IT was sometime during the Xlth century, or beginning of the Xllth, that Dolgelley was probably inhabited for the first time, save for a casual dweller or two. It was a "serf" village from the start, therein differing from Llanelltyd, which was a "free" village. The difference between them will be noted later.
During the childhood of Gruffydd ap Cynan, the very famous usurper prince, Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, had carved out a domain for himself in Powys, which then included some of the country round Cader Idris; and when he died, this part of his dominions fell to the share of one of his sons, Cadwgan.
Cadwgan made a home for himself at Nannau; but Nannau then meant, not simply the house and park which bears the name to-day, but practically the whole of the parishes of Llanelltyd and LIanfachreth. The latter names were confined, more or less) to the sanctuary areas of the churches, the country around being termed Nannau. When and how the names of the churches were extended to the parishes it is difficult to say) and it is useless to speculate. The name " Nannau" is, however, still sometimes applied to the whole area originally covered by that title.
Cadwgan himself resided at Nannau for a very short time, as he spent a good deal of his life being hunted about from pillar to post, until he met with an inglorious death at Welshpool in 1111 A.D.
He was a man of little strength of character, and could not keep in check the amorous tendencies of his son, Owain, who brought many disasters upon Wales.
Nest, the heroine of the episode which forms the main feature of Owain's life, has frequently been called the Helen of Wales; but there is nothing to show that any part of that strange love-story was enacted in the neighbourhood of Dolgelley. Hence we must pass the great romance by, unnoticed.
Cadwgan appears to have been the re-founder, after St. Illtyd, of Llanelltyd, and the founder also of Dolgelley. The former was populated sparsely by "free" followers and relatives of his, scattered about the extensive area of Nannau with a small colony of serfs at Llanfachreth.
He was thrice married, and under the influence of his wife, he made a grant to her brother, Uchtryd, of a good deal of land in the neighbourhood of Dolgelley and Llanelltyd ; and it seems that it was at that time that he, or possibly Uchtryd, founded Dolgelley as a "serf" village.
Its site is of some interest; for it nestles in a bend, like an elbow-joint, where the Aran flows into the Wnion. It was thus protected on two sides by the little rivers, and no doubt on the third side by the swampy nature of the ground. Care was taken that culturable land was not occupied by habitations) for culturable land was scarce, and serfs settled down where they were told to settle, near to the land they had to cultivate.
Free villages were never or rarely so built; partly because free men did not congregate together in villages, but built homesteads for themselves where ever they liked; partly because cultivation played but a small part in their life, and perhaps still more because their idea of fighting, which was one of their main interests in life, was not to stand on the defensive, but to attack.
During Uchtrud's time. in the year 1107 A.D . a descent was made on the country by two chieftains, Owain and Madog, coming over Bwlch Oerddrws,and a battle ensued somewhere round about Dolgelley, between their forces and those of Uchtryd.
Two accounts exist of this invasion, each claiming victory for a different side; but as Uchtryd continued to hold sway in the land, it seems as if it fell to him, or as if it were a drawn battle. At any rate, both accounts agree that there was a terrible devastation of the countryside, all the houses and corn being burnt and the cattle slain. Uchtryd received the grant, made by Cadwgan, as a subordinate chief, and he swore homage and loyalty to his brother-in-law. He proceeded to build a small castle for himself on a hillock near the later built abbey of Cymmer. The exact site of it has not been definitely established; but there seems every likelihood that it was on the little rounded knoll, a little below Pentre Farm, on which a few trees stand to-day) slightly to the right of the road leading from the main road to the Abbey.
The castle, which was known as Castell Cymmer, was a rough kind of building, made of wood, with a strong moat in front of it; and, having made it, Uchtryd determined to break his vow of homage and to make himself independent lord of the territory round about.
This was too much for Einion, a son of Cadwgan, and his cousin Gruffydd; so they swept down on the country in 1116, attacked and utterly destroyed the castle, which was never re-built, causing Uchtryd to take refuge with the Normans at Chester, to whom he thenceforth attached himself. Einion, after this victory, ruled over the neighbourhood for some seven years, living mainly at Nannau, but, on his death about 1123, disputes arose among his kinsmen as to who should succeed him. The event was decided in a way displeasing to all of them, for Gruffydd ap Cynan sent his sons, Cadwaladr and Owain Gwynedd into the land.
They carried off a fair proportion
of the population into the Lleyn and Ardudwy, and annexed the country
up to Bala as an integral part of their own dominions. Members
of the family of Cadwgan were left in possession of some of their
estates, and their descendants have been living at Nannau and
elsewhere in the neighbourhood ever since; but they ceased to be, or
to claim to be, lords of western Merioneth altogether thereafter, and
the neighbourhood of Dolgelley and Llanelltyd continued to form part
of Gwynedd until the death of the last Llywelyn.
It has been
mentioned that Dolgelley was founded about this time as a "serf"
or " unfree" village , while Llanelltyd was a free village,
and some explanation of these terms is perhaps needed here, to
understand how the ordinary people of the land lived.
In ancient Wales the population was divided into "free" and "unfree." The former were the "clansmen" proper, and every free individual belonged to a clan. Whatever territory the clan held, was held, not by individuals within it, but by the clan as a whole, individuals having the right if they wanted to, to cultivate portions of the joint land, without acquiring any exclusive right in it unless they continued to cultivate without interruption for four generations, after which they acquired the right to sole possession of that plot.
They were, however, not great cultivators, but graziers of flocks and herds, huntsmen and fishermen, for the land was full of deer and the rivers full of fish, which the clansmen were at liberty to hunt and to take as they willed. They roamed about the hillsides, wherever they chose, grazing, hunting and fishing anywhere they liked within the lands of the clan. They built for themselves huts of wood, wattled over, and the summer they passed on the uplands in "hafodydd" or summer-farms, and in the winter they came down into the valleys.
Each clan had a head, and to him every member owed obedience; and besides that, the clan, as a whole, performed certain duties to the lord or king, chief of which was the duty of military service, paying besides certain dues of a not very onerous type.
These dues consisted largely in the furnishing of a stated amount of supplies for the use of the prince when on tour in the countryside. The features of this social system were the communal tie of duties and rights existing among members of the clan-for duties and rights were co-extensive, and there was no right incidental to freedom which had not got its corresponding duty-the interdependence of clansmen one upon the other; the absolute freedom to move about at will or to follow whatever pursuits each one desired to follow; the perfect protection of each individual by his fellows, and the mutual responsibility of the clans-men for each other's proper behaviour, both within the clan, and outside it to the community at large. A free community of this sort was in possession of Llanelltyd.
The "unfree" were organised in various different ways. All of them were bound to the soil, and must cultivate the land of the unfree village in which they were born, and they could never leave that village. There were various grades of unfree villagers, but at the bottom were those called "maerdrefs," among which Dolgelley ranked.
The occupants of Dolgelley cultivated a portion of the land for the benefit of the immediate lord; being permitted to cultivate the rest for their own use. Their duties were ascribed to them, and regulated for them by an official, known as the "land-maer," and, in addition, they were liable to furnish supplies and perform fixed labour services, like carrying millstones for the local mil!, or acting as carriers of goods when required to do so. What these exact duties were, a couple or more centuries later, will be mentioned further on.
The greater portion of the people of Merioneth were " free," about three-quarters of them, but it is of interest to find both free and unfree communities living close to one another in this valley.
So they continued until, in the reign of Henry VII., the distinction was abolished, and henceforth all holders of land paid rents instead of services. At least they were supposed to do so, but actually we find some residents of Dolgelley rendering services as late as the XVIIIth century.
Gruffydd ap Cynan,, who we have noted died in1137 A.D., was succeeded by his equally great son, Owain Gwynedd, one of the two brothers who had wrested the lordship of the neighbourhood from the descendants of Cadwgan. Owain Gwynedd ruled for 33 years, dying in 1170 A.D, Throughout his life there was peace in the land, only once disturbed, when Owain passed through with his troops to face Henry II. at Corwen, force him to retreat, and practically annihilate the invader at Glyn Ceiriog.
With the death of Owain Gwynedd, the power of the princes of Gwynedd decayed for a while until the rise of Llywelyn ap lorwerth, his grandson; and, in the meantime, Dolgelley and Llanelltyd formed part of the territories of two other grandsons of his, Gruffydd and Maredudd.
During their time the famous Giraldus Cambrensis toured through Wales, and, in the course of that tour, he crossed the Mawddach in the neighbourhood of Llanelltyd, finding a ford there with some difficulty. The rugged nature of the country impressed him greatly, for he wrote a passage about it, which has often been quoted, and ascribed to many different people :-
“It is the rudest and roughest district of all Wales; the ridges of its mountains are very high and narrow, terminating in sharp peaks, and so irregularly jumbled together that, if the shepherds, conversing or disputing with each other from their, summits, should agree to meet, they could scarcely effect their purpose in the course of the whole day."
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