Discussion:
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Early history of the town
Conwy, like Caernarfon along the coast, is one of Edward's most celebrated castle-towns. It also shares a similar position, on sheltered coastal waters and at the mouth of a small river, in this case the tidal shore of Afon Conwy at the point where Afon Gyffin enters it. Again the site was also already occupied before Edward's new town was built, not by a Welsh settlement but a monastic foundation, a Cisterician abbey of St Mary founded around 1192 that had been moved there from near Caernarfon.[126] The Welsh princes had used the abbey as a burial place during the thirteenth century, and nearby stood their hall, later called Llywelyn's Hall.[127] In March 1283, the English forces had arrived at Aberconwy.[128] Within a year a new town was laid out around the abbey church (which remained), and the king's castle and the town's defences were under construction. All this required negotiation with the incumbents of the abbey, and following consent for their removal to a place further upstream along the Conwy river, at Maenan in Rhos, their new abbey was inaugurated in the king's presence at Eastertide 1284.[129]
The abbey's buildings were used from the start in the building of the new town and castle. In March and April 1283 the king's men stored their valuables there, as well as weapons and stores.[130] Preliminary work took place during the spring and into the early summer. In June, a site was cleared to accommodate the king's tents and pavilions near the old abbey, and work began on building a new mill, a granary, and also a timber-built palisade around the whole works 'to enclose the site of the new town'.[131] Such palisades are known to have been used to protect the initial groundworks of Edward's other castle towns, such as Caernarfon and Rhuddlan. Its presence here at Conwy in June 1283 suggests that decisions had by then been taken about the areal extent the new town would occupy. Meanwhile, the king was using Llywelyn's Hall as lodging, at least until a new hall and chambers were ready for he and the queen, she having her own accommodation by June, complete with a newly turfed lawn.[132] Work on the king's chambers, and the castle and town, was under the overall direction of Master James of St George, the chief architect, and John of Candover, who was clerk of the works.[133] Others were also involved at Conwy at this time. John de Bonvillars, a knight of the king's household, played a role for example, while in March of that year Peter of Brampton and Master Richard the Engineer were busy recruiting workers such as diggers and masons for the ditches and walls to be made.[134] In June the following year, 1284, a survey of the new works was conducted by William of Louth, one of the king's most senior household clerks.[135] With the preliminaries completed building-work was advancing well on both castle and town defences by the time Master James and John of Candover received £5819 14s for payment of men and materials over the first two years, covering the period up to November 1284.[136]
By early autumn 1284 Edward's new town and castle of Conwy had taken shape and was ready to take in new inhabitants. As if to mark the end of this first phase in the town's formation, the king chartered Conwy as a 'free borough' in September 1284, granting it privileges that were also shared by other Edwardian new towns in north Wales, including Rhuddlan, Flint and Caernarfon, which likewise received charters at the same time.[137] Conwy's burgesses were given the right to every year 'choose two proper bailiffs from themselves', and on the feast of St Michael 'present them to the constable [of the castle] as mayor', as well as to 'have a guild merchant'.[138] A clause was also inserted to attract new settlers to come and live there.[139] The privileges were based on those of the city of Hereford, while Conwy's charter was subsequently used as a model for the one granted to Beaumaris in 1296.[140] The number of burgesses actually arriving in the town at this early date is not known but those that were taking up residence there would have seen construction work continuing on the stone walls around the town and the castle. Along the north side of the town between November 1284 and November 1285, £472 10s 4d was spent constructing 'a portion of the town wall and its ditch', the work being done under the direction of Master James by John Flauner of Boulogne.[141] Architectural details show that this stretch of wall and that on the west side of the town were completed at around the same time, while the southern stretch of the walls, together with Mill Gate, Upper Gate and a tower by the castle that stood in the river were all built in 1285-6, along with excavations to create a rock-cut ditch around both the castle and the town.[142]
Within three years of work starting on the site, Conwy was thus more or less a completely walled town, with strongly-built stone defences, fortified by gates and ditches, and containing not just the castle but also dwellings for the king and the royal household, as well as houses for craftsmen such as Master James and other workers.[143] The castle itself was ready by 1291-2, and Arnold Taylor calculates that the overall cost of building it and the town walls was £14,500.[144] Shortly after this date comes the first record of the townspeople's properties at Conwy. A survey of the town was carried out around 1295 and records that there were then 112 burgages, occupied by a total of 99 burgesses.[145] Some of the burgesses held properties that comprised more than one burgage, such as William of Westgate who had two 'integrated' burgages, and John of Bristol, whose property was one and a half burgages wide and two in depth.[146] This suggests a fluid property market from quite an early date, with burgages being amalgamated, sub-divided and exchanged by the burgesses, as was their right under the laws of Hereford. The dimensions of these plots is not stated, but there was probably a standard burgage size at Conwy as the rental notes if a property had gained or lost any extra length or breadth, the differences being recorded in feet. For example, Henry Baldwin had one whole burgage except for three feet in width, while Hugh le Barber had half a burgage with five feet extra in front.[147] It is as if the plots had originally been laid out to one size but were subsequently altered, by their tenants, by adding or subtracting a few extra feet here and there. The fact that the rental records such minor differences in the sizes of the burgages goes to show how much attention was paid to the boundaries of urban property holding, even in a small town like Conwy, as well as how carefully such measurements were made.
The 1295 rental provides some interesting insight into the social make-up of early Conwy. In particular, some of the burgesses' surnames reveal where they had originated from, such as Henry of Faversham, Roger of Lewes, John of Oxford, William of Nottingham and Robert of Northampton.[148] Judging by the geographical spread of the places represented by burgesses' names, the new town at Conwy had great pulling power, attracting immigrants from southern and eastern England, rather than the mainly midland and Welsh border areas that early migrants to Aberystwyth and Caernarfon seem to have come from.[149] Some of the town's inhabitants recorded in 1295 were those involved in the works on the town and castle, such as Jules of Chalons, a mason who worked with John Francis in early 1286 on the southern section of the town walls.[150] This close association between inhabitant burgesses and local craftsmen was seemingly quite typical for Edward's new towns at his time.[151] Unfortunately the rental itself does not provide sufficient details from which to locate whereabouts in the town the various burgesses lived, though one or two clues are given, such as Roger le Porter's burgage in the 'town's market', and Radulf de Ocle's burgage 'towards the upper gate'.[152] That immigrants were continuing to arrive in Conwy is shown by a later rental, of 1305 or 1306, by which time there are 109 burgesses recorded in the town.[153] After this, in 1312, there were 124 burgages recorded, making Conwy second in size only to Beaumaris, compared with Edward's other new towns established after the 1282-3 war.[154] Judging by the amount of money he was willing to spend on its construction, the king must have had high aspirations for the place, and in this context it is perhaps no surprise that the town was relatively large. The larger the town the higher its revenue for the exchequer, so no doubt, considering the costs which the construction had incurred, the apparent early success of Conwy was met with some relief by the Crown, for the rents the burgesses paid went to the king's coffers, 'an annual rent of about £5 12s 0d' in the early 1290s.[155] A small but useful contribution towards the £14,500 it had cost to build the new town and castle.
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Design and plan of the town
Perched on gently-sloping hillside above the confluence of the Conwy and Gyffin rivers, the town and castle of Conwy occupy a dramatic site. The stone-built walls encompass an area of just over 22 acres (89,500m²), taking in the abbey church of St Mary's and its large churchyard left over from the transfer of the monastic community in 1283-4, as well as the sites of the royal apartments that were put up at around this time, and of course the streets and the building plots of the town itself. The castle sits at the waterside where the Gyffin enters the Conwy river, at the lower, eastern end of the town, and from it the town's walls strike out, to the west in one direction rising steeply up hill, and in the other along the shoreline. These two sections of town wall are connected along the town's north-side by a long and relatively straight section of wall that John Flauner of Boulogne had worked on between 1284 and 1285. The circuit of walls traces out a triangular shape which was pierced by three gateways, Porth Isaf to the east, Port Uchaf to the west, and Porth y Felin to the south.[156]
The street layout within the walls comprises two main thoroughfares. These join to make a T-shape. One street extends from the castle gates and runs parallel along the shoreline of the Conwy river, while the other is perpendicular to it, and extends steeply uphill to the town's market place. As well as this 'T', formed by Castle Street, Berry Street and High Street, a second, narrower perpendicular street, Chapel Street, also extends uphill from the river-shore, running parallel to High Street but continuing further on past the market place as far as Upper Gate. The upper and lower gates do not stand at opposite ends of the same street, therefore, but rather are offset from each other. This meant that the two main streets of the town did not terminate at a gateway, an unusual arrangement when compared with the plans of other fortified Edwardian new towns such as Caernarfon and Flint. The T-shape however is reminiscent of the arrangement of streets at Beaumaris on Anglesey, founded in 1295-6, and indeed the configuration is remarkably similar, raising the possibility that they were designed and planned by the same individual, even though the towns were not founded at the same time. Another similarity between Conwy and Beaumaris is the siting of the castle at one end of the main street that runs parallel to the shoreline, which in both towns formed the main quayside. They each also have a short street running down to the shoreline immediately opposite the perpendicular street, thus making the 'T' into more of a cross-shape (†). Both towns also contain large churchyards occupying a corner to the south of the perpendicular street, though in the case of Beaumaris the church may not have pre-dated the foundation of the town, unlike Conwy.
Similarities between the plans of Conwy and Beaumaris point to a common hand in their making, but about which little is documented. By 1295, the time of the survey of the town listing its burgages and burgesses, the streets and plots were already in place for over ten years. The rental helps to confirm some details about the various elements that made up the town at that time, including the market place, the churchyard, the street towards the mill and Upper Gate (Porth Uchaf), as well as a property situated in the middle of a street, probably the market place where 'islands' of buildings still exist.[157] But it provides few specific clues about the physical make-up of the town, and though it does suggest there was a standard size of burgage at Conwy it contains no reference to what this was and hence offers little help relating to the town's early formation. Field-survey of the town's street-blocks and selected property frontages along the main streets has also failed to reveal an original burgage size, though considering the evident movement (albeit slight) in property bounds revealed by entries in the 1295 rental, this should not be of surprise.[158] What is revealed, though, are yet further similarities between Conwy and Beaumaris in terms of the relative proportions of the overall series of plots fronting onto the main street running parallel to the shoreline, and the comparable overall lengths of the towns' T-shaped streets.
The presence of Master James of St George at the early stages of work at both Conwy and Beaumaris perhaps accounts for the similarities in layout of these two new towns.[159] At Conwy, his receipt of monies in the first year to cover costs of building, as well as his supervising of particular aspects of the construction work, shows him to be someone who had an overall vision of the whole enterprise. Others may also have been influential in the early planning of Conwy, including John de Bonvillars, who assigned work to contractors in the mid-1280s, and William of Louth, whose survey of the works was carried out in June 1284, before the grant of the borough charter, though after the palisade had been erected around the site and after initial groundworks had begun. Then there was the clerk of works at this time, John of Candover, who worked closely with Master James but dealt more with matters of finance and administration on site, and perhaps therefore had an eye on how many townspeople the place would need to accommodate, how many burgages to include, to earn the king a reasonable revenue. But at Beaumaris in 1295 Walter of Winchester was clerk of works, and though he like Master James had been at Conwy that same year, and may have seen the shape of the new town there, he was not involved in the early work at Conwy.[160] This would seem to rule out John of Candover as the directing hand in the design of Conwy, and again place suspicion on Master James. William of Louth, while active in conducting surveys elsewhere of new towns in north Wales, seems to be involved more in making a record of what was already in place rather than instrumental himself in creating towns. For example, at Rhuddlan in June 1279 he was commissioned by the king to survey the town, established in 1277, and record 'the void plots and other sites', and 'assess and rent burgages'.[161] On that occasion Master James was instructed to assist him, as he probably was at Conwy in 1284.
All in all, then, though little is known of how the plan of Conwy was laid out on the ground, it seems that the most likely person who decided what the town should look like was Master James of St George, the king's master architect in north Wales. This would explain the similarities evident in the layouts of Conwy and Beaumaris, and also account for the presence of the same plan-features even though the two towns were founded over a decade apart. That the town and castle were seen to be one construction at Conwy is revealed in the earliest references to it.[162] The unity of the town and castle design - the linking of the two, for example in the alignment of Castle Street with the castle gates - suggests likewise, and since Master James is certainly responsible for overseeing work on the castle and town defences it is highly likely too that he was engaged with coming up with a plan for the town's streets and plots, a plan that had to be accommodated within the confines of the circuit of walls, and which took in the abbey church and churchyard. The way the two main streets intersect at right-angles, and the straightness of the streets even on the steep hillside that makes up the town, also hint at someone with practical knowledge of geometry, a mason-architect for example.[163] However, if both town plan and walled circuit were the unified product of one man's thinking, as appears to be the case, it seems odd that they should have chosen not to make the Lower and Upper Gates, two of the town's main gateways, align with one another along a single street axis of either High Street or Chapel Street. This may be due to the town's undulating topography, for unlike at Caernarfon it is not possible to see from one side of the town to the other, so even if the gates were at opposite ends of the same street they would not have been inter-visible anyway.
As with the other Edwardian towns in north Wales, the physical formation of Conwy preceded the legal foundation of it as a borough. The chartering of the town marked the end of the town's beginning. It seems likely that William of Louth's survey in the summer of 1284 was timed to see what progress had been made on the town prior to its receiving new inhabitants, which the 'free borough' status and privileges were to entice, in the autumn. Work was still continuing at this time on the town's defences, as noted above, and in the town, too, building projects went on through the 1280s and 1290s, including work on the King's Hall, which was enclosed by a wall, the construction of a new mill on the Gyffin, the 'two small walls built in the ditch between the castle and the apartment of Master James', and later still, repairs to the town quay.[164] The 1295 and 1305-6 rentals also provide some information on how the new town was developing after its foundation, although the burgesses' houses are not mentioned specifically since the survey was of land and not buildings. It is clear that by the turn of the century properties existed outside the walls along the quayside, for eight plots are mentioned there, each paying six-pence in rent, while seven built-upon properties are mentioned 'extra muros', beyond the walls, at Twthill.[165] The area of the King's Hall and Llywelyn's Hall have been excavated and foundations of these and other early structures found there, while elsewhere in the town more limited archaeological excavations have produced evidence of the town's early occupation, including on the north side of Berry Street a stone-built property boundary, more or less coincident with a plot boundary marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey plan.[166] The quayside has also had archaeological work, but on the houses and workshops that must have occupied the burgages of the early town nothing comparable has been carried out.[167]
Overall, the layout of Conwy is interesting for what it reveals of the early history of the new town and its planning. Through linking the scant documentary sources with careful study of the town's plan, and through making comparative observations between it and other Edwardian new towns, it is possible to begin to see how Conwy took shape during its early formation in 1283 and 1284. Considering the plan-similarities between Conwy and Beaumaris, and the apparent involvement of Master James in the planning of both, it may be that the original burgages at Conwy were of the same dimensions as those laid out at Beaumaris, forty by eighty feet. At Conwy though, the 1295 rental makes it clear that the standard burgage there was subject to minor alterations, making it difficult to now use modern measurements of the town's streets and plots to work out whether this was the case. Even so, the unified planning of castle and town, and the shared characteristics of the layouts of Conwy and Beaumaris, help to suggest that at least in this particular case the design and planning of the new town was the work of the king's master architect, James of St George. In this sense, not only do some of his castles reflect common design traits, as is well known,[168] so too do the towns where he had worked from the start. Perhaps, as with the castles, it will be possible to identify town planning traits that connect Conwy and Beaumaris with the new towns of Savoy, the region from where Master James had come, and where he had previously worked before coming to Wales.[169]
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The town as it is today
The Edwardian town walls and castle at Conwy are designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as at Caernarfon. It is still possible to walk along sections of the town wall, and from its parapet look down upon both the castle and town, as was done seven centuries ago. The impressive gradient of the wall as it rises up from the castle up to the north-west tower is clear, and this angle tower - as if standing at the bow of a ship - provides an elevated view back onto the town's streets and buildings below. The town's gateways are well-preserved too, though some holes were made in the walls in the nineteenth century to provide greater access into and through the town, including the new road and bridge constructed by Thomas Telford, and later on the line of the Chester-Holyhead railway, which breached the walls and with its station and deep cutting now occupy what would have been the western part of the walled town.
Today Conwy is a small and relatively quiet town, trading on its architectural heritage, with a population in 2001 of just over 4000 inhabitants.[170] Along High Street and Castle Street the town centre is busy with shoppers, while the quayside is still used by fishing boats. The streets and plots set out in 1283-4 remain the framework of the modern town. Most of the building façades along the town's streets are of the later eighteenth century onwards, but the castle, the town walls and gates, and the parish church of St Mary, as well as some domestic buildings in the town do date back to the middle ages, and no doubt behind the modern exteriors of some buildings are hidden much earlier cores.[171] The plot boundaries evident especially along Castle Street are substantial structures themselves, and by walking along the northern stretch of town wall others can be seen in behind frontages along Chapel Street. Because the town declined in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, parts of the walled town, particularly along Upper Gate Street but also parts of Chapel Street, were abandoned and became gardens.[172] A remarkable map of the seventeenth century shows very clearly how built up this area of the town once was,[173] but today it is occupied by rows of terraced housing that were built on the sites of the gardens in the nineteenth century. Even so, walking around the streets of the town today, along the town walls, the quayside, and around the churchyard, and looking down from the wall's towers and gates, Conwy still provides a good sense of the original size and character of one of Edward I's more successful new town ventures.
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References:
- S. Toy, 'The town and castle of Conway', Archaeologia 86 (1936), pp.163-93.
- Soulsby, Towns of Medieval Wales, p.114; RCAHMW, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Caernarvonshire, volume I: east, the cantref of Arllechwedd and the commote of Creuddyn (HMSO, London, 1956), pp.39, 57.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.45.
- CWR, p.285; Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.46-7; RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, i, pp.1-2.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.46.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.46.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.46.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.49. On Master James see Taylor, 'Master James of St George'.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.49. On Bonvillars see A.J. Taylor, 'Who was 'John Pennardd, leader of the men of Gwynedd?', English Historical Review 91 (1976), pp.79-97.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.50; T.F. Tout, Chapters in Administrative History of Mediaeval England. The Wardrobe, the Chamber and the Small Seals, volume II (Manchester University Press, London, 1920), pp.14-15.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.49.
- CChR 1257-1300, pp.276-8.
- CChR 1257-1300, p.277.
- The clause stated that 'If any man's bondsman shall dwell in the town and hold land there... for a year and a day without being claimed... he shall remain a free man in that town'. CChR 1257-1300, p.277.
- See 'Beaumaris'.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.50. During this same period £3313 1s 2d was paid out for the works in all, bringing the then overall total for construction costs up to £9132 15s 2d.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.51-53, 55. By September 1286 the total cost of work had risen to £11, 285 11s 5d. William Barber and Richard of Roding received £6 16s 0d for their work on four perches of ditch by the north-west angle tower, while Walter of Roding and six other men received £16 16s 0d for eight perches for the section of ditch by Upper Gate. A perch was sixteen and a half feet.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.52-3, 55; for the town walls see RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, i, pp.55-7.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.58.
- J. Griffiths, 'Documents relating to the early history of Conway', Transactions of the Caernarfonshire Historical Society 8 (1947), pp.6, 7-10. No date is given but Griffiths suggests that the survey 'was probably drawn up before 1295' (p.5).
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', pp.7-8.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', pp.9-10. There are many other examples of this in the rental.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', pp.7-8. Other examples can be found.
- See 'Aberystwyth'; 'Caernarfon'.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', p.8; Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.53.
- See Williams Jones, 'Caernarfon', pp.80-1.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', p.9.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', pp.6, 10-15.
- Lewis, Mediaeval Boroughs, p.66.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', p.6.
- Ie. 'Lower gate', 'Upper gate', and 'Mill gate'. See RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, i, pp.56-7.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', pp.7-10. Plots are also referred to 'in the market' in the later rental (p.16).
- RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, i, p.39: suggests it 'seems probable that the Conwy burgage had an area of about 4800 square feet [ie. comparable with Caernarfon] but that its linear dimensions varied according to the depth available at different parts of the town'. Field survey conducted in 2004, see 'Data downloads'.
- On Master James' presence at Beaumaris and Conwy see Taylor, 'Master James of St George'.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.104-5.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.30; CWR, p.178.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, p.46.
- For example, Chapel Street and Upper Gate Street. On the geometrical knowledge of medieval master masons see L.R. Shelby, 'The geometrical knowledge of mediaeval master masons', Speculum 47 (1972), pp.395-421.
- Taylor, Welsh Castles, pp.53-8.
- Griffiths, 'Early history of Conway', pp.16, 19.
- Excavation: L.A.S. Butler, 'Excavations at Conway 1961-4', Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society 26 (1965), pp.20-30; M.A. Mason, 'Llywelyn's Hall, Conwy', Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society 56 (1995), pp.11-35; Gifford Consulting Engineers, Former TA Centre Premises, Berry Street, Conwy, report on archaeological works (Report B4658B-RO3, 2002, copy with GAT); R.S. Kelly, Conwy's Past in Future. A survey of archaeological deposits in Conwy, Gwynedd (Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, Bangor, 1977).
- Excavation: Anon., Conwy West Sewage Disposal and Quay Pipelines - 1994 Development, archaeological monitoring and recording (phase II) (G1182) ((Gwynedd Archaeological Trust report 111, c.1994).
- Taylor, 'Master James of St George'.
- A.J. Taylor, 'Some notes on the Savoyards in North Wales, 1277-1300, with special reference to the Savoyard element in the construction of Harlech castle', Genava 11 (New Series) (1963), pp.289-315.
- The figure is for the ward of Conwy which covers a slightly larger area than the built-up town.
- There are some surviving standing domestic buildings of late-medieval and early-modern date, most notably 'Aberconway' on the corner of Castle Street and High Street (possibly fourteenth century); RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, i, pp.58-69. For the castle and church also see RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire, i, pp.39-57. More information on Conwy's historic buildings is to be found at www.coflein.gov.uk .
- Soulsby, Towns of Medieval Wales, p.114.
- Reproduced in W.J. Hemp, 'Conway castle', Archaeologia Cambrensis 46 (1941), pp.169-9.
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