Pwllheli
Encyclopedia
Pwllheli is a community
and the main market town
of the Llŷn Peninsula
in Gwynedd
, north-western Wales
. It has a population of 3,861, of which a large proportion, 81 per cent, are Welsh
speaking. Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru
was founded. It is the birthplace of Albert Evans-Jones
- Cynan - the Welsh poet.
[ɬ], but is approximately pu-HLEL-ee or puth-HEL-ee.
in 1355, and a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on the 'Maes' (=field in English).
The town grew around the shipbuilding
and fishing
industries, and the granite
quarry
at Gimlet Rock
.
During the 1890s, the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a Cardiff
businessman. This work included the Promenade, roads and houses at West End. A tramway
was built linking the town to Llanbedrog
. The trams ran until 1927 when the section of track between Carreg-y-Defaid and Tyddyn-Caled was seriously damaged by a storm. Andrews ran the Cardiff Road section in 1928, and offered to sell the tramway to Pwllheli Corporation at the end of the season, but they did not take up his offer. He then sold the assets, and the Corporation removed the tracks during the winter of 1928/29.
For many years a holiday camp run by Butlins
operated a couple of miles from Pwllheli. The camp, renamed Hafan-Y-Mor, has been redeveloped and is now run by the Haven group.
The town contains numerous retail shops and many smaller shops.
Ysgol Glan y Môr was formed by the merger of the former Pwllheli Grammar school
and the Frondeg Secondary Modern School
s. These occupied sites at Penrallt and Upper Ala Road, respectively. The two schools merged in mid-1969 to form a comprehensive school
based at two separated sites within the town.
The junior pupils (year 1 and year 2) were located at the Penrallt site (former grammar school site) and the senior pupils (year 3 and upwards) were located at a new complex constructed at Cardiff Road. This new school was subsequently expanded to accommodate all pupils under the Ysgol Glan y Môr name.
The Penrallt site was later redeveloped to form the Pwllheli campus of Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor. The facade of the main building of the old grammar school was retained and incorporated into the design of the current college buildings. Thus the 'old school' is readily seen from the town square (Y Maes) in much the same way as it has been since the former Pwllheli County School moved to Penrallt in the early 20th century.
is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway
running to Machynlleth
with services continuing to Shrewsbury
and Birmingham
. The station is operated and served by Arriva Trains Wales
.
and Nefyn Coaches and serve most of the town as well as the rest of the wider Llŷn Peninsula area. Clynnog & Trefor run services to Caernarfon
where connections can be made to Bangor
and the wider North Wales area. Pwllheli bus station
is situated in the town centre.
, 80% of the population speak Welsh, with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in the 10-14 age bracket, 94%.
and rugby union
team Pwllheli RFC
.
The town has two beaches, South Beach and Glan-y-Môr. South Beach stretches from Gimblet Rock, across the Promenade and West End, towards Penrhos
and Llanbedrog
. Glan-y-Môr Beach is located on the eastern side of the river mouth and runs for 3 miles from behind the marina workshops and out towards Penychain (holiday camp).
Community (Wales)
A community is a division of land in Wales that forms the lowest-tier of local government in Wales. Welsh communities are analogous to civil parishes in England....
and the main market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of the Llŷn Peninsula
Llŷn Peninsula
The Llŷn Peninsula extends into the Irish Sea from north west Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the modern county and historic region of Gwynedd. The name is thought to be of Irish origin, and to have the same root Laigin in Irish as the word Leinster...
in Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...
, north-western 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...
. It has a population of 3,861, of which a large proportion, 81 per cent, are Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
speaking. Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
was founded. It is the birthplace of Albert Evans-Jones
Albert Evans-Jones
Sir Cynan Evans-Jones CBE , more commonly known within Wales by his bardic name of Cynan, was a Welsh poet and dramatist.-Early life:...
- Cynan - the Welsh poet.
Etymology
The town's name means salt water basin. The pronunciation of Pwllheli includes a sound not found in the English language, the voiceless alveolar lateral fricativeVoiceless alveolar lateral fricative
The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar fricatives is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K...
[ɬ], but is approximately pu-HLEL-ee or puth-HEL-ee.
History
The town was given its charter as a borough by Edward, the Black PrinceEdward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England....
in 1355, and a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on the 'Maes' (=field in English).
The town grew around the shipbuilding
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...
and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
industries, and the granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
at Gimlet Rock
Carreg yr Imbill
Carreg yr Imbill—in English Gimlet Rock or sometimes Gimblet Rock—is the remains of a large granite outcrop and quarry at Pwllheli, Gwynedd, Wales....
.
During the 1890s, the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a 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...
businessman. This work included the Promenade, roads and houses at West End. A tramway
Pwllheli and Llanbedrog Tramway
The Pwllheli and Llanbedrog Tramway was a horse tramway on the coast of the Llŷn Peninsula. It originally ran from Pwllheli town centre to the West End resort on the sea front, and was later extended to Llanbedrog. The tramway was one of many developed by Solomon Andrews....
was built linking the town to Llanbedrog
Llanbedrog
Llanbedrog is a village and community on the Llŷn peninsula of Gwynedd in Wales. It is situated on the south side of the peninsula on the A499 between Pwllheli and Abersoch. Formerly in the county of Caernarfonshire, it has a population of 1,020....
. The trams ran until 1927 when the section of track between Carreg-y-Defaid and Tyddyn-Caled was seriously damaged by a storm. Andrews ran the Cardiff Road section in 1928, and offered to sell the tramway to Pwllheli Corporation at the end of the season, but they did not take up his offer. He then sold the assets, and the Corporation removed the tracks during the winter of 1928/29.
For many years a holiday camp run by Butlins
Butlins
Butlins is a chain of large holiday camps in the United Kingdom. Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families....
operated a couple of miles from Pwllheli. The camp, renamed Hafan-Y-Mor, has been redeveloped and is now run by the Haven group.
The town contains numerous retail shops and many smaller shops.
Education
- Ysgol Cymerau, Primary School (Welsh-medium.)
- Ysgol Glan y MôrYsgol Glan y MôrYsgol Glan y Môr is a comprehensive school in the market town of Pwllheli in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The school serves a large part of the Llŷn Peninsula .-History:...
, Secondary SchoolSecondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
(Welsh-medium.)
Ysgol Glan y Môr was formed by the merger of the former Pwllheli Grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
and the Frondeg Secondary Modern School
Secondary modern school
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...
s. These occupied sites at Penrallt and Upper Ala Road, respectively. The two schools merged in mid-1969 to form a comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
based at two separated sites within the town.
The junior pupils (year 1 and year 2) were located at the Penrallt site (former grammar school site) and the senior pupils (year 3 and upwards) were located at a new complex constructed at Cardiff Road. This new school was subsequently expanded to accommodate all pupils under the Ysgol Glan y Môr name.
The Penrallt site was later redeveloped to form the Pwllheli campus of Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor. The facade of the main building of the old grammar school was retained and incorporated into the design of the current college buildings. Thus the 'old school' is readily seen from the town square (Y Maes) in much the same way as it has been since the former Pwllheli County School moved to Penrallt in the early 20th century.
- Coleg Meirion-DwyforColeg Meirion-DwyforColeg Meirion-Dwyfor , also known as CMD, is a college in Gwynedd, Wales at Dolgellau, serving the areas of Meirionydd and Dwyfor. It has a bilingual language policy and offers the possibility of studying most subjects through the medium of Welsh...
. (Mostly Welsh-medium.)
Rail
Pwllheli railway stationPwllheli railway station
Pwllheli railway station is a railway station serving the small coastal town of Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. It is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway.- History :...
is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway
Cambrian Line
The Cambrian Line is a railway from Shrewsbury to Welshpool, Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. The railway runs first through the central part of Wales and then along the coast of Cardigan Bay....
running to Machynlleth
Machynlleth railway station
Machynlleth railway station is a railway station on the Cambrian Line in mid-Wales, serving the historic town of Machynlleth. It was built by the Newtown & Machynlleth Railway, and subsequently passed into the ownership of the Cambrian Railways, the Great Western Railway, British Railways and...
with services continuing to Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
and Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. The station is operated and served by Arriva Trains Wales
Arriva Trains Wales
Arriva Trains Wales is a train operating company, owned by Arriva, that operates urban and inter urban passenger services in Wales and the Welsh Marches...
.
Buses
Bus services in the town are operated by Arriva Buses WalesArriva Buses Wales
Arriva Buses Wales is a division of Arriva that operates bus services in north Wales. It has its origins in the former Crosville Motor Services. Arriva Buses Wales has approximately 700 employees. The company's official name is Arriva Cymru Ltd.-History:...
and Nefyn Coaches and serve most of the town as well as the rest of the wider Llŷn Peninsula area. Clynnog & Trefor run services to Caernarfon
Caernarfon
Caernarfon is a Royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,611. It lies along the A487 road, on the east banks of the Menai Straits, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is to the northeast, while Snowdonia fringes Caernarfon to the east and southeast...
where connections can be made to Bangor
Bangor
- United Kingdom :* Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland** Bangor ** Bangor , until 1800* Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, after which most of the ex-colonial Bangors are named....
and the wider North Wales area. Pwllheli bus station
Pwllheli bus station
Pwllheli bus station is the only bus station in Pwllheli, Gwynedd. Services from here serve the town and the wider Llŷn Peninsula region of North-West Wales.It is located in the Maes area in the town centre.-Services:...
is situated in the town centre.
Attractions
- Plas BodegroesPlas BodegroesPlas Bodegroes is a former country house, located near Pwllheli, Gwynedd.The Grade2 listed Georgian country house stands in its own grounds on the Llŷn peninsula, in the far north west of Wales...
, formerly a Michelin starred restaurantRestaurantA restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services... - Two Blue Flag beachBlue Flag beachThe Blue Flag is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education that a beach or marina meets its stringent standards.The Blue Flag is a trademark owned by FEE which is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation consisting of 65 organisations in 60 member countries in Europe,...
es - Penarth Fawr, a 15th century house
- Marina
- Hafan Y Môr, a former ButlinsButlinsButlins is a chain of large holiday camps in the United Kingdom. Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families....
holiday campHoliday campHoliday camp, in Britain, generally refers to a resort with a boundary that includes accommodation, entertainment and other facilities.As distinct from camping, accommodation typically consisted of chalets – small buildings arranged either individually or in blocks. Some had three or four storeys,...
now operated by Haven - Pwllheli Market
- Clwb Golff Pwllheli - a par 69 links and parkland golf course
- Pwllheli Sailing ClubPwllheli Sailing ClubPwllheli Sailing Club was founded in 1958 and is a yacht club in Pwllheli, Wales. Over the years it has moved the location of its clubhouse several times, and it has also become organiser of national and international yachting and dinghy sailing events....
- frequently hosts national and international events. - Neuadd Dwyfor - Theatre and Cinema located
Arts
Pwllheli hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1925 and 1955, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1875.Language
According to 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....
, 80% of the population speak Welsh, with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in the 10-14 age bracket, 94%.
Sport and leisure
Pwllheli is home to association football team Pwllheli F.C.Pwllheli F.C.
Pwllheli F.C. is a football club in Pwllheli in North Wales. They are members of the Welsh Alliance League and play at the Recreation Ground. They will be competing in Division Four in the 2009-10 season.-Current squad:-Staff:...
and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
team Pwllheli RFC
Pwllheli RFC
Pwllheli Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from the town of Pwllheli, North Wales. Pwellheli RFC is a member of the welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Scarlets....
.
The town has two beaches, South Beach and Glan-y-Môr. South Beach stretches from Gimblet Rock, across the Promenade and West End, towards Penrhos
Penrhos, Gwynedd
Penrhos is a village and former civil parish in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The parish was abolished in 1934, and incorporated into Llannor.It was the home of former MP Goronwy Roberts. Penyberth lies within its confines....
and Llanbedrog
Llanbedrog
Llanbedrog is a village and community on the Llŷn peninsula of Gwynedd in Wales. It is situated on the south side of the peninsula on the A499 between Pwllheli and Abersoch. Formerly in the county of Caernarfonshire, it has a population of 1,020....
. Glan-y-Môr Beach is located on the eastern side of the river mouth and runs for 3 miles from behind the marina workshops and out towards Penychain (holiday camp).
External links
- Pwllheli.info from the Croeso Group of Websites
- Your online guide to the Llŷn Peninsula, of which Pwllheli is the unofficial capital
- Marina website
- Memories of Butlin's at Pwllheli
- www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pwllheli and surrounding area
- www.cimwch.com The Pwllheli sections of this site offer a collection of old postcards and photographs of Pwllheli and its fishing fleet
- www.heneb.co.uk Contains much information on local Welsh history and development. The link takes you to the Pwllheli, Deneio and Penmaen page