Ffestiniog (; ) is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, containing several villages, in particular the settlements of

Llan Ffestiniog Llan Ffestiniog, also known as Ffestiniog or simply Llan, is a village in Gwynedd (formerly in the county of Merionethshire), Wales, about 2 miles south of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Llan Ffestiniog is the older of the two communities, with its church ...

and

Blaenau Ffestiniog Blaenau Ffestiniog () is a town in Gwynedd, Wales. Once a slate mining centre in historic Merionethshire, it now relies much on tourists, drawn for instance to the Ffestiniog Railway and Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It reached a population of 12,0 ...

. It has a population of 4,875.

History

Ffestiniog was a parish in

Cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a Wales in the Early Middle Ages, medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divid ...

Ardudwy Ardudwy () is an area of Gwynedd in north-west Wales, lying between Tremadog Bay and the Rhinogydd. Administratively, under the old Kingdom of Gwynedd, it was first a division of the sub kingdom (cantref) of Dunoding and later a commote in i ...

; in 1284, Ardudwy became part of the county of

Merionethshire Merionethshire, or Merioneth ( or '), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was located in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. Name 'Merioneth' is a ...

, which became an administrative county in 1888.

Mary Evans Mary Evans (1770–1843), later Mary Todd, is notable as the first love of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founde ...

(1735–89) founded a sect in Ffestiniog around 1780, whose believers held that she had married

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

in a ceremony held in Ffestiniog church. The sect soon died out after her death. The parish was created an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

in 1894.A Vision of Britain Through Time : ''Ffestiniog urban District''
Retrieved 12 January 2010 On 1 April 1974, under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, ''Ffestiniog Urban District'' was abolished, becoming merged with other districts to form Meirionnydd District, which was itself abolished in 1996. Ffestiniog became a community with an elected town council. Ffestiniog Golf Club was founded in 1893. The club closed at the end of March 2014.

Toponymy

Celtic place-name in ''*-ākon'' "place of", then, "place belonging to, territory of" > Old Welsh ''-auc, -awg'' > Welsh ''-og''. The form ''-iog'' with an additional /i/ can be explained by the preceding element, which is a personal name ending with ''-i-us'' : ''Festinius''. The whole name should be ''*Festiniākon''. Probably same name as Festigny (France, e.g.:

Festigny, Marne Festigny () is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. See also *Communes of the Marne department The following is a list of the 610 communes in the French department of Marne. The communes cooperate in the following ...

, ''Festiniacus'' in 853). A Roman Inscription in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

honours Lucius Festinius Probus; Chester was the main Roman base for North Wales, so this is probably he.

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Communities in Gwynedd The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales cy:Ffestiniog