The History of Porth Daniel and the surrounding area
Menai Bridge is a small town with an array of shops and pubs, with something of a maritime history. Perhaps best viewed from the mainland (or indeed the water), where you see the town as returning sailors would have seen it in the past; clusters of terraced cottages rising from the waterfront backed by the larger houses built for wealthy ship owners.
Of course the town's crowning glory is the Menai Suspension Bridge itself, this magnificent feat of engineering by Thomas Telford in 1826 put an end to the local ferry services which until then had been Anglesey's only link with the mainland.
Immortalised in countless paintings and photographs, the bridge, with its unsurpassable backdrop of the Snowdonia mountain range is indeed Stunning.
Entering the town from the suspension bridge, the road ahead from the first roundabout passes the Anglesey Arms (1830) and on a grassy hillock, Saint Mary’s Church (1858). The site of the former cattle market is now occupied by a supermarket.
A turn towards Beaumaris from the roundabout leads past the Victoria Hotel (1852). The English Presbyterian church next to the hotel was built in 1888; its spire looks rather like the minaret of a Turkish mosque.
In the centre of town, shops that have supplied the neighbourhood since Victorian times cluster around Uxbridge Square. Narrow streets lead down to the waterfront, and, until the bridge was built, ferries operated from here.
The timber yard by PorthDaniel was in use as early as 1828, and it was owned by the Davies family of Treborth, whose ships exported slates and carried emigrants far from the poverty of Wales; timber provided ballast for the return voyages.
In later times, paddle steamers from Liverpool tied up alongside St George’s Pier, which today is the berth for Bangor University’s ocean sciences research vessel Prince Madog.
The town’s longest standing annual event - Menai Bridge fair - dates back to 1691, well before the building of the bridge. Towards the end of October each year, a market and funfair still takes over the whole town, to continue this 300 year old tradition."
[Source: http://www.angleseyheritage.org]
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