Abergele

Abergele is a market town and community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough and in the historic county of Denbighshire. Its northern suburb of Pensarn lies on the Irish Sea coast. Abergele and Pensarn railway station serves both resorts. Abergele is often overlooked due to the popularity of towns in nearby Rhyl, Prestatyn, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Conwy. Only 46.5% of the population was born in Wales as of the 2011 census.

Etymology
The meaning of the name Abergele can be deduced by being the Welsh word for estuary, river mouth or confluence and Gele the name of the river which flows through the town. Gele is a dialectal form of gelau, which means spear, describing the action of the river cutting through the land. It has also been suggested this river is named because its waters flash brightly. Abergele is often mispronounced as ah-bear-geh-lee by non-native Welsh speakers.

Geography


The town itself lies on the A55 road and is known for Gwrych Castle. The town is surrounded by woodland covered hillsides, which contain caves with the rare lesser horseshoe bat. The highest hill is Moelfre Isaf (1040 ft) to the south of the town.

There are views from Cefn-yr-Ogof (669 ft), Gallt-y-Felin-Wynt (Tower Hill) (587 ft) and Castell Cawr (known locally as Tan y Gopa and nicknamed 'Lôn garu' (Lover's Lane)) which is 189 metres (620 feet). Castell Cawr is an Iron Age hillfort, one of several in the area. Dinorben hillfort to the east of town was destroyed in the 1980s.

Abergele (including Pensarn) has a population of around 10,000 and is part of the Abergele/Rhyl/Prestatyn urban area with a population of 64,000. Approximately 29% of Abergele has a significant knowledge of Welsh. The town has satellite villages such as Saint George, Betws yn Rhos, Rhyd-y-foel, Belgrano, Llanddulas and Llanfair Talhaearn.

Pensarn and Belgrano are significantly less Welsh than the rest of town, with 69.3% of people having no Welsh identity in the 2011 census.

Celtic and early Welsh history
Abergele was the site of an important clas (Celtic monastery) and remained settled into the 13th century. A "Prince Jonathan of Abergeleu" is listed by the B text of the Annals of Wales as dying during the 9th century reign of Rhodri the Great, although Charles-Edwards has supposed him to have simply been the monastery's abbot. Edward I is known to have briefly stayed there in December 1294 during his invasion of Wales to suppress the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn.

Sites of historical interest include two Iron Age hillforts; Castell Cawr at Tan y Gopa and Dinorben (now virtually disappeared owing to limestone quarrying) at St. George. On Gallt y Felin Wynt, a hill above the town known as Bryn Tŵr or by its English name 'Tower Hill', is a 17th-century windmill, partially restored in 1930. There is another Iron Age fort at Pen y Corddyn Mawr hill above Rhyd y Foel. There is also another watchtower, 'Tŵr Arglwyddes Emily' or 'Lady Emily's Tower', which is located near Cefn yr Ogof.

Gwrych Castle
Gwrych Castle was built between 1819 and 1825 at the behest of Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh. From 1894 until 1946 it was the residence of the Dundonald family. Gwrych Castle's present owner, California businessman Nick Tavaglione, who bought the landmark in December 1989, put Gwrych up for auction on 2 June 2006, but it failed to sell. The condition of the property is being monitored by the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust. It is undergoing renovation.

The boxers Bruce Woodcock (in the late 1940s) and Randolph Turpin (in 1952) trained at Gwrych Castle. The film Prince Valiant, was filmed there in 1996, starring Edward Fox and Katherine Heigl.

St. Michael's Parish Church
In a Welsh antiquarian book from 1860, it mentions that there has always been a 'local tradition or popular opinion that the original Abergele was overwhelmed by the sea' and that an inscribed stone at St Michael's parish church (built on the site of the old clas) which was once readable but had been weathered over time read;

"Yma mae'n gorwedd, Yn mynwent Mihangel, Gwr oedd ei annedd, Dair milltir yn y gogledd"

Although through oral tradition, the elders believed that the weathered stone was a modern copy of the original which could be found on the other side of the wall which was far more weathered and illegible. In 1890's, a third (bilingual) copy was made and presented by Mrs Taylor of Dolhyfryd and the vicar, David Evans. The updated inscription (with slightly altered text) on the tombstone reads in order:

"YMA MAE'N GORWEDD YN MONWENT MIHANGEL WR OEDD A'I ANNEDD DAIR MILLTIR I'R GOGLEDD"

"HERE LIETH IN ST. MICHAEL's CHURCHYARD A MAN WHO HAD HIS DWELLING THREE MILES TO THE NORTH"

As the sea is little more than half a mile away at this point, this suggests that the sea has made some considerable advance over the centuries.

Outside the church is a penitential stone where sinners had to do penance by standing, dressed in white, by the stone and beseech the congregation for mercy as they entered and left the church.

Railway disaster
In 1868 the railway line through Abergele was the site of the worst railway disaster in Britain to that time. The result of a series of circumstances, errors and failures led to loose wagons containing barrels of paraffin, detached from another train at nearby Llanddulas, rolling down towards Abergele. The Irish Mail train from Euston to Holyhead ran into them. Its leading coaches were enveloped in flame which burned occupants alive. In all 33 people died.

An inquest was held a few days after and ran until early September of the same year. It concluded that it was no accident and that the two brakesmen of the goods train to which the petroleum wagons had previously been attached were to blame, and the deaths were manslaughter.

Other
Abergele Sanitorium was built just outside Abergele in 1910; it became a community hospital in the 1980s.

On 30 June 1969, the evening before the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in Caernarfon, two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, were killed when the bomb they were planting outside government offices exploded prematurely.

In 2020 Abergele hosted the 20th edition of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! at Gwrych Castle, and in 2021 it hosted the 21st series due to the Covid pandemic restrictions in Australia.



Notable people

 * Felicia Hemans (1793–1835), English poet who grew up at Abergele and later identified herself as 'Welsh by adoption'.
 * Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh (1788–1861), owner of the Gwrych Castle and High Sheriff of Denbighshire in 1828.
 * Emrys ap Iwan (1848–1906) a Welsh literary critic and writer on politics and religion.
 * Aylward M. Blackman (1883–1956 in Abergele) Egyptologist, excavated sites in Egypt and Nubia
 * Mervyn Roberts (1906–1990), a Welsh composer, known for his piano music.
 * Ralph Steadman (born 1936), illustrator, best known for his collaboration with the writer Hunter S. Thompson.
 * David Vaughan (born 1983), footballer with 476 club caps and 42 for Wales
 * Georgia Wilson (born 1995), paralympic equestrian
 * Jesu, experimental metal band