Bethesda, Gwynedd
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Bethesda (; ) is a town and
community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
in
Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...
,
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
. It is on the banks of Afon Ogwen and on the edge of
Snowdonia Snowdonia, or Eryri (), is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales Welsh 3000s, over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon (), which i ...
. It is about south-west of Bangor. It is a predominantly Welsh-speaking town.


History

The settlement's ancient name was Cilfoden, formerly known as Glanogwen. In 1820 the Bethesda
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
Chapel was built and the town subsequently grew around and later named after it. The chapel was enlarged 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 ro ...
quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
ing industries; the largest of the local quarries is the Penrhyn Quarry. 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 between 1900 and 1903 – the longest industrial dispute in British history. This led to the building of a street of houses in the nearby village of Tregarth, by the quarry owners, to house the families of those workers who opted not to strike. It also led to the formation of three co-operative quarries, the largest of which Pantdreiniog dominated the town for many years. 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 Bulawayo ;Americas * Quebec Autoroute 5, a road in Quebec, Canada * County Route A5 (California) or Bowm ...
runs through Bethesda and marked the border between Lord Penrhyn's land, and the freehold 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 in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
Penrhyn Quarry Railway opened in 1801 to serve Penrhyn Quarry. It connected the quarry with Port Penrhyn on the coast and operated until 1962. In 1884, a
branch A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...
of the
London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...
'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. Background According to Network Rail, the trackbed is the layers of ...
of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway towards Porth Penrhyn is taken over by the Lôn Las Ogwen cycle path.


Modern Bethesda

The
population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...
of Bethesda was 4,735 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 ...
and
hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and beverage services, event planning, theme parks, travel agency, tourism, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Sector ...
. Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen ("Ogwen Valley School") is a bilingual
comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 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 restricted on the basis ...
, 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''Who Really Benefits from Tourism'', Publ. Equations, Karnataka, India, 2010. Working Papers Series. "Canopy Tourism"page 37/ref>Jacques Marais, Lisa De Speville, ''Adventure Racing'', ...
in Europe, at just over long, and brings the town hundreds of visitors.


Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Bethesda, at
community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
and
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
level, with both councils using Welsh as their primary language: Cyngor Cymuned Bethesda (Bethesda Community Council) and Cyngor Gwynedd (Gwynedd Council). The community council has its offices at 26 Stryd Fawr (High Street) and meets at Canolfan Cefnfaes, a former school on Mostyn Terrace, now converted into a community facility.


Administrative history

Bethesda was historically part of the parish of Llanllechid. The nascent town grew rapidly from the 1820s with the development of the local quarries. By the 1850s it was clear that the area needed more formal structures of local government, particularly to supply water and sewers, maintain the streets, and regulate the town's further development. A body of
improvement commissioners Boards of improvement commissioners were ''ad hoc'' urban local government boards created during the 18th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its predecessors the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Irel ...
was therefore established in 1854. Improvement commissioners' districts such as Bethesda were converted into urban districts under the
Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The act followed the reforms carried out at county leve ...
. The 1894 Act also directed that parishes could no longer straddle district boundaries, and so a parish of Bethesda was created from the part of Llanllechid parish within the urban district. Bethesda Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
. A community called Bethesda was created instead, covering the area of the abolished urban district. District-level functions passed to Arfon Borough Council, which was in turn replaced in 1996 by Gwynedd Council.


Architecture

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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
s, including three pubs, in addition to the substantial and imposing Grade I listed Nonconformist 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 language, 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 England and W ...
mountains which form some of the more remote landscapes of
Snowdonia Snowdonia, or Eryri (), is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales Welsh 3000s, over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon (), which i ...
. Much of Bethesda once consisted of discrete villages such as Gerlan, Rachub, Tregarth, Llanllechid and Braichmelyn; their names are retained as districts of the town.


Religion

Bethesda is noted for both the number of
chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
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 highlights
Welsh cuisine Welsh cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with Wales. While there are many dishes that can be considered Welsh due to their ingredients and/or history, dishes such as , Welsh rarebit, laverbread, Welsh cake ...
, including Welsh cakes and Bara Brith.


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 Census in the United Kingdom, UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organise ...
, 77.5% of the residents are Welsh-speaking (with some parts being over 80.0%+), higher than the average for both
Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...
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 name of the town is known colloquially "Pesda" in the local Welsh dialect. The
S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...
series ''Amdani!'' (a play on words that can mean "go for it!" and "about her") was based on a fictitious women's rugby 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''. Bethesda is also home to Efan Electro, a young DJ and electronic music producer from nearby Llanllechid, who has gained recognition across North Wales for his energetic sets and appearances at major local festivals. Efan being the youngest DJ in Wales at only 10years old.


Gallery


Notable people

* Bobby Atherton (1876–1917), footballer with 135 club caps and 9 for
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
* 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 (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 * Tammy Jones (born 1944), singer * Frederick Llewellyn-Jones (1866–1941), politician and MP * Leila Megàne (1891–1960), a mezzo-soprano opera singer. * John Ogwen (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 North Wales Quarrymen's Union. * Peter Prendergast (1946–2007), Welsh landscape painter * Caradog Prichard (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, (20 September 1913 – 23 July 1981), was a Welsh Labour member of Parliament. Early life Goronwy Roberts was the younger son of Edward and Amelia Roberts from Bethesda, Gwynedd, where hi ...
(1913–1981), politician, MP and peer * James Edmund Vincent (1857–1909), barrister, journalist and author


See also

* Bethesda Branch Line


References


External links

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

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