Criccieth
Criccieth, also spelled Cricieth, is a town and community in Gwynedd, Wales, on the boundary between the Llŷn Peninsula and Eifionydd. The town is west of Porthmadog, east of Pwllheli and south of Caernarfon. It had a population of 1,826 in 2001, reducing to 1,753 at the 2011 census.
The town is a seaside resort, popular with families. Attractions include the ruins of Criccieth Castle, which have extensive views over the town and surrounding countryside. In the centre is Y Maes, part of the original medieval town common.
The town is noted for its fairs, held on 23 May and 29 June every year, when large numbers of people visit the fairground and the market which spreads through many of the streets of the town.
The town styles itself the "Pearl of Wales on the Shores of Snowdonia".
Etymology
The earliest recorded form of the place name Criccieth in Welsh is found in Brut y Tywysogion, where reference is made to the imprisonment of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in the 'castle of CruceithThere are a number of theories as to the meaning, but the most popular is that it comes from : ' may mean 'prisoner' and thus the name could mean 'prisoner's rock', a reference to the imprisonment of one of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth's sons in the castle by his brother. However, ' has the primary meaning in Middle Welsh of 'serf' and the name could refer to a bond community nearby. In later medieval times the settlement was also known as ', probably a reference to Saint Catherine, after whom the parish church is named.
The Welsh Language Commissioner gives the standard form of the name as Cricieth. However, the post town, Ordnance Survey and the legal name of the community all use the spelling Criccieth''. The town council has the power to change the legal name of the community, or to adopt different forms of the name for use in Welsh and English language contexts. The council has been petitioned to adopt the Cricieth spelling on multiple occasions, dating back to at least 1969 when the county council asked the urban district council to change the name, but it declined to do so. This led to a row between the two councils over various road signs the county council had already put up with the Cricieth spelling. The town council maintained its position of using the spelling Criccieth in both Welsh and English contexts when similar requests for it to change the name were made in 1985 and 2008.
History
The area around Criccieth was settled during the Bronze Age, and a chambered tomb, Cae Dyni, survives on the coast to the east of the town; it consists of seven upright stones, and there are 13 cup marks, arranged in several groups. Evidence from other sites on the Llŷn Peninsula suggests that the area was colonised by a wave of Celtic settlers, who explored the Irish Sea, probably around the 4th century BC. Ptolemy calls the peninsula Ganganorum Promontorium ; the Gangani were a tribe of Irish Celts, and it is thought there may have been strong and friendly links with Leinster.Although it is thought that Criccieth Castle was built around 1230 by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, who had controlled the area since 1202, the first record of the building was in 1239, when the administrative centre of Eifionydd was moved from Dolbenmaen.
In the later years of his life, Llywelyn turned his attention to his successor. Welsh law stipulated that illegitimate sons had equal rights with legitimate sons; Llywelyn sought to ensure that Dafydd ap Llywelyn, his legitimate offspring, would inherit Gwynedd in place of his eldest, but illegitimate, son Gruffydd. On Llywelyn's death in 1240, Dafydd sought to secure his position. Dafydd was half English and feared that his pure Welsh half-brother would be able to gather support to overthrow him. Gruffydd was held prisoner in Criccieth Castle, until he was handed over to Henry III of England in 1241, and moved to the Tower of London.
Dafydd ap Llywelyn died in 1246, without leaving an heir, and was succeeded by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, his nephew. Edward I had inherited the English throne in 1272, and in 1276 declared Llywelyn a rebel. By 1277, Edward's armies had captured the Isle of Anglesey, and were encamped at Deganwy; the settlement, the Treaty of Aberconwy, forced Llywelyn to acknowledge Edward as his sovereign, and stripped him of much of his territory. Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Llywelyn's younger brother, attacked the English forces at Hawarden in 1282, setting off a widespread rebellion throughout Wales; Edward responded with a further invasion of Gwynedd, during which Llywelyn was killed on the battlefield at Cilmeri.
File:Criccieth - Castle.JPG|thumb|upright|right|In 1282 Criccieth Castle became part of a ring of castles surrounding Edward I's newly conquered territories in Wales.
With the final defeat of Gwynedd, Edward set about consolidating his rule in Wales. Criccieth Castle was extended and reshaped, becoming one of a ring of castles surrounding Edward's newly conquered territories. A township developed to support the garrison and a charter was granted in 1284; the charter was intended to create a plantation of English burgesses who would provide food for the soldiers from the arable land behind the Dinas and the grazings on the slopes beyond. Weekly markets were held on Thursdays and there were annual fairs on 25 April and 18 October, the evangelical feasts of Saint Mark and Saint Luke.
The new administration soon proved unpopular among the native Welsh, and in 1294, Madog ap Llywelyn led a national revolt against English rule. Criccieth was besieged for several months over the winter; 41 residents sought refuge within its walls, joining the garrison of 29 men under William de Leybourne, until supplies were brought in from Ireland the following April. The following year, the castle was again used as a prison, housing captives taken in Edward's wars against Scotland.
Three Welshmen who had settled in the borough, which was supposedly reserved for the English, were evicted in 1337, but times were about to change. Hywel ap Gruffydd was appointed constable of the castle in 1359, the first Welshman to hold the post. The following year came mayor of the town, holding the office for twenty years; in a poem of praise, Iolo Goch described him as "a puissant knight, head of a garrison guarding the land". By 1374 eight jurymen from the borough had Welsh names.
Richard II was deposed and imprisoned in 1399, and died in mysterious circumstances the following year. Opposition to the new king, Henry IV, was particularly strong in Wales and Cheshire, and in 1400 serious civil unrest broke out in Chester. Henry had already declared Owain Glyndŵr, a descendant of the Princes of Powys, a traitor, and on 16 September 1400 Owain launched a revolt. He was proclaimed Prince of Wales, and within days a number of towns in the north east of Wales had been attacked. By 1401 the whole of northern and central Wales had rallied to Owain's cause, and by 1403 villages throughout the country were rising in support. English castles and manor houses fell and were occupied by Owain's supporters. Although the garrison at Criccieth Castle had been reinforced, a French fleet in the Irish Sea stopped supplies getting through, and the castle fell in the spring of 1404. The castle was sacked; its walls were torn down; and both the castle and borough were burned. The castle was never to be reoccupied, while the town was to become a small Welsh backwater, no longer involved in affairs of state. The town was described in 1847 as follows,
The town expanded in the 19th century with the coming of new transportation links. In 1807 a turnpike road was built from Tremadog to Porthdinllaen, which was intended to be the main port for traffic to Ireland; and with the construction of the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway in 1868, the town began to develop as a Victorian seaside resort.
Criccieth solicitor David Lloyd George was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for the Caernarfon Boroughs in 1890. He was to hold the seat for 55 years, during which he was Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922, contributing greatly to victory in the First World War through brilliant administration, leadership skills and personal energy, and negotiating the ill-fated Versailles peace treaty. Before that he was one of the great welfare reformers of the 20th century, starting old age pensions and unemployment payments. His position as a leading statesman brought Criccieth national and international prominence that it had never previously enjoyed; the town still has many locations connected with Lloyd George and his family.
Disaster struck Criccieth in October 1927; a great storm in the Irish Sea stopped the tidal flow, causing a double high tide. High seas and strong on-shore winds destroyed houses at Abermarchnad, the pressure of the waves punching holes through the back walls; the houses subsequently had to be demolished and the occupants rehoused.
Criccieth hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1975, and in 2003 was granted Fairtrade Town status. It won the Wales in Bloom competition each year from 1999 to 2004.
Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Criccieth, at community and county level: Criccieth Town Council and Gwynedd Council. The town council meets at the Memorial Hall on High Street.The town forms part of the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency for elections to the House of Commons, and also forms part of the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency for the Senedd.
Administrative history
Criccieth was an ancient parish. It was also the main town in the ancient commote of Eifionydd, which in 1284 was made part of the new county of Caernarfonshire under the Statute of Rhuddlan. Also in 1284 the town was made a borough under a charter granted by Edward I of England. The first mayor was William de Leybourne, who was appointed constable of the castle a month after the charter was granted.It became customary for the constable of the castle to also serve as mayor ex officio, and the Town Hall was built within the castle grounds. A government survey of boroughs in 1835 found that the borough corporation had very few powers. The role of mayor and constable of the castle had become hereditary; in 1835 it was held by William Ormsby-Gore, who lived in Shropshire.
Given its limited powers, the borough was left unreformed when the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 reformed most ancient boroughs across the country into municipal boroughs. The old corporation continued to operate, but with very few functions. In order to provide more modern forms of local government, a local government district was created under the Criccieth Improvement Act 1873, which also disbanded the old borough corporation, replacing it with an elected local board. Any residual claim Criccieth may have had to be called a borough was extinguished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.
Local government districts were converted into urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act also directed that parishes could no longer straddle district boundaries, and so the part of Criccieth parish outside the urban district became a separate parish called Penllyn. The urban district was extended in 1934 to take in parts of the neighbouring parishes of Penllyn and Treflys, and again in 1938 to take in part of Llanystumdwy.
Criccieth Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. A community called Criccieth was created instead, covering the area of the abolished urban district. District-level functions passed to Dwyfor District Council, which was in turn replaced in 1996 by Gwynedd Council.