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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868
National Gazetteer (1868)
"LLANDWROG, a parish in the hundred of Uwch-Gorfai, county Carnarvon, 4 miles S.W. of Carnarvon, its post town, and 14 from Nevin. It is situated near the northern extremity of Carnarvon Bay, and includes the villages of Bethesda and Tylon. The neighbourhood yields copper and slate. A large number of the people are employed in the slate quarries, from whence there is a tram-road to Carnarvon. Edward I. is said to have once made a stay here. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Bangor, value £314, in the patronage of the Bishop of Llandaff. There is also the district church of St. Thomas. The parish church, dedicated to St. Twrog, has recently been restored. Here is an hospital, or almshouse, founded by Mrs. Glynne, for the reception of twelve ladies of reduced circumstances, and endowed with property producing £200 per annum. There are other charities amounting to about £18. The Roman road Sarn Helen passed through this district, and overlooking the sea is Dinas Dinlle, a strongly fortified camp with a double range of escarpments, said to have been connected with Segontium. Lord Newborough is lord of the manor, and sole proprietor.""BETHESDA, a village in the parish of Llandwrog, hundred of Uwch Gorfai, in the county of Carnarvon, North Wales, 4 miles from Carnarvon. The inhabitants are workers in the neighbouring slate quarries. There are several places of worship in the village."
"DINAS DINLLE, a hamlet in the parish of Llandwrog, county of Caernarvon, 5 miles S.E. of Carnarvon, near Llanlynfi, a Roman camp. Coins have been found here."
"TYLON, a village in the parish of Llandwrog, county Carnarvon, 4 miles S.W. of Bangor."
[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales Samuel Lewis, 1833
LLANDWROG (LLAN-DUROG), a parish in the hundred of UCHGORVAI, county of CARNARVON, NORTH WALES, 5 miles (S. by W.) from Carnarvon, on the road to Pwllheli, consisting of the Upper and Lower divisions, and containing 1923 inhabitants. This place is of considerable antiquity, and was, during the ninth century, the residence of Cilmin Troed Du, one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales, the remains of whose palace at Glynllivon were existing till within the last few years. From this chieftain descended the Glynnes of Glynllivon, ancestors of the present Lord Newborough, who has a noble mansion near the spot, deeply embosomed in trees, and commanding extensive views over St. George's channel, the Menai strait, the Isle of Anglesey, and the country towards Carnarvon. The parish, which is extensive, though mountainous in some parts, and comprehending a considerable portion of sands, contains many large tracts of enclosed and well-cultivated land, of which the soil is rich and fertile. Morva Dinlle, a sandy marsh with some clay, comprising two thousand five hundred acres, and included partly in this parish, and partly in those of Llanwnda and Llanvaglan, was enclosed under an act of parliament obtained in 1806. The village, which is large, is pleasantly situated ; and several of the inhabitants are employed in the mines and quarries in the neighbourhood. On the coast of the Menai, in this parish, the late Lord Newborough, between the years 1770 and 1780, erected at his own expense, both in the grounds of Glynllivon, and also at Belan, near the entrance of the strait, commodious barracks for the county militia, of which, as lord-lieutenant of the county, he was Colonel-Commandant : these, which had become much dilapidated, have been restored and greatly improved by the present lord : the barracks at Glynllivon are called Fort Williamsburg, and those at Belan, Fort St. David : off the latter is situated his lordship's yacht dock. The mountainous parts of the parish are rich in mineral wealth, consisting principally of copper-ore and slate. The copper mines called Drws y Coed, supposed to have been originally worked by the Romans, are still very productive : the principal slate quarries are those of Cloddva'r Ion, Talysarn, Pen yr Orsedd, and Cilgwyn, the last of which has been worked for more than a century: these several works afford constant employment to more than seven hundred men. The Llanllyvni, and Carnarvon railroad, which passes through the upper division of the parish, was constructed under acts of parliament obtained in 1825, 1827, and 1828, by a company called the Nantle Railway Company : it commences at the Cloddva'r Ion slate quarries, near Nantle Pool, and pursues a westerly direction for some distance ; it then takes a northerly course, and terminates at the shipping quay at Carnarvon.The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Bangor, rated in the king's books at £ 11. 11. 5 1/2., and in the patronage of the Bishop. The church, dedicated to St. Twrog, by whom it is supposed to have been originally founded in the sixth century, is a spacious and ancient structure, neatly fitted up. There are several places of worship for Calvinistic Methodists, and one each for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. A parochial school, founded by Lord Newborough, who also built the school-house at his own expense, is liberally supported by his lordship and the rector of the parish, and is open to poor children of this and the adjoining parishes. Mrs. Ellen Glynne founded here almshouses for twelve aged and unmarried women, which she endowed with the farm of Plas Newydd, in the parish of Llangoed, county of Anglesey, and with other lands, now producing about £200 per annum: the almswomen are nominated by Lord Newborough, and appointed by the Bishop of Bangor. Mrs. Glynne also bequeathed a rent-charge of £5, payable out of the Glynllivon estate, to the poor; and there are several other charitable donations and bequests, the produce of which is annually distributed among them on St. Thomas's day. In the mountainous districts of this parish, at a place called Bala Deulyn, where two small lakes are united by a rivulet, is Nantle, an ancient mansion, in which Edward I. resided during the erection of Carnarvon castle, and from which many of his decrees were dated. Near this place, in 1827, two gold coins were found, one of which had on the obverse a figure of that monarch seated in a ship, and holding a sword, with the legend, in ancient characters, EDWARD. DEI. GRA. REX. ANGL. DNS. HYB. D. AQUI., and on the reverse four lions and four crowns, with the legend IPSE. AUTEM. TRANSIENS. PER. MEDIUM. ILLORUM. IBAT. At a short distance to the north of the church is Dinas Dinlle, a fortification occupying the summit of a circular artificial mount on the shore of the Menai strait, and on the confines of an extensive marsh. The enclosed area, four hundred feet in diameter, is surrounded by a vast rampart of earth, and defended in some parts by a second rampart and a deep fosse; and on the side near the shore the eminence has, by the constant action of the waves, been formed into an abrupt and precipitous cliff. The entrance is on the opposite side, and within the enclosure are vestiges of buildings of an oblong form, constructed of loose stones, and also a tumulus. This strong post, obviously an outwork connected with the station Segontium, adjacent to the present town of Carnarvon, was probably constructed to afford facility in landing supplies for the garrison of that place, when, from adverse winds, the entrance to that port became difficult or dangerous. Its Roman origin, which has been inferred by Mr. Pennant and other antiquaries, from the discovery here of Roman coins, and the necessity for such an outwork, for the convenience of the principal station, is confirmed by vestiges of roads leading from Segontium, of which one, crossing the river Seiont, and pointing directly to this place, was discovered in a very perfect state, at a distance of several feet below the surface of the ground, in laying down the railway from Llanllyvni to Carnarvon. A further corroboration of the Roman origin assigned to this post is derived from the appellation of two ancient fords on a stream near the site, called "Y Foriad," which still respectively retain the semi-British and semi-Roman names of Rhyd Pedestre and Rhyd Equestre, implying " the passage for the infantry" and "the passage for the cavalry." The Roman road from Dinas Dinlle to Segontium may still be traced in various places, and especially on its approaching the river Gorvai, near which it is plainly discernible.
On the Cilgwyn mountain, in this parish, is a Druidical circle, seventeen yards in diameter; and at Plas Newydd, a large upright stone points out the grave of an ancient British warrior. Bedd-Gwenan, and Carnedd Angharad, are also supposed to be the tombs of British chieftains. The poor are maintained by an average annual expenditure amounting to £687. 1.
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