Monday 19th July 1819
Monday July 19th . Today not proving more propitious for travelling than yesterday prevented our seeing the pass of Llanberis which was previously our intention our energy however was not stopped by this unpleasant circumstance & at half past ten
started from Bangor. We traversed the same road we had come the day before and having changed horses passed through a most romantic scenery to Conway the town is built within the Castle court it appears old the Inn being very uncomfortable we only ordered dinner intending to reach Llanrwst tonight. While it was preparing we walked to the Castle, one of the finest I have seen, erected in the year 1284 by command of Edward the 1st as a security against the insurrection of the Welsh. on two sides it is washed by the river Conway. Several of the
round towers are in good preservation. In the interior is the state hall 130 feet long the roof of which was supported by fine large arches some of which remain there are several other apartments but all rapidly decaying this Castle is a fine object at a distance. After dining we passed through the vale of Conway which I understand is very fine but which the incessant rain prevented our enjoying to Llanrwst a small dirty town the Inn is tolerable we did not arrive till eleven o’clock.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Conwy Castle and the town walls were built, on the instruction of Edward I between 1283 and 1289, as part of his conquest of the principality. The church standing in Conwy has been marked as the oldest building in Conwy and has stood in the walls of Conwy since the 14th century. However, the oldest structure is the tower of Llewellyn the Great's Llys [court house] that was incorporated into the wall. Built on a rocky outcrop, with an apsidal tower, it is a classic, native, Welsh build and stands out from the rest of the town walls, due to the presence of four window openings. It dates from the early 13th century and is the most complete remnant of any of his Llys.
1823: Conway Castle : from the wood opposite - by Robert Batty Engraved by Edward Francis Finden in the collection of the National Library of Wales, Accession number 1132116. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conway_Castle_-_from_the_wood_opposite.jpeg#/media/File:Conway_Castle_-_from_the_wood_opposite.jpeg
2007: Conwy Castle and Bridges. Author Dr. Volkmar Rudolf Tilman publish it under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conwy_Castle_and_Bridges.jpg
Conwy Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford to replace the ferry, was completed in 1826 and spans the River Conwy next to the castle. Telford designed the bridge's supporting towers to match the castle's turrets. The bridge is now open to pedestrians only and, together with the toll-keeper's house, is in the care of the National Trust. The National Trust owns Aberconwy House, which is Conwy's only surviving 14th-century merchant's house, one of the first buildings built inside the walls of Conwy. Plas Mawr is an Elizabethan house built in 1576 by the Wynn family, which has been extensively refurbished to its 16th-century appearance and is now in the care of Cadw and open to the public. The house named in the Guinness Book of Records as The Smallest House in Great Britain, with dimensions of 3.05 metres x 1.8 metres, can be found on the quay. It was in continuous occupation from the 16th century (and was even inhabited by a family at one point) until 1900 when the owner (a 6-foot (1.8 m) fisherman – Robert Jones) was forced to move out on the grounds of hygiene. The rooms were too small for him to stand up in fully. The house is still owned by his descendants today, and you can go on a tour around it for a small charge. Across the estuary is Bodysgallen Hall, which incorporates a medieval tower that was possibly built as a watch tower for Conwy Castle.
2007: The City Walls of Conwy. Author, Chestertouristcom, published it under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conwywalls.JPG
People born within the town walls of Conwy in north Wales are nicknamed "Jackdaws", after the jackdaws which live on the walls there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conwy
Inn at Conwy: the Inn being very uncomfortable we only ordered dinner. The article, below, refers to two Inns, the Harp Inn and the King’s Head. We would have expected the Coplands to choose the newest hotel, The Harp, which may have been crowded. If they found themselves in The Kings Head that may have prompted their removal to Llanwryst. The present day Castle Hotel, Conwy, at https://www.castlewales.co.uk/the-hotel-2/history/, provides us with details of both Inns:
KING’S HEAD OVERTAKEN AS THE TOWN’S PRINCIPAL INN
Improved roads heralded the era of long-distance travel by coach, serving the needs of commerce and the new pastime of tourism. This in turn prompted the emergence of coaching inns, providing better standards of hospitality.
A new inn that quickly rose to prominence in Conwy was The Harp Inn, in High Street. It is thought to have been erected in 1770, and was on the same side as The King’s Head, three doors up the hill. Local newspaper reports from around the 1780s clearly indicate that The Harp Inn emerged as the town’s new principal coaching inn, while The King’s Head started to diminish in importance.
In 1798 the first survey of roads commissioned by the Postmaster General, published as ‘John Cary’s New Itinerary of the Great Roads throughout England and Wales’, listed The Harp Inn as Conwy’s only post-house for changing horses. Several tourists of the late 1700s and early 1800s kept diaries containing recollections of staying at The Harp Inn, and of being entertained by a resident Welsh harpist.
This probably explains the title of a watercolour painting ‘The Welsh Harp Inn, Conwy’,dated 1809, by John Varley. It is one of a series of studies he made of High Street, Conwy. Curiously the title of the painting refers to the building in the background, which has a traditional gallows inn-sign depicting a harp. The Harp Inn was enlarged in later years and traded until 1936 when it was demolished to make way for a shop. The more interesting building in Varley’s painting was the late-medieval, timber-framed house in the foreground, which was on the site of what would later become part of The Castle Inn. https://www.castlewales.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Castle_HistoryBooklet_web.pdf
Vale of Conway: “the lovely Vale of Conwy is a lush, green interlude, sandwiched between rocky Snowdonia and the open moors of Mynydd Hiraethog” http://www.visitllandudno.org.uk/towns-and-villages/conwy-valley-villages
Llanrwst developed around the wool trade, and for a long time the price of wool for the whole of Britain was set here. The growth of the town in the 13th century was considerably aided by an edict by Edward I of England (who built Conwy Castle) prohibiting any Welshman from trading within 10 miles of the town of Conwy. Llanrwst, located some 13 miles from that town, was strategically placed to benefit from this.
1829: The Vale of Llanrwst. Lithograph by H. Walton from a sketch by Henry Longueville Jones. Printed by C. Hullmandell. Published by Charles Tilt. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SEValeLlanrwstUCHLJ13.jpg
In 1610 Sir John Wynn of Gwydir had the historic Llanrwst Almshouses built to house poor people of the parish. The buildings closed in 1976, but were restored in 1996 with the aid of Heritage Lottery funding, reopening as a museum of local history and a community focal point.
Image from: “Llanrwst Almshouse Museum rent rise blamed for closure”, BBC Wales. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-15477456
The museum held a collection of over a hundred items relating largely to the rural Conwy valley, and a number of items are associated with the renowned Llanrwst Bards of the late 19th century; it closed as a museum in 2011, but reopened in 2013 as the new council chamber.
Grade I-listed Pont Fawr, a narrow, three-arched stone bridge said to have been designed by Inigo Jones, was built in 1636 by Sir Richard Wynn of Gwydir Castle.
1814: Llanrust Bridge, North Wales. Engraving by Woolnoth after J.P. Neale. Published by John Harries, St. Paul Church Yard. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SELlanrwstBridgeBeau13.jpg
The bridge connects the town with Gwydir, a manor house dating from 1492, the 15th-century courthouse known as Tu Hwnt i'r Bont and also with the road from nearby Trefriw.://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanrwst
Inn: Probably the Hand Inn, Ancaster Square - History Points records that: “The core of this building was reputedly built as a town house by Sir John Wynn (1553-1627). A fireplace on the first floor of the building is said to resemble fireplaces in Gwydir Castle. It became the Hand Inn during the heyday of long-distance coaches. The arched doorway to the right of today’s shop entrance enabled horse-drawn drays to deliver barrels of ale to the cellars. In 1882 a sheepdog belonging to the Hand Inn’s landlord, John Owen, won first prize, £1 10s, at the Vale of Conway Agricultural Show. Today the building is home to Tŷ, which sells furniture and homeware”. http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=former-hand-inn-llanrwst However, Google Maps shows the Pen-y-Bryn Hotel immediately joining Tŷ, the furniture shop, and History Points records that: “This former coaching inn reputedly dates from the 17th century. Unusually for a Llanrwst building, it has remained a hostelry for its entire recorded existence. Many other pubs in the town had different earlier uses, or have ceased to be pubs. The arched entrance to the left was where cart horses pulled drays laden with beer kegs to the back yard. The inn’s name means “Top of the Hill” and refers to the elevated position of Ancaster Square, previously an earth mound.” http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=pen-y-bryn-hotel-llanrwst . The Hand Inn entry states: The arched doorway to the right of today’s shop entrance enabled horse-drawn drays to deliver barrels of ale to the cellars - Compare this with the Pen-y-Bryn Hotel entry, which states: The arched entrance to the left was where cart horses pulled drays laden with beer kegs to the back yard. The image, below, of Pen-Y-Bryn Hotel shows an arched entrance to its left and the arch beside it belongs to Tŷ, the old “Hand Inn”
Image taken from the entry for Pen-y-Bryn Hotel, Llanrwst on the Yelp website: https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/pen-y-bryn-llanrwst
These were two buildings, side by side, that shared the same back yard and may well have been one Inn - the Inn which Lucy could only dismiss as being tolerable.
Can you help us?
Which Inn did Lucy find “Tolerable”? Was it the Hand Inn or the Pen-Y-Bryn Hotel ……. or were they both one larger Coaching Inn serving the traffic to Holyhead?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?