to much rebuilding in the town and to an expansion of building beyond the extent of the medieval borough. By the middle of the 19th-century, however, the industry had to compete with the factories of the English Midlands, with the consequence that the areaÕs stocking trade gradually declined until it finally disappeared during the early years of the 20th century.

During the 19th century, Bala significantly developed culturally into an important and flourishing centre for Nonconformist religious movements in Wales, particularly during the ministry of Thomas Charles, the famous Welsh Methodist leader. From early on in the century, the town hosted the Methodist Preaching Festival, when thousands of people would gather on the Green to listen to famous preachers, and in 1837 the Methodists established a college in the town (area 03), and this was followed in 1842 by a Congregationalist college. Connected with the town’s colleges and chapels were men influential not only in the area, but also across the whole of Wales and beyond. They include Sir O M Edwards, the famous educationalist and writer, Michael D Jones, the Congregationalist leader and protagonist for the Welsh colony in Patagonia, Argentina, and others, to whom there are several monuments and memorials in this town and Llanuwchllyn (area 08).

Outside the town, to the north of Bala, the Rhiwlas estate (area 05) has played a major part in shaping the landscape of the area. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, R W Price of Rhiwlas was committed to a policy of converting marginal pasture to meadow, and meadow to arable. It has been said that the Rhiwlas estate at this time illustrated the amalgamation tendency. This prevented young farmers from setting up on their own land and led eventually to depopulation and a contraction of settlement distribution; by 1797 many cottages on lowland farms were uninhabited (E Thomas, pers comm). Half a century later, the estate owned almost 16500ha of land in Merionethshire.

During the latter part of the 19th century, Rhiwlas estate was developed into a game estate by R W Price with considerable success, which altered the appearance of this northern end of the study area (ditto). For example, this colourful character was responsible for the first sheepdog trials, which took place when he accepted a challenge from a neighbour who claimed that his Scottish shepherds were better than the Welsh shepherds employed on the estate here. There has been a succession of houses at Rhiwlas, and the present house was designed by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis to replace an earlier, rather grandiose castellated structure (mirrored in the former railway station at Bala, also long since gone) that was requisitioned by the military during the war and had deteriorated to the point that it had to be pulled down in 1951.

The landscape area also has other important historic and cultural associations. It has long been suggested that it has long been rich in mythology and legend: for example, Sir John Lloyd (History of Wales, II, 614) wrote about Penllyn that 'the land is one of legend, rather than of history'. Caer Gai is held in Welsh literary tradition to be the home of Cei mab Cynyr, Sir Kay in Arthurian romances (White, 1985). Llanfawr (Llanfor) and its local rivers are recorded in the early Welsh stanzas, Canu Llywarch Hen, which probably date to the 9th or 10th century (area 06). Llyn Tegid/Bala Lake (area 01) was a particular focus of legends and tales, many of which, perhaps not surprisingly, are concerned with flooding and drowning.

In recent times, the landscape area regained its cultural pre-eminence in Wales as a centre of considerable religious significance, with Bala and its numerous Nonconformist colleges and chapels (and lake) being famously described as the Geneva of Wales. Fach-ddeiliog, overlooking the lake near Bala (area 11), was the summer retreat of the well-known antiquary Richard Colt Hoare, while Coed-y-pry, Llanuwchllyn, was the home of the famous Welsh writer and educationalist Sir O M Edwards (area 08).