Porthdinllaen Harbour Company Records

Records of Porthdinllaen Harbour Company, comprising correspondence, Acts of Parliament, notes and plans regarding the building of the harbour and railway lines, 1806-1911.

In May 1806, a parliamentary bill approved new buildings and a pier at Porthdinllaen, Llŷn, Caernarfonshire. This speculative investment was made when it seemed that Porthdinllaen would be chosen over Holyhead, Anglesey, as the route to Ireland. Porthdinllaen Harbour Company was formed in 1808. But the bill before Parliament to constitute Porthdinllaen as a harbour for Irish trade was rejected in 1810. In 1830, local ship owners suggested to the Jones Parry family of the Madryn estate, the owners of the port at the time, a bigger pier, so they could introduce new steamers but it was ignored. In 1832, they carried on regardless. In later years traffic grew that locals talked about a railway being constructed to Porthdinllaen. In 1830, Samuel Holland, a slate quarry owner at Rhiw, joined Henry Archer, a businessman from Dublin, to promote the Festiniog Railway, incorporated by Act of Parliament on 23 May 1832. Worcester and Porth-Dynllaen Railway informed the Rev. T. Parry Jones Parry of an application to Parliament of a railway track from Worcester to Porthdinllaen in 1845. The North Wales Railway Co. also planned to construct 28 miles of track from Bangor to Porthdinllaen. The Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway Company wanted to construct a line from Aberystwyth to Porthdinllaen in 1860. In 1865, the Jones Parry family were concerned of the building of railway lines to Porthdinllaen. Thomas Parry Jones Parry of Madryn was one of the shareholders. In 1877, the Cambrian Railways Act revived the powers conferred by the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway Act 1862 for a railway to Porthdinlleyn Harbour. In 1884, an Act of Parliament authorized the construction of a railway from Pwllheli to Porthdinlleyn. Corbet Yale Jones-Parry was a shareholder in the Porthdinllaen Harbour Company in 1908.

Original order maintained.

No restrictiopns.

Compiled by Seri Crawley for the ANW project. The following sources were used to compile this description: Caernarfon Record Office, Catalogue of the Porthdinllaen Harbour Company Records; Porthdinllaen (www.rhiw.com), (www.penllyn.com) viewed 23rd September 2004.

Hard copies of the catalogue are available in Caernarfon Record Office, the National Library of Wales and the National Register of Archives.

Usual copyright laws apply.

All records deposited at Caernarvon Record Office have been retained.

These papers were once kept at the Veelas and Cefnamwlch Estate Office at Rhydyereua, Betws-y-Coed.

Accruals are not expected.