Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LLANEDWEN

LLANEDWEN, a parish in the district of Bangor and county of Anglesey; on the Menai strait, near Porthamal ferry, 3 miles S by E of Llanfair r. station, and 6½ SW of Beaumaris. Post town, Carnarvon. Acres, 1,939; of which 340 are water. Real property, £3,046; of which £230 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851,327; in.1861,273. Houses, 65. The property is divided among a few. Plâs-Newydd, a modern mansion, amid finely sheltered grounds, belongs to the Marquis of Anglesey, and is occnpied by the Dowager Lady Willoughby de Broke; was visited, for some days, by George IV., when on his way to Ireland; and was the summer residence, in 1832, of the Queen when Princess Victoria. Two cromlechs are in the grounds; and one of these, till of late, was the most complete monument of its kind in Wales, the topstone of it measuring 12 feet in length, and 10 feet in breadth. Plâs-Gwyn, to the W of Plâs-Newydd, was the birthplace of the Rev. H. Rowlands, the author of ''Mona Antiqua; ''but it is now called Pl-Llwynon, and is the seat of A.Prettyman, Esq. Plâs-Coch, to the S of Plâs-Newydd, is a fine Tudor mansion of the 16th century; was built by the attorney-general Hugh Hughes; and is now the seat of W. B. Hughes, Esq. The Roman general Suetonius crossed the Menai strait, by a bridge of boats, at Porthamal ferry; and was fiercely resisted, on the Llanedwen side, by a body of Druids, who seemed to have had a chief seat here; and a sanguinary action followed at a spot still called Bryn-Beddau, signifying ' ' the hill of graves. ''Agricola afterwards crossed by the same passage; and Tacitus graphically notices the conflict with the Druids, and speaks of it as a death-blow to their superstition. A part of Edward I. 's army, in 1282, crossed at Moel-y-don ferry, a little higher up; and was defeated within Llanedwen parish at Tan-ben-Cefn, where there are vestiges of an ancient camp. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Llanidan, in the diocese of Bangor. The church stands on a sloping bank, at the side of the strait; is very good; and contains a monument to the Rev. H. Rowlands. Charities, £5.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Llanedwen Ch/CP       Anglesey AncC
Place: Llanedwen

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