A reminder of the vision of the ‘melting pot’ from the poet of the ghetto

‘They shall worship You at sunrise, / And feel Your Kingdom’s might’ … waiting for sunrise on Inishmore on the Aran Islands last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

During my prayers last night, using the Jewish prayer book Service of the Heart, edited by Rabbi John D Rayner and Rabbi Chaim Stern, I came across the poem All the world shall come to serve You, adapted slightly from a translation by Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) of a Hebrew poem, Vaye’ethayu, believed to date from the seventh century.

During these weeks, I am working on reflections on the Prophets Hosea and Amos as resources for clergy and readers preparing sermons on the Lectionary readings, and this is yet another poem that is imbued with the vision of the prophets for a world and a future that comes to enjoy God’s blessings:

All the world shall come to serve You
And bless Your glorious Name,
And Your righteousness triumphant
The islands shall proclaim.
And the peoples shall go seeking
Who knew You not before,
And the ends of earth shall praise You,
And tell Your greatness o’er.

They shall build for You their altars,
Their idols overthrown,
And their graven gods shall shame them,
As they turn to You alone.
They shall worship You at sunrise,
And feel Your Kingdom’s might,
And impart their understanding
To those astray in night.

With the coming of Your Kingdom
The hills shall break into song,
And the islands laugh exultant
That they to God belong.
And all their congregations
So loud Your praise shall sing,
That the uttermost peoples hearing,
Shall hail You crownéd King.

This poem was included in The Standard Book of Jewish Verse (1917) compiled by Joseph Friedlander and edited by George Alexander Kohut. These 731 poems spanned 3,000 years and comprised the loving work of an expert compiler, scores of translators, and hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish authors.

In his introduction, Joseph Friedlander wrote, ‘Hebrew poetry ... was essentially religious, flowing from an intense racial consciousness and developing to an exalted spiritual mood, under stress of mingled storm and sunshine of national fortune.’

Since then, the poem has been included in a number of Jewish hymnals, to tunes by the American Jewish composer Abraham Wolf Binder (1895-1966) and the German-born composer Leon M Kramer (1866–1943), who began his career as the assistant director of music at the Oranienbergerstrasse Synagogue or New Synagogue in Berlin. As a hymn, it is often associated with Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year.

Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was an English-born Jewish pacifist, poet playwright and novelist who coined the phrase ‘melting pot’ for the great American dream of a culturally diverse and integrated United States and was known as ‘the Dickens of the Ghetto.’ He was at the forefront of cultural Zionism in the late 19th and early 20th century, and was once a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the prime thinker behind the territorial movement.

Zangwill was born in London on 21 January 1864, into a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, Moses Zangwill, was from what is now Latvia, and his mother, Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill, was from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing the cause of people he considered oppressed, becoming involved with topics such as Jewish emancipation, Jewish assimilation, territorialism, Zionism, and women's suffrage. His brother was novelist Louis Zangwill.

Zangwill went to school in Plymouth and Bristol and then at the Jews’ Free School in Spitalfields in east London, a school for Jewish immigrant children. Today, one of the four houses at the school is named in his honour. Eventually, he become a teacher at the school while studying for his BA degree at the University of London (1884).

He had already written a tale entitled The Premier and the Painter in collaboration with Louis Cowen, when he resigned as a teacher began working as a journalism. He initiated and edited Ariel, The London Puck, and work soon earned him the nickname ‘the Dickens of the Ghetto.’ He wrote an influential novel, Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People (1892).

The use of the metaphorical phrase ‘melting pot’ to describe American absorption of immigrants was popularised by Zangwill’s play The Melting Pot, a success in the US in 1909-1910.

When The Melting Pot opened in Washington on 5 October 1909, the former President Theodore Roosevelt leaned over the edge of his box and shouted, ‘That’s a great play, Mr Zangwill, that’s a great play.’ Later, Roosevelt wrote to Zangwill, saying, ‘That particular play I shall always count among the very strong and real influences upon my thought and my life.’

The protagonist of the play, David, emigrates to America after the Kishinev pogrom in which his entire family is killed. He writes a great symphony, The Crucible, expressing his hope for a world in which all ethnicity has melted away, and becomes enamoured with a beautiful Russian Christian immigrant named Vera. The dramatic climax of the play is the moment when David meets Vera’s father, who turns out to be the Russian officer responsible for the annihilation of David’s family. Vera’s father admits guilt, the symphony is performed to accolades, David and Vera live happily ever after, or, at least, agree to wed and kiss as the curtain falls.

The Melting Pot celebrated America’s capacity to absorb and grow from the contributions of its immigrants.

Many of Zangwill’s later plays were staged on Broadway. He also wrote mystery works and novels that were used as the basis for movies. His play The Lens Grinder is based on the life of Spinoza. But he is best remembered for the ‘Ghetto’ books.

Zangwill endorsed feminism and pacifism, but his greatest effect may have been as a writer who popularised the idea of the combination of ethnicities into a single, American nation. The hero of The Melting Pot proclaims: ‘America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming … Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians – into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American.’

Zangwill was an early Zionist and a territorialist. For a time, he endorsed Theodor Herzl, and presided at a meeting at the Maccabean Club, London, addressed by Herzl in 1895. But Zangwill founded his own organisation, named the Jewish Territorialist Organisation in 1905, advocating a Jewish homeland in whatever land might be available in the world that could be found for them, with speculations including Canada, Australia, Mesopotamia, Uganda and Cyrenaica.

Zangwill is known incorrectly for inventing the slogan ‘A land without a people for a people without a land.’ But Zangwill had borrowed the phrase from a speech by Lord Shaftesbury in 1853, during the preparation for the Crimean War.

In the dramatic voice of the Wandering Jew, he wrote, ‘we can make the wilderness blossom as the rose, and build up in the heart of the world a civilisation that may be a mediator and interpreter between the East and the West.’

But Zangwill told a London court in 1908 that he had been naive in the past and had since ‘realised what is the density of the Arab population’ in Palestine, which twice that of the US. In 1913, he criticised those who insisted on repeating that Palestine was ‘empty and derelict’ and who called him a traitor for reporting otherwise.

In 1917 he wrote in 1917, ‘“Give the country without a people,” magnanimously pleaded Lord Shaftesbury, “to the people without a country.” Alas, it was a misleading mistake. The country holds 600,000 Arabs.’

Zangwill married Edith Ayrton, a feminist and author. They lived for many years in a house called ‘Far End’ in East Preston, West Sussex. Their youngest son was the British psychologist, Oliver Zangwill. Zangwill died in 1926 in Midhurst, West Sussex.

Zangwill’s vision of the American ‘melting pot’ and the acclaim he received from Roosevelt are telling reminders of an American dream that has been replaced by an American nightmare by the Trump administration.

‘And Your righteousness triumphant / The islands shall proclaim’ … islands off the coast of Anglesey in north Wales (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A Sidney Sussex don and father of the architect of Portmeirion

The Sidney Sussex boathouse by the River Cam … John Clough Williams-Ellis (1833-1913) was a good oarsman and swimmer and received a medal for rescuing a friend from drowning in the River Cam (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing last month about Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978), the English-born architect from a Welsh family who is best remembered as the designer of Portmeirion.

I am staying this week in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, during the annual Summer School organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, and I was interested to learn that the architect’s father, the Revd John Clough Williams-Ellis (1833-1913), was a leading don at Sidney Sussex.

John Clough Williams-Ellis was a don at Sidney Sussex College in the Victorian era before returning to Wales, and was descended from a long line of Welsh Anglican priests.

The Williams family can be traced back to Thomas Ellis Anwyl, of Porthdinllaen, Edern, Caernarfonshire, who died in 1703. Later, the Ven John Ellis (1721-1785), Rector of Bangor, Chancellor of Bangor Cathedral and Archdeacon of Merioneth. His son, Canon Thomas Ellis MA (died 1833), was Rector of Llanfachreth, Anglesey, and the Treasurer of Bangor Cathedral.

The architect’s grandfather, the Revd John Williams-Ellis, adopted the additional name of Williams when he inherited the Brondanw estates. He was born 21 January 1808, and educated at the Friars’ Grammar School, Bangor, and Saint John’s College, Cambridge (BA, 1830). Later, he was the Rector of Llanaelhaiarn and the Rector of Beddgelert. On 21 February 1831, he married Harriet Ellen, only child of James Henry Clough, of Plas Clough, Denbighshire, and they had two sons and a daughter.

His eldest son, Thomas Parr Clough (1832-1897), succeeded to the Plas Clough estate in 1878 and assumed by royal licence the name of Clough in accordance with the will of his grandfather.

His second son, the architect’s father, the Revd John Clough Williams-Ellis (1833-1913), succeeded to the Glasfryn and Brondanw estates. He was born in Plas Clough, Denbighshire, Wales, on 11 March 1833. He was brought up in Brondanw, Llanfrothen, and later, when his father became the Rector of Llanaelhaearn, in Glasfryn, Llangybi. He was educated in Rossall School and came to Cambridge in 1852 when was admitted a pensioner at Sidney Sussex on 28 April 1852 and matriculated at Michaelmas 1852.

Although he was proficient in Welsh, he seems to have written only in English. He won prizes for poetry in Cambridge, and while he was proficient in Welsh and assumed the pen-name, ‘Shon Pentyrch.’

He was also a good oarsman and swimmer. In 1855, he received the Royal Humane Society’s Silver Medal for rescuing a friend from drowning in the River Cam.

Williams-Ellis graduated BA (3rd Wrangler) in 1856. The Wranglers are those students at Cambridge who gain first-class degrees in mathematics. The Cambridge undergraduate mathematics course, or Mathematical Tripos, is famously difficult. The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge, a position that has been described as ‘the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain.’

Following his graduation 160 years ago, Williams-Ellis was elected a fellow of Sidney Sussex College in 1856. Two years later, he was ordained deacon by Thomas Turton, Bishop of Ely and former Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, in 1858. He proceeded MA in 1859, and was ordained priest by Bishop Turton that year.

He was admitted MA at Oxford (ad eundem) on 7 June 1860, when he was described as ‘Of Glasfryn, Co Carnarvon, and of Brondanw, Co Merioneth.’

He remained a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College for over 20 years from 1856 to 1877, and was also a Tutor from 1859 to 1876. He was Senior Moderator of the University of Cambridge in 1866-1867.

Williams-Ellis may have been the first Welshman to climb one of the highest mountains in the Alps. He was familiar with the mountains of Snowdonia and in 1857 he went on a tour in the Alps with the Revd JF Hardy, also a don at Sidney Sussex College.

On 13 August 1857, accompanied by JF Hardy, William and St John Mathews, ES Kennedy (1817–1898), and five guides, he climbed the Finsteraarhorn (4,274 metres), the highest peak in Bern Oberland. The mountain had been scaled earlier, possibly in 1812, but this was the first British climb and the venture inspired William Mathews and Kennedy to establish an Alpine Club.

However, Williams-Ellis did not join the Alpine Club and there is no mention of him visiting the Alps again, although his family still has his alpenstock.

Meanwhile, the reforms to the university in the 1850s would change Sidney’s intellectual course forever. From the largely theological and mathematical college of the first two centuries or so, it became a power-house in the rapidly expanding medical, natural, physical and chemical sciences, and this direction was much inspired by John Clough Williams-Ellis.

John Wale Hicks, later Bishop of Bloemfontein, was typical of the time, publishing books on both doctrine and inorganic chemistry. The laboratories that stood along the Sidney Street wall beyond ‘A’ staircase, were among the first in Cambridge. Later, they were the site of a string of important experiments by the world famous metallurgist FH Neville and others such as EH Griffiths until they fell into disuse by 1910.

Their fame led Dorothy L Sayers to propose Sidney Sussex as the Cambridge college Sherlock Holmes attended in 1871-1873. Developing this theme, Professor Richard Chorley of Sidney Sussex College later allocated Holmes a room on the first floor of Staircase A, overlooking both Hall Court and Sidney Street.

The fame of John Clough Williams-Ellis and others led to Sherlock Holmes being ascribed rooms on the first floor of Staircase A in Sidney Sussex College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

As a brilliant mathematician and a successful tutor, Williams-Ellis contributed to enhancing the reputation of Sidney Sussex College. When the Cambridge chair in mechanics became vacant all the eminent scholars in the field supported him, but another person was elected as a result of the influence of the larger colleges.

While he was still a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Williams-Ellis became the Vicar of Madingley, Cambridgeshire, in 1865. His predecessor, Robert Mackray, who was Vicar from 1862 to 1865, was later the first Anglican Primate of Canada. As Vicar of Madingley, Williams-Ellis restored Saint Mary’s Church, and he planned the new vicarage, which allowed Madingley to have a resident vicar.

In 1876, he became the Rector of Gayton, Northamptonshire. Within a year, he married Ellen Mabel Greaves on 2 January 1877, and resigned his fellowship at Sidney Sussex. They had six sons, including Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect (1883-1978), who was their fourth son.

Meanwhile, Williams-Ellis invested his earnings as a tutor in expanding his Glasfryn estate in North Wales, and he retired there in1889. A year later, he became a Justice of the Peace in 1890.

Williams-Ellis died on 27 May 1913 at the age of 80, and was buried in a glade near Glasfryn in North Wales. Had he remained a don at Sidney Sussex College and never returned to Wales, I wonder whether his son, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, would ever have dreamt of building Portmeririon.

Rowing by the Sidney Sussex boathouse on the River Cam (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Finding old churches, long names and Irish bishops in Angelsey

Beaumaris Castle, completed in 1296, dominates the town in south-east Anglesey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

The brave and plucky performances by Wales and Iceland lifted the spirits of everyone during the UEFA European championships this summer. Wales kept high the hopes of these islands for an extra week or more after the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England were eliminated one by one at the end of June and the beginning of July.

This was the best performance by Wales in international soccer since reaching the World Cup quarter finals in 1958. My eventual late support for Wales followed the elimination of the other island nations, and passions ran high in bars across Crete as tourists clustered and huddled around televisions bars in the resorts.

It all brought back happy memories of a visit to Wales just before summer. I had gone to visit Portmeirion, the romantic village built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, and to see remote Frongoch, where Irish revolutionary leaders were kept prisoner after the 1916 Rising.

The parish church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas was built around 1330 in the heart of the new, walled town of Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But was I captivated too by Anglesey. We were staying in Beaumaris on the south-east corner of Anglesey. Architecturally, the town is dominated by the castle Edward I, and completed in 1296. The Welsh view of the building of the castle is expressed in Richard Liwyd’s poem ‘Beaumaris Bay’:

Here earth is loaded with a mass of wall
The proud insulting badge of Cambria’s fall
By haughty Edward raised; and every stone
Records a sign, a murder or a groan.

The stone tomb of Princess Joan of Wales inside the south porch in Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The new town was populated with people mainly from Lancashire and Cheshire, including the Bulkeley family. The parish church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas was built in the heart of the new, walled town ca 1330. The oldest parts of the church date from the 14th century, while the chancel was rebuilt around 1500. Later additions date from the 19th century.

Inside the south porch, the stone tomb of Princess Joan of Wales is older than the church itself. Princess Joan was an illegitimate daughter of King John of England and married to Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, or Llywelyn the Great, then Prince of Wales. When she died in 1237, Joan was buried at the Franciscan Friary her husband had founded in Llanfaes. When the friary was suppressed at the Reformation, Joan’s tomb was lost. Centuries later it was found in Beaumaris being used as a water trough for horses; it was rescued and moved into the church.

The misericords in Beaumaris date from the late 15th and early 16th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The church has a unique collection of misericords from the 15th and 16th centuries, decorating the undersides of the seats in the choir stalls. They include a bearded pope, a woman in a crown with a wimple and a hood, and a woman with a crown of roses. One carving depicts a woman with a pair of tankards filled with ale balanced on her head. Perhaps she brought drinks to the woodcarvers as they worked.

Bulkeleys, Beaumaris and Dublin

The alabaster altar tomb of William and Elin Bulkeley in Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The church has an impressive alabaster altar tomb of William Bulkeley, who died in 1490, and his wife Elin, lying side-by- side, with William’s feet resting on a lion. Around its base, the tomb is decorated with figures of bishops and saints.

Sir Richard Bulkeley (1533-1621) was appointed Constable of Beaumaris Castle in 1561 and became the first Mayor of Beaumaris in 1562. In 1563, he was elected MP for Anglesey for the first time, and he became High Sheriff of Anglesey in 1570. He was accused of oppressing the people of Beaumaris, and of being involved in the Babington plot in 1586. But he was cleared and became one of Queen Elizabeth’s courtiers.

Bulkeley’s younger half-brother, Lancelot Bulkeley (1568-1650), remained rector of two parishes in the Diocese of Bangor when he was appointed Archdeacon of Dublin in 1613. He became Archbishop of Dublin in 1619, and he provoked a riot in Dublin in Christmas 1628 when he tried but failed to prohibit the public Roman Catholic celebration of the Mass.

In 1635, Archbishop Bulkeley built Old Bawn House near Tallaght. The house was built in a late Tudor style, with high pointed gables, many windows, 12 chimneys and a chimneypiece reaching to the ceiling that depicted the building of the walls of Jerusalem. The house probably had a moat and drawbridge, and there was a large pleasure garden.

Throughout the Cromwellian wars, Bulkeley remained a loyal Anglican, and he was jailed in 1647 for resisting the prohibition of the Book of Common Prayer. After the execution of Charles I, all Bulkeley’s honours, privileges, castles and estates were confiscated in 1649. When he died a year later in Tallaght, he was buried in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

His son William Bulkeley was a canon of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (1626-1636), Rector of Rathfarnham (1636), Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (1630-1671), and Archdeacon of Dublin (1640-1671). Another son, Sir Richard Bulkeley (1634-1685), was High Sheriff of Co Wicklow (1660) and MP for Baltinglass, Co Wicklow (1665-1666).

Old Bawn House fell into disrepair in the early 1900s, and the chimneypiece and a carved oak staircase were moved to the National Museum. It was used as a storehouse when the surrounding lands were being developed for new housing in the 1960s. I still remember the storm 40 years ago when the House was finally demolished in 1976.

Back in Beaumaris, Archbishop Bulkeley’s cousins remained prominent in politics and public life. When Thomas Bulkeley (1585-1659) became Governor of Beaumaris Castle, Charles I gave him the Irish title of Viscount Bulkeley of Cashel, Co Tipperary, in 1644.

After the Restoration, the office of Governor of Beaumaris Castle passed from one generation to the next in the family until the death of the last Lord Bulkeley in 1822.

Tudor architecture

Tudor Rose, a Tudor house on Castle Street is reputed to be one of the oldest houses in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Tudor dynasty was descended from the Tudors of Anglesey, and so I was on the lookout for Tudor buildings in Beaumaris.

Tudor Rose, the Tudor house on Castle Street, dates from 1416 and is said to be one of the oldest houses in Britain.

Nearby, the George and Dragon on Church Street claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Wales. Despite the Georgian façade, the pub dates back to 1410, and inside it has a timber frame, exposed beams and a fireplace dating back hundreds of years.

One of the roof trusses bears a painting the Sacred Heart of Christ, and a Latin prayer from 1610. Oliver Cromwell is said to have stayed there in 1643, and two Cromwellian soldiers were court-martialled for being drunk in the inn – although there is no record of what Cromwell thought of the Catholic symbolism and Latin prayers.

Around the corner, the Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour at 34 Castle Street looks like an ordinary shop. But inside it is a mediaeval hall house, about as old as the George and Dragon, and a Tudor Rose adorns one of the trusses.

Folklore says the Tudor Rose was built around 1400, although the earliest timbers date from the 1480s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The last Viscount Bulkeley died in 1822. But the Bulkeley family, and later the Williams Bulkeley family continued to hold large estates in the area until the family’s assets and estates were sold off at auction in 1920 in a major sale in the Williams Bulkeley Arms Hotel, now the Bulkeley Arms Hotel.

But the family is still remembered in names and initials embossed on buildings around Beaumaris and the East Window in the parish church commemorates a member of the Williams-Bulkeley family killed during World War I.

The longest nameplace

A sign on the platform at the railway station in Llanfair PG spells out the name in full with helpful hints for English speakers and visitors (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Between Beaumaris and Holyhead, it was impossible to resist the signs pointing to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, the village that boasts the longest name in Europe.

Signs at the railway station spell out the name in full the longest placename on these islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Most of the 3,000 people there speak Welsh, so they know how to pronounce the name and know what it means. But most refer it as Llanfairpwll, even as Llanfair PG. The long name, with 58 characters, was invented for promotional purposes in the 1860s, and refers to a little church in a hollow. Few tourists find the church, but all want to be photographed with the name at the train station or on the platform.

Early Christian site

Penmon Priory … the former cloisters are enclosed by the former refectory (left), the former prior’s house (centre) and Saint Seiriol’s Priory Church (right) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Before leaving Anglesey, I visited one of the earliest Christian sites in Wales at the eastern tip of the island. Penmon is 5 km east of Beaumaris, and its name in Welsh means the end of the island.

On the short journey, the landscape was evidence of the way Penmon limestone was extracted to build Birmingham Town Hall and in rebuilding Liverpool and Manchester after World War II. The stone was also used in building the Menai Suspension Bridge (1826) and the Britannia Bridge (1850).

Looking out towards Snowdonia from the grounds of Penmon Priory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Saint Seiriol’s Church at Penmon may be part of the oldest remaining Christian building in Wales. According to tradition, the monastery was founded by Saint Seiriol in the early sixth century. Stone walls near the well may be part of Saint Seiriol’s church, making it the oldest remaining Christian building in Wales.

Saint Seiriol’s Well in Penmon may include parts of the oldest remaining Christian building in Wales (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

By the 10th century, the monastery had a wooden church, and two high crosses probably stood at the entrance to the monastery. After Penmon was destroyed during Viking raids in 971, the church was rebuilt in stone, and Penmon survived the arrival of the Normans in the following century. The Priory Church was rebuilt in stone again in the 12th century, and the oldest parts of the church today date from 1140, making it the most complete building of its age in north-west Wales.

The Romanesque arches linking the crossing with the chancel and the south transept in Penmon Priory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In the 13th century, Penmon became an Augustinian priory. But the priory was in decline before the Reformation, and by 1536 the community included only the Prior and two other members. The priory was dissolved in 1538, and Penmon was acquired by the Bulkeleys of Beaumaris, who used most of the land for a deer park and built a dovecot near the church.

The prior’s house, built in the 16th century, became a private house, but Saint Seiriol’s Church survived the Reformation. Much of the church was rebuilt in 1855, and the chancel now serves as the parish church. Inside the church, the crossing has richly carved pillars and Romanesque arches, and the decorative work suggests skills that may have come from Ireland. The south transept has a blind arcade of chevron-decorated Romanesque arches.

The larger High Cross in the nave in Penmon Priory has inter-lacing decorative patterns, a hunting scene and a scene of the temptations of Saint Anthony (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Two 10th century High Crosses inside the church once stood at the entrance to the mediaeval monastery. The larger cross has inter-lacing decorative patterns, a hunting scene and a scene of the temptations of Saint Anthony. The smaller cross is decorated with knot-work and animal heads. The baptismal font may have been the base of another, third High Cross. All three pieces show Irish influences.

The dovecot at Penmon was built by Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris in 1600 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Penmon Priory is now part of Beaumaris parish, and remains the finest and most complete example of a church of its period in Gwynedd. It worth going to the ends of Anglesey to see and to explore.

The Bulkeley family is remembered to this day in Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This feature was first published in August 2016 in the ‘Diocesan Magazine’ (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).

Portmeirion is a colourful and extravagant essay in architecture and no prison

Portmeirion is a bold splash of colour and extravagance with the promise of summer joys (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

I have often travelled through Wales, and I had stayed there twice – once when I was leading a retreat in a convent in Llandudno, and again when I visited Saint Michael’s College in Llandaff. But, more often than not, I travelled hastily through Wales, seeing as a corridor between Ireland and England until Ryanair made it easier, cheaper and quicker to fly.

But my perspective of Wales changed a few weeks ago when I caught the ferry to Holyhead to spend a weekend visiting Frongoch, where Irish prisoners were held in 1916, and Portmeirion, the architecturally unique village in North Wales designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and the location of ‘The Village’ in the 1960s cult television series The Prisoner.

Welcome to Portmeirion … the 1976 tollgate was the last building designed by Williams-Ellis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

I was first captivated by The Prisoner almost half a century ago, and since then Portmeirion and was an early inspiration for my lifelong love of architecture. It was on my “must-see” list, and so I have no explanation for why it took me so long to get there.

I was staying in Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey, close to the Holyhead ferry terminal, the Menai Straits, and Llanfair PG – the Welsh village that claims to have the longest name – and within easy reach of Penmon, an early Celtic monastic site in east Anglesey, as well as Bangor Cathedral, Frongoch and Snowdonia.

It is all just three or four hours’ drive from Dublin, and I was surprised it was so easy to get to Portmeirion in Gwynedd. It is a small coastal village off the beaten track, tucked away in North West Wales, on the Triath Bach tidal estuary.

Bold splash of colour

The Bridge House (1959) leads to the village and the Round House where Number 6 was kept as ‘The Prisoner’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

On an overcast Sunday, when the coasts of North Wales were shrouded in mist and rain, Portmeirion was a bold splash of colour and extravagance to brighten up the afternoon with the promise of summer joys.

Portmeirion is the creation of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who designed and built it over half a century between 1925 and 1976 in the style of an Italian village. He persistently denied that the concept was based on the fishing village of Portofino on the Italian Riviera. All he would say was that he wanted to pay tribute to the atmosphere of the Mediterranean. However, he loved the Italian village, and once asked rhetorically: “How should I not have fallen for Portofino? Indeed its image remained with me as an almost perfect example of the man-made adornment and use of an exquisite site.”

As he built Portmeirion, he incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by other architects. This architectural bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia would influence the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late 20th century.

The Bell Tower, Battery and Prior’s Lodging (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The main building of the hotel and the cottages ‘White Horses,’ ‘Mermaid, and ‘The Salutation’ were originally on a private estate, Aber Iâ (‘Ice Estuary’), developed in the 1850s on the site of a late 18th-century foundry and boatyard.

The estate included remains of a mediaeval castle (Castell Deudraeth, Castell Gwain Goch or Castell Aber Iâ), mentioned as early as 1188 by the Welsh historian Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald of Wales. David Williams (1799-1866), Liberal MP for Merioneth, rebuilt Castell Deudraeth as a crenellated and castellated mansion, with Gothic and Tudor features that are represent Victorian architecture at its most fantastical.

In 1925, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis started building his fantasy estate and changed the name from Aber Iâ, which he though meant ‘frozen mouth,’ to Portmeirion, meaning the Port or coastal town – as in Portofino – of Merioneth (Meirionydd), then the name of the surrounding country.

A fashionable architect

The Pantheon and the Bristol Colonnade seen from the Piazza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) was an English-born architect from a Welsh family. His father, the Revd John Clough Williams Ellis (1833-1913), an Anglican priest, poet and mountaineer, was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was elected a fellow in 1856. He was the Vicar of Madingley, near Cambridge (1865) before becoming Rector of Gayton, Northamptonshire (1876). He won prizes for poetry in Cambridge, and although he was proficient in Welsh he wrote only in English. He married Ellen Mabel Greaves and their son Clough was born in Gayton in 1883.

Clough Williams-Ellis entered Trinity College, Cambridge, but never graduated. He then trained as an architect in London, where he set up his own practice. In 1908, he inherited a small country house, Plas Brondanw, from his father, restoring and embellishing it over the rest of his life.

He spent World War I as a lieutenant in the Welsh Guards and the Royal Tank Corps, and was decorated with the Military Cross. Meanwhile, in 1915 Williams-Ellis married the writer Amabel Strachey.

In the inter-war years, he was a fashionable architect. In Ireland, he designed several buildings in Co Antrim for Ronald McNeill (Lord Cushendun), including Glenmona House, and for the Macnaghten family at Bushmills, as well as a Christian Science church in Belfast and a house in Glengarriff, Co Cork.

His book England and the Octopus (1928) is an outcry at the urbanisation of the countryside and loss of village cohesion. He was an ardent environmentalist who was ahead of his time and he wanted to create a functional and attractive private village that would act as “propaganda for good manners.”

The Gloriette and Gothic Pavilion were designed as part of the Piazza development (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Meanwhile, in the 1920s, he began building Portmeirion to show that architecture can enhance the environment rather than spoil it. From the beginning, he planned it as a tourist destination, with the Hotel Portmeirion as its waterfront hub. In 1931, he bought Castell Deudraeth and estate from his uncle, Sir Osmond Williams (1849-1927), a Welsh Liberal politician, so he could expand Portmeirion. He described the castle as “the largest and most imposing single building on the Portmeirion estate,” and tried to integrate it into Portmeirion as an hotel in the 1930s.

Portmeirion, with its Riviera-inspired houses, ornamental garden and campanile, is a pocket of beautiful madness on the Welsh coast. With his clever use of arches, slopes and window sizes, Williams-Ellis makes his compact village look larger than it actually is.

The architecture critic Lewis Mumford, in The Highway and the City (1964), calls Portmeirion “an artful and playful little modern village, designed as a whole and all of a piece ... a fantastic collection of architectural relics and impish modern fantasies.”

Creative inspiration

The Statue of Hercules (1863) by William Brodie was rescued in Aberdeen in 1960 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Portmeirion inspired writers, architects, television producers and movie makers. Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying in the Fountain suite in 1941.

The architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited the village in 1956, and other visitors include Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman and Paul McCartney. But it attracted international attention when television series and films used Portmeirion as a location for exotic European towns.

In 1960, an episode of Danger Man, ‘View from the Villa,’ was filmed here starring Patrick McGoohan. In 1966-1967, he returned to Portmeirion to film The Prisoner, a surreal spy drama in which McGoohan plays a retired spy, ‘Number 6,’ who is incarcerated and interrogated in ‘The Village.’ But Williams-Ellis was worried that the village would be spoilt by overcrowding, and Portmeirion was not identified as the location until the credits rolled at the end of the final episode of The Prisoner.

The Prisoner was aired on ITV in Autumn 1967 and in the US the following Summer. It quickly became a cult classic, and fans continue to visit Portmeirion throughout the year.

The Angel (1926) was one of the first cottages at Portmeirion and includes an attractive Angel relief (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The buildings in the first phase (1925-1939) are inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement, while buildings in the second phase (1954-1976) are inspired by classical and Palladian styles.

We entered Portmeirion through the last building he designed, the Tollboth, built in 1976 when he was 92, and its companion, completed in 1999. The baroque Gate House is the first post-war building and straddles the driveway beyond the tollgate. The deep arch includes a ceiling mural by Hans Feibusch.

Neptune was designed as one of a pair with the Angel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Battery faces onto a pretty plaza with guest accommodation, an aromatherapy spa and a café with outdoor tables on the cobbles. The Round House, the cottage where Number Six was held in The Prisoner, is now a souvenir shop. However, the building used as the exterior is too small for the supposed interior, which included a spacious lounge, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Instead, the interior was filmed in the MGM studios in Borehamwood.

The Round House is now a souvenir shop, and half a century later many of the locations in The Prisoner remain almost unchanged. Statues, corbels and whimsical details fill every nook and corner.

Salutation, a former stable block, now sells Portmeirion Pottery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The central square of Piazza replaced an unsightly tennis court, and was completed a year before The Prisoner was filmed. The Bristol Colonnade was built in Bristol in 1769 and when it was moved to Portmeirion it was opened in 1959 by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who also laid the foundation stone for the Pantheon, where Dome was completed in 1961.

The Gloriette, with the Gothic Pavilion, was designed as part of the Piazza development and was inspired by the vista at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. Gothic Pavilion. Other buildings in the village, with romantic names, include the Bell Tower, Lady’s Lodge, the Chantry, Villa Winch, Salutation, Trinity, Unicorn, Telford Tower, Government House, the Watch House and Belvedere.

The Triumphal Arch is a rococo-style gateway with a caryatid statue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The 19th century statue of Hercules was rescued by Williams-Ellis in Aberdeen in 1960. The Town Hall is Town Hall is a Jacobean arts-and-crafts village hall. There is a Triumphal Arch, a Gazebo and there are arches everywhere. Recent upgrades have been faithful to the spirit of Williams-Ellis.

The Town Hall was designed to house a Jacobean ceiling, panelling and mullioned windows salvaged from Emral Hall in Flintshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

His daughter Susan (1918-2007), who trained with Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, was selling ceramics in Portmeirion when she took over a pottery in Stoke-on-Trent in 1960. Today, Portmeirion Pottery is on sale in the village gift shops.

Realising a vision

The Mermaid was once a gardener’s bothey and dates from 1840s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Then, 70 years after Williams-Ellis bought Castell Deudraeth, his vision was realised in 2001 when the castle opened as an 11-bedroom hotel and restaurant.

The grounds are surrounded by 30 hectares of sub-tropical forest called Y Gwylt with lakes, temples and gazebos, and an Edwardian wild garden designed by Caton Haigh, a world authority on Himalayan flowering trees and exotic plants. Camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolia and maidenhair trees bring fresh blazes of colour with each season.

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was knighted in 1972 “for services to the preservation of the environment and to architecture.” At the time, he was the oldest person ever to be knighted. He died in April 1978, aged 94.

The Quayside has an elegant loggia, the Casino, that could be seen by the quays in an Italian or Greek port (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Today, Portmeirion is owned by a charitable trust, the buildings are Grade II listed, and this is one of the top tourist attractions in North Wales. The Rough Guide to Wales calls Portmeirion “a gorgeous visual poem,” and Tripadvisor has named it as the most colourful place in the UK and in the top 10 in the world.

Portmeirion and its hotel are among the top tourist attractions in Wales (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This fature was first published in July 2016 in the ‘Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough) and the ‘Diocesan Magazine’ (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).

Portmeirion is tucked away in North West Wales, on the Triath Bach tidal estuary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Is the chapel tradition in steep decline in Wales?

A converted chapel on Church Street in Beaumaris serves many secular uses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

I wondered this week whether the Welsh Chapel tradition is dying.

Everywhere you go in Wales, in urban and rural areas, the streetscapes and the landscapes seem to be dominated by the Chapel.

Large and small buildings dot the towns and the countryside, generally with two entrance doors, one for men and one for women.

They can be tiny barn-style buildings in the middle of fields filled with grazing sheep, or they can be towering, if not domineering buildings, like Bethesda, with its imposing classical façade and that gives its name to the town in North Wales that grew up around it.

Indeed, as I travelled throughout North Wales earlier this week, I wondered how many of the small town and villages I passed took their Biblical-sounding names from the chapels they grew up around: Bethesda, Bethel, Carmel, Golan, Nasareth (sic), Nebo …?

The Chapel tradition and Nonconformity have been a significant influence in Wales from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The Welsh Methodist revival in the 18th century was one of the most significant religious and social movements in the history of Wales. The revival began within the Church of England in Wales, partly as a reaction to the neglect many people in Wales felt because of absentee bishops and clergy.

From the 1730s on, for two generations or more, the leading lights in the Methodist revival, including Howell Harris (1714-1773), the Revd Daniel Rowland (1711-1790) and the Revd William Williams Pantycelyn (1717-1791), remained in the Church of England, albeit on the margins. But the revival in Wales was markedly different in tone from the Methodist revival in England. In Wales, the theological emphasis was Calvinist instead of Arminian, and these Calvinist Methodists gradually built their own chapels in Wales.

Out of this movement, the Revd Thomas Charles (1755-1814), a former Anglican priest was a leading figure in the separation from the Church of England in 1811, when ministers were ordained in Bala, close to Frongoch which I visited last Saturday, and in Llandeilo. The divisions were formalised when the Calvinistic Methodist Presbyterian Church of Wales was established in 1823.

But the 18th century revival also benefitted the older, non-conformist or dissenting churches, including the Baptists and the Congregationalists, who also experienced fresh growth. As a result, Wales was a predominantly nonconformist country by the mid-19th century.

Chapel Court on Church Street, Beaumaris … many Welsh chapels had separate entrances for men and women (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The 19th century was the golden age of Welsh nonconformity, and the villages and towns that grew up around the new chapels became citadels of dissent.

A census in 1851 showed that 80% of those who attended a place of worship on Census Sunday in Wales were Nonconformists.

A second popular revival began in 1859, a spread mainly through the Welsh language. By the 1880s, the Welsh chapels were experiencing their golden age. Chapels were built in confident architectural styles, in sharp contrast to the severe and austere styles of earlier chapels.

By the 1880s, over 350,000 men and women were members of one of the four main Nonconformist denominations, with many more adherents who went to chapel on Sundays. There was yet another Welsh revival in 1904-1905 when at least 100,000 people declared they had become Christians.

As they grew in numbers and became more confident, the chapels were often heard as one voice as they spoke out against social conditions, despite their denominational differences.

The Calvinistic Methodists were the largest of the denominations in numerical terms, and their greatest strength was in rural Wales, including Anglesey. The Congregationalists, usually known in Wales as Independents, were especially strong in south Wale. The Baptists were more concentrated, primarily in Glamorgan and Carmarthenshire, but also in Pembrokeshire. The Wesleyan Methodists were not particularly strong in Wales and were found more often in English-speaking places.

But the “chapel” label was applied in Wales to many other traditions too, including the Unitarians and at times the Quakers.

By and large, the chapel tradition was a conservative dimension of Welsh life. Sabbatarianism was often extreme, so that public houses remained closed in many parts of Wales until very late in the last century. Women were often marginalised in the chapels and denied any positions of responsibility, rivalry was rife between neighbouring chapels, and many denominations suffered from internal divisions and schisms.

But the chapels also inspired choirs, choral festivals and community activities, developed schools and educational facilities, and played a significant role in the rise of the Liberal Party in Wales.

Chapel Court on Church Street, Beaumaris … built as the English Presbyterian Church but now divided in apartments (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But recent decades have seen a gradual decline of Christianity throughout Wales, and as I walked through the streets of Beaumaris, Bangor and other parts of North Wales, I wondered how severe is the decline in the Welsh Chapel tradition?

It is a tradition that I have an abiding affection for. As a 19-year-old with a fresh enthusiasm for my Christian faith, I spent a weekend in Chester on my way between Lichfield and Dublin, and on that Sunday morning, visiting a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel, I was taught the only three words in Welsh, the only phrase, I have ever learned in Welsh: Duw cariad yw, ‘God is love.’

Last Sunday morning [1 May 2016] in Beaumaris, two of us went to Church in the Parish Church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas, the parish church of the (Anglican) Church in Wales. But on the same street, I noticed how at least two former citadels from the Welsh Chapel tradition have been converted in recent years to serve non-religious functions.

Chapel Court, on the corner of Church Street and Margaret Street, was built in 1871-1876 as the English Presbyterian Church in Beaumaris. But the chapel closed in 1992, and the building was converted into flats and holiday apartments 20 years ago in 1996.

Further down Church Street, the Forum on 6 Church Street, opposite the George and Dragon, was once a chapel but has been converted into a number of commercial units, including the Triple 8 Coffee Shop, the Penny Farthing traditional sweet shop and Little Jack’s Gift Shop.

The former Capel Seion was a Welsh Congregational Church but has been converted to housing (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Behind the parish church, the Capel Seion Welsh Congregational Church was built on the corner of Steeple Lane and Chapel Street in 1821. It replaced an earlier Capel Seion, which was built in 1784 and was the earliest non-conformist foundation in Beaumaris.

Capel Seion (Zion Chapel) closed some years ago too and it too has been converted into housing. But it was once a typical, almost classical Welsh Chapel, built in the Italianate style.

The round-headed central doorway has Tuscan pilasters with a moulded arch and keystone, and double fielded-panel doors with radial-glazed overlights. Inside, the entrance vestibule has plastered round arches on consoles to gallery stairs to the right and left, with moulded newel and plain balusters. The main chapel had a panelled plaster ceiling with ornate moulded ribs and ceiling roses. There was a three-sided gallery, a tall pulpit and cast-iron Corinthian columns.

Last night, I served as deacon at the Ascension Day Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, reading the Gospel and assisting at the administration of Holy Communion. I thought of the Welsh Chapel tradition and its rich contribution to the wider Church as we sang the procession hymn ‘Hail the day that sees him rise,’ by Charles Wesley and the Revd Thomas Cotterill of Lane End, Staffordshire. When it was first published in 1837, the tune was known as Bethel. But by 1896 it was renamed as Llanfair, and was ascribed to the blind composer and Welsh singer and blind composer known as Robert Williams (1781–1821) of Anglesey. He was born near Llanfair PG, the village with the longest name on these islands and which I visited last weekend.

I would cringe to think that visitors to Ireland might judge the state of the health of the Church by looking at closed churches dotting the countryside or former churches in our towns and cities that have been converted into apartments, shops, garages, restaurants and lighting display showrooms. But as I processed in the cathedral last night to tune known as Llanfair and Bethel, and as I walked around Beaumaris earlier this week, I wondered whether the Welsh Chapel Tradition is dying, and thought of what a loss that would be.

Images of the Ascension and the Kingdom in Penmon Priory and Bangor Cathedral

The Ascension depicted in the East Window in Saint Seiriol’s Church at Penmon Priory, near Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Today is Ascension Day [5 May 2016]. This afternoon, I hope to bring a visiting group from the Church of Sweden to visit Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and later in the day I hope to take part in the Choral Eucharist for Ascension Day sung by the Cathedral Choir.

The procession hymn this evening is ‘Hail the day that sees him rise,’ by Charles Wesley and Thomas Cottrill, vicar of Lane End, Staffordshire, sung to the tune Llanfair. This tune is said to have been written by the Welsh singer and blind composer Robert Williams (1781–1821) of Anglesey. The Llanfair that gives its name to this hymn is Llanfair PG, the village with the longest name on these islands, near the place where Williams was born and which I visited last weekend.

I am sure the editors and typesetters of many hymnals, and the person who put together this evening’s service sheet are happy, for the sake of appearances alone, that the tune was written before the longer name of the village was concocted and that it is known by the town’s shorter name.

Earlier this week [2 May 2016] in Anglesey, when I was visiting Saint Seiriol’s Church at Penmon Priory, outside Beaumaris, I photographed a beautiful stained glass window illustrating the Ascension.

This three-light East Window in the Chancel of Penmon Priory Church, dates from 1912. The centre window depicts Christ in glory, holding the chalice and the host, with rays of light emanating from the wounds in his hands and feet. He is surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists.

The three-light East Window was given in memory of Sarah and Henry Owen Williams in 1912 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

This window, with its Anglo-Catholic sacramental imagery, was given in 1912 in memory of Henry Owen Williams and his wife Sarah (Holborn) of Tre-Castell, near Beaumaris, by their children. Their children included the Revd Raymond Owen Williams, who was presented to the Vicarage of Fisherton Delamere in Wiltshire by Athelstan Riley (1858—1945), the Anglo-Catholic hymn writer and hymn translator.

In the left-hand light window, Sarah Williams is shown with the women and children being blessed by Christ. Henry Williams is depicted in the right-hand light, in a scene depicting the blessing and distribution of the loaves and fishes.

Saint Christopher and Saint Seiriol … a window by David Evans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Fragments of the original East Window in the Priory Church can be seen in a small stained glass window that is the east window of the south transept. This window depicts the Priory’s founder, Saint Seiriol, watching Saint Christopher carrying the Christ Child across a river.

The head of Saint Christopher, his right hand, Christ’s orb, and the right hand of Saint Seiriol with parts of his staff are mediaeval. These were worked into a new window ca 1855 by David Evans (1793-1861), who imitated mediaeval styles in the remaining work in the window. A second window by Evans in the Priory Church from the same time shows Saint Catherine and a bishop.

David Evans was born at Llanllwchaiarn near Newtown. He worked in partnership with Sir John Betton of Shrewsbury (1765-1849) from 1815 as Betton & Evans, and I am familiar with some of their windows in Lichfield Cathedral (1819).

Evans retained the name of the firm after Betton retired in 1825. Examples of Evans’s work in Wales can also be seen in Bangor Cathedral, including three of the Evangelists – Saint Luke Saint Matthew and Saint Mark – three prophets, Aaron, Moses and David, and three Epistle writers, Saint Peter, Saint John and Saint Paul.

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand … but the left hand is missing (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The salvaged right hand of Saint Seiriol in this window in Penmon Priory came to mind later on Monday afternoon as I wondered about the mysterious, missing left hand of Saint John the Baptist in a panel on the pulpit in Bangor Cathedral.

The two relief panels on the sides of the pulpit are carved in Caen stone and were designed around 1880 by Sir George Gilbert Scott as part of his restoration of Bangor Cathedral.

One panel depicts the mission commission to the disciples after the resurrection, with the text: ‘Go ye into all the world & preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16: 15).

The other panel depicts Saint the Baptist preaching to a group of six, including two Roman soldiers and a mother and child. The inscription on this panel reads: ‘Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3: 2). Saint John the Baptist has his right hand raised as he preaches. But the one part of the panel that is missing – whether by vandalism or accident, I do not know – is his left hand.

The opening words of this evening’s Psalm at the Choral Eucharist are: ‘O clap your hands together all ye peoples’ (Psalm 47: 1).

Collect:

Grant, we pray, Almighty God,
that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ
to have ascended into the heavens;
so we in heart and mind may also ascend
and with him continually dwell;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Readings:

Acts 1: 1-11 or Daniel 7: 9-14; Psalm 47 or Psalm 93; Ephesians 1: 15-23 or Acts 1: 1-11; Luke 24: 44-53.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
you have raised our humanity in Christ
and feed us with the bread of heaven.
Mercifully grant that, nourished with such spiritual blessings,
we may set our hearts in the heavenly places;
where he now lives and reigns for ever.

The architectural legacy of Beaumaris includes many unexpected Tudor gems

The streets of Beaumaris have many Tudor houses surviving from the 15th and 16th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Beaumaris where I spent last weekend is a pleasant, typical seaside resort town. Architecturally, the town is dominated by the castle built by Edward I, and completed in 1296.

The castle followed design for the castles at Caernarvon and Aberconway and was surrounded by a deep moat or fosse that could be filled from the sea when need arose, and a deep canal that allowed vessels to unload their cargoes under the walls of the castle itself.

The Welsh view of the building of the castle is expressed in Richard Liwyd’s poem, ‘Beaumaris Bay’:

Here earth is loaded with a mass of wall
The proud insulting badge of Cambria’s fall
By haughty Edward raised; and every stone
Records a sign, a murder or a groan.

Beraumaris Castle, completed in 1296, dominates the town architecturally (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The new town was populated with settlers and tenant from north-west England, mainly from Lancashire and Cheshire, with family names that included Ingram, Godfrey, Norrey, Hampton, Kighley and Bulkeley.

The plan of the town was laid out around the crossing of two main streets, Castle Street and Church Street. These streets were lined with burgages, measuring 80 ft by 40 ft, and by the mid-14th century 150 burgages had been let out.

The street plan of Beaumaris was laid out around two main streets, Castle Street and Church Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In the early 15th century, Owain Glyndwr’s followers occupied Beaumaris for two years but the town survived.

By the early 17th century, the houses had expanded north-west along Wexham Street, past Henllys Lane and south-east into Townsend.

When Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris (1581-1646) died, he was buried in Penmon Priory and his widow Ann married Sir Thomas Cheadle. However, evidence was produced that the couple had an affair while Sir Richard was alive, and they were tried – and acquitted – of murdering Sir Richard.

During the civil wars in the mid-17th century, Thomas Bulkeley (1585-1659) became Governor of the Castle. Charles I gave him the title of Viscount Bulkeley of Cashel, Co Tipperary, in 1644,and he held Beaumaris for the royalists until 1646, when he was forced to surrender to the Parliamentary troops under General Myttar.

Thomas Bulkeley’s son, Richard Bulkeley, was killed on Lafan Sands in 1650 in a duel with Richard Cheadle, who was hanged afterwards in Conwy.

After the Restoration, Thomas Bulkeley’s other son Robert Bulkeley became 2nd Viscount Bulkeley and Governor of Beaumaris Castle, an office that passed from one generation to the next in the family until the death of the last Lord Bulkeley in 1822.

Joseph Hansom’s impressive classical Victoria Terrace on the seafront in Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Beaumaris received an architectural and economic in the 1830s boost by prestigious and visual developments at Green Edge and Joseph Hansom’s impressive classical Victoria Terrace and the Williams Bulkeley Arms Hotel, consciously presenting a monumental façade towards the Menai Straits.

Green Edge, one of the prestigious Victorian visual developments in Beaumaris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In the Victorian period, the town had a number of older coaching inns and newer prospering hotels.

Along Castle Street, the Bull’s Head was an important coaching inn on the corner of Bull’s Head Street and Castle Street. The Oak and the Manchester Hotel stood opposite. The George and Dragon stood near the corner of Church Street and Castle Street with the town hall opposite and the Crown Inn and stables adjacent. At the south-west end of the town, the Liverpool Arms stood on the old Watergate Street.

In the mid-19th century, new streets were laid out towards the Menai Straits at Alma Street and Raglan Street, joined along Castle Street by Bulkeley Terrace.

The Castle Court Hotel (1612) and the old courthouse (1614), side-by-side on the same square, date from the early 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Apart from the castle and the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas, the 14th century parish church, the town’s buildings with interesting histories include the Castle Court Hotel (1612), now run by Guy Williams and Katherine Barwood, and where I stayed for the weekend, and the old courthouse (1614) – both buildings are on the same square date from the early 17th century – and the town gaol on Steeple Lane, dating from 1829, with prisoner cells and original artefacts, including a tread wheel. Both the courthouse and the gaol are now open to the public as museums.

The town jail, dating from 1829, is now open to the public (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But Beaumaris, like Conwy, is one of the few timber towns in north-west Wales and I should have expected some timber-framed structures or the evidence for them.

After all, the dynasty was descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a noble family connected with the village of Penmynydd in Anglesey. And so, as Anglesey was the ancestral home of the Tudor dynasty, I was on the lookout for Tudor buildings.

The Tudor house at 32 Castle Street is reputed to be one of the oldest houses in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Tudor house at 32 Castle Street, Beaumaris, dates from 1416, and is reputed to be one of the oldest houses in Britain. This building is home to the offices of estate agency Joan Hopkin, and today it looks rather out of place among the larger buildings that line Castle Street. However, at one time most of the buildings on Castle Street would have been of similar timber-frame construction.

The building is known as Tudor Rose comprises a hall-house on a north-south alignment and a southern wing of two storeys, perpendicular to the hall.

The building is larger than the street frontage suggests. This was originally a hall house, the centre of which was a high room with no ceiling. A two-storey solar wing at the south side – the section that can be sees from the street – provided family living accommodation and storage. The hall survives behind this wing.

A floor at first-floor level was added in the 16th century. Originally there was probably also a north wing, at the far end of the hall.

Local stories say timbers from Beaumaris Castle and a 12th-century house were used in building the hall’s upper floor and the solar wing. However, an analysis of wood samples and the carpentry work show that this is unlikely.

Recent dendrochronological dating in 2010, as part of the North West Wales Dendrochronology Project, has helped to date the house. Dendrochronology is the science that dates timber and wood in buildings.

Folklore says the house was built around 1400, although the earliest timbers date from the 1480s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The study finds the timbers used for the solar wing were grown in North-West Wales. One was felled in winter 1485-1486. It was not possible to date timbers in the hall, which could pre-date the solar wing.

The hall and wing together were standing during the second half of the 15th century. The house was timber-framed in the early phase and several components of its construction have survived despite a later stone-clad revamp. During the later 16th century, or perhaps in the early 17th century, the hall was provided with an upper floor and the traditional open hearth was replaced by a chimney stack against the north gable of the hall.

There are indications of the former presence of rooms on two storeys beyond the present north end, but these are now lost.

Tudor Rose is now a Grade II* building, listed for its exceptional interest as one of the few surviving pre-Georgian houses in Beaumaris, with especially notable interior details and distinctive front, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Castle Street.

The George and Dragon on Church Street claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Wales (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The George and Dragon on Church Street claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Wales. Despite the appearances of a Georgian façade, this much-loved heritage site dates back to 1410, and offers a wealth of “olde worlde” charm with a timber frame, exposed beams and a recently discovered fireplace dating back hundreds of years.

The George and Dragon Hotel was originally a town house. The ‘Dating Old Welsh Houses’ project has established that the earliest parts of the building date from 1541. But the first building on the site is mentioned in 1410, and the present building dates from the mid-16th century.

Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratories carried out a scientific survey of the pub some years ago. The report shows that beams in the George and Dragon were felled in Winter 1536-1537, Winter 1539-1540, Winter 1540-1541, and Spring 1541. The axial beam dates from 1536-1540, the transverse beam from 1539, and the joists from 1534, 1539 and 1540.

Inside the George and Dragon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The present George and Dragon may have been rebuilt in 1595. Originally, the upper storey overhung the side of the street. Alterations were made in the 17th and 20th centuries but original beams survive. Also noteworthy is the 17th-century panelling.

One of the roof trusses bears pictures and words from 1610. It is highly unusual for a building of this era to have both words and illustrations on the same truss. A painting of a bleeding heart occupies the centre of the apex. The Latin motto reads: Pax deus vobis require defuge deus providebit nosce te ipsum.

Oliver Cromwell is said to have stayed in the George and Dragon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Oliver Cromwell is said to have stayed here in 1643, and that two Cromwellian soldiers were courtmartialled for being drunk in the inn – although there is no record of what Cromwell thought of Latin prayers on the premises.

In the following century, leases show that the inn was known as the Red Lion and was owned by the Williams, Lloyd and Hughes families. By 1821, the place was known as the George and Dragon, and the extended premises included a cottage, stables, coach houses and a yard.

John Williams, who ran the George and Dragon in the 1820s and 1830s, was also an agent for steam packets sailing between Beaumaris and Liverpool.

On 18 August 1831, the Rothesay Castle, a steam-packet ship sailing from Liverpool with 150 passengers on board, sank at around 1 a.m. when she ran aground on Dutchman’s Bank, near Penmon and Puffin Island. In the morning, 23 passengers and members of the crew were rescued. The captain, who died, was described as drunk.

The inquest was held in Beaumaris, and John Williams of the George and Dragon was a member of the jury.

The tragedy was all but forgotten in 1832 when Beaumaris celebrated a visit by the Duchess of Kent and her daughter Princess Victoria, who would become Queen Victoria five years later. The royal couple stayed at the Williams-Bulkeley Arms Hotel, now the Bulkeley Arms, on 8 August 1832, during their tour of Wales, and celebrations were held at the George and Dragon and throughout Beaumaris.

John Williams died in 1835 and when she died in 1840 his widow Mary Williams gave her share of the George and Dragon to her daughter Mary Jane, wife of William Rowlands, and her sons Hugh Williams, John Williams, and Peter Williams as tenants in common. Some months later, Ellin Lloyd left her half share in the George and Dragon to her nieces Jane, wife of Ellis Timothy, and Mary Jane, wife of William Rowlands, as tenants in common.

The pub passed from the Rowlands family to Henry Humphreys, and then to John Evans, who was the tenant of the George and Dragon until 1909. His widow Mary Evans then ran the George and Dragon with her daughter Mary and son-in-law John Morgan.

However, the Williams Bulkeley family retained the freehold, until the family’s assets and estates were sold off in a major sale in 1920. By direction of Sir Richard Henry Williams Bulkeley (1862-1942), the George and Dragon Hotel was sold at auction in the Williams-Bulkeley Arms Hotel.

The tenants were Mrs Mary Ellen Morgan and Mr John P Jones. It was described as fully licensed premises, stone built, rough cast, and slated containing on the ground floor two smoke rooms, a bar, a tap room, a kitchen and pantry, coal house and yard. The first floor included drawing rooms, five bedrooms, a lumber room and a box room. The sale also included the shop next door.

The Morgan family was still at the George and Dragon in 1936. Mary Ellen Morgan died in 1940, and in 1945 John Alfred Green bought the George and Dragon Inn. In 1950, the George and Dragon was listed as a Grade II building. In 1968, the licensee, William Broadhurst who sold the George and Dragon to Robinson’s Brewery, who still own the pub.

the Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour on 34 Castle Street hides a mediaeval hall house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Next door to the George and Dragon, the Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour is at 34 Castle Street. From the outside, this looks like an ordinary shop from the 19th or early 20th century. But inside it is a mediaeval hall house, about as old as the George and Dragon next door. A Tudor Rose adorns one of the trusses.

The house belonged to the Bulkeley family until the sale of the family’s assets in 1920. The family had probably owned the building since the 15th century. The roof was built in 1483 or soon afterwards – perhaps around the time William Bulkeley died in 1484. He was the Constable of Beaumaris Castle in 1440, and was probably the first of the Bulkeleys to have moved to Anglesey from Cheshire.

The earliest recorded tenant of 34 Castle Street was William Humphreys, one of the bailiffs of Beaumaris, who was tenant from 1739 to 1784. In 1841 a surgeon called Griffith Roberts lived here. From 1843 to 1863, the property was home to a corn trader Robert Parry, who was ordered to pay a fine or be imprisoned for allowing “the soot in the chimney of his dwelling-house to catch fire.”

The building later housed a draper’s shop, and in 1911 the tenant was William Robert Hughes, a railway company agent. The London and North-Western Railway had a parcels and inquiry office on the premises.

With the sale of Bulkeley family estates and properties in 1920, William Robert Hughes bought the building for £800.

In 2008, the Green family bought the building for their ice-cream business, and the premises continue to contribute to the atmosphere that makes Beaumaris a perfect seaside resort town.