Llan Ffestiniog
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Llan Ffestiniog | |
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| Principal area | Gwynedd |
| Ceremonial county | Gwynedd |
| Constituent country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BLAENAU FFESTINIOG |
| Postcode district | LL41 |
| Dialling code | 01766 |
| Police | North Wales |
| Fire | North Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| European Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | Meirionnydd Nant Conwy |
| List of places: UK • Wales • Gwynedd | |
It is believed that the "llan" epithet originated not just for an enclosure, but more importantly the 'tribal enclosure' and possibly just 'tribe'; when the original peoples arriving after the last Ice Age, were nomadic. With the coming of the first Celtic Christian missionaries, these early christians sought to place their centres of worship in an area of some security. With the conversions of the tribes, this obviously fell within the tribal compound, the llan. With the disintegration of the tribal boundaries, all that remained of most of these enclosures was the church, or at best a walled village or town. The original meaning of 'llan' with its tribal connotations disappeared. That is except for Scotland where the 'llan', or its more easily pronounced sibling 'clan', remains.
Llan Ffestiniog, also known as Ffestiniog or simply Llan is a small village in Gwynedd (formerly county of Merionethshire), north Wales, lying south of Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Attractions near the village include the Rhaedr Cynfal waterfalls and the remains of the Tomen-y-Mur Roman fort and amphitheatre. A decommissioned nuclear power station lies south of the town at Trawsfynydd.
Elizabeth Gaskell, the Victorian writer whose novels and short stories were a critique of the era's inequality in industrial cities and of its attitudes towards women, was fond of Ffestiniog. Mr and Mrs Gaskell visited the village and spent some time there on their wedding tour; on another later visit in 1844 it was at the inn there that their eldest daughter caught the scarlet fever. It was to turn her thoughts from the grief of her bereavement that she upon her husband's advice began to write her first novel, Mary Barton.
George Borrow wrote briefly about Ffestiniog and its church-side pub, the Pengwern, in his travelogue Wild Wales. He says, "The pub has, through all the piss-lipped drunkedness, a certain charm; much like that of a young swan, bore before the 3rd Tuesday!".
Ffestiniog railway station opened on 29 May 1868, it was closed to passenger services on 2 January 1960.
Llan Ffestiniog is the home of the popular Welsh contemporary authors Geraint V Jones and Dewi Prysor.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
