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Abergele

Coordinates: 53°17′N 3°35′W / 53.28°N 3.58°W / 53.28; -3.58
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the district in Ethiopia, see Abergele (woreda).

Abergele
Abergele from Tan-y-Gopa
Abergele is located in Conwy
Abergele
Abergele
Location within Conwy
Population11,290 (Community, 2021)[1]
8,535 (Built up area, 2021)[2]
OS grid referenceSH945775
Community
  • Abergele
Principal area
Preserved county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townABERGELE
Postcode districtLL22
Dialling code01745
PoliceNorth Wales
FireNorth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
List of places
UK
Wales
Conwy

53°17′N 3°35′W / 53.28°N 3.58°W / 53.28; -3.58


Map of the community

Abergele (Welsh: [ˌabɛrˈɡɛlɛ]; pronunciationⓘ) is a market town and community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Denbighshire. Its northern suburb of Pensarn lies on the Irish Sea coast. The town is served by Abergele and Pensarn railway station, which is by the coast at Pensarn.

Etymology

[edit]

The meaning of the name Abergele can be deduced by aber being the Welsh word for estuary, river mouth or confluence and Gele the name of the river which flows through the town. Gele is a dialectal form of gelau, which means spear, describing the action or speed of the river cutting through the land.[3][4]

Geography

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Gwrych Castle
Hill which the hillfort of Castell Cawr is situated

The town itself lies on the A55 road and is known for Gwrych Castle.[citation needed] The highest hill is Moelfre Isaf (1040 ft) to the south of the town.

There are views from Cefn-yr-Ogof (669 ft), Gallt-y-Felin-Wynt (Tower Hill) (587 ft) and Castell Cawr (known locally as Tan y Gopa and nicknamed 'Lôn garu' (Lover's Lane)) which is 189 metres (620 feet). Castell Cawr is an Iron Age hillfort, one of several in the area. Dinorben hillfort to the east of town was destroyed in the 1980s.

At the 2021 census, the community had a population of 11,290,[1] and the Abergele built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics (which excludes Pensarn) had a population of 8,535.[2]

Nearby villages include St George, Betws yn Rhos, Rhyd-y-foel, Belgrano, Llanddulas and Llanfair Talhaearn.

History

[edit]
Bridge Street, Abergele circa 1875
Cottages in Abergele

"I have observed, at low-water, far from the clayey banks, a long tract of hard loam, filled with the bodies of oak trees, tolerably entire; but so soft as to be cut with a knife as easily as wax. The wood is collected by the poorer people, and after being brought to dry upon the beach, is carried home and used as fuel; but, in burning, it emits a very bad smell."

Excerpt from 'Tours in Wales with Notes' by Thomas Pennant (1726 - 1798), Edited by John Rhŷs - 1883 [5]

Celtic and early Welsh history

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Abergele was the site of an important clas (Celtic monastery) and remained settled into the 13th century. A "Prince Jonathan of Abergeleu" is listed by the B text of the Annals of Wales as dying during the 9th century reign of Rhodri the Great,[6] although Charles-Edwards has supposed him to have simply been the monastery's abbot.[7] Edward I is known to have briefly stayed there in December 1294 during his invasion of Wales to suppress the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn.

Sites of historical interest include two Iron Age hillforts; Castell Cawr at Tan y Gopa and Dinorben (now virtually disappeared owing to limestone quarrying) at St. George. On Gallt y Felin Wynt, a hill above the town known as Bryn Tŵr or by its English name 'Tower Hill', is a 17th-century windmill, partially restored in 1930. There is another Iron Age fort at Pen y Corddyn Mawr hill above Rhyd y Foel. There is also another watchtower, 'Tŵr Arglwyddes Emily' or 'Lady Emily's Tower', which is located near Cefn yr Ogof.

Gwrych Castle

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Gwrych Castle was built between 1819 and 1825 at the behest of Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh. From 1894 until 1946 it was the residence of the Dundonald family.[8] Gwrych Castle's present owner, California businessman Nick Tavaglione, who bought the landmark in December 1989, put Gwrych up for auction on 2 June 2006, but it failed to sell. The condition of the property is being monitored by the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust.[9] It is undergoing renovation.

The boxers Bruce Woodcock (in the late 1940s)[10] and Randolph Turpin (in 1952)[11] trained at Gwrych Castle. The film Prince Valiant, was filmed there in 1996, starring Edward Fox and Katherine Heigl.[12][13]

St. Michael's Parish Church

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In a Welsh antiquarian book from 1860, it mentions that there has always been a 'local tradition or popular opinion that the original Abergele was overwhelmed by the sea' and that an inscribed stone at St Michael's parish church (built on the site of the old clas) which was once readable but had been weathered over time read;

"Yma mae'n gorwedd,
Yn mynwent Mihangel,
Gwr oedd ei annedd,
Dair milltir yn y gogledd"

Although through oral tradition, the elders believed that the weathered stone was a modern copy of the original which could be found on the other side of the wall which was far more weathered and illegible. In 1890's, a third (bilingual) copy was made and presented by Mrs Taylor of Dolhyfryd and the vicar, David Evans. The updated inscription (with slightly altered text) on the tombstone reads in order:

"YMA MAE'N GORWEDD YN MONWENT MIHANGEL WR OEDD A'I ANNEDD DAIR MILLTIR I'R GOGLEDD"

"HERE LIETH IN ST. MICHAEL's CHURCHYARD A MAN WHO HAD HIS DWELLING THREE MILES TO THE NORTH"

As the sea is little more than half a mile away at this point, this suggests that the sea has made some considerable advance over the centuries.[14][15]

Outside the church is a penitential stone where sinners had to do penance by standing, dressed in white, by the stone and beseech the congregation for mercy as they entered and left the church.[16]

Railway disaster

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In 1868 the railway line through Abergele was the site of the worst railway disaster in Britain to that time. The result of a series of circumstances, errors and failures led to loose wagons containing barrels of paraffin, detached from another train at nearby Llanddulas, rolling down towards Abergele. The Irish Mail train from Euston to Holyhead ran into them. Its leading coaches were enveloped in flame which burned occupants alive. In all 33 people died.[17][18][19]

An inquest was held a few days after and ran until early September of the same year. It concluded that it was no accident and that the two brakesmen of the goods train to which the petroleum wagons had previously been attached were to blame, and the deaths were manslaughter.[17][20]

Other

[edit]

Abergele Sanitorium was built just outside Abergele in 1910;[21] it became a community hospital in the 1980s.[22]

On 30 June 1969, the evening before the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in Caernarfon, two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, were killed when the bomb they were planting outside government offices exploded prematurely.[23]

In 2020 Abergele hosted the 20th edition of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! at Gwrych Castle, and in 2021 it hosted the 21st series due to the Covid pandemic restrictions in Australia.[24]

Tower on Gallt-y-Felin-Wynt, Abergele

Governance

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Town Hall, Llanddulas Road

There are two tiers of local government covering Abergele, at community (town) and county borough level: Abergele Town Council (Cyngor Tref Abergele) and Conwy County Borough Council (Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy). The town council is based at the Town Hall on Llanddulas Road.[25]

Administrative history

[edit]

Abergele was an ancient parish. It formed part of the commote of Isdulas, which became part of Denbighshire on the county's creation in 1536 under the Laws in Wales Acts. The parish covered the town itself and surrounding rural areas, including the higher ground to the south of the town and the coastal plain up to the River Clwyd to the east, including Pensarn, Towyn and Kinmel Bay.[26]

In 1865, there was an attempt to create a local government district covering both the settlements of Abergele and Pensarn,[27] but it was not brought into effect.[28] Instead, a smaller district just covering Pensarn was established in 1867.[29] The Pensarn local government district was enlarged in 1876 to also include Abergele, at which point it was renamed 'Abergele and Pensarn'.[30]

Local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act also directed that civil parishes could no longer straddle district boundaries, and so the old parish of Abergele was divided into a parish called Abergele Urban matching the Abergele and Pensarn Urban District, and a parish called Abergele Rural covering the rest of the old parish. The urban district was substantially enlarged in 1935, taking in Towyn and Kinmel Bay from the Abergele Rural parish, as well as Llanddulas and St George, which had previously both been separate parishes. As part of the 1935 expansion, the urban district was renamed from 'Abergele and Pensarn' to just 'Abergele'.[31]

In 1938, the urban district council bought a large house called Pentre Mawr on Dundonald Avenue (built 1853)[32] to serve as its town hall. The grounds of the house were converted into a public park.[33]

Abergele Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The area became part of the new borough of Colwyn in Clwyd.[34][35] The area of the pre-1974 urban district became a community called Abergele, with its community council taking the name Abergele Town Council. The community was split into three smaller communities in 1983: Abergele, Llanddulas and Rhyd-y-foel, and Kinmel Bay and Towyn.[36][37][38] The upper tiers of local government were reorganised again in 1996, when the modern county borough of Conwy was created. Abergele Town Council took over the former magistrates' court on Llanddulas Road to serve as its town hall following the court's closure in 2000.[25][39]

Notable people

[edit]
  • Felicia Hemans (1793–1835), English poet who grew up at Abergele and later identified herself as 'Welsh by adoption'.
  • Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh (1788–1861), owner of the Gwrych Castle and High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1828.
  • Emrys ap Iwan (1848–1906) a Welsh literary critic and writer on politics and religion.
  • Aylward M. Blackman (1883–1956 in Abergele) Egyptologist, excavated sites in Egypt and Nubia
  • Mervyn Roberts (1906–1990), a Welsh composer, known for his piano music.
  • Ralph Steadman (born 1936), illustrator, best known for his collaboration with the writer Hunter S. Thompson.
  • David Vaughan (born 1983), footballer with 476 club caps and 42 for Wales
  • Georgia Wilson (born 1995), paralympic equestrian
  • Jesu, experimental metal band, formed in 2003

References

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  1. ^ a b "Abergele community". City Population. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, England and Wales: Census 2021". Census 2021. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  3. ^ Mills, David (2011). A dictionary of British place-names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-960908-6.
  4. ^ https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/25-beautifully-named-welsh-places-24579508
  5. ^ "Tours in Wales with Notes by Thomas Pennant Edited by John Rhŷs - Printed and Published by H. Humpphreys (Caernarfon)". 1883 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ The Annals of Wales (B text), p. 10.
  7. ^ Charles-Edwards, T.M. "The Heir-Apparent in Irish and Welsh Law". Celtica, Vol. 9, p. 180–90. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1971. Accessed 27 Feb 2013.
  8. ^ A brief history of Gwrych Castle, Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, archived from the original on 28 February 2009, retrieved 14 March 2009
  9. ^ What is the Castle Trust?, Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, archived from the original on 18 February 2009, retrieved 14 March 2009
  10. ^ "Terrified Doncaster boxer fled from 'ghost' at new I'm a Celebrity castle". 4 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Gwrych Castle event will celebrate the life of the great Randolph Turpin". 30 June 2016.
  12. ^ "How one historic castle went from derelict ruin to television show star - ITV News". ITV News. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  13. ^ "The Welsh castle left to rot for decades and brought back to life on I'm a Celeb". 18 November 2020.
  14. ^ Black, Adam and Charles (1857), Black's Picturesque Guide to North Wales, p. 30
  15. ^ ̺The mediæval history of Denbighshire. The records of Denbigh and its lordship: bearing upon the general history of the county of Denbigh since the conquest of Wales; by Williams, John, of Wrexham, Wales, Wrexham, G. Bayley, 1860
  16. ^ "Penance Stone at St Michael's Church, Abergele -". 20 October 2017.
  17. ^ a b "London and North Western Railway" (PDF). railwaysarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  18. ^ "Terrible Railway Disaster - Twenty-Three Persons Burned Alive, Many More Injured", Sheffield Independent, 21 August 1868 – via British Newspaper Archive
  19. ^ The Queenslander, Saturday, November 7, 1868 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/20321387
  20. ^ The Brecon County Times 12 September 1868
  21. ^ Abergele Hospital, Abergele, National Archives, retrieved 24 February 2019
  22. ^ Abergele Hospital, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, retrieved 24 February 2019
  23. ^ "The 'Abergele Martyrs' killed in bomb explosion on eve of Prince of Wales' investiture". 3 July 2018.
  24. ^ "I'm a Celebrity 2021 to return to Gwrych Castle in Wales as Australia filming still impossible". 2 August 2021.
  25. ^ a b "Room Hire". Abergele, Pensarn and St George. Abergele Town Council. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  26. ^ "Abergele Ancient Parish / Civil Parish". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  27. ^ "No. 22963". The London Gazette. 28 April 1865. p. 2256.
  28. ^ "Abergele: Another attempt to adopt the Local Government Act". North Wales Chronicle. Bangor. 13 October 1866. p. 3. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  29. ^ "No. 23232". The London Gazette. 22 March 1867. p. 1857.
  30. ^ Annual Report of the Local Government Board. 1877. pp. xlviii–xlix. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  31. ^ "Abergele Urban Civil Parish". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  32. ^ Cadw. "Pentre-mawr (Grade II) (236)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  33. ^ "Abergele new Civic Centre plan". Evening Express. Liverpool. 19 May 1938. p. 11. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  34. ^ "Local Government Act 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1972 c. 70, retrieved 1 November 2022
  35. ^ "The Districts in Wales (Names) Order 1973", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1973/34, retrieved 30 October 2022
  36. ^ "History". Abergele Town Council. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  37. ^ "Denbighshire and Flintshire: Diagram showing administrative boundaries". National Library of Scotland. Ordnance Survey. 1972. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  38. ^ "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  39. ^ "Magistrates' Courthouses: Closures". Hansard. 12 November 2001. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abergele.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Abergele.
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