Caernarfon Waterfront: Understanding Urban Character Caernarfon Waterfront: Understanding Urban Character
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Caernarfon Waterfront: Understanding Urban Character Caernarfon Waterfront: Understanding Urban Character 1 Acknowledgement In undertaking this study, Cadw has drawn on work carried out by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust in 2005: Ports and Harbours of Gwynedd: A Threat-Related Assessment. This work, carried out for Cadw, summarized the historical development of the harbours of Caernarfon, and provided a detailed gazetteer and map of sites in the vicinity of the waterfront. The gazetteer has not been replicated in full in the present report but is available from Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, who should be contacted for further advice on the archaeology of the area. 2 Contents Introduction 5 Character Areas 25 Aims of the Study 5 1 The Promenade (The Medieval Quay) 25 2 Bank Quay and Victoria Dock 27 3 The Slate Quay 30 Historical Development 7 4 The Maes 33 Urban Origins 7 5 Segontium Terrace and Tre’r Gof 34 Medieval Castle and Town 9 6 Coed Helen 36 Land and Water: The Urban Economy 9 Two Rivers and the Sea 12 Beyond the Walls 16 The Seiont and Menai Waterfronts: Design Parameters for Redevelopment 38 Historical Topography 19 Design Vocabulary and Materials 40 The Medieval Town 19 The Nineteenth Century: Civil Engineering and Urban Growth 21 Statement of Significance 41 Selected Sources 42 Maps 42 The Character of Building 24 Endnotes 43 List of Maps pages 44–51 1 All Character Areas 5 The Slate Quay Area (3) 2 All Character Areas with Historic 6 The Maes Area (4) Environment Designations 7 Segontium Terrace and Tre’r Gof (5) 3 The Promenade (The Medieval Quay) 8 Coed Helen Area (6) Area (1) 4 Bank Quay and Victoria Dock Area (2) 3 4 CAERNARFON WATERFRONT: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER Introduction Aims of the Study Urban characterization aims to describe and architectural character. The survey is not just explain the historic character of towns to give an audit of features, but a reconstruction of a focus to local distinctiveness and to serve as the themes and processes which have shaped a tool for the sustainable management of the the town. historic environment. It seeks to inform and support positive conservation and regeneration The immediate purpose of this study is to inform programmes, help improve the quality of emerging proposals for the regeneration of planning advice, and contribute to local the Caernarfon waterfront, a critical part of interpretation and education strategies. the setting of the World Heritage Site of castle and town walls. The study has therefore focussed Urban characterization defines the distinctive on the Menai and Seiont waterfronts, together historical character of individual towns, and with the immediately adjacent urban areas. identifies the variety of character within them, In order to understand these areas in context, recognizing that this character is fundamental to it has also considered the historical background local distinctiveness and pride of place, and is an to the establishment and development of the The Slate Quay provides asset in regeneration. It looks at how the history town as a whole. It is intended that this study will the foreground to the of a town is expressed in its plan and topography, provide a baseline for strategic planning as well castle at the mouth of in areas of archaeological potential, and in its as local management. the river Seiont. 5 CAERNARFON WATERFRONT: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER 6 CAERNARFON WATERFRONT: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER Historical Development Caernarfon has a long and distinguished urban The Roman Legacy history. The establishment of the medieval castle and town was preceded by Roman and Welsh On the summit of the ridge between the rivers settlements in the vicinity. From these origins Cadnant and Seiont, the Romans established emerged an urban culture which has endured the auxiliary fort of Segontium in about AD 77. for many centuries. Key to the long-term success Segontium became the base for a large of the town was the provision of a reliable administrative district subordinate to Chester, and economic infrastructure. Throughout its history, was occupied until the late fourth century. This long in changing circumstances, the waterfront has history of occupation may partly be explained by been a mainstay in the economic life of the town. its strategic position in fertile coastal country, and perhaps by the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the area. West of Segontium, just above the river Opposite: The castle on Urban Origins Seiont at its closest point to the fort, is a second the water’s edge where Roman site, Hen Waliau. This walled compound has the river Seiont meets been dated to the fourth century and interpreted the Menai Strait. ‘And at the river mouth he saw a great castle, as a storage depot. The remains of ‘an immense Below: The Roman fort 2 the fairest that mortal had ever seen, and the wooden bridge’ across the Seiont, also thought of Segontium, with the gate of the castle he saw open, and he came to to be Roman, were discovered in 1817, a short castle at the river the castle’. 1 distance upstream of Hen Waliau. mouth beyond. 7 CAERNARFON WATERFRONT: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER The castle and walled Although the existence of a Roman settlement However, the Romans would almost certainly town, strung out along close to the site later chosen for the town of have exploited (and defended) the seaways, the shore on a Caernarfon had little direct impact on the and it is surely significant that Hen Waliau was promontory between topography of the town, it was influential in sited immediately above the Seiont. Love Lane, the rivers Seiont and Cadnant, as depicted by the culture and history of the later settlement. which descends towards the river from South Samuel and Nathaniel The first certain reference to a settlement Road, close to the south-west corner of the Buck in 1742 (The down on the shoreline was the castle of Hugh site, may even respect the line of a Roman North West View of d’Avranches, Earl of Chester, who built a motte route from Hen Waliau. Caernarvon Castle, and bailey in 1090. In a late twelfth-century text The National Library of Wales). (The History of Gruffydd ap Cynan), this castle After the departure of the Romans, the nucleus was described as built in the old city of the of settlement may have remained on the higher emperor Constantine.3 Although Hugh’s castle ground close to the fort, and it is perhaps was not literally in the ruins of Segontium, the significant that the church at Llanbeblig lay close imperial association dignified it and gave it a to Segontium. Ecclesiastically, the later medieval grandeur which in turn was seized by the Welsh town of Caernarfon fitted into an earlier when they regained the area from the Normans parochial structure, and remained a chapelry in 1115. This imperial past is also suggested in within the parish of Llanbeblig. the iconography of Edward I’s castle. It was commemorated, too, in the reburial of what was claimed to be the body of Magnus Maximus in 1283. There is a tradition (not supported by Welsh Settlement archaeological evidence) that Magnus Maximus was based at Segontium as regional commander The first Norman settlement here was in the late fourth century — he was the Macsen short-lived: when the Welsh regained the area in Wledig of Welsh legend, father of Constantine 1115, they probably occupied Hugh d’Avranches’s and Peblig; several old Welsh families traced their castle, and certainly established a small civil ancestry back to him. settlement with a port and a court. When Edward I’s officials arrived in 1283, they found a It is possible that the earl of Chester may have llys here, with a garden in the old castle bailey. been the first to settle close to the waterfront. Although the motte and bailey were once again 8 CAERNARFON WATERFRONT: UNDERSTANDING URBAN CHARACTER retained — the motte incorporated in the in 1284: under its terms, and to encourage Edwardian castle, and the bailey surviving as the settlement, burgesses were given autonomy in area now known as the Maes (Castle Square) — administration, with the right to hold land freely the rest of the Welsh settlement was swept away. by burgage tenure, immunity from tolls and Twenty men spent five days clearing away the conviction, and the right to regulate trade in the timbers of demolished houses to make way for borough. To further support the town, everyone the defences of the new town. Although we do for 8 miles (13 km) around had to trade there. not know very much about the Welsh settlement, documentary references suggest that it was a Caernarfon was conceived from the outset as place of some importance. In 1188, Giraldus the capital of the principality of north Wales Cambrensis passed through ‘Caernarfon, that is (a status it retained until 1536). The appropriate Arfon Castle’. 4 In 1215, a poet, Prydydd y Moch, administrative and commercial institutions were referred to ‘yg caer yn aruon’ as one of the four housed within the town, including an exchequer cornerstones of Llywelyn the Great’s dominion office (located above the east gate), and a over Wales.5 Documents associated with the justice’s house with the shire hall over it (near princes of Gwynedd frequently referred to the junction of Castle Ditch and Shire Hall Caernarfon thereafter, but there were also Street). For local administration, the burgesses references in vernacular sources to Caer were given the right to build a town hall, and they Abersein, the Welsh-language equivalent of did so at the junction of what became known Segontium. This Welsh ancestry, coupled with later as Market Street and High Street.