Rhos-on-Sea ( cy, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos) is a

seaside resort A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...

and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is a county borough in Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south, and Denbighshire to the east. Other settlements in the county borough include Abergele, Betws-y-Coed, Colwyn Bay, Con ...

, Wales. The population was 7,593 at the 2011 census. It adjoins

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpor ...

and is named after the Welsh kingdom of Rhos established there in late

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

as a sub-kingdom of

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County B ...

. It later became a ''

cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which wer ...

'' (hundred).

History

Bryn Euryn and Llys Euryn

Bryn Euryn is a hill overlooking Rhos-on-Sea on which there are the remains of a

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- Rom ...

called Dinerth, the 'fort of the bear', and a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

. Ednyfed Fychan, 13th century

seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

Llywelyn the Great Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and d ...

and ancestor to the

House of Tudor The House of Tudor was a royal house of largely Welsh and English origin that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd and Catherine of France. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and i ...

was granted the land and built a castle on the hill, of which all traces have disappeared, and a manor, Llys Euryn of which the ruins of its 15th-century reconstruction can be seen today.

Church of Llandrillo yn Rhos

Eglwys Sant Trillo, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, St Trillo, Rhos-on-Sea, Conwy 08.JPG Eglwys Sant Trillo, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, St Trillo, Rhos-on-Sea, Conwy 33.JPG Eglwys Sant Trillo, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, St Trillo, Rhos-on-Sea, Conwy 35.JPG Eglwys Sant Trillo, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, St Trillo, Rhos-on-Sea, Conwy 41.JPG Llandrillo yn Rhos Church was built on the site of Ednyfed Fychan's private chapel and incorporates what was his tombstone, the history of this church goes back to the 13th century, but having been rebuilt over the centuries, the oldest parts of the present church are 15th century. A major restoration was carried out in 1857 and was criticised by some for amounting to 'vandalism', in particular the destruction of an ancient

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most important historic buildings in

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...

. The stone lych-gate was built in 1677 and is one of the oldest in the district; the

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a fl ...

is from the early 18th century. The graveyard here contains the grave of Harold Lowe, an officer on the RMS ''Titanic''. He was widely regarded as a hero, helping many to safety with cool nerve and bravery. It also contains war graves of eight service personnel, two of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and six of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.
CWGC Cemetery Report. Breakdown obtained from casualty record.

Rhos Fynach

In 1186 Llywelyn the Great permitted the establishment of the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Sain ...

Aberconwy Abbey, and the monks built a fishing weir on the sea shore below Bryn Euryn. The place became known as Rhos Fynach, ''heath of the monks''. In a charter of 1230, Llywelyn sanctioned the purchase by Ednyfed Fychan of land at Rhos Fynach and in 1289, the abbey moved to Maenan (becoming Maenan Abbey), and the weir was ceded to Ednyfed's estate. Eventually Rhos Fynach and the weir came into the hands of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who in 1575 granted it to a Captain Morgan ap John ap David, a

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

, for services rendered against the enemies of Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

at sea. (This is not the famous pirate of the Caribbean Captain

Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morgan ( cy, Harri Morgan; – 25 August 1688) was a privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming ...

who lived in the century following). The weir continued to provide a prosperous livelihood through to the early 20th century: during a single night in 1850, 35,000

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Ocea ...

were caught, and 10 tons of

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

were removed in one tide as late as 1907. Because such weirs decimated inshore fish stocks,

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

banned them in 1861 unless it could be shown they pre-dated the

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor, on 15 June 1215. ...

, which the then owners, the Parry Evans family, were able to prove.Reid, Ian: "Rhos-on-Sea Heritage Trail".
BBC Wales North West website retrieved 7 August 2007. Their estate included Rhos Fynach house, also known as Rhos Farm, on the Promenade near St Trillo's Chapel. The house is now a pub and restaurant. Its date of construction is not known for sure, but it is considered to have been started by the Cistercians before the Dissolution of the Monasteries.Tucker, Norman (1967). "How Old is Rhos Fynach?" '' North Wales Weekly News'', 6 July 1967. The fishing weir fell into disuse during

and most traces have disappeared. Trial excavation of the site in 1993 recorded constructions carbon 14-dated between 1500 and 1660.

St Trillo's Chapel

The 6th-century St Trillo's Chapel ( cy, Capel Sant Trillo), which was the mother church of a large parish which included places as far apart as Eglwysbach and Eglwys Rhos (''Llan Rhos''). Rhos-on-Sea9172201

The chapel by the sea is on the site of a pre-Christian, sacred holy well; the

altar An altar is a Table (furniture), table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of wo ...

is built directly over the pure water of the well.

Saint Trillo In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

, the son of Ithel Hael from Llydaw (

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the na ...

) also founded a church at Llandrillo in

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnew ...

. Trillo's brother Tygai (Llandygai) founded a church near Penrhyn, Bangor; their sister Llechid founded a church (Llanllechid) in the uplands above Penrhyn.

Trams

The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway operated an electric tramway service between

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Pe ...

and Rhos-on-Sea from 1907 and extended to

in 1908. The service closed in 1956.

Other features

*Rhos-on-Sea also has the first permanent puppet theatre to be built in Britain, the Harlequin Puppet Theatre, which opened on 7 July 1958, when it won the Civic Trust Award for its design. Founders Eric Bramall and Chris Somerville have also created many puppet programmes for BBC children's television over a forty-year period. Many of the puppets created for these television series are now on display at the National Trust property of

Penrhyn Castle Penrhyn Castle ( cy, Castell Penrhyn) is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, constructed in the style of a Norman castle. The Penrhyn estate was founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In the 15th century his descendent Gwilym ap G ...

. * Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, the former Llandrillo Technical College *Ysgol Llandrillo yn Rhos, a mixed county primary day school *The

Society of St. Pius X The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) ( la, Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X; FSSPX) is an international fraternity of traditionalist Catholic priests founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a leading traditionalist voice at the Secon ...

operates its only chapel for Welsh Traditionalist Catholics in Rhos-on-Sea, in a renovated

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

church on Conwy Road.

Governance

The community boundaries are coterminous with the electoral ward of Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, which elects four county councillors to

Conwy County Borough Council Conwy County Borough Council ( cy, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is the local authority for Conwy County Borough, one of the principal areas of Wales. History Conwy County Borough was created in 1996 under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1 ...

. Rhos-on-Sea is also divided into two community wards, of Rhos and Dinarth. Rhos elects up to five councillors and Dinarth elects up to three councillors to the Bay of Colwyn Town Council (which was formed in 1996).

Sport

Colwyn Bay Cricket Club was founded in 1923 and started playing at Penrhyn Avenue, Rhos on Sea in 1924. Glamorgan Cricket has been hosted here since the 1960s.

Notable people

* Madog and claims for the discovery of America - According to legend, Madog ap

Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...

, a Welsh prince of

, sailed from here in 1170 and discovered

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

, over three hundred years before

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

's famous voyage in 1492. This event is recorded by a plaque on one of the properties on the sea-front. :This property was called "Odstone" at no. 179, Marine Drive which, as of June 2012, had become neglected. It was demolished as of September 2017. * David Jones and Rhos - The poet and visual artist David Jones visited Rhos-on-Sea in 1904 when he was 9. It was his first ever trip to Wales and it made an enormous impression on him. His father's family lived in Rhos, and the young Jones played with his cousins at St. Trillo's Chapel, and on Bryn Euryn. He also particularly loved the fishing weir just a few yards from St. Trillos. These were formative influences both on his writing and visual art. He wrote that this visit left 'an indelible mark on my soul'. :In 1937, after the death of his mother, Jones revisited Rhos. He found it a 'wilderness of villas and bungalows'. The fishing weir had gone (there remain a few stumps), and the chapel was now 'cleared and cared for', but it had 'lost half its numinous feeling'.David Jones:Engraver, Soldier Painter, Poet. Thomas Dilworth. Jonathan Cape 2017 p195. * Harold Lowe 5th officer of

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...

, is buried at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos churchyard * Thérèse Coffey MP Suffolk Coastal, 2010–present">Suffolk Coastal (UK Parliament constituency)">Suffolk Coastal, 2010–presentwas partly educated in Rhos-on-Sea * Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, author of ''Up to Mametz'', born 1890

References

:General reference :*Norman Tucker and Ivor Wynne Jones, ''Colwyn Bay, Its History Across the Years''

External links

The Official Site for Rhos On Sea

A Vision of Britain Through Time

British Listed Buildings

Geograph

Office for National Statistics

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhos-On-Sea Populated coastal places in Wales