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Aberaeron, a
charming Regency Town
Aberaeron,
just seven miles from New Quay is a charming regency town, and with its
multi coloured houses, attractive harbour, Hotels, B&B and
self-catering Holiday Cottages it has much to offer the visitor.
Centrally located on Cardigan Bay, Aberaeron is close to Aberystwyth
and Cardigan towns, while Lampeter and Tregaron are a short drive
inland through the beautiful Aeron Valley, much loved by the
poet Dylan Thomas who lived locally for a while.
At the mouth of the
Aeron River, Aberaeron has been built on a level area between the
mountains and the sea formed during the last ice-age 10,000 years ago.
It was the site in the 12th century of a medieval fort described by
Samuel Lewis in 1833 as "On the sea-shore, near the village, is a
circular encampment, designated Castell Cadwgan, and supposed to have
been constructed by Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, about 1148."
Aberaeron is a rare example of a
town in Wales that was planned from the outset. The town as we know it
today began in 1807 when the Rev Alban Thomas-Jones Gwynne obtained a
private Act of Parliament to rebuild the harbour. Subsequently the town
was planned in the regency style around a large open square - named
Alban Square (full details on our 'History
of Aberaeron'
page).
In
the nineteenth century Aberaeron was a thriving port. Samuel Lewis
writes in 1833: 'The port is......in a thriving state. There
are from
thirty to forty sloops belonging to it, of from seventeen to one
hundred tons' burthen, which are navigated by about 120 seamen: they
are chiefly employed in the importation of coal and culm, and two of
them trade regularly with Bristol. The principal articles of
importation, in addition, are grocery and timber; and of exportation,
butter and oats: there is also a lucrative herring fishery, in which
about thirty boats, with seven men to each, are engaged.'
Each
year in August, Aberaeron holds the
The Aberaeron Festival of Welsh Cobs and Ponies. Nearby Llanarth
produced many famous Welsh
cobs, including Llanarth Meteor, Llanarth Rhys and Llanarth Comet. Now
the stud has closed, descendants of these ponies are found worldwide.
In 2005, a life-size bronze statue of a Welsh Cob was donated to the
town by the Aberaeron Festival of Welsh Cobs and Ponies to denote the
area as 'Welsh Cob Country'.
The
Aberaeron Town Trail was established in 2007 during the
bicentennial celebrations - 200 years since the Act of Parliament to
create the new harbour. Twenty two notable locations within the town
were chosen, and each was given a commemorative bronze plaque in the
shape of the 'Aberaeron shovel' a shovel produced in the forge of the
Davies family from the 1850s until the 1930s. Click
here to visit our 'Town Trail' page.
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