Welsh Journals

like the other westward flowing streams of Southern Ceredigion, cas- cades into a waterfall before it enters the gorge of Cwm Lladron. On the platform above the waterfalls there was once a small hamlet and the stream provided power for driving a water mill for grinding corn until the nineteen twenties. The small building on the right hand side of the road as you enter the car park was the kiln (yr odyn) for drying corn while on the left hand side an enclosed space was utilised for herding stray animals (y llan). The farmhouse at Llanborth built around 1860 replaced a substantial mansion of considerable import- ance that dated back to at least the Middle Ages. The Sea It is difficult to imagine in the tranquility of Penbryn Beach today, that in the past the beach was a centre of considerable commercial activity. In the days before efficient roads were built and before the railway arrived in West Wales, the inhabitants of Southern Cere- digion tended to look outwards to the open sea rather than inland to the hills of Wales. Transport by sea was by far the most efficient means of carrying goods and people to and from this isolated comer of Wales and from the Middle Ages until the last century, Penbryn Beach was the scene of considerable maritime activity. Even after the disappear- ance of trading vessels from Penbryn, the seafaring tradition amongst the people that lived nearby still lived on and found expression in all quarters of the globe. Under Queen Elizabeth I, strong measures were taken to suppress the piracy off the coasts of Wales and this led to a careful survey of ports, creeks and landing places in Wales. In 1565 the Royal Com- mission appointed to carry out this survey on behalf of the Privy Council noted that Cardigan Bay possessed no ships barks or vessels, but certain fisher boats of the burthen of 4 or 5 tons at the most, and these maintained by poor fishermen for the only use and exercise of fishing.' Undoubtedly the mariners of Cardigan Bay at that time were part-time fishermen, part-time farmers who rarely ventured from the sight of land. The principal fish caught was the herring and it is said that vast shoals of this fish came close to the shores annually. Indeed so many fish were caught by the men of Southern Ceredigion that huge quantities of salted or smoked herring were exported to other countries, principally Ireland. Ships, most of them Irish, began to visit the area, not only to transport the harvest of the sea but also to bring in nets for herring catching, casks for salting the catch and boats but most important of all, salt for preservation. The port of Cardigan that was to develop into the most important of all Welsh ports in the eighteenth century also administered landing creeks at Aber-porth and Penbryn. The Penbryn creek was in the charge of a yeoman farmer