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Protect and Preserve Garth Celyn

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Ken
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Joined: April 2009
Location: Truro, Cornwall, UK

Protect and Preserve Garth Celyn

Post by Ken » Tue February 2nd, 2010, 11:55 am

Some of you might have heard of Garth Celyn at Aber in Gwynedd. Certainly those of you who have read Sharon Penman’s Welsh trilogy and Edith Pargetter’s books.

At the end of the twelfth century, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, (Llywelyn the Great), Prince of Wales, utilized the promontory to build a royal home, known as Ty Hir, (the Long House). To the east was the newly endowed Cistercian Monastery of Aberconwy; to the west the cathedral city of Bangor. Between Garth Celyn and the shore, the fertile farmland provided food for the royal family and the members of the court.

In 1211 King John of England brought an army across the river Conwy, and occupied the royal home for a brief period; his troops went on to burn Bangor. Llywelyn's wife, John's daughter Joanna (Siwan), negotiated between the two men, and John withdrew.

Joanna died at Garth Celyn in 1237 and was buried at Llanfaes just across the Menai Straits; Dafydd ap Llywelyn died there in 1246; Eleanor de Montfort, Lady of Wales, wife of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died there on 19 June 1282, giving birth to a baby, Gwenllian of Wales.

The house has been owned by the Gibson family since 1988 and while they continue to live there, the place will be safe from developers, but its long-term future needs to be secured. Kathryn Gibson has set up a fund designed to do just this. She wants Garth Celyn to be preserved as a permanent memorial to the Princes of Wales and as a Centre for the Interpretation of Welsh History.

Kathryn now has a website at http://www.garthcelyn.com, as a means of spreading the word on the Internet. It is well worth a visit to learn more and, if you value preserving a place that has been written out of history up until now, just click on the ‘Donate’ button. I know that with disasters like the Haiti earthquake and others, there might be a bit of 'donation overload,' but this request is very worth while for all history lovers. Please consider donating something, anything, to the fund. Thank you.

P.S. There is also a very good article on Garth Celyn on Jules Frusher’s latest blog: http://despenser.blogspot.com/

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SarahWoodbury
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Location: Pendleton, Oregon
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Post by SarahWoodbury » Tue February 2nd, 2010, 6:11 pm

I second the motion!

It is first on my list of places to visit if I ever get to Wales again :)

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