History of Llanrwst

Establishing a Market Town

To a degree Llanrwst must also thank Edward I, for he perhaps has made the biggest contribution of all. With the business of annexation complete, Edward I now set his sights on keeping the Welsh in line. His plan was to build a series of defensive fortresses, with adjoining exclusively English borough towns that would act as administrative centres. The main centre for Conwy Valley was to be at Conwy, site of the Cistercian Abbey of Aberconway home to some eighty monks and the last resting place of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Llywelyn the Great, Edward’s great-uncle. The king persuaded the Cistercian monks to relocate their monastery to a new structure built in the Conwy Valley at Aberllechog or Maenan, so that he could build his castle. The monks agreed to relocate, but not before securing a rather hefty compensation package from Edward.

With building work underway, Edward passed new draconian-laws suppressing the role and status of the native Welsh, effectively reducing them to second-class citizens. In it Edward decreed that no Welsh native market could be held within ten-miles of an English borough. Llanrwst is eleven miles from Conwy! Sure enough, within months Llanrwst had transformed itself from an important river crossing, into a thriving Market town.

With a thriving market and daily influx of travellers, pilgrims and nobles using the river ford Llanrwst continued to build on this success. Then the harvests failed, throughout the Conwy Valley, and again the following year and the year after. Three years of crop failure took their toll on the population. Even the monks suffered with crop failure and finally a pestilence, which struck all livestock. Then, almost without warning the economy collapsed into what we would now call a recession. Daily, whole families left Llanrwst in the hope of finding employment or arable farmland. Such was the extent of the exodus that the Freeman at Conway where forced to encourage colonists into the area, enticing them to become freemen of a potential borough.

Families did indeed take up the offer and it seemed that Llanrwst would again rise above any setbacks. But a new problem was spreading through the European continent, a disease like no other. The year is 1348 and in London, the sprawling capital the first case of pestilence is diagnosed. The Black Death, which had ravaged several country’s had arrived in England.

List of Items - History of Llanrwst

• Historical Timeline : A timeline of some interesting historical events in Llanrwst.
• Saint Grwst the Confessor : The story of Saint Grwst.
• The Battle of Llanrwst 954 AD : Events leading to the Battle of Llanrwst.
• Foundation of the Modern Church : The establishment of the modern church in Llanrwst.
• Cymru, Lloegr a Llanrwst - Independence : The history of Llanrwst in the 13th Century.
• Establishing a Market Town : The establishment of Llanrwst as a market town in the 14th Century.
• Disease, Death and Destruction - the 14th and 15th Century : Llanrwst in the 14th and 15th Century.
• The War of the Roses - The Earl of Pembroke 1468 : The War of the Roses and Llanrwst.
• Local Historic Buildings : Information on the history of some of the buildings in Llanrwst.
• Books on History of Llanrwst : Some books on the history of Llanrwst that may be of interest.