Carnarvon

Carnarvon, a market town and municipal borough, and the county town of Carnarvonshire, north Wales, 68½ m. W. of Chester by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 9760. It stands very nearly on the site of Caer Seint, capital of the Segontiaci, and was fortified in 1098 by Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, after Roman occupation, a fort, baths and villa, with coins and pottery, having been exhumed here. As the castle was begun only in 1284, Edward II., supposed to have been born in its Eagle Tower on the extreme west, can only have been born outside. The castle is an irregular oblong building on the west of the town, surrounded by walls and having thirteen polygonal towers. There is still much of the town wall extant. The parish church (Llanbeblig) is some half-mile out of the town, the institutions of which include a town and county hall, a training college, and a gaol for Anglesey and Carnarvonshire jointly. Manufactures in the town are scanty, but Llanberis and Llanllyfni export hence slates, “sets” and copper ore. A steam ferry unites Carnarvon and Tan y foel, Anglesey, while a summer service of steamers runs to Menai Bridge, Bardsey, &c. The borough forms part of a district returning a member to parliament since 1536. To this district the Reform Act added Bangor. The county quarter sessions and assizes are held in the town, which has a separate commission of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. Three weekly Welsh (besides English) newspapers are published here.