Caernarfon Castle, Pernryn Castle, Aber Falls
I wanted to see Caernarfon Castle on the way up to Llandudno as I was literally stopping right next to it on the way, but they wouldn't allow me t store my luggage, so I decided I would backtrack to see it.
My magical #5 buses took me back there, and to the other 2 stops on the way back for a total of 4 pounds!
Caernarfon is very a impressive structure, and there was lots to see. Each castle seems to have a different slant and at Caernarfon they had some amazing sculptures representing the different crafts that go into building a castle. so this post will be a bit different - but there will be some castle shots at the end.
The first one I found represents the Steward, and the money that was spent on building the castle - it pouring out! It cost between £20,000 and £25,000 to build Caernarfon Castle and its adjoining town walls. Commissioned by King Edward I, the massive project was built in phases between 1283 and 1330, although it was never completed. This was an astronomical figure for the Middle Ages—surpassing the annual income of the English Treasury at the time.
Millions more were spent restoring it for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911, and for Charles' Investiture in 1969.
This is the hand of the master carpenter.
Wood was as important as stone in a castle.
Carpenters worked alongside the stonemasons.
The carpenters made scaffolding, cranes, the frameworks for stone arches and even wooden templates for the delicately carved windows for the masons to copy. Ceilings, floors, furniture and doors were all made of wood. Wood was the most commonly used building material, and carpenters were in demand everywhere.
The hand is formed from different types of wood using precisely cut joints that are joined together with wooden pegs rather than nails or screws.
The hand is supported on a sawhorse, one end of which resembles a levelling tool to keep everything straight and square.
They have replaced the lead plumbing from the roof, and added the hands of the craftsman to attach the down pipes
This is the hand of the mason.
The most enduring material in a castle is its stonework. Much of it is rough walls filled with a mix of rubble and mortar, but there are also finely carved windows and doorways. Hundreds of masons worked at Caernarfon. They were among the best paid, most respected and skilled workers on site. A few of their names survive in the records but all left a mark here; you can see some of their personal marks (like signatures) carved on the stones they cut.
This hand is composed of architectural elements found in the castle: stairs, arrow-loops and windows. Masons' tools are carved into the stonework. The thumb is an eagle reminiscent of those that glared out from the Eagle Tower demonstrating the mason's mastery of stone.
Only one of the eagles at the top of Eagle Tower still looks like a bird.
This portcullis: depicts the work of the armourer.
This castle was born out of bitter medieval conflict which lasted for centuries. Military centres like Carnarfon often employed specialised blacksmiths called armourers to make and maintain the weaponry of war. And their work was needed for the defence of the castle. Maclog ap Llywelyn attacked and burned Caernarfon to the ground in 1295.
Glen Adams has reimagined a portcullis as a toy construction kit depicting the weapons and armour of the late thirteenth-century. We're standing in a chapel - a place that Christians would consider sacred. So why a portcullis? The chapel formed part of the castle's defended entrance. Two portcullises lifted into the chapel when the gates were open (the other is in front of the stained glass window).
The chapel window celebrates the art of the glazier.
The glaziers created miracles of colour and light by shaping glass, pouring lead, mixing pigments and painting details with fine brushes. As a craft it combined the rare skills of chemistry, metallurgy and artistry, making such windows fantastically expensive. Only important rooms had glazed windows at all, and only the very best rooms - like a chapel - were considered worthy of stained glass.
Traditional stained glass is bonded to modern glass, with images depicting the process of decorative glazing and referencing the chapel's religious function.
Artists: Rachel Phillips and Linda Norris, Studio Metyn
These are the hanos of the master builder.
These days we would call Caernarfon Castles master builder a surveyor, or an architect, or a project manager. It was a supremely complex job. His name was James of St George and he designed the entire castle and set out the work sing just a compass, a square and a level, and his skills in mathematics and geometry. In the end, many elements of his design for Caernarfon were never completed, as royal interest and oyal money ran out.
A pair of cupped hands offers the castle up for approval. The master builder's tools rest on rocks behind the sculpture.
Artists: Graeme Mitcheson Rubin Eynon
These alle the hands of the apprentice blacksmith.
Smiths were essential to building projects.
They made nails, hinges and chains, as well as mending and sharpening the tools used by all the other trades. It took many years of hard, unpaid apprenticeship under a master blacksmith to learn the skills of heating, beating and bending iron. But once qualified, a competent smith could always make a living, and a good one could become a master in his own right.
A hand is gradually being assembled using tools and techniques of medieval smithing, which are still in use today. Try pumping the bellows to heat the forge resting on the palm.
The artist has included a piece of his own apprentice work into the design - a small pair of tongs.
And so - the castle itself!
These passages are inside the outer wall - allowing servants to pass quickly between the towers
The Royal Coat of Arms
I had to ask what these structures were - apart from being a great place for places to take root, and birds to roost. They were set up for extra buildings to sit either side of the tower, but were never built.
Penryn Castle
This was suggested to me by a couple I met in Conwy. It's not an ancient castle - it is described as a fantasy castle with industrial and colonial foundations. What that means is that the man who had it built owned vast stretches of the land around it - literally further than you can see in any direction! and not only farmed it, but then mined the mountain for slate.- Enslavement: By 1805, the family enslaved nearly 1,000 people.
- Anti-Abolitionist Ties: Richard Pennant (1st Baron Penrhyn) was a Member of Parliament and the vocal chairman of the pro-slavery West India Committee, actively fighting against the abolition of slavery.
- "Compensation": When slavery was abolished in 1834, the enslaved people received nothing. Instead, the British government paid the Pennant family £14,683 (roughly £18 million in today's money) for their "loss of property"
- Union Busting: Lord Penrhyn's push to ban trade unions and end the workers' bargaining system sparked the Great Strike of 1900.
- Industrial Action: Lasting from 1900 to 1903, it became the longest industrial action in British history.
- Community Divide: The strike tore apart the local community, leaving thousands of quarrymen unemployed and resulting in deep-seated local resentment.
The castle is very opulent, as you would expect.
Lots of marble
These guys took my fancy
There was a Royal visit - the Prince of Wales and his family in 1894. They had two special beds commissioned: a brass bed, and a Slate bed.
In the dining room, they have the table set for the Royal dinner
including the menu
In the kitchens, there were the usual pots etc, and some very fine china, but this note caught my attention!
I had to walk up the drive from the bus stop for about a mile, and I was running short of time to catch the bus I wanted to give me time to also go to Aber Falls, which was only a couple of miles down the way.
So I was half jogging, half walking when a car came along - so I put my past hitchhiking skills to use and asked for a lift to the gate. The couple very kindly obliged, and I had plenty of time for the bus.
Aber Falls
Well done, if you have got this far. I am so far behind in my posts I didn't want to break this one up.The bus dropped me at the Falls stop, and it was a 2hr return trip to the falls, with the fabulous Bus 5 to pick me up again.
The introductory sign piqued my attention: was I really going to see any of these?
I added another 2 paths to my list:
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