Bethesda (Gwynedd)
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Bethesda Welsh Pesda |
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| Coordinates | 53 ° 11 ′ N , 4 ° 4 ′ W | ||
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| Residents | 4735 (as of 2011) | ||
| administration | |||
| Post town | BANGOR | ||
| ZIP code section | LL57 | ||
| prefix | 01248 | ||
| Part of the country | Wales | ||
| Preserved County | Gwynedd | ||
| Unitary authority | Gwynedd | ||
| British Parliament | Arfon | ||
Bethesda is a town in the north-east corner of Snowdonia , in Gwynedd , north-west Wales . Colloquially it is often called pesda .
geography
The city is located in the mountainous region of Snowdonia , in north west Wales on the River Ogwen and on the A5 road . To the south is the great Penrhyn Quarry , where shale is mined. Otherwise, the municipality is surrounded to the west, south and east by Snowdonia National Park. To the east, the city is bounded by the Carneddau Mountains, which are among the highest mountains in England and Wales. In the north the valley of the River Ogwen opens to Conwy Bay .
architecture
Most of the city is to the east and north of the A5 because the road also marked the boundary between Lord Penrhyn's holdings and the Fee simple (freehold) properties. You can even see it on the main street, where all the pubs are on one side of the street. The houses are distributed in irregular rows on the mountain slopes. The architecture and urban design are by and large subject to utility considerations. Most of the buildings are simple stone houses with slate shingle roofs. Some buildings are even built entirely from slate blocks, whereby the slate binds poorly with mortar and therefore tends to slide off. Even so, there are 40 buildings in the city that are on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest . Most of them are Grade II listed, including three pubs, and the imposing Calvinistic Methodist Jerusalem Chapel is in the status Grade I .
The higher-lying districts of Carneddi , Cilfodan and Tan y Foel are more characterized by quarrying in the nearby mountains than the lower-lying districts, which are mainly characterized by the slate quarry. The city is made up of several villages, which are still recognizable as districts by name ( Gerlan , Rachub , Braichmelyn ).
Trade & Industry
Llanllechid, on the outskirts, is the seat of the Popty Bakery , the origins of which go back to OJ Williams' bakery at the beginning of the 19th century. They mainly make Welsh cakes and Bara Brith , which are sold across Wales and England at Aldi , Asda , Co-Op , Morrisons and Tesco .
gastronomy
The city is famous for the large number of pubs . There are more than 10 public houses in the town center alone (excluding Tregarth ). The main time in the pubs in Bethesda is Sundays. The Douglas Arms pub was named after the Penrhyn Quarry family who owned it. Other pubs are Tŷ Isaf ("Lower House"), The Bull , The Kings Head , Y Sior ("The George"), The Victoria Arms , the Llangollen .
history
The city came into being when Bethesda Chapel was built in 1823 . The city developed around the church. The church was expanded as early as 1840. Today it has been converted into a residential complex ( Arafa Don ).
The main determinants were the slate industry and the large quarries in the surrounding mountains; the largest slate quarry is the Penrhyn Quarry , which is said to be the largest slate quarry in the world. In the heyday, the dark blue / purple slate was exported all over the world. In 1900 the North Wales Quarrymen's Union carried out a strike that lasted for three years. This created the Tregarth settlement , which was built by the owners of the quarry to offer housing to workers who did not participate in the strike.
railroad
In 1884 a route for the London and North Western Railway was built and opened from Bangor . The line was closed again to passengers in 1951 and to freight in 1963. The track bed of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway to Porth Penrhyn was converted into the Lôn Las Ogwen cycle path.
present
In the heyday of the slate industry, the population rose to 10,000. Today it is still around 4,000. The job opportunities are relatively limited because there is hardly any manufacturing industry and most jobs in the poorly paid service and hospitality sectors . Many residents therefore commute along the North Wales coast, for example to Bangor, or even Cheshire, and many young people choose to move to Cardiff or Manchester .
Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen ("Ogwen Valley School") is a bilingual comprehensive school with approximately 350 students.
Zip World Velocity in Penryn Quarry is the longest zip line in Europe with more than 1600 m in length.
religion
Bethesda had great importance in the revival movement of Wales 1904/05 , so the city is also named after the Bethesda Chapel. There are also a number of other churches.
Culture
Welsh is the predominant language in the city according to the 2001 United Kingdom Census , 77.0% of the population were Welsh-speaking, a higher percentage than in Gwynedd and Wales as a whole.
A series on S4C ( Amdani ! , "About You!"), Based on a novel by Bethan Gwanas , is about a women's rugby team in Bethesda. many of the exterior shots were shot on site.
In June 2012, Tabernacl (Bethesda) received Cyf. , a £ 1mn cooperative to renovate Neuadd Ogwen , a playhouse that reopened as a Community Arts Center in 2013 .
In the 1970s and 1980s, Bethesda was considered a hub for musical creativity. Jam sessions and small home studios as well as a distinct pub rock scene could be found in the village. The Pesda Roc festival still exists today , and some Welsh-speaking bands such as Maffia Mr Huws , Y Jeycsyn Ffeif and Radio Rhydd sprang up in the city.
gallery
Bethesda & the quarry in winter.
Slate heaps on the edge of Penrhyn Quarry at Mynydd Llandegai.
Bethesda can be seen in the background.
Penrhyn Quarry waterhole by Y Fronllwyd
The A5 in Bethesda.
Building materials trade
War memorial and the Jerusalem Chapel the largest of the churches.
Memorial to the Strike at the Penrhyn Slate Quarry .
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Personalities
- Bobby Atherton - footballer
- Ellis William Davies - politician
- Idris Foster - Jesus Professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Oxford
- David Ffrangcon-Davies - baritone
- Bethan Gwanas - writer.
- Esyllt Harker - singer, actress and storyteller.
- Mikael Madeg - writer in Breton , assistant for French at Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen 1971–72
- Leila Megane - singer
- Frederick Llewellyn-Jones - politician
- Gwenlyn Parry - writer
- William John Parry - first General Secretary of the North Wales Quarrymen's Union.
- Peter Prendergast - landscape painter
- Caradog Prichard - novelist and poet, author of Un Nos Ola 'Leuad
- John Ogwen - actor.
- Gruff Rhys - lead singer of the Super Furry Animals (from the district of Rachub / Llanllechid).
- Goronwy Roberts - politician
- James Edmund Vincent - attorney and writer
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Community population 2011. Accessed May 15, 2015 .
- ^ Gwynedd Listed Building Register. (PDF) June 8, 2011, archived from the original on April 17, 2012 ; accessed on January 9, 2017 .
- ↑ POPTY BAKERY ABOUT. (No longer available online.) In: caegroes.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 15, 2016 ; accessed on September 18, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The 100 MPH slide; Riding Europe's Longest Zipline. Retrieved July 3, 2016 .
Web links
- geograph.co.uk : Photo of Bethesda and the surrounding area.