Interactive Map:
ArcIMS is slowly being abandoned by ESRI, so maintenance of the ArcIMS maps is becoming extremely difficult. We have decided to migrate this map interface to a more sustainable software stack using non-proprietary software. We will begin the migration to GeoServer and OpenLayers as soon as possible, but until then we apologise for any inconvenience.
Help for using the Interactive Map
An Interactive Map has been provided to enable you to examine the various spatial data compiled throughout the survey using basic WebGIS tools. To begin using the map click the button labelled 'Switch On' found in the box above.
Groups/Layers:
Each map contains several layers grouped under the following headings:
- Archaeology
- Plan Elements
- Metrics
- Survey Data
- Base Map
Layers can be selected either singularly or as a group. Toggling the group visibility icon will display/hide every layer featured within the specific group. To display a single layer within a group, the group must be opened and the relevant layer can then be enabled/disabled by selecting the layer visibility icon . However, only one Base Map layer can be displayed at any one time.
A layer can be made active be either clicking the relevant radio button or by clicking the layer title. The layer will become highlighted when it is active.
The Group/Layer panel can be hidden by clicking on the vertical grey button marked with an arrow. The arrow button will slide toward the left of the map area and the map will be re-rendered filling the whole area. Clicking the arrow button again will show the Layer/Group panel. When the Layer/Group panel is hidden/shown the active tool will be deselected.
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Tools:
The various tools found in the tool panel on the right of the map allow a further element of interactivity. There is a handy text tip next to each button on the interface to explain what each button is for, but on this page we go into a little bit more detail:
| Zoom in - Click on the map to zoom in (the map will be centred on your mouse click). |
| Zoom out - Click on the map to zoom out (the map will be centred on your mouse click). |
| Zoom to full extent - Zoom to the extent of all the layers within the map - this is a quick way of getting back to the map's starting position |
| Pan - Click on the map and drag it in any direction to change the area of view. |
| Identify - Click on a feature on the active layer to see the data attached to it. The data will appear in a popup window. |
| Rectangle select - Use your mouse to draw a rectangle on the screen to select a group of features within the active layer. The associated data from these features will be displayed in a popup window and the selected features will be highlighted. |
| Clear selection - If you have any features selected/highlighted, this tool will unselect them. |
| Show legend - Show a map legend of archaeological features in a popup window. Point data and basemap information is omitted. |
The tool in use will be highlighted by a red box.
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General guidance:
Be patient! Every time you zoom, pan, refresh or query the map, a request is sent to the server and new image is created and delivered to your desktop. Whilst this request is being sent, do not try and send extra requests as this will produce error messages. Your browser can only send and receive one GIS request at a time so don't push it!
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The GIS files are also available as downloads if further functionality is required.
Discussion:
The following sections are also available to download in PDF format.
Early history of the town
One of the enduring enigmas of Aberystwyth's early history is the derivation of its place-name, for the town lay not at the mouth of the Ystwyth but the mouth of the Rheidol river. The first written accounts refer to it instead as simply the 'new town of Lampadervaur', Llanbadarn Fawr. 'Great' Llanbadarn was an existing Welsh settlement centre (clas) situated on the Rheidol further upstream with its locally important church dedicated to the sixth-century saint St Padarn. Initially the new town of Llanbadarn did not have its own parish church and so local townspeople had to walk to the mother church to worship. Only later, by the mid-fifteenth century, was a church built in the town and dedicated to St Mary the Virgin.[1] This was a commonplace situation in new towns of the middle ages, where older settlements continued to exert influence over their younger neighbours.
The southernmost of Edward's new towns ringing the Welsh stronghold of Snowdonia, 'New' Llanbadarn was also one of the three earliest, founded in 1277, along with Flint and Rhuddlan in the north-east of Wales. While Aberystwyth stood guard on the southern frontier of the Welsh enclave, the other two towns flanked its eastern edge. All had direct sea-access. The towns were thus strategically placed. The first activities recorded in written accounts at this time reveal the building of the castle, and the creation of the town's urban defences. The castle work began in early August 1277, following the arrival of the king's brother, Edmund, as well as masons and carpenters who had been assembled earlier in Bristol, in July, under William of March, one of the king's household administrators.[2] Edmund had himself come up from his base at Carmarthen by July 25.[3] The building work itself was looked after initially by Henry of Hereford, a master mason, but subsequently he was superceded by Ralph of Broughton as 'keeper and viewer of... works at Lampadervaur [Llanbadarn Fawr]', with a certain knight, Roger de Molis, in overall charge by September 20 when Edmund returned to England.[4] Work on making defences around the town is mentioned in Ralph's accounts of expenditure for 1278, when stones and timber had arrived by ship 'for the works of the castle and vill of Llanbadarn, for making and repairing a fosse [ditch] round the vill and a pond'.[5] The pond may be reference to a mill that lay outside the town on its south-eastern side, while the ditch was constructed to encircle the new town. By then the 'vill' - the town - was already formed and its defences seemingly begun. In fact, the town's charter, granted in December 1277, and making it a 'free borough', had given burgesses the right 'to enclose the town ... with a ditch and a wall'.[6] It seems, then, that the 'new town' of Llanbadarn had been brought into being during the autumn months, between August and December 1277.
Aberystwyth's borough privileges were modelled upon those of Montgomery, a castle-town of earlier date founded by the English closer to the border in the east. The burgesses' privileges included the right to have a gild merchant and to hold a weekly market, and as a means of attracting newcomers to take up residence in the town the charter also stated that once a 'bondman' had resided there 'for a year and a day without being claimed... he shall remain a free man in the said borough' thereafter.[7] Following Ralph came a new keeper of Aberystwyth castle, Bogo de Knovill, who himself had previously been at Montgomery as bailiff of its castle, and who also had fortified the town there in 1277-80.[8] At Aberystwyth, the rampart defences were being likewise made during this time, under Ralph's care. It is under Bogo, though, in April 1280, that we begin to hear of expenditure 'on the works of the wall surrounding the vill of Llanbadarn', suggesting that by this date a rather more substantial circuit of defences was being built.[9] At the same time, Bogo also drew up for the king a report on the condition of the castle and town defences at Aberystwyth, and in it lamented that 'the gates of the town had neither locks nor bars and were left open day and night'.[10] Master Thomas of Bristol was employed for the work.[11] Despite all this however, in March 1282, an attack by the Welsh under Gruffudd ap Maredudd and Rhys ap Maelgwn was successful and according to one contemporary, though they spared the garrison their lives, they 'burned the town and the castle' and 'destroyed the rampart that was around the castle and the town'.[12] More rebuilding work on castle and town walls was therefore required, once the town was back in English hands.[13]
The early town seems to have been reasonably successful as a commercial enterprise. The borough charter of 1277 provided an incentive for merchants to come to trade in the town. It proclaimed that 'all merchants of the king's dominions and of other lands at peace with the king, and their merchandise, shall be free to come to the said borough, stay there and depart by land or water.'[14] In May 1282, five years after the founding of the new town, and soon after the Welsh incursion that had burned it, the king had granted Gilbert of Clare 'power to receive burgesses and others willing to come to the king's town of Lampader to dwell therein', giving them the right to abode there 'for the king's benefit'.[15] Gilbert was earl of Gloucester and Hertford and had been put in overall charge of the king's affairs in west Wales.[16] The earliest indication of how well the new town was doing comes in the early fourteenth century. Surveys carried out by the royal administration during the first decade of the century show that there were around 120 burgesses in Aberystwyth renting a total of some 145 burgages.[17] Some burgesses clearly held more than one burgage. One particularly detailed rental of nove ville de Lampadarn made at this time lists a total of 112 people living there, renting between them 144 burgages, and because they are actually named it is possible to show that 51 of these burgesses - almost half - had Welsh names.[18] The list of individuals also records who held what, so we read that a certain Thomas of Lichfield rented one burgage while Richard of Ewyas had two.[19] Welshmen had apparently been forbidden by Edward to live in the boroughs, so their strong presence as burgesses residing in the new town is curious, while immigrants from parts of England and the Welsh borders, men such as Thomas and Richard, were to be expected since they were actively encouraged.[20] The list of burgess names in the survey may have been recorded in the same order as their burgages appeared on the ground, but unlike a contemporary survey of Cardigan, no topographical features are mentioned in the Aberystwyth rental.[21]
The early history of the new town of Llanbadarn is thus fairly well documented. Despite some initial setbacks it was a well-settled and prosperous place. With a royal castle, gates and town walls to protect it, what became Aberystwyth seems to have been an attractive proposition to would-be townspeople, both English and Welsh, who came to live there. What these documents do not reveal however is how the new town was formed. For this it is necessary to take a closer look at the plan of the town itself.
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Design and plan of the town
The plan of Aberystwyth comprises two main streets that form a cross-shape, one leading up from the south and another from the east. These were the two main entry points into the new town by land, the latter running up to the gates of the castle. The site chosen lies on a headland bounded on the south side by the mouth of the Rheidol river and on the west and north by the sea. The castle occupies a prominent site overlooking the sea, with the town to its eastern side. This arrangement gave the castle occupants easy access to the sea should an escape be needed, while the town helped to shield it from an attack on the landward side. This model was widely used in the middle ages in the planning of castle-towns, and shows some strategic thinking on the part of the individual who came up with the plan for Aberystwyth. Who was this was we do not know.
The initial planning of the town must have taken place in late summer or early autumn of 1277, for this was when the castle was begun.[22] As castle and town appear to be one integral design, it makes sense to see them as contemporary with each other, with provision to defend the town made at the outset (though it was a few years more before the walls were built). In which case, it is plausible that the plan was created by the master mason Henry of Hereford, who was engaged in initial building work on the castle; or if not, his successor, Ralph of Broughton, 'keeper and viewer' of the king's works there. If we see these men not as the originators of the new works but more as local overseers, other likely candidates are William of March, since he had been assembling men in Bristol to work on the new castle as early as July 1277, or conceivably Edmund himself, for he was at Aberystwyth during this formative time.[23] Whoever the designer was, they showed consideration for combining the town's commercial and military function, unifying town and castle in one overall plan.
The town's street-pattern fossilises the circular outline of Aberystwyth's defensive circuit. Within its defences, the new town enclosed an area of about 25½ acres (115,500m²).[24] The town's two main streets were set out to approximately equal length (1250 feet/380m), with gates positioned at their eastern and southern landward approaches. Along these two streets, building plots - that is, the town's former burgages - stretch back to rear access lanes, which run more or less parallel to the alignments of the main streets. Of these back lanes, two in particular, Little Darkgate Street behind Great Darkgate Street, and High Street behind Bridge Street, are fairly wide themselves. However, such back lanes are curiously absent from the plots that front the eastern sides of both Pier Street and Bridge Street. This means the town is not completely symmetrical in its arrangement. The particular layout of streets and street-blocks, together with the circular-shape circuit of defences, makes the plan-layout of Aberystwyth appear somewhat similar to the plan of the walled core of medieval Bristol.[25] It likewise has a cross of streets and back lanes placed long some but not all of the length of the two main streets. Considering the initial connections existing between these two places, it is conceivable that the idea for the layout of the 'new town of Lampadar' was originally derived from Bristol's town-plan, especially seeing as many of those men coming to work on the castle and defences at Aberystwyth in July and August 1277 had come from there, under instruction from William of March and Edmund of Lancaster. On July 10 Edmund, for example, had issued a request for supplies and men to the constable of Bristol castle, while a few day's earlier the king gave William 'the task of recruiting men', which took place at Bristol and included 120 masons drawn from the south west of England.[26]
The town was made larger in physical size than was necessary for the number of inhabitants living there c.1300. Without having any reference to the size of the original burgages, the specific area of the walled-town covered by the first-occupied urban properties is difficult to deduce. But if the 150 or so burgages present in c.1310 were placed along the whole length of the two main streets - that is with 75 facing each street (30 or so on each side) - then an individual burgage of even quite large dimensions would easily fit. The main streets could therefore comfortably accommodate the burgages recorded in the first decade of the 1300s. By way of comparison, in Edward's later new towns of Cricieth and Caernarfon the original burgages set out were 60 by 80 feet, while at Beaumaris they were 40 by 80 feet.[27] Those laid out at Aberystwyth's may have been considerably larger than this, unless only relatively small sections of both main streets were occupied c.1300. Certainly significant plot boundaries front these streets, creating large building plots stretching back more than 200 feet (61m) in depth from street frontage to back lane.[28] The town was spacious enough to provide room for potential growth within the walled area, though this may indicate some optimism on the part of its planners. The areas of the town which seem to have been left for later development are those situated furthest from the two main streets, especially the south eastern corner, between Bridge Street and Queen Street. The area in the north west, between the castle and Pier Street and Great Darkgate Street, is also seemingly devoid of plots and streets, but here it is likely that they were originally laid out, probably in the form of a westward extension of Little Darkgate Street (north of Great Darkgate Street). Remnants of former streets and plot patterns can be traced here on later town plans. They were probably lost due to the town's later medieval population decline, perhaps after the Black Death, or later.[29] However, the town's new church of St Mary's was placed outside the walls sometime before the mid-fifteenth century suggesting that even then there was little open space left inside the walled town.[30]
Aberystwyth was thus a fairly large and thoughtfully laid-out medieval new town. But with its curving streets and street-blocks, the degree of regularity is not especially strong and the plan lacks an overall symmetry. Also, there are some strange anomalies in the plan requiring explanation. One is the apparent lack of a market place, unless this was situated where a later market hall stood, at the west end of Great Darkgate Street, or unless the market - sanctioned by the borough charter to take place on Mondays - filled the street itself (as was commonplace in medieval towns). A second oddity concerns the intersection of the two main streets. They do not meet neatly but instead Bridge Street and Pier Street are each offset slightly from the other, creating a dog-leg turn. Great Darkgate Street however is spared this and runs uninterrupted for its whole length with a straighter alignment. The level of planning required to create the new town is not diminished by its apparent asymmetry, however. Castle and town formed a unified entity, the defences of each being combined as one, as noted above. In encompassing neatly the cross of the two main streets, the oval-shape circuit of the defences was integral to the original design of the town. Having two main streets both made co-equal in length also adds to the overall unity and uniformity of the town plan. So too do the similarly-proportioned, elongated rectangular-shaped blocks formed by these streets, with the burgesses' house plots contained within them. The provision of these rear access lanes gave burgesses an easy means of sub-dividing their properties, which they could then rent out to others for a sum.
The new town of Llanbadarn was thus no doubt carefully thought out in terms of its design and layout, as is clear from the maps shown here. As one of Edward's first three new towns in north Wales it might have been expected to set the trend to be followed by others. But this was not the case, for in terms of its street and plot layout the design of Aberystwyth is without parallel in Edward's other towns. The plan of Aberystwyth might best be interpreted as a one-off design, perhaps modelled upon Bristol. If so, the originator of the town plan may have moved onto other things before the later new towns of 1283-4 were established. Who this suggests the town's designer was remains open to conjecture.
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The town as it is today
Aberystwyth is now a thriving university and seaside town serving a large hinterland of mid and west Wales, with a population of some 13,000 inhabitants (2001). It is a centre of learning not only by virtue of having a long-established university but also by being home to the National Library of Wales. The layout of medieval Aberystwyth survives reasonably well in the modern townscape, particularly its street-pattern. The line of the former circuit of defences is easily picked out by the curving alignment of Mill Street, Chalybeate Terrace and Baker Street, and viewed from the air the walled town clearly sits proud, slightly raised above the lower-lying surrounding built-up area. The course of the town defences is also indicated by a change in ground surface level, most notably at the junction of Baker Street and Little Darkgate Street. No standing remains of the former defences exist however, except at the castle, which is now ruinous.[31] The medieval burgesses' plots are today filled with what from external appearance are mainly post-medieval buildings.[32] Some of the plot boundaries of properties along Great Darkgate Street are very substantial indeed, and no doubt there are some that are survivals from the time when the town was laid out. To date though, excepting the castle, little systematic archaeological excavation has taken place in Aberystwyth. Modern development has occurred in areas of the walled town away from the two main streets, in the south east quarter and western half especially. Much of it began in the mid-nineteenth century, as is evident comparing eighteenth and nineteenth century plans of the town. But despite these changes much of the physical layout of Aberystwyth's urban landscape today - especially its street pattern and series of plots along each side of the two main streets - is traceable as far back as the time of the town's foundation, in 1277.
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References:
- R.A. Griffiths, 'Aberystwyth', in R.A. Griffiths (ed.), Boroughs of Mediaeval Wales (University of Cardiff Press, Cardiff, 1978), pp.20-21.
- A.J. Taylor, The Welsh Castles of Edward I (Hambledon Press, London, 1986), pp.7-8.
- M. Prestwich, Edward I (Yale University Press, London, 1988), p.179.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.8; CWR, p.166.
- Ministers' Accounts for West Wales, 1277-1306. Part I: text and translation, ed. M. Rhys (Cymmrodorion Record Series, no 13: London, 1936), p.11.
- CChR, 1257-1300, p.206
- CChR, 1257-1300, p.206
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.10; Griffiths, 'Aberystwyth', p.30.
- Ministers' Accounts for West Wales, 1277-1306, p.33.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.11, citing PRO: C49, Chancery Parliamentary Proceedings, 1/19.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.11, citing PRO: C49, Chancery Parliamentary Proceedings, 1/19.
- Brut y Tywysogyon, or The Chronicle of the Princes, Red Book of Hergest Version, ed. T. Jones (Board of Celtic Studies History and Law Series, no.16: University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1955), p.271.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.13.
- CChR, 1257-1300, p.206.
- CWR, p.222.
- CWR, p.222.
- 1300-1301, 141½ burgages and 120 burgesses; 1305-1305, 147 burgages; 1311, 155½ burgages: I.J. Sanders, 'The boroughs of Aberystwyth and Cardigan in the early fourteenth century', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 15 (1954), p.283, citing Minister's Accounts for West Wales, 1277-1306, pp.75, 93, 199, 217, 295, 363.
- Sanders, 'Boroughs of Aberystwyth and Cardigan', p.283.
- Sanders, 'Boroughs of Aberystwyth and Cardigan', pp287-89, citing PRO: SC 12/17/72.
- Sanders, 'Boroughs of Aberystwyth and Cardigan', p.283, citing CPR 1385-9, p.114. In the mid-fourteenth century a plea was made to the Edward III by 'the English burgesses of the English borough towns in north Wales', which 'the king's grandfather, by his wise counsel established soon after the conquest of Wales', Calendar of Ancient Petitions Relating to Wales, ed. W. Rees (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1975), p.439.
- See Sanders, 'Boroughs of Aberystwyth and Cardigan', pp.289-93.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.8.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.7-8
- The town's defences have received little archaeological attention; see D.B. Hague, 'The Aberystwyth town walls', Ceredigion 2 (1955), p.276.
- For a plan of this part of Bristol see K.D. Lilley, 'Mapping cosmopolis: moral topographies of the medieval city', Environment & Planning d: Society and Space 22 (2004), p.692; E. Ralph, 'Bristol, circa 1480', in Local Maps and Plans from Medieval England, R.A. Skelton and P.D.A. Harvey (eds.) (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989), pp.309-316.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.7.
- E.A. Lewis, The Mediaeval Boroughs of Snowdonia (Henry Sotheran, London, 1912), p.63.
- Measurements based on field-survey undertaken in 2004. See 'Data downloads'.
- Griffiths, 'Aberystwyth', pp.43-44.
- Griffiths, 'Aberystwyth', p.21, suggests that St Mary's lay north of the castle and notes that 'in 1762, it was stated that "many years ago" the original church was destroyed as a result of gradual undermining by the pounding waves'. However, a destroyed church is shown east of the town walls and north of Pier Street on Lewis Morris's map of c.1740.
- On the various discoveries of remains of the town walls see Griffiths, 'Aberystwyth', p.37, while the castle is discussed in Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.7-16.
- For more details on historical monuments in Aberystwyth see www.coflein.gov.uk
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