Bethesda (; ) is a town and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

on the

River Ogwen ˈ The Afon Ogwen (; ; Welsh, meaning River Ogwen in English) is a river in north-west Wales draining from some of the greatest peaks in Snowdonia before discharging to the sea on the eastern side of Bangor, Gwynedd. Etymology Although the sp ...

and the

A5 road A5 Road may refer to: ;Africa * A5 highway (Nigeria), a road connecting Lagos and Ibadan * A5 road (Zimbabwe), a road connecting Harare and Francistown ;Americas * Quebec Autoroute 5, a road in Quebec, Canada * County Route A5 (California) or B ...

on the edge of

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the na ...

, in

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

, north-west

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It is the fifth-largest community in Gwynedd.

History

The settlement's ancient name was Cilfoden, formerly known as Glanogwen. In 1823, the Bethesda Chapel was built and the town subsequently grew around and later named after it. The chapel was rebuilt in 1840. The town grew around the

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

ing industries; the largest of the local quarries is the

Penrhyn Quarry The Penrhyn quarry is a slate quarry located near Bethesda, North Wales. At the end of the nineteenth century it was the world's largest slate quarry; the main pit is nearly long and deep, and it was worked by nearly 3,000 quarrymen. It has ...

. At its peak, the town exported purple slate all over the world. Penrhyn Quarry suffered a three-year strike led by the

North Wales Quarrymen's Union The North Wales Quarrymen's Union (NWQU) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded on 27 April 1874 at the Queen's Hotel, Caernarfon after a month of discussions between quarrymen from Dinorwic and other supporter ...

between 1900 and 1903 – the longest industrial dispute in British history. This led to the creation of the nearby village of

Tregarth Tregarth is a village near Thomas Telford's A5 London to Holyhead road between the town of Bethesda and the city of Bangor in Gwynedd, north Wales. It is in Llandygai Community. It had a population of over 1,300 as of the 2011 census. . His ...

, built by the quarry owners, which housed the families of those workers who had not struck. It also led to the formation of three co-operative quarries, the largest of which Pantdreiniog dominated the town for many years. The

runs through Bethesda and marked the border between Lord Penrhyn's land, and the

freehold Freehold may refer to: In real estate *Freehold (law), the tenure of property in fee simple * Customary freehold, a form of feudal tenure of land in England * Parson's freehold, where a Church of England rector or vicar of holds title to benefice ...

land. Most of the town is to the east and northeast of the road, with housing packed onto the hillside in irregular rows, built on the commons. On the current high street, all the

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s are found on the south side of the road.

Railways

The

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Penrhyn Quarry Railway The Penrhyn Quarry Railway was a narrow gauge railway in Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd), Wales. It served the Penrhyn quarry near Bethesda, taking their slate produce to Port Penrhyn, near Bangor. The railway was around long and used a gaug ...

opened in 1801 to serve Penrhyn Quarry. It connected the quarry with

Port Penrhyn Port Penrhyn ( cy, Porth Penrhyn) is a harbour located just east of Bangor in north Wales at the confluence of the River Cegin with the Menai Strait. It was formerly of great importance as the main port for the export of slate from the Penrh ...

on the coast and operated until 1962. In 1884, a

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk (botany), trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' ...

of the London and North Western Railway's network from Bangor was opened, along with a station for the town. The line closed to passengers in 1951 and to freight in 1963. The

trackbed The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links. According to Network Rail, the trackbed is the layers of ballast a ...

of the

towards Porth Penrhyn is taken over by the

Lôn Las Ogwen Lôn Las Ogwen is a cycle route in the National Cycle Network which runs south from the NCN 5 at Porth Penrhyn on the north coast of Wales to Llyn Ogwen in Snowdonia. Lôn Las is Welsh for "blue lane". From Porth Penrhyn to Penrhyn Quarry it ...

cycle path.

Modern Bethesda

The

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of Bethesda was 4,735 people in 2011. Current opportunities for employment in the town are limited: there are a few manufacturing businesses; most businesses are in the low-paid

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

and

hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks, travel and tourism. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars. Sect ...

. For employment with higher earning potential, residents tend to

commute Commute, commutation or commutative may refer to: * Commuting, the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work Mathematics * Commutative property, a property of a mathematical operation whose result is insensitive to th ...

to towns along the North Wales coast.

Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen ("Ogwen Valley School") is a bilingual secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 19 years. It is situated in Bethesda in the Ogwen valley in Gwynedd, Wales. As of 2022, there were 454 pupils on roll at the school. Some of the b ...

("Ogwen Valley School") is a bilingual

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

, with 374 pupils, established in 1951. Zip World Velocity in Penrhyn Quarry is the longest

zipline A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bott ...

in Europe, at just over long, and brings the town hundreds of visitors.

Governance

At the local level, Bethesda elects thirteen community councillors to Bethesda Community Council, from the community wards of Gerlan, Ogwen and Rachub. Prior to 1996 Bethesda was a county

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

to Gwynedd County Council. Since 2004, two county wards have covered Bethesda, namely Gerlan and Ogwen which each elect one county councillor to

Gwynedd Council Cyngor Gwynedd ( en, Gwynedd Council) is the governing body for the county of Gwynedd, one of the principal areas of Wales. The council administrates internally using the Welsh language. History The county of Gwynedd was created in 1974 under ...

Architecture

Bethesda, Jerusalem Chapel (35833213886)

The architecture and layout of the town are largely utilitarian. Most of the buildings are constructed of stone with slate roofs. Some are constructed wholly of slate blocks, although such buildings tend to suffer from damp and structural slippage because the very flat and smooth surfaces of slate do not bind well to mortar. The town has 40 Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s, including three pubs, in addition to the substantial and imposing Grade I listed

Nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

Jerusalem Chapel The upper parts of Carneddi, Cilfodan and Tan y Foel owe more to stone quarrying on the nearby hills rather than slate quarrying that supported the lower end of the town. At the eastern limits, the town is bounded by the rising land of the

Carneddau The (lit. 'the cairns'; is a Welsh plural form, and is sometimes anglicised to ''Carnedds'') are a group of mountains in Snowdonia, Wales. They include the largest contiguous areas of high ground (over or high) in Wales and England (although l ...

mountains which form some of the more remote landscapes of

. Much of Bethesda once consisted of discrete villages such as Gerlan, Rachub,

Llanllechid Llanllechid () is a village near Bethesda and a community in Gwynedd, Wales with a population of 889 as of the 2011 UK census and an area of . The community also includes Tal-y-Bont near Bangor, Gwynedd and a large part of the Carneddau rang ...

and Braichmelyn; their names are retained as districts of the town.

Religion

Bethesda is noted for both the number of

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

s (mostly dating from the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival) in the town. The town was named after the Bethesda Chapel, which was recently converted into residential flats.

Commerce and industry

Llanllechid, on the outskirts of Bethesda, is the home of the Popty Bakery, the origins of which date back to the bakery opened by O. J. Williams in the early 1900s. The product range focuses mainly on traditional

Welsh cakes Welsh cakes ( cy, picau ar y maen, pice bach, cacennau cri or '), also bakestones or pics, are a traditional sweet bread in Wales. They have been popular since the late 19th century with the addition of fat, sugar and dried fruit to a longer stan ...

and

Bara Brith Bara brith is a traditional Welsh tea bread flavoured with tea, dried fruits and spices. A decrease in its popularity led to supermarket Morrisons removing it from their shelves in 2006, and a year later a survey showed that 36% of teenagers in ...

and these lines are retailed throughout Wales and parts of England through outlets including

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...

Co-Op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...

and

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

Public houses

There are ten

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s in the Bethesda area, not including

. The Douglas Arms, on the High Street, was named after the family which owned the nearby Penrhyn Quarry. Other pubs include the Bull, The Kings Head, Y Sior ("The George"), The Victoria Arms, and the Llangollen. The village has its own microbrewery known as Cwrw Ogwen. It currently manufactures one beer named Cwrw Caradog, named after the writer

Caradog Prichard Caradog Prichard (3 November 1904 – 25 February 1980) was a Welsh poet and novelist writing in Welsh. His daughter, Mari Prichard, was married to the late Humphrey Carpenter. Caradog Prichard was born and grew up in the Gwynedd slate-quarrying ...

Language and culture

The dominant language of the town is Welsh and can be seen written and heard spoken in most settings. According to the

United Kingdom Census 2001 A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

, 77.5% of the residents are Welsh-speaking (with some parts being over 80.0%+), higher than the average for both

and Wales as a whole. In successive census returns (1901 and 1911) Bethesda had the highest percentage of Welsh speakers of its respective shire (Caernarfonshire) and of any district in Wales (with 1,500 monolingual Welsh speakers in 1901). The S4C series ''Amdani!'' (a play on words that can mean "go for it!" and "about her") was based on a fictitious

women's rugby Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Rugby was originally a men's sport, and women's rugby has become p ...

team in Bethesda, and many of the location shots were filmed in the area. The series was based on the novel of the same name, by Bethan Gwanas, who lived in the town. In June 2012 Tabernacl (Bethesda) Cyf., a non-profit co-operative based in the town was awarded a grant of around £1 million to renovate Neuadd Ogwen, a performance venue on the High Street. It was due to reopen as a community arts centre in June 2013. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bethesda developed a reputation as a hub of musical creativity. Jam sessions and small home studios abounded alongside a burgeoning pub rock scene. As well as the now well-established 'Pesda Roc' festival, Bethesda has nurtured the Welsh language bands ''Celt'', ''Maffia Mr Huws'' and experimentalists ''Y Jeycsyn Ffeif''. In more recent years it continues to spring up bands from the local community such as ''Radio Rhydd''.

Gallery

File:The A5 going through Bethesda - geograph.org.uk - 771425.jpg, The A5 going through Bethesda. File:Hardware Shop , Bethesda (6925780090).jpg, Hardware shop File:Cofgolofn Rhyfel a Chapel Jeriwsalem. War memorial and Jerusalem Chapel - geograph.org.uk - 423174.jpg, War memorial and Jerusalem Chapel, the biggest of the many chapels built in Bethesda during the Age of Slate. File:Penrhyn Strike, Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 771432.jpg, A slate memorial to commemorate the Strike at the Penrhyn Slate Quarry, in the grounds of Jerusalem Chapel. File:Bethesda winter.jpg, Bethesda & the Quarry in Winter. File:Slate tips at Mynydd Llandegai - geograph.org.uk - 108983.jpg, Slate tips on outer edges of Penrhyn Quarry at Mynydd Llandegai, the view looks out to Bethesda in the distance File:Flooded pit at the Penrhyn Quarry from the Fronllwyd - geograph.org.uk - 314216.jpg, Flooded pit at the Penrhyn Quarry from Y Fronllwyd File:Bethesda-from-South-facing-North.jpg, Bethesda, From the mountains in the South facing North towards Anglesey

Notable people

Bobby Atherton Robert Atherton (29 July 1876 – 19 October 1917) was a Welsh footballer who played as a Half back (association football), half back and forward (association football), forward for Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian F.C. ...

(1876–1917), footballer with 135 club caps and 9 for

* Richard Bell (1859–1930), politician and MP; formed North Wales Quarries Ltd. which owned three slate quarries in Bethesda * Ellis Davies (politician) (1871–1939), politician and lawyer. *

Idris Foster Sir Idris Llewelyn Foster (23 July 1911 – 18 June 1984) was a Welsh scholar and Jesus Professor of Celtic at the University of Oxford from 1947 until 1978. He was born in Carneddi, Bethesda, Caernarfonshire, Wales, and studied Latin and Welsh ...

(1911–1984), Jesus Professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Oxford * David Ffrangcon-Davies (1855–1918), a Welsh operatic baritone. * Bethan Gwanas (born 1962), author with an informal style of writing, lived and worked in Bethesda. * Esyllt Harker (1947–2014), singer, actress and storyteller * Frederick Llewellyn-Jones (1866–1941), politician and MP *

Leila Megàne Leila Megane (5 April 1891 – 2 January 1960) was a Welsh mezzo-soprano opera singer.Obituary The Times, Monday, 4 January 1960 Born Margaret Jones in Bethesda, Wales, she married T. Osborne Roberts (1879–1948), a composer. She spent a car ...

(1891–1960), a mezzo-soprano opera singer. *

John Ogwen John Ogwen (born 25 April 1944) is a Welsh actor. Early life Ogwen was born and raised in Sling near Bethesda in the Ogwen Valley, from which his surname derives. He attended Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen, then studied English and Welsh at the Universit ...

(born 1944), actor, born in nearby Sling, now lives in Bangor * Gwenlyn Parry (1932–1991), a dramatist and author of several plays in Welsh * William John Parry (1842–1927) businessman, politician, author and first general secretary of the

. * Peter Prendergast (1946–2007), Welsh landscape painter *

(1904–1980), Welsh novelist and poet, author of ''Un Nos Ola' Leuad'' * Margaret Pritchard a former Welsh radio and TV broadcaster *

Goronwy Roberts, Baron Goronwy-Roberts Goronwy Owen Goronwy-Roberts, Baron Goronwy-Roberts, FRSA PC (20 September 1913 – 23 July 1981), was a Welsh Labour Member of Parliament. Early life Roberts was the younger son of Edward and Amelia Roberts from Bethesda, Gwynedd, where his ...

(1913–1981), politician, MP and peer *

James Edmund Vincent James Edmund Vincent (17 November 1857 – 18 July 1909) was a Welsh barrister, known as a journalist and author. Life Born on 17 November 1857 at St. Anne's, Bethesda, he was eldest son of the cleric James Crawley Vincent, son of James Vincen ...

(1857–1909), barrister, journalist and author

References

External links

*
www.geograph.co.uk : photo of Bethesda and surrounding area

www.ogwen.wales : Bethesda website
{{authority control Towns in Gwynedd Former wards of Wales