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    A History of Beaumaris
    A History of Beaumaris
    A History of Beaumaris
    Ebook81 pages59 minutes

    A History of Beaumaris

    By Iolo Griffiths

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    The history of the town of Beaumaris in Anglesey from its origins as an English settlement and castle. As the county town for Anglesey it was a great centre for justice, administration, education and of society in general, as well as an important sea port. Nowadays it is a small tourist resort but has a rich and varied history

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIolo Griffiths
    Release dateApr 2, 2018
    ISBN9781386885054
    A History of Beaumaris
    Author

    Iolo Griffiths

    Iolo Griffiths was brought up in Anglesey, lives in North Wales and has been working for Trinity Mirror North Wales since 1987, firstly as a librarian and then proofreader, and then a journalist. He is now a Community Content Curator for Trinity Mirror North Wales His main interests are genealogy and local history (mainly North West Wales)

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      Book preview

      A History of Beaumaris - Iolo Griffiths

      HISTORY OF BEAUMARIS

      Beaumaris today, with its population of just over 2,000 is little more than a large village, but it has a very distinguished history, as a centre of local government when it was the county town of Anglesey, and a centre of high society, and a busy port and market town. Today Beaumaris is none of these, but its  importance as a tourist attraction owes as much to the relics of its former glory, as to its suitability for water sports.

      Beaumaris as we know it only dates from 1295. Its subsequent importance is to some extent a legacy from the neighbouring village of Llanfaes, so it would be logical to examine briefly the history of Llanfaes so as to get the background to the origins of Beaumaris.

      Present-day Llanfaes lies two miles to the east of Beaumaris, and stretches northwards from the former Lairds (Anglesey) Ltd factory, which was used during the Second World War to build Catalina flying boats, to a cluster of cottages at the foot of St Catherine's church.

      The site of the Laird factory was originally a monastery which was built in 1237 over the tomb of Princess Joan, wife of Prince Llewelyn ap Iorwerth of Gwynedd, and daughter of King John of England. This monastery, with the township of Bancenyn in the same parish formed part of the temporalities of Penmon Priory.

      During the 13th century Llanfaes was a thriving port and market town, and according to the Extent of Anglesey in March  1294, shortly before the destruction of Llanfaes and the founding of Beaumaris, Llanfaes's herring fishery caught 600 mease (360,000) of herrings in a year, worth £60.

      Llanfaes had also been the headquarters of Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, the last independent Prince of Wales, who was killed in 1282, and in 1294 many Anglesey men had taken part in the Madog rebellion, so in 1295 Edward I saw the need to build a castle at Beaumaris to keep the Welsh in order.

      Edward had already conquered Wales in 1282, and erected a series of castles which included Caernarfon, Conwy and Rhuddlan. It is quite possible that he might already have intended to build a castle in Anglesey, but the Madog Rebellion was the event that forced him to take this step.

      Madog ap Llewelyn ap Maredudd, of the House of Merioneth, was a strong claimant to the throne of Gwynedd. Meanwhile the Welsh resented English rule which seemed harsh and injust, and would have preferred a ruler of their own stock. This resentment which had smouldered for 11 years, was sparked into open revolt by a new tax introduced in 1293. The revolt broke out during the fair at Caernarfon at the close of 1293, with the unfinished castle being sacked by the Welsh, and Roger Puleston, the English Sheriff of Anglesey being hanged outside his house in Caernarfon. This rebellion was so successful that Madog and his followers defeated an English army at Denbigh before Edward I finally crushed the rebels.

      Although the rebellion had been quelled, it was clear that a castle was needed in Anglesey. Anglesey was an island and the home of many of the rebels, and  moreover its importance as the source of Wales's grain supplies had earned the island the title of Môn Mam Cymru (Anglesey the Mother of Wales). The fact that Llanfaes had been the headquarters of the last native Welsh prince made it all the more vital to prevent rebels from rising again.

      In 1295, immediately after the Madog Rebellion was crushed, Beaumaris was built on a pleasant site on level ground (hence the French name Beau Mareys - Beautiful Marsh), which controlled the northern  mouth of the Menai Strait, and was also symbolically near to Llanfaes. Edward hoped that English rule from Beaumaris would counter the Welsh aspiration for independence.

      In order to destroy Llanfaes's spirit, the town was destroyed, and its population removed to Rhosyr, which would later be known as Newborough (New Borough). This sudden destruction of a prosperous town meant a sudden loss of income for Archdeacon Anian II of Anglesey, so Edward II granted him a discharge of the tithes of Llanfaes church by reason of the destruction of the village.

      THE LATER HISTORY OF LLANFAES

      The destruction of Llanfaes means that its subsequent history can conveniently be described in the scope of a single chapter, and is largely that of its Franciscan friary.

      In 1535 Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and friaries, and the friary at Llanfaes with its possessions was sold to a courtier called John White, who built a mansion called Friars, and the chapel was turned into a barn. Friars was improved in 1779 by John Cooper, and was at that time the home of Sir Hugh Williams, Lord Bulkeley's stepfather, who was 8th Baronet of Penrhyn and represented Beaumaris in Parliament in 1762, 1774, 1785 and 1790. Friars was demolished in 1760 and replaced by a new house in 1866. The barn was also demolished, but

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