Heritage of Wales
Living
This article introduces the history of settlement in Wales and the kinds of homes in which people have lived from a quarter of a million years ago to the present day. The Royal Commission has a long history of research and publication in this area, with volumes such as ‘Houses of the Welsh Countryside’ and the recently published 'Houses and History in the March of Wales. Radnorshire 1400 – 1800'. Details of thousands of settlement sites and buildings can also be found on Coflein or in the National Monuments Record of Wales.
The Earliest Settlers: Settlement in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
The earliest settlers in Wales arrived in the Palaeolithic Period between 225,000 and 10,000 years ago, during the warm spells of the Ice Age, when sea levels were much lower and there were land links between Britain, the Continent and Ireland. People were much dispersed and highly mobile, living as hunter-gatherers, and it is believed that they did not have permanent homes but lived in temporary shelters or tents, made from wood and skins, the remains of which are rarely found. There is better evidence for their use of caves, the earliest of which is at Pontnewydd in Denbighshire, where artefacts such as handaxes and other butchery tools are representative of activity by early Neanderthals some 225,000 years ago.
After the glaciers retreated some 10,000 years ago, sea levels rose and lower lying areas of land were flooded, resulting in the isolation of Britain. By around 7,000 years ago the coastline of Wales was generally established at its modern position. The warmer climates and resulting vegetation growth allowed the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to exploit both land and marine resources, and settlement was probably focused in the coastal areas and river valleys, although there is evidence of the increasing exploitation of upland areas by the later Mesolithic, as seen at Waun Fignen Felen in the Brecon Beacons. But, as in the Palaeolithic period, the transient nature of Mesolithic life means that few settlement sites and no certain examples of houses are known in Wales. Excavations have, however, identified ‘task sites’, such as those for processing food or for making tools, like the Nab Head site at St Brides Bay in Pembrokeshire.
The First Houses: Settlement in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age
It is in the Neolithic Period (4500-2500 BC), with the adoption of farming and a more settled way of life, that the first real evidence of houses appears in archaeology, suggestive of people living in isolated unenclosed farmsteads, probably as part of an extended family. One of the best preserved examples of a Neolithic house was excavated at Llandegai near Bangor, where a series of post-holes delineates what would have been a rectangular wooden building, 6 metres wide by 13 metres long, divided into three rooms. Parallels with similar structures throughout Europe suggest that the large central room would have had a central fireplace, the smoke escaping through the roof, most likely constructed of straw or reeds.
As farming became more widespread and population levels rose during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (3000-1500BC), there was expansion into previously under-exploited areas, such as the uplands . Whilst people continued to live in unenclosed farmsteads, houses increasingly became circular in plan; these are commonly termed roundhouses or hut circles. Whether built in stone or wood this was to remain the dominant house form for the rest of the prehistoric period. The reconstructed roundhouses at Castell Henllys near Crymych in Pembrokeshire give a clear idea of how these structures would have looked and have been built on their original foundations within the Iron Age hillfort. One of the best-documented and dated examples of a domestic settlement of the Early Bronze Age is Stackpole Warren on the south coast of Pembrokeshire. Here, the roundhouses were constructed of wood, the best example some 4 metres in diameter, with a 1.6 metre-long porch and central fireplace.
The Defended Home: Settlement in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age
Across Wales it is possible to see and visit a number of surviving settlements of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age (1100BC-AD50). Settlements were now predominantly enclosed, in many cases strongly defended and focused around ‘group’ living. All this suggests an increased anxiety in society and fear of attack, and thus a need to consolidate friendly groupings. One of the main factors behind this may have been climatic deterioration in the Late Bronze Age, when increased rainfall and cooler climates would have made it harder for the relatively large population to feed itself. Defended enclosures such as hillforts and promontory forts typify this new anxiety and are the most distinct and impressive settlement forms of the period, with around 1000 known in Wales. They were usually constructed in strong, naturally defensible positions, with the earliest forms tending to be constructed with a single (univallate) line of defence, such as a palisade or stout fence. This developed in later periods towards multiple (multivallate) lines of defences and outworks consisting of banks and ditches, often revetted and topped with stone walls. Inside the hillforts there is often evidence for stone or timber roundhouses, together with rectangular structures which may have been raised above the ground on posts to store grain and other agricultural produce.
Though overshadowed by such major defended enclosures, the majority of people during this period lived in non-defensive, lightly enclosed farmsteads. Farming had become more organised, and groups of roundhouses, often termed hut circles, were sometimes set within defined field systems. Due to their predominantly lowland location, most of these settlements have been destroyed by later activity, such as ploughing, but many have been found as crop or soil marks during the Royal Commission’s aerial survey programme.
The First Towns: Settlement in the Roman Period
The advent of the Romans to Wales in the first century AD saw profound changes in the types and patterns of settlement in some areas from pre-conquest days. The conquering armies on campaign were lodged in temporary ‘marching camps’, such as that of Esgair Perfedd near Rhayader. These were usually rectangular in plan, defined by a ditch and earth bank and topped with a timber palisade. Inside, the troops would have camped under canvas.
Once an area was pacified the troops were billeted in auxiliary forts such as those at Segontium (Caernarfon) or Brecon Gaer near Brecon. These were of various sizes according to the type of regiment, and from them troops could patrol the subjected population to collect levies of different kinds. The headquarters of the legions responsible for maintaining the ‘Roman Peace’ in Wales were the legionary fortresses of Deva (Chester) for the north, and Isca (Caerleon) for the south. Most Roman forts have very similar plans and were mainly built in wood, although longer established forts often had defences and buildings of stone. Most forts were rectangular in shape, defined by one or more ditches, with an earth bank surmounted by a timber palisade or fronted with a stone wall. Four gates, one in each side, led into the interior, where you would find the main fort buildings, such as barrack blocks for the soldiers, the commander’s house (praetorium), a headquarters building (principia), together with granaries (horrea) and workshops (fabrica).
Inevitably, these military bases attracted settlements around them, housing merchants, craftsmen, entertainers and the like, and also the unofficial wives of the troops. Outside a legionary fortress these were called canabae, outside an auxiliary fort a vicus.
In an attempt to ‘civilise’ the subject people of provinces and provide relatively secure homes for the tribal aristocracy that had accepted imperial rule, towns and cities were built as centres of trade and manufacture, as well as tax collection. The two settlements that developed into the main urban centres (civitates) of Wales were in the more Romanised south at Venta Silurum and Moridunum, Caerwent and Carmarthen. These would have been inhabited by the restructured aristocracy of the Silures and Demetae tribes, together with other administrators, craftsmen and merchants. The houses in these urban centres were usually built of stone, brick or tile and were rectangular in plan with several rooms. Under-floor heating systems known as hypocausts, mosaic floors, plastered and painted walls are distinctive features found in well-appointed houses of this period. Many of the classical features of cities of the western Roman provinces would also have been found here, such as the range of public buildings including the forum (a market place with a basilica or hall), temples, baths and amphitheatre.
Roadside settlements, termed ‘small towns’ by archaeologists, were a common feature of Roman Britain, but they are mainly confined to the south-east part of Wales, the area most thoroughly integrated into the empire. Usk, Monmouth and Cowbridge are good examples. Not all urban centres functioned as ordinary towns; some were settlements based on the exploitation of minerals such as gold, copper and lead. Mineral ores were the prime export resource of Wales and one of the main reasons behind its conquest. These settlements are primarily located in north and mid-Wales, such as that associated with the gold mines at Dolaucothi, south of Lampeter, or Pentre Farm, Flint, which was the administrative centre of the local lead-mining industry.
Highly Romanised forms of rural settlements such as villas, like that of Croes Carn Einion in Newport, are found on fertile lands in south Wales, within relatively easy reach of the urban centres. Elsewhere, particularly in the lands of the Ordovices in the north-west, rural settlement shows considerable continuity from the time before the occupation, when dispersed stone-built farms were the typical economic unit. Some hillforts also continued in use, such as Moel Arthur to the east of Denbigh.
The Welsh and Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Settlement in the Early Medieval Period
The instability following the collapse of the Roman Empire and the disintegration of urban centres led to the emergence of a number of kingdoms across Wales during the Early Medieval Period (AD 500-1100). The Welsh kingdoms, such as those of Gwynedd, Powys and Dyfed, were separated from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia by Wat’s Dyke and Offa’s Dyke. Knowledge of the settlements of ordinary people during this period is less clear than for those of higher status individuals, as the lives of many people who lived in the Welsh countryside changed little from the late prehistoric period. The main settlement form of circular buildings set within a small enclosure continued, as seen at the farmsteads of Cefn Graeanog on the Lleyn Peninsula, which continued in use from the Roman period.
Most knowledge of the settlements of this period relates to the high-status courts of the Welsh princes and other nobles, known as the llys, a collection of dwellings, usually of wood, which housed the lord’s family, workers, soldiers, craftsman and their families. The focal point was the timber-framed hall-house with a hall, private parlour and bedroom for the owner, as well as service rooms. The hall would have been where the lord and his followers met and feasted and would have comprised a large space open to the roof, with an open fire, the smoke escaping through the roof. This was a structure that was to develop throughout the medieval period, as documented in the recent Royal Commission publication on Radnorshire.
A llys was usually defended and in some cases reused earlier settlements, such as Dinas Powys hillfort in Glamorgan or the Roman fort of Forden Gaer near Montgomery. Another high-status defended settlement in Wales is at Llangorse Lake, near Talgarth, where an artificial island or crannog was constructed. This is an important site in Welsh history and mythology, with legend recording that it was built by Brychan, king of Brycheiniog, during the late ninth century and destroyed, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, in AD 916. It is the only example of this type of settlement known in Wales, being more typical of Scotland and Ireland, and highlights the links and influence of other groups. This can also be seen in a number of places in north-west Wales, such as at Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey, which together with other place-name evidence and finds clearly show Viking influence and settlement in the region. Anglo-Saxon settlement in Wales is found in the border areas of Clwyd and Powys which once formed part of the Kingdom of Mercia. Here several towns or burhs were established, such as at Rhuddlan (Cledemutha), founded by Edward the Elder in AD921, and where excavations have revealed the defences of the town, as well as the remains of sunken-floored houses.
An important feature of this period was the widespread influence of Christianity, manifested in the foundation of a number of small religious sites which housed communities of monks or nuns. Few physical remains of these settlements survive; the best evidence we have are the cemeteries of early medieval date, such as at Tandderwen near Denbigh.
Castles and Abbeys: Settlement in the Medieval Period
The earliest standing houses in Wales belong to the Medieval Period (AD1100-1500) and have been identified through the Royal Commission’s tree-ring dating programme. These date from the early fifteenth century, mainly after the end of Owain Glyndŵr’s revolt. Hafodygarreg near Erwood in Brecknockshire, the earliest precisely dated hall-house in Wales, is built from timber felled in the summer of 1402.
The most distinct form of building of the Medieval Period is the castle. The earliest earth and timber forms, the motte and bailey, were predominantly constructed by the English Marcher lords in the territories they conquered throughout south, mid- and north Wales. Some 300 are known in Wales, one of the clearest examples being Sycharth Castle near Oswestry, the origins of which remain obscure, although it is thought to have been constructed by the twelfth century. It is of particular historical significance in having been the home of Owain Glyndŵr at the end of the fourteenth century, before his rebellion. From the thirteenth century stone castles began to appear, symbolising the continuing warfare between the Welsh and English. Castell y Bere in the upper Dysynni valley, to the north-east of Tywyn, is one of the largest and most elaborate of the native castles and was built by the Welsh prince Llywelyn Fawr in the 1220s. It was captured and retained by the English in 1283 but was subsequently burnt down during Madog Llywelyn’s uprising in 1294. Conwy and Caernarfon are some of the best examples of those castles built by the English following the Edwardian Conquest towards the end of the thirteenth century and were both military masterpieces of James of St George, Master of the King’s Works in Wales. Both of these had chartered towns alongside, enclosed within their own walls, with Aberconwy House in Conwy the earliest known standing town house in Wales, built from timber felled in spring 1420.
Other defended towns of the Anglo-Norman settlement, such as Denbigh, [3-2-5]Ruthin and Montgomery survive to the modern day. Most were planned and laid out in a grid pattern of streets. Narrow plots of land, or burgages, running back from the streets, contained the shops, workshops, dwellings and gardens of craftsmen and merchants. Other principal features of these towns included market places, market halls, town halls, mills and churches.
The Medieval Period saw the foundation of major religious sites across Wales, such as the visually impressive Cistercian foundations of Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire, which was one of the most radiant, and Strata Florida in Ceredigion, one of the most isolated. Large estates were associated with these foundations, and farms or granges established to manage the land. Elsewhere, land was divided up between the lords, with those areas under English rule divided into manors, originally parcelled out as knights’ fees. The main administration centres of these manors were the castles or other high status settlements, such as moated enclosures, whilst spread out around different parts of the manor were villages, occupied by those who owned or leased surrounding land or worked directly for the lord of the manor. In the Welsh kingdoms land was divided into administrative units which were in turn sub-divided into trefi or townships, with most people living in scattered homesteads surrounded by areas of open arable land and pasture. Across Wales it is possible to see the remains of these rural settlements, either surviving in an adapted form to the present day or as relics in the landscape, often termed deserted medieval settlements, which may have been abandoned during periods of hardship such as the climatic deterioration and plague of the fourteenth century. The longhouse is the classic medieval home, where traditionally families and animals would have lived under one roof. Other rectangular stone huts survive throughout the upland areas of Wales, and many of these may have functioned as seasonal or temporary residences known as hafodydd or lluestydd.
The Impact of Industry: Settlement in the Post-medieval Period through to the Modern Day
Increased industrial activity during the Post-medieval Period saw the establishment of new types of settlement and housing, such as small-scale squatter settlements or ‘tai-unnos’, like those at Bryngwyn Bach near Tregaron in Ceredigion. These comprise a series of cottages and houses loosely dispersed across common land, usually at high altitudes at or beyond the limit of cultivation. Other planned ‘Company’ towns and villages were also established, such as at Cefnan near Bethesda, where regular rows of 1870s cottages and gardens were built on open land by workers to designs by the Penrhyn Slate Quarry Management, or the much larger communities associated with the Dinorwig Slate Quarry, which spread across the hill sides of Moel Tryfan, Cilgwyn and Deiniolen. Similarly, across South Wales it is possible to see hastily erected terrace dwellings such as those in the Rhondda Valley, built for the workforces engaged in the iron, steel and coal industries. The Royal Commission holds a unique collection on workers' housing compiled by Jeremy Lowe.
In contrast we also see the grand houses or mansions of the wealthy, many built by those profiting from trade and industry. These often form part of much larger estates, complete with formal gardens, pleasure grounds, deer parks and model farms, such as Leighton Park in Forden, Powys.
The coming of railways in the mid-Victorian era had a great impact in Wales, with one effect being the establishment of sea-side towns, like those of Llandudno, Rhyl and Colwyn Bay on the North Wales coast. Prior to the railway [3-2-4]Aberystwyth was no more than a large commercial fishing village, once trains began to arrive from 1864 the focus shifted away from the harbour to the beaches and as a result hotels were built, together with other distinctive seaside architecture such as piers and music halls. Within twenty years the town was a thriving working-class seaside resort catering for enormous numbers of coal miners and steel workers from the South Wales Valleys.
Right up to the modern day, it is possible to see settlement change, for example the growth of new estates resulting from the post-war owner-occupier boom; in contrast to the demise of village communities, typified by the numerous redundant chapels we see today.