Bro Machno is a

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, ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is a county borough in Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south, and Denbighshire to the east. Other settlements in the county borough include Abergele, Betws-y-Coed, Colwyn Bay, Conwy ...

, in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, formed from the former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Penmachno Penmachno is a village in the isolated upland Machno valley, south of Betws-y-Coed in the county of Conwy, North Wales. The B4406 road runs through part of the village. The village is at the confluence of the Glasgwm and Machno rivers. It has ...

. It covers the Penmachno Valley, through which runs the

Afon Machno River Machno ( cy, Afon Machno) is a river in Snowdonia in north-west Wales. It is the first major tributary of the River Conwy, which it joins south of Betws-y-coed Betws-y-coed (; '' en, prayer house in the wood'') is a village and commun ...

, and includes the villages of Penmachno and

Cwm Penmachno Cwm Penmachno (historically called Tre-Gynwal) is a village at the head of Cwm Machno in North Wales. History The village was built in the 1860s as a quarry settlement. The Penmachno quarry lay immediately south and above the settlement. High ...

. To the south west borders Gwynedd, and is located south of

Betws-y-Coed Betws-y-coed (; '' en, prayer house in the wood'') is a village and community in the Conwy valley in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located in the historic county of Caernarfonshire, right on the boundary with Denbighshire, in the Gwydir Forest. ...

, north west of

Corwen Corwen is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire in Wales. Historically, Corwen is part of the county of Merionethshire. Corwen stands on the banks of the River Dee beneath the Berwyn mountains. The town is situated west of Llango ...

, and south of

Conwy Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy on ...

. The whole of the community is within the

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 ...

national park, while much of it forms part of Gwydir Forest. According to the 2011 census, the population of the Bro Machno Parish was 617, of whom 342 (55%) were able to speak Welsh and 214 (34%) had no skills in Welsh. Ty Mawr - geograph

Tŷ Mawr, a 16th-century farmhouse now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, was the birthplace of William Morgan, who in 1588 first translated the whole

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

into Welsh. The building is Grade II* listed. Also listed is Coed-y-Ffynnon Farmhouse, where the poet Huw Machno died in 1637, Benar Farmhouse, below Penmachno and dating from the 16th century, Fedw Deg, a 16th-century old house in the north of the community, and Pen-y-Bryn Farmhouse, a 17th-century building overlooking the village. The Penmachno Document was drawn up by

Madog ap Llywelyn Madog ap Llywelyn (died after 1312) was the leader of the Welsh revolt of 1294–95 against English rule in Wales and proclaimed "Prince of Wales". The revolt was surpassed in longevity only by the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr in the 15th century. Ma ...

in 1294, at the height of his rebellion against

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

. It is the only surviving document issued by one of the Welsh leaders during the revolt, and in it Madog styles himself ''Prince of Wales, Lord of Snowdonia''. At the

head of the valley The head of the valley or, less commonly, the valley head, refers to the uppermost part of a valley.Leser (2005), p. 935. Description The head of a valley may take widely differing forms; for example, in highland regions the valley often ends i ...

stands the village of Cwm Penmachno, above which

and Rhiwbach slate quarries opened at the start of the 19th century. By the 1860s, underground quarrying was being developed, later covering eight levels. Horses carried the slate down the Penmachno and Conwy valleys to

Trefriw Trefriw () is a village and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It lies on the river Crafnant in North Wales, a few miles south of the site of the Roman Britain, Roman castra, fort of Canovium, sited at Caerhun. At the l ...

, until the

Rhiwbach Tramway The Rhiwbach Tramway was a Welsh industrial, narrow gauge railway connecting the remote slate quarries east of Blaenau Ffestiniog with the Ffestiniog Railway. It was in use by 1862, and remained so until progressively closed between 1956 a ...

opened in 1863, when all the slate from the Rhiwbach quarry was transported to Blaenau Ffestiniog, to be carried by the Ffestiniog Railway to the harbour at

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ff ...

. The Penmachno quarry continued to ship its slate out by road until it closed in 1962. Because of the remoteness, and inaccessibility during bad weather, of Rhiwbach quarry, the workers lived on site, and a small village developed, including a shop and school, in addition to family accommodation and a barracks for single men. Extensive remains of the village can still be seen, along with the ruins of the engine house which provided the power to haul the slate up the incline to the tramway. At the opposite end of the valley stands the former Penmachno Woollen Mill, a 19th-century water-powered

fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

mill. The community is part of the Uwch Conwy

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

for elections to

Conwy County Borough Council Conwy County Borough Council ( cy, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is the local authority for Conwy County Borough, one of the principal areas of Wales. History Conwy County Borough was created in 1996 under the Local Government (Wales) Act 199 ...

References

External links

A Vision of Britain Through Time

British Listed Buildings

Geograph

Office for National Statistics
{{Conwy