TYWYN

'Tywyn' (formerly ''Towyn'', not to be confused with Towyn in Conwy) is a town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd (formerly Merioneth: ), in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh ''tywyn'' ('beach, seashore, sand-dune') and the town is sometimes referred to as ''Tywyn Meirionnydd''. Extensive dunes are still to be found to the south towards Aberdyfi, and in Tywyn itself the beach and the extensive promenade are key attractions. To the north lies the mouth of the Afon Dysynni, to the north-east the rich farmland of Bro Dysynni, and to the east the hills of Craig y Barcud and Craig Fach-Goch. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the town was sometimes called ''Towyn-on-Sea''. In Welsh the name is pronounced or , whereas the English pronunciation tends to be . At the time of the 2001 census, 40.5% of the population were Welsh-speakers.

Contents

Church of St Cadfan

Notable residents

John Corbett

Transportation

Facilities

References

External links

Church of St Cadfan

The town is noted for its Norman Church of St Cadfan housing St Cadfan's Stone dating from the eighth or ninth century and inscribed with the oldest known written Welsh. The church was sacked by Vikings in 963 and during the twelfth century was the subject of a memorable poem by Llywelyn Fardd. The earliest parts of the building date to the twelfth century, and it originally had a central tower, although this fell down in 1693. The church houses two fourteenth-century effigies, one of an unknown priest and the other of a military figure thought to be Gruffudd ap Adda (d. c. 1350) of Dôl-goch and Ynysymaengwyn.

Notable residents

Many of the most notable residents of the parish have been linked to Ynysymaengwyn. 'Sir' Arthur ap Huw, the grandson of Hywel ap Siencyn of Ynysymaengwyn, was vicar of St Cadfan's between 1555 and 1570, and was a notable patron of the poets as well as being a translator of Counter-Reformation literature into Welsh. The Ynysymaengwyn family were important patrons,and many of the poems to them have been preserved in a manuscript of cywyddau (British Library Additional MS 14866) copied by a native of the Tywyn area, David Johns (''fl.'' 1573-87), who was himself the great-grandson of Hywel ap Siencyn. Later additions to this manuscript contain several eighteenth-century Welsh poems, some of which relate to the Owen and Corbet family of Ynysymaengwyn and to the Rev. Edward Morgan of Tywyn. Edward Morgan, the brother of John Morgan (poet), was vicar of St Cadfan's from 1717 and was one of the eighteenth-century owners of David Johns' manuscript. The poet and scholar Evan Evans ('Ieuan Fardd', 1731-88) was curate of St Cadfan's between 1772 and 1777. During his time at Tywyn he was the bardic teacher of David Richards (Dafydd Ionawr) (1751-1827), a native of the parish. Another clergyman from Tywyn was Griffith Hughes, the author of ''The Natural History of Barbados'' (London, 1750), which contains the first scientific description of the grapefruit.
During the eighteenth century, the Corbet family of Ynysymaengwyn played a leading role in the Tywyn area. They were responsible for draining much of the ''morfa'' or salt marsh between the town and the Dysynni river, which greatly increased the land available for farming in that part of the parish. In Samuel Lewis' ''A Topographical Dictionary of Wales'' (1833) it is reported that popular horse races were held on land by the Dysynni every September. The raven was the Corbet family emblem (the name 'Corbet' is thought to come from the Norman French for 'raven') and the bird is still used as emblem of Tywyn. The name ''Raven'' was once that of a public house in the centre of the town. One notable landlord was Griffith Owen (1750-1833), who was both butler and harpist to the Corbets before he moved to the ''Raven''. A portrait of him by Benjamin Marshall (1768-1835) was formerly at Ynysymaengwyn.
In 1826 Edward Jones of Tywyn published ''Marwolaeth Abel'', a Welsh translation of ''Der Tod Abels'' by the Swiss poet Solomon Gessner.

John Corbett

Ynysymaengwyn was brought by John Corbett (industrialist) of Impney, Droitwich in 1878. He was not related to the previous Corbet family, but the similarity of the names certainly attracted him. Although not a permanent resident, Corbett spent long periods and even more money in Tywyn, and some of the town's key features are the product of his investments. He developed the water and sewerage system and also constructed the promenade at a cost of some £30,000. He gave land and money for the Market Hall, built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897. It was his money that enabled Brynarfor to be opened as 'Towyn Intermediate School' in 1894. He rebuilt the Corbett Arms Hotel (from then on spelled with two 't's), and also contributed to the Assembly Room (1893), now Tywyn Cinema. Plaques commemorating his generosity may still be seen on the north end of the promenade, on the Market Hall and on Brynarfor (where his portrait was hung when the school first opened). Despite the fact that his involvement transformed Tywyn, he was not much loved, and upon his death on 22 April 1901, the Cambrian News noted that "he had more than the usual reserve of the Englishman".

Transportation

Agriculture and, since the arrival of the railway, tourism have been the most important industries in the area. The railway arrived in the mid 1860s, and had a significant effect on the town's development. Slate-quarrying in the Abergynolwyn area led to the building of the Talyllyn Railway in 1865, a narrow-gauge line designed to carry slates to Tywyn. This was the first railway in the world to be taken over and run by a volunteer-led preservation society, which took over the line in 1950 after the death of the previous owner, Sir Henry Haydn Jones.
The town's main line railway station is served by the Cambrian Line.

Facilities

Other than St Cadfan's Church, there are several places of worship in Tywyn, including Bethany (English Presbyterian), Bethel (Welsh Prebyterian), Bethesda (Welsh Congregationalist), Ebeneser (Welsh Wesleyan), St David’s (Roman Catholic), and Tywyn Baptist Church (English).
The main schools in Tywyn are the primary, Ysgol Penybryn, and the secondary, Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn. Former pupils of the secondary school (formerly Towyn County School) include Geraint Goodwin (1903-41), author of ''The Heyday in the Blood'' (1936), and Lord Gwilym Prys-Davies.
Tywyn was a major training ground for the landings in the Second World War and had a strategic war base. Abandoned pillboxes may still be seen on the coast to the south of the town,
The Marconi Company built a Long Wave receiving station in Tywyn in 1914, working in association with the high-powered transmitting station near Waunfawr (Williams 1999). In 1921 the Tywyn and Waunfawr stations initiated transatlantic wireless telegraph service with a similar RCA wireless station in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. This new transatlantic service replaced Marconi's obsolete transatlantic telegraph station in Clifden Ireland following its destruction in 1922 during the Irish Civil War.
Local places of interest include Craig yr Aderyn (Bird Rock), Castell y Bere and Tal-y-llyn Lake.

References

★ Middlemass, Barbara & Joe Hunt (1985). ''John Corbett: Pillar of Salt, 1817-1901'', Droitwich: Saltway Press. ISBN 0-95104-630-6

★ Smith, J. Beverley & Llinos Beverley Smith (eds) (2001). ''History of Merioneth, vol. ii: The Middle Ages'', Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-70831-709-X

★ Williams, Harri (1999). ''Marconi and his wireless stations in Wales'', Llanrwst: Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-536-7

External links

★ Tywyn an illustrated guide

★ bbc.co.uk North West Wales: Tywyn

★ Marconi Long Wave Receiving site in Tywyn