Dinas Mawddwy

Cemmaes Road

Corris

Aran Fawddwy

Machynlleth

Aberllefenni

Eglwys FachFurnace

Borth

Aberdyfi

Aberystwyth

Cader Idris

Creiglyn Dyfi

Llanymawddwy

Mallwyd

Landuse

Industry

Water Use

Religion

Folklore

Economy

Tributaries

Historic site

Dyfi, Source to Sea

Dylife

Penegoes

Llanwrin

DerwenlasPennal

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Machynlleth

Aberdyfi

Borth

Cors FochnoTre Taliesin

Furnace

Eglwys Fach

Morben

Pennal

Derwenlas

Penegoes

Ynyslas

Llancynfelyn

Cors Dyfi (old Bryncynfil Forest)

Ynys Hir

Landuse

Industry

Water Use

Religion

Folklore

Economy

Tributaries

Historic site

Llanwrin

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WateruseThis lonely lake, not much more than 200 yds across, situated in stark moor-land 1897 ft above sea-level under the towering crags of Aran Fawddwy (2959 ft), is the source of the Dyfi.

Religion It is said that St. Tydecho, (cousin to St Cadfan) turned the upper part of the Dyfi to milk hence its name “Llaethnant” or milk stream.

St. Tydecho was an Abbot in Armorica, Brittany, and came over to Britain at the time of King Arthur. After Arthur’s death and the Saxons overrunning most of the country, he settled in the Mallwyd area “where he led the most severe life; he lay on the bare rocks, and wore a shirt of horsehair. Despite this, he used his time for good purposes, such as to till land, and in obliging and generous practices.” Portrait 103

TributariesLlaethnant

Craiglyn Dyfi & Aran Fawddwy

Religion

LanduseDrovers roads.

The drovers roads were trackways stretching across Wales from the West to the Cattle markets in England. Cattle in large numbers were driven across the mountains from the coast across the border into England:

Cattle from Dyfi Valley were driven across the mountains to market in Llanidloes.

“A great feature of the droves was the noise they made. It was heard for miles around and warned local farmers what to expect. The noise consisted of the shouting of the drovers combined, I suppose with a certain amount of noise from the cattle. But it was the men’s voices that chiefly attracted attention. It was something out of the common, neither shouting, calling, crying, singing, hallowing or anything else, but a noise of itself, apparently made to carry and capable of arresting the countryside.”

“The horsemen and two of the cattle acted as leaders to the rest, and the men kept calling and shouting the whole time. As soon as the local farmers heard the noise they rushed their cattle out of the way. For if once they got into the drove, they could not easily be got out again.” 8-9

Shepherding:

The hard working shepherds of the Welsh hills and mountains had intimate knowledge of their flock and their patch of hillside, but it wasn’t always sheep in these hills...

“Historically, it was a fact that prior to about 1750 there were more cattle on these hills than sheep.”

“What has been lost forever...are the names that were used on the different areas of the hill. Every brook, every hillock, all the big stones and outcrops of rocks had different names. It was stated by the Jervis family, who lived at Cefn brwyn, Langurig, that one of them could go onto the hill, leave his cap anywhere on that hill and be able to direct another member of the family to go and find it.” 16-17 Good men and true

IndustryAlthough there are are many tributaries of the Afon Dyfi, If it was not for this unassuming Llyn at the foot of the 15th highest peak in Wales, The Dyfi Valley would not exist in any way that it does today.

Historic site

William Condry in his useful pamphlet “Wildlife in our Welsh Parish” wrote that the hillsides of the Dyfi Valley had suffered from “over-grazing by sheep.” 2

“The bracken which blankets some of our hillsides may have an eternal look but is known to be largely a product of the twentieth century. Before that...the trampling of cattle, formerly very common on the hills, kept the bracken under control.” 3

Upland and lowland pasture Hafoding: Calan Mai (1st of May) Summer pastures on the Hafod until Calan Gaef (All Saints Day)

Hafodty

“Land enclosure and improvements, plus the milder climate of the 19th Century, meant that some Hafotai became year round homesteads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_Fawddwy

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Dinas Mawddwy, Llanymawddwy & Mallwyd

Religion St Tydecho Church, Mallwyd: Tradition states that St. Tydecho’s Church was founded in the sixth century. Above the carved oak beams on the church door are the remains of two very large bones, which are reputed to be whale bones or tusks which are said to have been unearthed locally. The churchyard contains some very fine yew trees. (http://www.snowdoniaguide.com/mallwyd.html)http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/small/item/GTJ16916/

http://www.snowdoniaguide.com/mallwyd.html

The church at Mallywd. dedicated to St Tydecho, stands in both the counties of Meirionnydd and Sir Drefaldwyn. The bell tower has the latin words “Venite Cantem” (come and we shall sing) carved into it. Above the porch hang the bones of a whale which is reputed to have been caught in the Dyfi. The church’s altar is in the centre of the church, placed there by one Dr. Davies. However, Archbishop Laud ordered it to be moved to the east as is usual but the Dr. moved it back to the centre where it remains to this day.

Economy

Water Use

LanduseIn the past, neither coal nor wood were the main fuel in the Dyfi Valley, instead, peat from the hill sides was cut to heat peoples’ home.“…The peat is gotten with great difficulty. The roads from the brows of the mountains in general, are too steep for even a horse, the men therefore carry up on their backs a light sledge, fill it wit a considerable load, and drag it, by means of a ropw placed over their breasts to the brink of the slop, and draw it down, guiding it’s motions which at times are so violent as to overturn and draw along with it’s master, to the hazard of his life, and not without considerable bodily hurt.”Thomas Pennant, Tours in Wales, 1810.

Tributaries CywarchCerist (Dinas Mawddwy)Cleifion (Mallwyd)

The word ‘Dinas’ is derivd from ‘din’ as ‘as’ – ‘din’ being an old Welsh word for a hill or defended location, from which came the word ‘Dinas’ for a fortified town. The word ‘Mawddwy’ derived from ‘maw’ and ‘gwy’ signifies an ‘overflowing stream’ or ‘deep water’. Tradition also suggests ‘Dinas Amwn-Ddu’, (Amwn Ddu’d Town) who was the father of St. Tydecho.

Thomas Davies, Hanes Dinas Mawddwy... 1983 (translation)

Folklore… that wonderful man St. Tydecho was very clever at performing miracles. He as rather superior in this line to the majority of saint of his time. In addition to being the founder of the churches of Llanymawddwy, Mallwyd, Garthebibio and Cemmaes, and the innumerable miracles he performed in the shpare of giving sight to the blind and sound limbs to the lame, Tydecho seems to have had spare time to devote to agriculteral pursuits... (story of the made spilling milk whilst crossing a stream and the saint turned the whole river ‘from it’s source almost almost as far as the village of Llanymawddwy into a beautiful stream of flowing milk, sweet and creamy; and gave that part of it the name Laethnant. It retains the name still.Charles Ashton, Guide to Dinas Mawddwy, 1893

(in the) Cywarch valley a famous witch of the name Bessie Richards liced long, long ago. This old hag was a terror to the whole neighbourhood. Those who had the copurage to refuse her importunities, were soon made visctims of her craft. A neighbouring farmer in the capacity of a churchwarden, had once offended her; and, in less than three minutes, his sheep were rolling Cowarch rock in great numbers. He wisely called after the witch, made his peace with her, and so the remainder of his flock were saved. It appeared that Bessie practiced the black art, not only for the sake of vengeance but also to gratify a mere whim. Going one day to Llanymawddwy, some boys asked her to cause the ox and the horse, which were yoked to a plough in a field on Coedcae farm, to fall flat on the ground. The horse fell immediately, and the ox went to it’s knees. She explained that she was unable to make the ox fall lower than the knees, because it was equipped with a yoke collar of mountain ash. We mention this as a useful charm against witchcraft.But there came an end to Bessie’s witching career. There caem to the neighbourhood a skilful conjuror, known as Disk Smot. When his fame spread about, he was requested to do away with the witch. Soon after Bessie began to run about like a mad woman along the vally, and at last she was transformed into a wisp of withered fern, and was blown by a sudden gust of wind in the direction of Mallwyd. Shortly afterwards her body was discovered in the weir above Mallwyd bridge.Charles Ashton, Guide to Dinas Mawddwy, 1893

The Red haired thieves of Mawddwy,Charles Ashton, Guide to Dinas Mawddwy - 1893 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Di-nas_Mawddwyhttp://www.eryri-npa.gov.uk/a-sense-of-place/myths-and-legends/gwylliaid-cochion-mawddwy-the-red-bandits-of-mawddwySaxon invaders who, as legend has it, slew Arthur at Camlan (near Dinas Mawd-dwy) http://www.glyn-yr-aur.com/dolgellau.htm10, Ofergoelion Bro Ddyfi (Dyfi Valley Superstitions)

In times gone by superstitions had a considerable inluence on the daily lives of the inhabitants ofthis valley much as it did in other rural parts of Wales, and historians and anthropologists have found it a fascinating subject to research and numerous books have been published about various aspects of this belief up to the present time. While some superstitions are common throughout the land others are much more localised, and the purpose of this research was to discover how much they still influenced the population within living memory. Following a general introduction the files are divided into various instances of daily life where the super natural played a part. These include trees, plants, body and soul, figures nad colours, birth, marriage, and death, and daily life in the home. Also included are good and bad omens and local witches and magicians. (Gwydaf Breese)

Some cousin fo Dad Tom (Stepfather), lived in a place called Dinas Mawddwy, east of Dollgellau and I used to visit them in their farmhouse on the hill. We used to sit right in alongside the open fireplace under a sort of arch. It was great

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Dinas Mawddwy, Llanymawddwy & Mallwyd (cont’d.)

IndustryMany years ago a lead mine was worked upon the mountina called Craig Gwyn but was soon abandoned on account of the water filling up the workings which for want of propoer machinery could not be removed. At the foot of Craig Gwyn, and extending upwards is one of the largest slate deposits in the Kingdom...

Thomas Roscoe. … North Wales,1854

Slate is not the only treasure nature has hidden Mawddwy, there are also veins of limestone, copper, and lead perhaps even gold... When I was a lad I followed the intrepid ‘Ioan Pedr’ in his attempts to exploit the limestone, and he was sucessful in following it’s course in some places. Much limestone was raised on Plasau mountain and on Ty Canol land, where David Evans, Ty Nant, burned a great deal in a kiln that can still be seen there... there was also an old lime kiln on Plasau mountain... The vein never plentiful, - about half a yard wide, and is of grey colour. The old people used peat to fuel the kilns but Edmund Buckly once attempted to use coal, but this proved too expensive a fuel for that purpose.

Tegwen Davies, Hanes Dinas Mawddwy a’i Hamgylchoedd, 1893, (Translation)

The Mawddwy Railway Bill passed through Parliament in 1865 and work commenced in the spring of the following year... construction costs at £40,000 must have surprised even Mr. Buckley... the district was very proud of it’s railway, and there was great entusiasm for Mr, (later Sir) Edmund Buckley’s plan to extend it to Bala, joining the Great Western Railway at Llanuwchlyn. Those who have travelled over Bwlch y Groes, the highest pass in Wales will appreciate what a challenge this route presented. The project is put in perspective, however, whe nit is known that Mr Buckley was a founder director of the (proposed) Channel Tunnel... the extension was never started but it continued to be the object of local speculation for many years.

Julian Hunt, Arriving at Dinas Mawddwy, 1976

The railway closed to public passengers in 1901 due to disrepair and then reopened in 1911, largely due to the efforts of Mr David Davies, the great grand-son of the famous railway contractor, and himself a strong voice on the board of the Cambrian Railway. He prepared to buy the railway from Buckley’s family

and press colleagues in te Company to take on the work of reconstruction.The stopping of the sevice caused much inconvenience and the closing, or partial closing of the slate quarries and brought misery to a countryside from which many had moved to the coalfields of South Wales or emigrated to the Canadian wheat prairies

Aberystwyth Observer, 1911

The railway was then taken into the Great Western Railway system in 1922, it’s days were numbered when the first omnibus reached Dinas two years later. The Meagre passenger service lasted until 1930 and the complete closure of the lin was only put off when the country again went to war... The railway struggled on, but damage to a bridge over the Dovey settled the matter, and the line was officially closed in July 1951. The Station at Dinas Mawddwy was then developed into a thriving woolen mill and cafe in 1966 and is still going strong today.Mimllyn Quarry is situated on the side of a hillock known as Moel Maes Camlan above the railway station at Dinas Mawddwy. Work started sometime between 1793 and 1800, much of the extraction was unorgainsed. The quarry canged hands in 1865 and was leased to the ‘Carlile Slate an Slab Company’. By 1867 over a 160 worked at eh quarry producing over 240 tons of slate slab and flooring a month. 1876 Mr Edmund Buckley was bought out (following bankruptcy); the Company bought the works, but in 1887 the quarry was idle for around two years. From that time there was little life and prosperity at the place, although there is regular work taking place ther at the present time, which no doubt is reulting in profit to the owners.A grand view of the quarry can be seen from the above Caegof, and it’s influence on Dinas and the surrounding area is very important. The Quarry is full od valuable resources, and as there are substantial machine shops included, and the railway so close, in a word everything is so convenient it is the greatest regret that a brighter dawn will not arrive, like in the past days.

Thomas Davies, Hanes Dinas Mawddwy a’i Hamgylchoedd, 1983 (Translation)

At this quarry only slabs are made – not roofing slates, and they are sawn and planed to the desired shape. The largest and best are used for billiard tables; the smallerones for mantle-pieces. The most novel and interesting feature, however, was the engine that drives the machinery. In place of the huge boiler and pistons or cumbersome water wheel, we see a compact little drum only a yard or so in diamter. This we are told is a turbine or hydraulic engine, worked by a tiny stram of water at very high pressure. The pressure is obtained from the great fall, (260 feet) at this quarry – higher than any other in Wales. The engine will work at any desired power from nil to fifty horse-power and has cost practically nothing since it was started about six years ago, nor has it ever got out of order.

Description by a member of the Carodoc and Severn Valley Field Club during a visit to Minllyn quarry, June 1900

hospitality, with simple food and plenty of it, though primitive, - no bathroom or anything, but they could hod forth about poetry. It is always wrong to view people who come from a small isolated place as less cultured than those from big cities with plenty of facilities. Often the very lack of facilities, means they are much better read.

George Thomas, Viscount Tonypandy, ‘My Wales’ 1986

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Dinas Mawddwy, Llanymawddwy & Mallwyd (cont’d.)

Historic site

Glyn rees is a skilled craftsman who for many years has lived in the little Merio-neth village of Dinas Mawddwy, and like his father and several generations of forebears has spent most of his life working in wood. In common with other fine craftsmen he has no need to advertise, indeed he shuns publicity. His workshop is out of site and difficult to find, butr is well worth the serach for one is welcomed there with trues Welsh kindness and hospitality.Glyn is always pleased to show you around the large and airy place where oak and many other kinds of timber, including pine and mahogany, he fashions his wide variety of beautiful and unusual things. He makes long-backed spinning chairs, bellows of every size- some quite small, others with handles several feet long – dressers, cupboards, coffins, he is also an undertaker – chests and stools, some covered with leather, others with taperstry woven locally, a massive oak door studded with nails was gong to an old house in Machynlleth and I noticed a charming little drop-leaf table the top of which could be securely locked by giving it just half a turn. He excels in fashioning church furniture, examples of his work can be found in a number of churches in north and Mid-Wales, particularly in the Bala area.The wood must be properlyu seasoned. One way of clearing out all the sap, particularly in oak, is to drop the timber into a pond and leave it there, possibly for as long as a year, in the old days, whenever there was a saw bench there was a waterwheel and where you found a water wheel you found a millpond. Swan planks were put into the pond and left to float there for three to four weeksGlyn told me of the very valuable oak that is occasionally turned up by drainage excavation from deep down in boggy ground, where it may have lain for as long as 1000 years. Black as ebony, though possibly not as hard it makes wonderful furniture. Ideed it is so valuable that a few unscrupulous antique dealers have been known to bury ordinary oak in the right kind of marshy conditions and then sell furniture made from it as the more expensive bog oak.

Mary Corbett Harris, Crafts, Customs and Legends of Wales, 1980

Crossing the river again to keep within the county boudary I took a lane to Aber Angell, where pretty white washed cottages clustered above the little river Angell. From here I decided to walk over the mountain to Aberllefenni by an old track known as St. Cadfan’s Road.The saint was reputed to have taken that way on his jouneys from Towyn (Tywyn) to his other church, Llangandfan in Powys...(Charles Ashton?)

John Mawddwy was lord of Mawddwy upon the boutbreak of the Glyndyr rebellion in 1400. He was first cousin of Owain.

J. Beverely Smith, History of Merioneth, Vol.2. 2002

A Junkers 88 bomber which had been engaged on reconnaissance, was forced down by a spitfire and crashed on the side of a Welsh mountain on Saturday afternoon. News that it had crashed was not known until a German officer presented himself at a farmhouse and told the occupants, Mr and Mrs Jones, of the plight of his comradesall whom were badly hurt. He too was injured... Mr Jones notified Mr T. Noble, who summoned the Home Guard for duty.... They found the three Germans lying there near the crashed machine... The task of the rescue party was made moe difficult bythe density of the mist and the slippery conditions of the track.... the kithcen being converted in to a temorary claering hospital... The men were amazed at the hospitality bestowed upon them by the ‘enemy’...

The County Times, Septmeber 14. 1940

...Sat huddled by the fire, the soldiers detailed to guard them taking a low profile. Suddenly the muffled, but unmistakable sound of high-flying aircraft could be heard, the drone of their unsynchronised engines leaving no doubt that they were German bombers heading for Mersyside. One of the women ran to turn down the lamp to comply with the blackout regulations, while the airmen, their heads together, muttered away in their own language. Everyone in the room sensed a rise in tension, the guards fingered the butts of their rifles nervously, the women’s chatter died down abruptly, their fingers digging depply into the folds of their aprons. The tensed silence was broken by the heavily accented English of Eric Bohn calling out “do not turn out the light lady, those boys know where they are going, do not fear”.So much for the supposed efficiency of blackout regulations.

Gwyndaf Breese. Enemy on the Mountain. The Dyfi Vally at War Project. 2001

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Tributaries

Water UseMany hydro/electric points along the Dulas before the National Grid came to the area

LanduseThe quality of the agricultural land in the Corris area is low, comprising a limited acreage of level ground, supplemented by hill slopes of poor thin topsoil with many rock outcrops. This is coupled with a high annual rainfall, as the area lies in the path of the prevailing south-westerly winds, humid after their passage across the Atlantic Ocean, and the Irish Sea. Arable farming on a large scale was therefore not possible, and the topography and climate were more suitable to sheep-farming, with perhaps a nucleus of store cattle, and possibly some subsistence cultivation on the better ground. A feature of sheep-farming, as distinct from arable, is the relatively small labour force needed, and this is reflected in the statistics on the census returns.

Religion

Economy“Slate came to be worked scientifically and with enterprise when it was at length realised, towards the end of the 18th Century, that, owing to increasing demand, there were fortunes to be made out of the industry.” 111 Brief Glory

Corris narrow-guage railway allowed transport of sufficient quantity of slate in any volume.

1851 the great Slate and Shipping boom (BG)

IndustryFirst decades of the 19th century when the Slate Industry was developing apace at Blenau Ffestiniog and in Caernarfonshire, most of the few inhabitants of the narrow Dulas Valleys were still scratching an agrarian subsistence. Existence of the ‘Veins’ (two veins - the ‘Broad Vein’ and the ‘Narrow Vein’) was known, but quarrying was not realistically viable until the 1830’s with the abolition of the tax on coastwise slate and in 1835 with the building of the new ‘Coach Road’ (today’s A487).

In the transitional period of the first half of the Nineteenth Century, it is evident of the effect that the emergence of quarrying had upon the pattern of farming tenancy in the area...The census of 1851 shows that out of a total population of 476, 231 (48.5%) were born outside the parish of Talyllyn. Almost every other person who lived in Corris in 1851 had moved there from elsewhere... The chief reason for the influx was undoubtedly the development of the quarrying industry. This was building up to its peak at around this time (1851), having been growing since the beginning of the century, and this is reflected most vividly by an examination of the place of birth of men aged between 18 and 40 – the main bulk of the working population. Whereas the overall population breakdown gave a ratio of approximately 1:1 between immigrants and native born, the pattern in the working group shows an even more remarkable situation – for very two men in this age group born in the parish, the were not two from outside, but five.

In 1851, education was not compulsory, it was customary for young people of both sexes to enter employment at the age of 15, or even younger.

Up until the early part of the Nineteenth Century, little change had taken place economic and social life of Wales, - the economy of the country had been centered on famring, and the absence of communication resulted in patterns of virtually self-contained, isolated, hamlets, unchanging, settled in routine which was unvaried from year to year, from generation to generation.

However, during the Nineteenth Century, and with dramatic suddenness, this was all changed. The ancient pattern was disrupted as communications were improved by the construction of roads, and railways were spreading their metal fingers further and further into the valleys and around the coastlines, giving rise to the emergence of certain basic industries other than the traditonal; pattern of farming.

This was a period of transition, - a super-imposition of new industries, new ideas, new people upon an older, stable culture, and the effects were felt in many hithero quiet places. Such a place was the township of Corris...

Corris was fortunate, as the upper reaches of the Dovey Estuary were only seven or eight miles away, an the seaborne trade was efficient flourishing at this time. It was a fairly easy task to transport goods down the valley to the quayside at Derwenlas, south of Machynlleth, and in time the horse drawn carts and

FolkloreCader Idris, the great chair of the giant Idris, sleep the night here and you will either become a poet or a madman by the morning!

“Knockers” a species of fairies who haunted mines and underground regions and whose province was to indicate by knocks and other sounds, the presence of rich veins of ore. 136 (Folk lore of West and Mid Wales)

Corris & Aberllefenni

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corris

Deri, Llefenni, Dulas

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waggons were replaced by a narrow-guage railway, constructed specifically for the carriage of the wealth produced in and around Corris.Coupled with geographical location was the real reason for the explosive growth of Corris – presence of slate, a raw material essential for the growing roofing needs changing, expanding.

Towyn/Corris/Dinas Mawddwy – Ordovician and Silurian Slate

Corris slate is found in rock forming the Bala series of the Ordovician System. There are two veins in the belt – the Broad Vein (Y Faen lydan) and the Narrow Vein (Y Faen gul).

From the Dyfi two Thousand project

1849 - approx 1,500 tons of slate from Derwenlas(Topographical Directory of Wales)

1859 - Corris Railway opened. Only then did the quarrying generate substancial growth in the valleys

1875 - Almost a dozen quarries in operation, Corris railway was carrying approaching 20,000 tons of slate (to Derwenlas)

When the Great War came, slate was classed as “non-essential” and the industry faded to near nothingness

There were subsequent peaks and troughs of production but the quarries never reached the heights of production of the 1870’s.

“the railway had infused life and hope into the local quarries at Corris and Abergynolwyn.” 205 (BG)

Corris & Aberllefenni (cont’d)

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Historic siteEconomy

Religion

Landuse

Water Use

Economy cont’d.

IndustryRailway from Mallwyd to Cemmaes Road Station

FolkloreTylwyth Teg (fair family) Folk lore of West Wales: http://www.archive.org/stream/folkloreofwestmi00daviuoft#page/252/mode/2up

Cylchau y Tylwyth Teg – fairy rings “These circles were numerous in Wales when I was a boy...”

Gwerddonau Llion The green isles of the sea were fairy islands off the coast, a certain spot in Cemmaes was the requisite platform from which to see the green isles dwelling places of the Plant Rhys Ddwfn (Children of Rhys the Deep).

“It is stated that certain herbs of a strange nature grew in their land, so that they were able to keep their country from being seen by even the most sharp-sighted invaders.” 91 The only other place that these herbs grew is a square yard in Cemmaes where if you stand you can see the whole of their territory (Folk lore: Folk lore of West Wales)

Cemmaes/ Cemmaes Road

TributariesAngell

Linau

Llwydo

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Historic site

Economy

Industry

Water Use

Landuse

ReligionChurch of Saint Gwrin. (Llanwrin)

“It is said in the “Pedigree of the Saints” that there were two saints of the island of Britain, namely Ust and Dyfnig, residing in Llanwrin, who came here from Brittany with Saint Cadfan, who made his home in Tywyn, Meirionnydd.” Portrait 99

The church at Penegoes is dedicated to St Cadfarch, and nearby is St Cadfarch’s well, “which has restored rest and healing to the joints of many”

St. Cadfarch’s Well: I’ve searched for this many times, and at last I think I know where it is, but it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint. The Machynlleth & District Civic Society renovated it a few years ago.

In a field near the church is a spring whose waters are esteemed efficacious in rheumatic complaints. It was formerly covered over by a building, part of the walls of which still remain: the well has been formed into a bath, about seven yards in length and three in breadth, divided in the middle by steps leading down into each part; the average depth is about four feet. From: ‘Penalley - Penmaen’, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1849), pp. 299-308. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47876. Date accessed: 20 August 2006.

“Penegoes Wells. At Penegoes are two wells alongside each other, enclosed with low walls: the water of one is said to be of higher temperature than the other; both were in repute for divers complaints: frequent pilgrimages were made to them within living memory”. Publications of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire: Montgomeryshire, 1911.

“Ffynnon Gadfarch. St. Cadfarch is patron of Penegoes church, occasionally called Llangadfarch: of this well Bishop Maddox wrote - ‘St. Gadfarch’s Well is in one field of ye Glebe. Ano[ther] P[ar]cel of ye Glebe is called Erw Gadfarch’: its waters were beneficial in rheumatic cases”. Lives of the British Saints, S.Baring Gould & J.Fisher. 4 vols. London, 1913.

FolkloreHoly wells were important spiritual and medicinal sites in the past, the waters were used to wash the afflicted body part, then the rag used was then tied to a tree near the well.

Penegoes & Llanwrin

TributariesGwydol

Nant Cwmyrwden

Nant Ffrydlan

Ceirig

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Water UseThe first Dyfi Bridge at Machynlleth was buit in 1533 and replaced an existing ford.

Landuse

Religion

FolkloreThe main street in Machynlleth is called Heol Maengwyn (Street of White rocks) after the huge quartz bolders at the Eastern edge of the town. Travellers would touch these as they left the town for good luck on the road.

A large standing stone called the Maen Llwyd is an ancient feature now surrounded by bungalows, possibly the true meeting point of Glyndwr’s parliament. What did it look like in its original setting?

Historic siteSome sources say that Machynlleth is the site of the Roman settlement of Maglona.

Owain Glyndwr had several skirmishes against the English and several visitories before travelling by boat from his stronghold at Harlech Castle to Machynlleth. He called all the great men of Wales to a parliament in the town, strategically placed between North and South, between the Cambrians and Snowdonia. It is here the Glyndwr was crowned king of Wales. Parliament House and the Glyndwr institute stand as monuments to this historic massing of the nation.

Llawdden, a famous bard and priest in holy orders, officiated at Mach. From 1440 to 1460

Mach church was built from the stones of the road that connected the Roman camp in mach with Cefn Caer.

Rebecca Riots “powerfully influenced southern parts of Montgomeryshire...the great number of toll gates and the heavy toll levied on the turnpike roads had become intolerable...a secret organisation was formed for the razing down of the obnoxious gates.” Mr. Hugh Williams born at Gelligoch Machynlleth, Solicitor, wrote and published a selection of Chartist songs.

EconomyThere has been a Wednesday market in the town since the 13th Century.

Wool Manufacture “Frise of Cambria” “Women learnt to knit “as soon as they could talk”, and finished a whole stocking in a day. “The planters of South Carolina clothed their slaves in this “frise of Cambria” 36

Factories where set up in Dolgellau, Machynlleth and Llanbrynmair in 1797. The output of manufactured cloth was worth £50k-£100k per annum. Dispatched overseas “some was sold in Germany, Holland, and Russia, some even went to Africa.

Industry“About 1845 there was a great demand for them (slates) all over the country; it was so great that various quarry owners applied to Parliament for permission to build a tram road down the Dulas past Machynlleth, toward Aberdovey. In 1858, an Act of parliament was passed, giving authority for the construction; this is known as the Corris, Machynlleth, and River Dovey Tramroad Act, 1858.”

Trams drawn by horses – came past Garshion and Tan y Bryn then ran along the main road to Quay Ward where the offices of the various companies were located. “It cannot be certain whether the tramroad ran down to the Bwtri.

“Machynlleth: the manufacture of flannels, principally of the coarser kind, is carried on to a considerable extent..more than forty carding engines and seven fulling mills are employed in the town and its vicinity.”

Machynlleth

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Water UseLead ore port at Morben

A major landmark in Derwenlas in the past was Tafarn Isa (lower tavarn) now known as Tan y ffrodd, when trade ceased it became a private house, and today it still stands as a monument of the gateway to the old port, where boats un-loaded their cargoes to be sent to different parts of the country.

There were once three quays at Derwenlas on the Dyfi: one in front of Tafarn Isa, 2nd where the present railway bridge crosses the old course of the Dyfi named Quay Ellis (after the owner), third quay was called Quay Ward (again after its owner).

Llyn Bwtri (the butttery pool), a noted whirlpool when the tide was high, this became a pool where ships could remain afloat when the tide dropped. It has an historically strategic site on the Dyfi since ancient times

Old tavarn on the “Maenan,” a peak of rock close to the river, the boats that hadn’t made it to their destination went in smaller boats to the pub. It did great business!

“When the railway was made to Aberdyfi, a bridge had to made to span the river, and as boats had rights on the river the Cambrian Railway had to make a drawbridge, so that the boats with their high masts could pass through.”

Used to be a ferry across to Pennal from Garreg side

“Two ships, named the Catherine and the Maelor, registered tonnage of 76 and 60, were built in 1866 and 1869, respectively, at Llynbwtri.”

Some of the boats built at Derwenlas were sold as far afield as Caernarvon and Port Isaac Cornwall. The last boat to be built at Quay Ward was the Rebecca.

The most suitable timber was kept for the building of ships.

There was a fatality at the Bwtri of a horse logging team trying to cross the river to Pennal side in the early morning, they washed down into the whirlpool by the current.

John Rees – Watch maker of Machynlleth – invented a submarine (converted boat), sank on its maiden voyage but there were enough people to help draw the boat back up again.

LanduseMajor traffic through the port at Derwenlas was in timber and bark, a noted timber merchant, John Evans, lived at Morben Isa.

The bark was stripped in the Spring when the sap of the oak was just coming up – stripped off and stacked undercover. “yr hen dy bark” the old bark house. At the end of the felling season the men cleaned off the moss and the bundles of bark were taken off to the ships to the tanneries of england. “Oak bark tanning takes six to nine months, oil or chemical tanning takes only three weeks. Speed in production has been gained at the cost of the quality of the leather.”

“the demand for this bark led to an unreasonable destruction of oak woods.” 40 (BG)

Limestone

There were five limestone kilns at Derwenlas. Limestone was an important soil additive for the acid soils of the Dyfi Valley, “the maximum amount put in the land before the war had been 135,000 tons a year.” Culm (a kind of soft coal) was used to heat the limestones – mixed with clay and shaped into balls to burn.

ReligionThere were four denominations in the village – local people were mostly nonconformists

Weslayan Chapel on a small holding called Ty Coch – built in 1858The Independent Chapel built in 1849, plus a Calvanistic chapel in 1875.

Derwenlas and Morben

Llyfnant

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Historic site“Although Derwenlas was a small village it was divided into three sections. The part next to Machynlleth was called Pentre Cilyn because the lime kilns were situated here. The centre of the village was called Pentre Nant, because a brook (nant) ran through this port. The third part was called Pentre Refail because there was a smithy.”

old Roman road went up by Bryntyrnol via Glaspwll

Llyn Penrhaiadr is the from which the Llyfnant flows. The lake teams with fish that, so it is said, were brought from Rome when the region was in the possession of the Romans.

Industry1862 diversion of river away from Derwenlas due to the building of the railway and its embankment. “Even as it was helping, the Railway was also killing.” Brief Glory

There is an old magazine for gunpowder up in the woods by Morben Quarry. (Many quarries were used as storage depot for munitions during the wars - a safe place away from obvious targets...)

The invention of coke smelting took the metal industry away from the area and down south.

FolkloreLegend of the rivers – the Llyfnant and Dulas rivers are mentioned as two of five sisters, the five rivers that flow from Pumlimon (along with the Wye, Severn and Rheidol).

EconomyThe port at Derwenlas exported annually (1847):500 tons bark, 40,000 ft timber, 150,000 oak poles for mining, 1500 tons hard silurian slab slate, 1500 tons lead ore dispatched from moorings.

Inwards came 5000 qtrs rye or wheat, 1000 tons coal, 11,000 hides, and miscellaneous goods to the value of £14,000, plus for lime kilns 2,000 tons of limestone.

“When they saw the benefits that the railway would bring to them, those same merchants and traders abandoned the port in favour of the new technology.”

Derwenlas and Morben (cont’d.)

Llyfnant

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ReligionSt Peter ad Vincula, graveyard is circular sugesting a pre-Christian siteOnly three other churches are named “St Peter in Chains.” The circular boundary of the church grounds point to it being a pre-christian religious site. “tradition that the circular form of the churchyard shows that there was once a druidical circle on the spot.”

St Cadfan’s path is reported to pass through pennal linking his churches at Tywyn and Llangadfan in Montgomery.

Landuse

Water Use“there is a deep “llyn” or pool, called “Llyn Bwtri” (Llyn yr Wtra) where a vessel of small burden can lie afloat after the tide has fled back to the sea.”

“Roman ships, plying ghostlike in the mists of antiquity, not only brought cargoes to the Dovey but took away also, most certainly furs, skins, timber and quite possibly lead and copper ore.” Brief Glory

FolkloreSmall stone circle near the entrance to Happy Valley known as the “Eglwys Gwyddelod” or the Church of the “Goidels” or Gwyddyl in Welsh, the Celtic tribe that eventually invaded Ireland.

Legend of a crock of gold found at Cefn Caer, notorious Pennal wise man or “Dyn cyfarwyd” Doctor Puw...the gold was taken and divided and the crock left where it was...

“Craig Carn March Arthur” near Pennal - “the rock of Arthur’s horses hoof” near Llyn Barfog, a boulder, half buried in the earth with a horses hoof print in it

(Legend of the Bearded Lake and the Fairy Cow)Bearded Lake was formerly Llyn Llion where a monster called the Afanc (Beaver!) lived, which used to occasionally “trouble the people much”by breaking the banks of the lake and flooding the lands. Hu Gadarn (Hugh the Mighty) bound it in chains after enticing it from its lair with a girl...tied to team of Hu’s oxen the Bannog Oxen, (Ychain Banawg) – dragged it through the mountains to Llyn y

PennalFfynnon las, the lake of the green well, Snowdonia. Others say it was King Arthur and his war horse (Llamrai) - hole in rock proves this...?

The Cows of Dyffryn Gwyn, Meinwen (a Welsh White) a cow owned by three sisters (witches) wandered off to Dyffryn Gwyn farm where it was mingled with the herd there. Meinwen eventually returned home but the three sisters put a spell on the farm cows, causing them to vanish into Llyn Barfog.

This also agrees with a legend that used to be knwon in Llŷn: The people of Gwynedd were plagued by the Gwyddel and Emrys Wledig (Aurelius Ambrosianus) commanded Arthur to take his painted army from the land of Prydyn to expel the invaders. The men of Llŷn acquiesced to the army and were given their own realm. But the men of Gwynedd fought until they were defeated and their lands were given to the men of Prydyn whom Arthur ruled. At the time of Ambrosius the Llŷn peninsula was an Irish settlement and, indeed, the name Llŷn is derived from the same root as the Irish Leinster. The tale is in some respects a just-so story telling how a Goidelic region becomes Brythonic and explaining the unusual position (semi-autonomous rule) that Llŷn had within Gwynedd. Still, it does tie Ambrosius to a movement of men from the ‘Old North’. Could this represent the folk memory of the coming of Cunedda? This is possible but requires further historical examination.

Bearded Lake: Sir John Rhys in Celtic Folklore suggests that it was originally called Llyn-y-Barfog (The Bearded One’s Lake) referring to some ancient mythical being who would have lived there.

One story states that ‘On the banks of Llyn Barfog, fairies would take to the air at eventide with their dogs and kine. On one occasion a farmer captured a fairy’s cow, whose progeny became famous throughout the land for their flesh, milk and butter. At length the cow was taken to the butcher, and the farmer and his neighbours gathered around to see the slaughter of such a fine beast. But, the fatal blow was never given. When the butcher raised his hand to strike the cow, a piercing cry rang out and drew everybody’s eye to one of the crags above Llyn Barfog where a green clad dame stood with arms raised, and with a voice like thunder said: “Come, yellow Anvil, stray horns, speckled one of the lake, and the hornless Dodin, arise, come home.” At once, the mystical cow and her remaining progeny fled at topmost speed to the lake, where, the mortified farmer chasing in hot pursuit watched them descend.’

The fairy cow story is recounted in British Goblins (Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions) (1880) by Wirt Sikes.

Llyn Barfog is the scene of the famous elfin cow’s descent upon earth, from among the droves of the Gwragedd Annwn. This is the legend of the origin of the Welsh black cattle, as related to me in Carmarthenshire: In times of old there was a band of elfin ladies who used to haunt the neighbourhood of Llyn Barfog, a lake among the hills just back of Aberdovey. It was their habit to make

TributariesAfon Pennal/ Rhonwydd

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Pennal (cont’d)their appearance at dusk clad all in green, accompanied by their milk-white hounds. Besides their hounds, the green ladies of Llyn Barfog were peculiar in the possession of droves of beautiful milk-white kine, called Gwartheg y Llyn, or kine of the lake. One day an old farmer, who lived near Dyssyrnant, had the good luck to catch one of these mystic cows, which had fallen in love with the cattle of his herd. From that day the farmer’s fortune was made. Such calves, such milk, such butter and cheese, as came from the milk-white cow never had been seen in Wales before, nor ever will be seen again. The fame of the Fuwch Gyfeiliorn (which was what they called the cow) spread through the country round. The farmer, who had been poor, became rich; the owner of vast herds, like the patriarchs of old. But one day he took it into his silly noddle that the elfin cow was getting old, and that he had better fatten her for the market. His nefarious purpose thrived amazingly. Never, since beef steaks were invented, was seen such a fat cow as this cow grew to be. Killing day came, and the neighbours arrived from all about to witness the taking-off of this monstrously fat beast. The farmer had already counted up the gains from the sale of her, and the butcher had bared his red right arm. The cow was tethered, regardless of her mournful lowing and her pleading eyes; the butcher raised his bludgeon and struck fair and hard between the eyes; when lo! a shriek resounded through the air, awakening the echoes of the hills, as the butcher’s bludgeon went through the goblin head of the elfin cow, and knocked over nine adjoining men, while the butcher himself went frantically whirling around trying to catch hold of something permanent. Then the astonished assemblage beheld a green lady standing on a crag high up over the lake, and crying with a loud voice:

Dere di felen Emion,Cyrn Cyfeiliorn-braith y Llyn,A’r foci Dodin,Codwch, dewch adre.Come yellow Anvil, stray horns,Speckled one of the lake,And of the hornless Dodlin,Arise, come home.

Whereupon not only did the elfin cow arise and go home, but all her progeny to the third and fourth generations went home with her, disappearing in the air over the hill tops and returning nevermore. Only one cow remained of all the farmer’s herds, and she had turned from milky white to raven black. Whereupon the farmer in despair drowned himself in the lake of the green ladies, and the black cow became the progenitor of the existing race of Welsh black cattle.

http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/wales/gwynedd/legends/llyn-barfog-the-bearded-lake.html

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Pennal (cont’d)

Historic site

Cefn Caer, Roman Fort: “ the situation of the fort was very well chosen, as it commands the estuary of the Dovey, by which seafaring invaders would be likely to approach; it would also be convenient for unloading sea-borne supplies. The great main road from South Wales to Carnarvon, called Sarn elen or Helen, runs through it.”

Roman coins found there, from the fort to the waterside is a broad hard paved way paved with stones ten or twelve yards broad, conjectured that the fort stones were used to build the church at Pennal...(new church was built in 1769).The stones were also used in the building of the Riverside Hotel “Ty Brics,” stones were concrete conglomerate, reddish pieces embedded in a whitish ce-ment, hypocaust found by Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1866.

Story that a tunnel connects Cefn Caer with Machynlleth, coming out at the Royal house. The opening is in the cellar at the farm house but had been filled up with stones, another story is that it is in the Llugwy lane.

“Tomen Las” the Green Mound – site of a medieval “Llys” - guard the river cross-ing. Tomen – mound “castle mount” of a medieval manor, presence of a mill near by “Melin y Parsel.”

Bards: Llewlyn Goch Ap Meurig Hên 1350-1380, ancestral home in the neigh-bourhood of pennal, masterly lament or cywydd after the death of Lleucu Llwyd.

Glyndwr – Pennal was important to him, 1404 height of power, wrote a letter to Charles VI king of france dated from Pennal on the last day of March, written in Latin, the letter still exists in the archives of France in Paris.

Cwrt means court...could have been the sight of Owain Glyndwr’s royal resi-dence although there is nothing to prove this.

Battlefield of Pennal – battle of the War of the Roses “Maes ym Mhennal”. Wtra Beddau – road of the graves. Two armies of York and Lancaster fought here, Lancaster won the battle – Dafydd Goch (of Radnorshire) was slain here and a pile of stones erected over his grave.

IndustryCefn Caer – big Roman garrison, supplies came in by sea, were they mining and exporting lead? (BG)

Plas Talgarth –eighteenth century estate owned by Humphrey Edwards and one of the largest in south Merionethshire – ‘beautifully set overlooking the Dyfi but now encroached by holiday chalets’- quote from Pevsner’s Gwynedd. Tomen Las by the drive is an earth motte thought by some to be Aberdyfi castle built 1156 by Rhys ap Gruffudd but also thought to be associated with its namesake on the other side of the river at Ynyshir.

Llugwy - late seventeenth century estate 1 mile south east of Pennal owned by the Anwyl family. Mr R C Anwyl was a director of the Cambrian Railways in the 1860s when the course of the Dyfi was altered by the new railway embankment at Derwenlas. The river took its revenge by carving out an acre of land from his Llugwy estate on the opposite bank, but he plugged the holes created with the last of the boats from Derwenlas before the port closed.

Domen Las is the substantial earth motte at Ynyshir surrounded on three sides by a rock cut ditch with marsh on the fourth side. It could also be the original Aberdyfi castle built by the Lord Rhys in 1158 against Owain Gwynedd, then captured and rebuilt by the Norman Roger de Clare in 1158 only to be retaken by the Lord Rhys in the same year. Welsh history of this period is impenetrable – they were all at each others throats and are all called either Owain or Rhys.

Sarn Helen is more or less accepted as crossing the Dyfi near the Roman fort of Cefn Caer south east of the Llugwy Hotel (Grid reference SN 712996). Built on a low rounded spur of land, the fort is close to the first good point for fording the river where tongues of land extend opposite each other on both banks of the river. Commanding the river crossing, the site was protected on three sides by marshes and could be supplied by sea. Some years ago I spoke to one of the Dyfi fishermen and he said that it is still possible to ford the river at this point at certain times of the year.

Near Cwrt:Eglwys Y Gwyddelod is a small possibly Bronze age stone circle near Cwrt, near Pennal. It translates into English as ‘The Irishman’s Church’. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=355 , http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/55787/details/EGLWYS-Y-GWYDDELOD%2C+CAIRN+CIRCLE/

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Landuse“The Seventeenth Century, the age of the silver-lead mines which needed huge quantities of charcoal for smelting. So began the destruction of the last fragments of our native oak forest. The eighteenth century then continued with the spoliation because it too had furnaces, not for the smelting of lead-ore but of iron-ore which was brought here by sea from North West England. Most of our ancient woodlands have never been restored. Instead they were converted into pastures for cattle and sheep” William Condry

Bryncynfil is the name given to the forest plantation on the site of Cors Dyfi (Ordnance Survey)

Religion

Economy

Folklore

Industry Smelting house at Garreg – noted for the lead trade - 17th Century. A loading place for silver and lead shipments.

Dyfi Furnace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyfi_Furnace

Furnace: Built around 1755, Dyfi Furnace is probably the best-preserved example of an 18th century charcoal-burning blast furnace in Britain - and is one of rural Wales’s hidden industrial gems. The furnace was built by Vernon, Kendall & Co. The Kendall’s, who were in sole ownership by 1774, were a family of ironmasters from the West Midlands who had extensive interests in the Lake District and Scotland as well as furnaces and forges in Cheshire and Staffordshire - signifying that the furnace was part of an industrial empire on a British scale. This wood-land area was chosen to take advantage of the local charcoal supplies produced from the local forestation, while the iron was probably shipped in from Cumbria. Dyfi Furnace seems to have only been in use for 50 years and by 1810 it was abandoned. It was later converted into a sawmill, and it is this period that the present water wheel belongs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/history/pages/dyfifurnace.shtml

“Lead ore is found in the parish, and mines of that metal have been opened in the township of Is y Garreg.”

Eglwys Fach & Furnace Water Use

Dyfi Furnace utilised the location they chose for the furnace to create power from the Dyfi Tributary, the Afon Einion

Garreg, named after a promenant rock or “carreg” in the river, was a port sup-plying the needs of North Cardiganshire. Boats of 700 tons came as far as here but only boats of 70 tons could sail as far as Derwenlas.

Garreg “salmon fishers congregated to await the first movement of the ebb before casting their nets.”

“Here (Garreg) almost alongside the rock in midstream, had river boats and sloops taken in their precious cargoes to reship them into vessels of larger tonnage lying off Aberdovey itself.” 23

“The fishery generally begins in September, sometimes sooner, and holds three or four months. He rest of the year they are employed in the coast and Irish trade with some few larger sloops they have to carry Lead Ore, Timber and Bark.”

Lewis Morris, Custom House Officer at Aberdovey attempted a survey of the estuary – charts and notes published in 1748. Dovey bar... (BG)

TributariesEinion

Historic siteDomen LasRS Thomas lived at Eglwsfach.

Hubert Mappin owned owned Ynys Hir 1929-1966 – kept it as a private bird sanctuary

Glandyfi - a small settlement known for the only castellated Georgian house in Ceredigion – Glandyfi Castle, built on escarpment overlooking river. Glandyfi provided the road/footpath connection for Dyfi junction and the jumping off point for early tourists to the Llyfnant valley – described in an early guide book as ‘that glorious glen’. Garreg is the main road settlement with an industrial his-tory - in the early 1700s the Company of Mine Adventurers built a lead-smelting plant and small loading quay there.

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Water Use

Landuse

Religion

Economy

Economy cont’d.

Historic site

FolkloreTaliesin’s Grave http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1177372/llgc-id:1178419/llgc-id:1178460/getText, http://www.llangynfelyn.org/dogfennau/bedd_talies-in_mynegiad.html, http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=4443

http://digidol.llgc.org.uk/METS/LLT00001/frames?div=14&subdiv=0&locale=en&mode=thumbnail`

Taliesin, chief bard of the Island of Britain, is said to be buried at Bedd Taliesin. The grave which is a pile of stones in the centre of a large earth mound sur-rounded by stone circles, bones and a human skull were found there some time ago...story that if anyone should sleep on the grave would awake a poet or and idiot. That it was not the grave of Taliesin, we may collect from the following considerations. He flourished when Christianity had taken deep root in Wales, and his works throughout evince his sincere belief in the Christian doctrines. It was the custom, after the introduction of Christianity into Britain, to make frequent use of the cross, and this emblem was always carved on the sepulchral monuments of devout persons of that period, as we have many examples even in this country. As Taliesin therefore was celebrated as a pious Christian, as well as an excellent poet, such a monument would undoubtedly be erected to him, and probably was in North Wales, where he spent the latter part of his life. This druidical relic is situated on a mountain, called Pen Sarn ddu, between the rivers Ceulan and Clettwr.

Industry

Tre Taliesin

TributariesCletwr

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Water Use16th century Ynys cottage is the old ferry port across the Dyfi.

LanduseThe Leri was canalled in 1820’s.

ReligionChurch to Saint Cynfelyn, early 6th Century

EconomyLlancynfelyn: Dyfi navigable here “convenient to ship out considerable mineral wealth, and other things that are sent away from here in great plenitude.” Portrait...92

IndustryQueen Elizabeth 1st set up saltings during the war with France (dearth of salt imports) in various places including the south side of the mouth of the Dyfi. Receeding tides trapped and the residue boiled over peat fires to produce salt. Once war with France was over, trade in salt resumed and the industry disappeared.

FolkloreTaeth Maelgwyn. Chieftain around the 6th Century persuaded warring chieftains to unite under one of their number by having a “canute-like” competition to see which of their number could remain seated for the longest against the incoming tide. Since Maelgwyn had a floating throne, he won and was recognised as the Tywysog Mawr (the Great Prince). However, Taliesin’s prophesy of his downfall proved correct.

Taliesin is supposed to have been born somewhere between the Dyfi and Aberystwyth.

Bedd Taliesin (hilltop Bronze age tumulus) is his reputed grave, but Tre Taliesin was named in the 19th Century and used to be called Tafarn Fach.

Historic siteGiraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) journeyed across the Dyfi in 1188 with the Archbishop of Canterbury, to Archdeacons, two Cistercian Abbots and two princes they “enlisted three thousand Welshmen for a new Crusade, few of whom ever went. Journeyed from Hereford to Chester through Wales.

Llangynfelyn: during 2004 a mediaeval wooden trackway was discovered running from near Ynsysycapel across Cors Fochno to Ynys Cynfelyn. This has now been dated to about 1100 A.D. There is also evidence of metal-working associated with the site, possibly of Roman origin. Link to dig diary: http://www.llangynfelyn.org/dogfennau/digdiary.htm

At the southern terminus of the visible causeway, the trackway was found to overlie an extensive area of burning and industrial debris. A preliminary exami-nation of the samples from this waste indicate a very high proportion of lead waste suggesting that lead ore may have been smelted in the immediate vicinity. We have just obtained two radiocarbon dates of 60 BC-AD90 and AD20-220 for charcoal from these industrial deposits, suggesting a late Iron Age or Roman date.

Dylife Lead mines, during 18th Century the lead was taken by horse drawn wag-ons along the mountain road to Machynlleth

Llancynfelyn & Ynyslas

TributariesLeri

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Water UsePort of Aberdyfi

Queen Elizbeth’s Privy Council: a “survey of the ports, creeks and landing places on the Welsh Coast” 1569 – survey of pirate activities pg 8.

The port books “They are the chief source of our information concerning the tonnage, cargoes, and movement of ships during the important, because constructive Tudor period.” 16

For the Dyfi: “quite an unexpectedly large fleet of Dovey sloops, almost the first of their kind; they are outward bound with Oak bark for Irish Ports.”

“In the meantime Aberdovey, a small ferry hamlet in 1566 gradually developed (without shipping of its own) to be the most active centre of maritime activity in mid and north Cardigan Bay. Early in 17th century the expansion of the lead industry (on the Cardiganshire side) brought increased contacts with Bristol, Bideford and London, and also with ports beyond the sea.” 21

“There were no roads, or very indifferent ones, before 1828, and no railway until 1860. As the sea provided the only highway, and ships’ bottoms the only adequate means of conveyance, a considerable flotilla of sloops – little ships that could negotiate long and shallow rivers like the Dovey – was indispensible if the output of mines quarries and factories was to be shipped abroad, or even if farmers, tavern-keepers, kiln-rentiers, shop-keepers and millers were to be served with essential goods.”

Lewis Morris mentions 97 sloops belonging to Aberystwyth, Aberdovey, Borth, Newquay and Aberaeron – chiefly engaged in the herring fishery with larger ones carrying bark and lead ore to various ports.

Aberdyfi was where ships were built, sailed and their captains schooled.

Huge boom in orders for ships – yellow pine brought from Labrador was used as well as Dyfi Oak – steam bent in a huge stove.

(BG)

Religion

Landuse“Later on in the story you’ll see limestones being shipped into the Dovey in hundreds of tons; you’ll also see lime kilns springing up by the dozen to burn these stones in order that advanced farmers might enrich their soil. It is from that time that wheat-growing became practical on land so notoriously deficient in lime as Welsh land.” (BG)

Economy“Herringefysshynge after Michaelmas” - herrings salted and barrelled dispatched to London. Attempt to produce salt needed locally on the flooded marshes to the north of the river – proposal to erect salt works there in 1567, Duke of Norfolk and the Lords of Pembroke and Leicester were partners in this enterprise – therefore a large scale herring industry. (Le Seadog).

Goods imported: potatoes, malt, rye, empty porter casks, butter, woollen cloth, copper ore, wheat and barley;

Goods exported: slates, waggon railings, pig iron, lead ore, shoes, cheese, treenails, tanned calf skins

1827 new road to Aberdyfi.

(BG)

Aberdyfi

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Aberdyfi (cont’d.)FolkloreCantre’r Gwaelod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantre%27r_Gwaelod,

Sarn Gynfelyn, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Low_tide_at_Sarn_Gynfelyn_-_geograph.org.uk_-_845252.jpg#filelinks

Record of an Irish vessel in the Dyfi 1109 “The chronicle of the Princes” fleeing of Cadwgan and Owen to Ireland – fleeing from Gerald de Windsor as Owen had won over and “captured” his wife “Nest.”

Legend of a flooded land beneath the sea of Bae Ceredigion, Sarn Bwch and Sarn Cynfelyn are high points of this. Flooded at end of last ice age.(BG)

Cantref y Gwaelod – the lowland hundred, the lost hundred – had 16 cities and in the 6th century, the region was governed by a king named Gwyddno Garanhir. The land was below sea level so dykes had been built to prevent encroachments from the sea. One day Saethennyn Feddw or Saethennyn the Drunkard, the son of the king of south wales (Dimetia), opened the sluice gates and the sea flooded in but the people fled to the uplands and landed in Ardudwy. This happened in the reign of Emrys Wledig.

There is a poem on the inundation in the black book of Carmarthen “Llyvr Du Caerfyrddin.”

Sarn Cynfelyn is meant to be the road leading to the submerged region.

In Aberdyfi there is a well-told tale of bells and chimes being heard beneath the sea.

http://website.lineone.net/~dyfival1/cantrer.htm

IndustryShipbuilding – Penhelig was the first shipyard at Aberdovey...

Historic siteAfter the defeat of the armada, Spanish ships raided the Welsh coastline – November 1597 a Spanish vessel entered the Dyfi and laid there for ten whole days to renew its stores... “The Bear of Amsterdam” - shot at with muskets.

Probably blown in to the Dyfi by the Westerly winds, was lucky to find “the slant of wind that allowed him to escape.” Recorded in the state papers but also found its way into local tales and stories.

“Bryn y Celwydd” a hill by the harbour at Aberdovey – the hill of arrival, where the ferry arrived, the crossing was a “precarious business”- this was a recognised spot for which to aim and at which travellers could gather – Bryn Dathoedd – landmark. (BG)

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Water Use

Landuse

Religion

Economy cont’d.

Historic site

Folklore

Industry

Economy“Herring was the main harvest, for of gardens there were few if any, and bog yielded nothing but peat for kindling; and since it was decreed by Nature that even herring should only enter the Bay during the season of storm around Michaelmas it was no easy harvest-home.” 196

Borth

TributariesLeri

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Water Use

Folklore

Landuse

Religion

Economy

Economy cont’d.

Historic site

Industry“During the eighteenth century the lead from here was taken by horse-drawn waggons along the mountain road to Machynlleth...” in the mid-nineteenth century the mine belonged to the parents- in-law of Richard Cobden, the exponent of free trade and of the abolition of the corn laws that were causing widespread poverty at the time...bought the Dylife workings for £24,000.”

“...made radical improvements to the miners’ conditions, and for years Dylife was the only mine in Wales and the north of England to provide changing rooms for the men” 140 drovers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cobden

Dylife