Penparcau
Encyclopedia
Penparcau is a suburb
of Aberystwyth
in Ceredigion
, Wales
.
, one mile east of Aberystwyth town centre, but the building of extensive Art Deco
style semi-detached social housing from the 1920s on transformed the village. The village lies in the shadow of the Celt
ic Iron Age
hill fort
of Pen Dinas
, and between the River Ystwyth
and the River Rheidol. Penparcau is part of the only UNESCO
Biosphere reserve
in Wales
, the Dyfi Biosphere.
There is an Anglican church, Roman Catholic church, two Methodist
chapel
s and a Quaker
meeting house. The Tollgate pub
is named after the original tollgate that stood on the old toll road
at the top of Penparcau and is now in St Fagans National History Museum
near Cardiff
.
Penparcau has its own woodland
, Coed Geufron run by the Woodland Trust
and its own police station. Other amenities include a post office
, two small supermarket
s, a garage, holiday park and hotel
and until recently two fish and chip shops, one of which has a reputation as one of the best in the area. It also, until recently, had its own travel agent, which closed down in late 2007.
Penparcau is playing a key part in the Transition Town movement in Wales and has hosted an "Alternative Energy and Transport Festival" in Neuadd Goffa, attended by the local MP and mayor. At the bottom of the valley, just below Penparcau, is a new Welsh Assembly Government
office building, designed to house more than 550 staff.
hillfort is believed to have been occupied for some 300 years up to and including the 1st century BC. Pen Dinas is the largest Iron Age hillfort in Ceredigion. Estimated to have been first built around 400 BC, the outline of the ancient ramparts is still evident.
A distinctive memorial to the Duke of Wellington
in the shape of an upturned cannon was built on the hilltop in 1852. The hilltop comprises a twin summit system and the mounded defences divide into three systems. Archaeological excavations in the 1930s demonstrated at least four phases to the defences. Pen Dinas is now more popular as a tourist attraction for walkers and used in a more sedate manner for paragliding
.
Penparcau in 1841 was spelled Penparke, Penparciau, Penparkie or even Pen Y Parciau (on the 1890 OS map) and stretched on both sides of the turnpike road from Trefechan to Southgate. The population of the hamlet was 239, most of whom were workers in agriculture
and related rural
industries. There were three agricultural labourers and only one farmer; the next most important occupation was that of stonemason of whom there were eight. There were three shoemakers, two tailor
s and two shipwrights
as well as the following: rope-maker, joiner, tanner, carpenter, gardener, sawyer
, wheelwright
, weaver and saddle
r.
In the 18th century, smuggling was a key part of the economy, with tea, salt, rum and tobacco being some of the things smuggled into the local area. There are records in the national archive showing an extensive smuggling ring run by the Powell and neighbouring Stedman families. The smuggled goods were bought into Penparcau to avoid the excise
men stationed in Aberystwyth.
There is also interesting domestic architecture that can be assigned to Richard Emrys Bonsall such as the Ebeneser Chapel, still in use today. The plans for many of these buildings can be found at the National Library of Wales
.
A famous feature that existed in Penparcau was the toll house
. It was built in 1771 and stood at the southern junction of Penparcau (hence the name Southgate). It was built of local slate
stone and was roofed with Pembrokeshire
slates. David Jones of Dihewyd was appointed as the first gatekeeper in November 1771, and the first tolls were charged on 23 March 1772. The building contains just one room, one end being used for the collection of tolls. A single fireplace at the opposite end of the house was used for heating and cooking. Toll houses were very unpopular with people in rural areas who had to pay to travel along the roads. At St Fagans the house has been furnished in the style of 1843, the period of the Rebecca Riots
when many tollgates were destroyed in Wales. Turnpike Trusts were eventually abolished in 1864 with county councils taking over responsibility for building and maintaining the roads but the Penparcau toll house remained a residence until the 1960s.
reported that over 40% of the residents of Penparcau spoke Welsh and used Welsh daily, larger than any other individual census zone within that area, when compared to the other census data sets. As a combined zone, Aberystwyth South (Penparcau and Trefechan) has more Welsh language users.
The area has a long literary tradition. The famous bard
/academic writer D. Gwenallt Jones
(David James Jones) lived in the area. More recently another resident, Ifan Morgan Jones, won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize for his novel at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 2008.
s (Celts) living around the Penparcau and Pen Dinas area. There may be some truth to this as early coin hoards have been found, that suggests some of the earliest religious activity in Wales took place on this site. It has also been theorised that the original inhabitants were the same people that made the Banc Tynddol sun-disc in nearby Cwmystwyth
. There are also many stories relating to the pirates that used this part of the coastline such as Bartholomew ‘Black Bart
’ Roberts the Pirate.
During one winter in the late 19th century, villagers woke to find mysterious footprints in the fresh snow. It soon became apparent that these had not been made by any human as they were hoofprints made by a creature who walked on two legs and not four. Villagers followed these hoofprints and found that the creature had walked through fields, roads and even managed to walk over walls and roofs in one uninterrupted path. It was believed that the Devil had walked through Penparcau that snowy night and has never been seen back since.
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....
in Ceredigion
Ceredigion
Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
.
Location and amenities
The original village was a small hamletHamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
, one mile east of Aberystwyth town centre, but the building of extensive Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style semi-detached social housing from the 1920s on transformed the village. The village lies in the shadow of the Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
of Pen Dinas
Pen Dinas
Pen Dinas is the name of a hill south of Aberystwyth on the coast of Ceredigion, Wales, upon which an extensive Iron Age hill fort is situated....
, and between the River Ystwyth
River Ystwyth
The River Ystwyth is a river in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. Its source is a number of streams that include the Afon Diliw, located on the border of Ceredigion and Powys in the Cambrian Mountains....
and the River Rheidol. Penparcau is part of the only UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Biosphere reserve
Biosphere reserve
The Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO was established in 1971 to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.-Development:...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the Dyfi Biosphere.
There is an Anglican church, Roman Catholic church, two Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
s and a Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
meeting house. The Tollgate pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
is named after the original tollgate that stood on the old toll road
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
at the top of Penparcau and is now in St Fagans National History Museum
St Fagans National History Museum
St Fagans National History Museum , commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture and architecture of the Welsh people...
near Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
.
Penparcau has its own woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
, Coed Geufron run by the Woodland Trust
Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is a conservation charity in the United Kingdom concerned with the protection and sympathetic management of native woodland heritage.-History:...
and its own police station. Other amenities include a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
, two small supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s, a garage, holiday park and hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
and until recently two fish and chip shops, one of which has a reputation as one of the best in the area. It also, until recently, had its own travel agent, which closed down in late 2007.
Penparcau is playing a key part in the Transition Town movement in Wales and has hosted an "Alternative Energy and Transport Festival" in Neuadd Goffa, attended by the local MP and mayor. At the bottom of the valley, just below Penparcau, is a new Welsh Assembly Government
Welsh Assembly Government
The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...
office building, designed to house more than 550 staff.
History
People have lived in and around Penparcau for over two thousand years. The Iron AgeIron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hillfort is believed to have been occupied for some 300 years up to and including the 1st century BC. Pen Dinas is the largest Iron Age hillfort in Ceredigion. Estimated to have been first built around 400 BC, the outline of the ancient ramparts is still evident.
A distinctive memorial to the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
in the shape of an upturned cannon was built on the hilltop in 1852. The hilltop comprises a twin summit system and the mounded defences divide into three systems. Archaeological excavations in the 1930s demonstrated at least four phases to the defences. Pen Dinas is now more popular as a tourist attraction for walkers and used in a more sedate manner for paragliding
Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...
.
Penparcau in 1841 was spelled Penparke, Penparciau, Penparkie or even Pen Y Parciau (on the 1890 OS map) and stretched on both sides of the turnpike road from Trefechan to Southgate. The population of the hamlet was 239, most of whom were workers in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and related rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
industries. There were three agricultural labourers and only one farmer; the next most important occupation was that of stonemason of whom there were eight. There were three shoemakers, two tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
s and two shipwrights
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
as well as the following: rope-maker, joiner, tanner, carpenter, gardener, sawyer
Sawyer
Sawyer is an occupational term referring to someone who saws wood. One such job was the now-archaic occupation of someone who cut lumber to length for the consumer market, a task now done by end users or at lumber and home improvement stores...
, wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
, weaver and saddle
Saddle
A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
r.
In the 18th century, smuggling was a key part of the economy, with tea, salt, rum and tobacco being some of the things smuggled into the local area. There are records in the national archive showing an extensive smuggling ring run by the Powell and neighbouring Stedman families. The smuggled goods were bought into Penparcau to avoid the excise
Excise
Excise tax in the United States is a indirect tax on listed items. Excise taxes can be and are made by federal, state and local governments and are far from uniform throughout the United States...
men stationed in Aberystwyth.
There is also interesting domestic architecture that can be assigned to Richard Emrys Bonsall such as the Ebeneser Chapel, still in use today. The plans for many of these buildings can be found at the National Library of Wales
National Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...
.
A famous feature that existed in Penparcau was the toll house
Toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries...
. It was built in 1771 and stood at the southern junction of Penparcau (hence the name Southgate). It was built of local slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
stone and was roofed with Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
slates. David Jones of Dihewyd was appointed as the first gatekeeper in November 1771, and the first tolls were charged on 23 March 1772. The building contains just one room, one end being used for the collection of tolls. A single fireplace at the opposite end of the house was used for heating and cooking. Toll houses were very unpopular with people in rural areas who had to pay to travel along the roads. At St Fagans the house has been furnished in the style of 1843, the period of the Rebecca Riots
Rebecca Riots
The Rebecca Riots took place between 1839 and 1843 in South and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to perceived unfair taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took their actions against toll-gates, as they were...
when many tollgates were destroyed in Wales. Turnpike Trusts were eventually abolished in 1864 with county councils taking over responsibility for building and maintaining the roads but the Penparcau toll house remained a residence until the 1960s.
Culture
The United Kingdom Census 2001United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
reported that over 40% of the residents of Penparcau spoke Welsh and used Welsh daily, larger than any other individual census zone within that area, when compared to the other census data sets. As a combined zone, Aberystwyth South (Penparcau and Trefechan) has more Welsh language users.
The area has a long literary tradition. The famous bard
Bard
In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
/academic writer D. Gwenallt Jones
D. Gwenallt Jones
Gwenallt , poet, critic, and scholar, was one of the most important figures of 20th-century Welsh-language literature.-Early life:...
(David James Jones) lived in the area. More recently another resident, Ifan Morgan Jones, won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize for his novel at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 2008.
Myth, folklore and legend
One of the more unusual residents is the headless dog of Penparcau. The myth tells of how a giant, going to his father's rescue, rode at such a rate that his dog could not keep up with him and its head came off in the leash. The dog now roams, mournfully crying and looking for its long-lost owner. Other local stories relate to the discovery of ancient gold in Penparcau, thought to have once belonged to the druidDruid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
s (Celts) living around the Penparcau and Pen Dinas area. There may be some truth to this as early coin hoards have been found, that suggests some of the earliest religious activity in Wales took place on this site. It has also been theorised that the original inhabitants were the same people that made the Banc Tynddol sun-disc in nearby Cwmystwyth
Cwmystwyth
Cwmystwyth is a village located in Ceredigion, Wales near Devil's Bridge, and Pont-rhyd-y-groes.The Ordnance Survey calculates Cwmystwyth to be the Centre point of Wales, - History :See Cwmystwyth Mines...
. There are also many stories relating to the pirates that used this part of the coastline such as Bartholomew ‘Black Bart
Black Bart
Black Bart may refer to:*Black Bart , notorious American Old West outlaw* Bartholomew Roberts , Welsh pirate in the late 17th and early 18th centuries* Black Bart , a musical theater group...
’ Roberts the Pirate.
During one winter in the late 19th century, villagers woke to find mysterious footprints in the fresh snow. It soon became apparent that these had not been made by any human as they were hoofprints made by a creature who walked on two legs and not four. Villagers followed these hoofprints and found that the creature had walked through fields, roads and even managed to walk over walls and roofs in one uninterrupted path. It was believed that the Devil had walked through Penparcau that snowy night and has never been seen back since.
External links
- 1890 Map of Penparcau
- Archives of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales 1
- Archives of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales 2
- Archives of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales 3
- www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Penparcau and surrounding area