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CILGERRAN GORGE
![CILGERRAN GORGE](images/cilgerrangorge1.jpg)
GRID REFERENCE: SN190439
AREA IN HECTARES: 82
Historic Background
This is a long, narrow, sinuous area comprising the
incised meanders of Cilgerran Gorge, where the Teifi Valley suddenly narrows
from a floodplain at Llechryd into a narrow, rocky gorge. It has long
been a renowned beauty spot.
This area lies within the medieval Cantref Emlyn, in
Emlyn Is-Cych commote. Cantref Emlyn had been partly brought under Anglo-Norman
control in c.1100 when Emlyn Is-Cych commote was reconstituted as the
Lordship of Cilgerran. Cilgerran remained a marcher lordship, administered
from Cilgerran Castle, which was established in c.1100. The lordship was
regained by the Welsh in 1164 and remained under their rule until 1223.
From 1339 it was held of the Earldom of Pembroke, which passed to the
crown in the late 15th century. It was eventually abolished in 1536, when
the lordship was incorporated into Pembrokeshire as the Hundred of Cilgerran.
The medieval lordship, administered as a ‘Welshry’, remained
subject to Welsh laws, customs and tenurial systems throughout the period.
This - - with neither vills nor knight’s fees - has been largely
responsible for the dispersed settlement within the region.
The gorge passes below Cilgerran Castle itself, which
was rebuilt in stone during the 1220s-1230s and still dominates the landscape.
The gorge below the castle is noted for its fishing, particularly salmon,
which has a long history. By 1270, the Lord of Cilgerran’s salmon
weir below the castle had six traps, and complaints were made that they
impeded river traffic carrying stone downstream for the king’s building
works at Cardigan Castle. The traps were ordered to be removed, but were
rebuilt in 1314 by the Lord of Cilgerran, in manner that did not interfere
with river traffic. The six traps were described by George Owen in 1603
as ‘the greatest weir of all Wales’. The fishery continued
to be operated by the burgesses of Cilgerran through the post-medieval
period, the building where the fish were taken to be weighed - ‘Ty’r
goved’, being located immediately below the castle. Coracle fishing
was also undertaken in the gorge until recent years.
Another economic asset of the gorge that had been exploited
since the medieval period is stone - the durable Teifi Valley slate stone
that characterises so many buildings in the region. It is the stone from
which Cilgerran Castle itself is made, physical evidence of an industry
which is recorded in the reputed rights of the burgesses of Cilgerran
to dig for stone, without payment, for their own use. A fee was payable
if the stone was taken outside the borough. Seventeenth century leases
also refer to slate quarrying . Despite this long history of quarrying
for both building stone, and roofing slate, the industry seems to have
been limited to numerous small workings until the mid 19th century. However,
from the 1850s-1860s onwards, the industry was mechanised using steam
power, and the arrival of the Whitland and Cardigan Railway at Cilgerran,
in 1885, allowed for greater export. These factors led to the emergence
of larger enterprises, with smaller quarries still serving local needs.
The decline in the slate industry began in the early decades of the 20th
century, and production of stone and slate ceased in the 1930s, although
some bulk extraction was undertaken in the latter part of the century.
There are two main groups of quarries, the Town Quarries on the slopes
below the town and Fforest a little way downstream. Despite all this activity
the valley retained a rural aspect, and even at the peak of the industry
contemporary maps, such as the tithe map of c.1840, show the sides of
the gorge as heavily wooded. These wooded slopes, with the castle, and
the river below, have long been renowned as a beauty spot, attracting
the attention of Romantic tourers and artists of the 18th and early 19th
centuries, In search of the ‘Picturesque’, they would slowly
coast downstream in order to view, sketch and paint the ruins of Cilgerran
Castle. They included Richard Wilson, and J M W Turner who made several
studies of the castle. The gorge itself attracted their attention - Samuel
Lewis, in 1833, described the ‘sylvan beauties of the scene... rich
groves, alternating with the naked rock, continue to excite the admiration
of the traveller’.
Description and essential historic landscape
components
This historic landscape character area consists of approximately
5km of the Teifi valley from where it suddenly narrows from a floodplain
upstream at Llechryd to where it enters tidal marshes at Rosehill/Pentood.
The lower stretches of the river are tidal. From the river the valley
sides rise steeply to over 50m above sea level. Numerous extensive, old
stone quarries scar the landscape, particularly on the southern bank.
Much of these old workings are cloaked in deciduous woodland, in common
with the whole valley. There are no buildings in this area, and apart
from a fishing weir close to Llechryd the only recorded archaeology is
associated with the stone extraction industry. Three sections of the gorge,
that below Cilgerran which contains a car park and coracle visitor centre,
the gardens below Coedmore House, and the gardens/parkland of Castell
Malgwyn have been assigned to different historic landscape character areas.
Cilgerran gorge is a distinct historic landscape character
area with clearly defined boundaries. It contrasts with the neighbouring
areas of Cilgerran, Coedmore gardens, Castell Malgwyn park, and farmland
and fields.
Sources: Cadw – database of Building of Special
Architectural or Historic Interest; Cilgerran parish tithe map 1844; Craster,
O E, 1957, Cilgerran Castle, London; Hilling, J B, 1992, Cilgerran Castle/St
Dogmaels Abbey, Cardiff; Llangoedmor parish tithe map 1839; Lewis, S,
1833, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1 & 2, London; Llechryd
parish tithe map 1841; Owen, H (ed.), 1914, Calendar of Pembrokeshire
Records, 2, London; Rees, W, 1932, ‘Map of South Wales and the Border
in the XIVth century’; Rees, W, 1951, An Historical Atlas of Wales,
London; Regional Historic Environment Record housed with Dyfed Archaeological Trust;
Richards, A J 1998 The Slate Quarries of Pembrokeshire, Llanwrst; Soulsby,
I, 1983, The Towns of Medieval Wales, Chichester; Weeks, R, 2002, The
‘Lost Market’ settlements of Pembrokeshire, Medieval Settlement
Research Group, Annual Report 17, 21-30
Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission
of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright
and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD272221 |