Tai Penamnen, Dolwyddelan
Tai Penamnen were demolished by the Forestry Commission around 1967 on grounds of safety. Wil Jones, local archaeologist/historian developed an interest in the site over the years and secured funding to investigate the site further. Here is a potted history of the previous occupants of the houses.
Meredydd ap Ieuan
Meredydd ap Ieuan was said to have built a house at Penamnen in the late 15th century when he left Dolwyddelan castle, his previous home. Recent excavations show that there was an earlier house on the site, and Maredudd extended that building.
Meredydd’s father, Ieuan ap Robert lived at Gesail Gyfarch (SH 540417) between Tremadog and Dolbenmaen, where, at the age of thirty one, he died a young man of the Bubonic Plague (Black Death).
Meredydd was Sir John Wynn’s Great Grandfather. He reconstructed the old church in Dolwyddelan, from its previous position at Bryn y Bedd (SH 732523).
He was also the first of the Wynn family to live in and extend Gwydir Castle in the Conwy Valley.
Angharad James
Angharad James with her husband William Prichard rented the entire valley from the Wynn family. At one time she thought of moving away, and was heading towards Gwydir Castle to end her tenancy, when she stopped to look back for the last time. She saw the beauty of the place and decided to stay. She was a most outstanding woman. She could speak many languages, she understood the law of the land, and was a poet and musician.
Tradition states that she hid money and treasure at a spot called Lloches Angharad or Angharad’s haven somewhere in the vicinity……. It has yet to be found.
Sir William
Sir William came from Llanbedr, Merioneth he was a clergyman.
In the past, clergymen were called Sir as a mark of respect. In the case of Sir William however it was to mock him. Although Sir William had been to Oxford he was not ordained as a priest mainly due to his love of alcohol. This lead to his premature death on his way home from a tavern in Llan Ffestiniog, in April 1818. He was found frozen to death, in a snowstorm on Manod Mawr. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Ffestiniog cemetery because no money could be found to take him home.
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