Port Penrhyn
Date
26 July 2015
Location
Port Penrhyn, Bangor
SH 59229 72579; 53.23152°N, 4.11044°W
Port Penrhyn
Tag Archives: Port Penrhyn
Afon Cegin Weir, Port Penrhyn
Weir, Afon Cegin
| Date | 14 February 2015 | ||
| Location | Port Penrhyn, Bangor | SH 59229 72579; 53.23152°N, 4.11044°W | |
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The weir on the Afon Cegin at Port Penrhyn replaced earlier wooden lock gates that were used to control the level of the river at low tide. Slate vessels using the port formerly moored in an upstream basin in the river, access to which would have become restricted when the bridges were built. Further Reading
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Now and Then XI: Port Penrhyn
Port Penrhyn – Now and Then
| Date | 14 February 2015 | ||
| Location | Port Penrhyn, Bangor | SH 59229 72579; 53.23152°N, 4.11044°W | |
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Slate from Penrhyn Quarry had been exported since the early 18th century from the sheltered bay at the mouth of the Afon Cegin where the river empties into the Menai Strait at Bangor Flats. The harbour’s name was changed from Abercegin to Port Penrhyn in 1790 when Richard Pennant‘s agent Benjamin Wyatt developed new facilities there with stone quays built from blocks of Anglesey limestone. More efficient transport of slate from quarry to port arrived in 1801 with the opening of a horse-drawn tramway. This was replaced around 1878 by the narrow-gauge Penrhyn Quarry Railway so that steam locomotives could be employed on the six-mile route from Bethesda. The Penrhyn Quarry Railway closed in 1962. From 1852 the port also had a standard-gauge siding connected to the then Chester and Holyhead Railway (later to become part of the LNWR). Penrhyn Bridge, which is now a Grade II listed structure, carries the approach road to the Penrhyn Estate’s Port Lodge over the Afon Cegin and was originally built in 1820 by George Hay Dawkins-Pennant. Two railway arches were a later addition in order to allow the tracks to terminate directly on the quays. The Grade II listed Port House was built in classical style in 1840 by Penrhyn Castle‘s clerk of works William Baxter as the harbour master’s house. The building has been used as an office by the University of Bangor and is currently occupied by Carter Vincent LLB solicitors. Further Reading
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Port Penrhyn
Mussel dredgers B-932 Mare Gratia, BS-8 Valente and BS-12 Lottie Holly, Port Penrhyn, Bangor
| Date | 28 December 2014 | ||
| Location | Port Penrhyn, Bangor | SH 59187 72847; 53.23392°N, 4.11117°W | |
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Mussels harvested from the Menai Strait account for more than half of the total UK production from farming of this shellfish. The ‘bottom cultivation’ method is employed, with wild seed mussels being collected from the Irish Sea and laid in sheltered beds in the Menai Strait where they grow for up to three years before being harvested. The 43m B-932 Mare Gratia was launched in 2003, registered in Belfast, and belongs to Holyhead-based Deepdock Ltd. The Beaumaris registered dredgers the BS-8 Valente (43m) and BS-12 Lottie Holly (24m) both belong to Bangor-based Myti Mussels Ltd. The latter two vessels were built by Maaskant Shipyards in the Netherlands in 2003 and 2013, respectively. Myti Mussels’ catch is landed in 1200kg bags packed onboard after flushing and is transported by truck overnight to the Dutch fishing port Yerseke in Zeeland. Further Reading Bangor Mussel Producers;
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Plas y Coed, Port Penrhyn
South façade of the Victorian gothic mansion
| Date | 24 March 2012 | ||
| Location | Port Penrhyn, Bangor | SH 59408 72465; 53.23055°N, 4.10771°W | |
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Around 1790 a house was built just outside the grounds of Penrhyn Castle at Port Penrhyn for Benjamin Wyatt, agent to the Penrhyn estate. This neoclassical villa, known as Lime Grove, was designed by Benjamin’s brother Samuel and survived until 1864, when, having been deemed to be unfashionable, it was demolished. In 1878 a larger mansion house, Plas y Coed, was built on the site of Lime Grove as the residence of the estate’s agent (at the time Captain Pennant Lloyd), a role it was to continue to play until the Second World War. It thereafter became a care home for the elderly, which was run by Gwynedd Council up until its closure in 2005. London-based Gloria Healthcare submitted plans in 2008 to construct a 106-bedroom residential facility for the elderly next to the Grade II listed building and to convert the latter into a day-care centre. Planning permission was turned down on the grounds of over provision of care and the detrimental effect of the design on the setting. The 15-acre site was purchased by local developer Watkin Jones in 2010. In November 2011 Watkin Jones made a planning application to convert Plas y Coed into 12 flats (including 4 ‘affordable’ units) and to build 17 detached houses in the former grazing land adjacent to the mansion. Plans for 29 homes at former Bangor care home Plas y Coed (Bangor and Anglesey Mail, 21 Dec 2011)
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Port Penrhyn
Crane
| Date | 24 March 2012 | ||
| Location | Port Penrhyn, Bangor | SH 59398 72715; 53.23279°N, 4.10796°W | |
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Port Penrhyn
Hand crane, Port Penrhyn
| Date | 30 October 2011 | ||
| Location | Port Penrhyn, Bangor | SH 59335 72873; 53.23419°N, 4.10898°W | |
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The importance to the slate industry of Abercegin dates back to around 1700, when boats would be loaded on the beach at low tide with produce from Penrhyn Quarry. The site was developed from 1780, becoming Port Penrhyn. Transport to the port improved in 1801 with the construction of the Penrhyn Railway. This started life as a horse tramway and was replaced around 1878 by a narrow-gauge railway on a different route and was in service until 1962. At its peak in the 19th century, the port would have regularly accommodated up to a hundred vessels. Much of the port is now home to Dickies boat yard, which recently moved from its now demolished premises in Hirael Bay, Bangor.
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