G. JONES

Maenol Bangor : an ancient estate on the north-west fringe of Wales.

The oldest historical documents permitting a detailed insight into the ancient settlement structures of Gwynedd are the extents of surveys made in the years following the English conquest in the late thirteenth century. Among them were the extents of the estates of the Bishop of Bangor drawn up in 1306(1). These Bangor extents are much later in date than the charters in the Cartulary of Redon which enabled Pierre Flatrès to portray evocatively, for the ninth century, what he described as "les anciennes structures rurales de Bretagne" (2). Nevertheless the Bangor extents, since they are concerned with the estates of an enduring corporation on which old-established features are likely to have persisted, merit examination for the light they cast on ancient territorial organisation in Wales. Of none of these estates is this more true then for that of Bangor Fawr in Arfon (Great Bangor in Arfon) itself where, as tradition avers, a monastery was founded by Deiniol in the early part of the sixth century.

The structure of this Bangor estate, later known as the Lordship and Manor of Maenol Bangor was complex for as recorded in 1306 it comprised not only the viii (villa) of Bangor which included a borough (burgus), but also the 13 territorial units called "hamlets" within the wider area of Maenol Bangor (figure 1) (3). Together the viii, the borough and the hamlets appear to have covered an area of 6524 statute acres (2640 hectares), coterminous with the parish of Bangor, save that rights of common pasture were exercised to the south-east of Pentir on some 365 acres (158 hectares) of mountain (4).

As befits a Bishop's seat the headquarters of the estate was in the viii of Bangor in the area between the cathedral of St Deiniol and the parish church of Llanfair Garth Branan (5). Here stood the capital messuage or palace of the Bishop together with its garden and curtilage. Associated with this capital messuage there was an area of arable demesne land containing 17 bovates each probably made up of 7 7 statute acres (3 hectares), as well as one bovate of meadowland and a several pasture called "Gwernmarchey". This pasture lay probably at some distance to the west of Bangor proper and near Pen-y-wern (Head of the alder marsh). Other components of the viii likewise distanced from Bangor were the fishery with 2 weirs located on an island in the Menai Straits and, to the east of Bangor, the Bishop's water mill on the bank of the River Cegin (figure 1) (6).

Some of the arable demesne land was at Bangor proper but the total area of demesne recorded for the viii was surprisingly small because a borough (burgus) had already developed on two streets to the south of the cathedral (figure 1). By 1306 besides the capital messuage there were no less than 53 other messuages within the viii of Bangor. Among the revenues of the Bishop from his Bangor estate were the tolls of the viii and the tolls of the fair for, by prescription and thus already established usage, the Bishop enjoyed the right of holding a market on Sundays and a four day fair once a year. A contemporary list of tolls indicates that corn, honey, butter, livestock, hides, wool and cloth were all traded at Bangor (7). The inhabitants of the borough must therefore have included some traders although they are not identified as such in the extent of 1306. Among the tenants who, in return for their messuages owed rents and services to their lord, the Bishop, were some craftsmen, including a tailor, a shoemaker and two carpenters. There was also one physician with the title of magister, that is with a university degree. Four other masters were presumably clerics as perhaps was also the

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