The Visitor's Hand-Book for Holyhead / Comprising a History of the Town, the Antiquities and Sublime Scenery of the Mountain

by Thomas Jackson

THE CHURCH WALLS

Are considered a very perfect specimen of Roman architecture. The form is parallelogram, about 220 feet long, and about 130 broad; three of its sides consist of massive walls, 6 feet thick, and 17 in height; the fourth is open to the harbour, having only a low parapet laid on the precipitous cliffs. At the north-east angle is a circular bastion tower; and along the walls are two rows of circular holes, four inches in diameter, having the inside smoothly plastered. The cement, mixed with coarse pebbles, is extremely hard, and this, in conjunction with other circumstances, exhibits ancient marks of Roman masonry. The Church, altogether, will repay the time spent in its examination.

THE FILIAL REQUEST.

Beloved Holyhead, farewell!
Every object around thee is dear;
Thy promontory, and meadows, and dell,
Where I wandered for many a year.

But oft has the ocean’s blue wave
Flowed lately, commixt with my tears;
Since my Mother was laid in her grave,
Where yon hallowed turret appears.

Oh! Sexton remember the spot,
And lay me beside her cold bed
Whenever this body is brought
To sleep in belov’d Holyhead.

Holyhead is a place of great antiquity, situated at the western extremity of Anglesey, upon an island, or more properly a peninsula, which at high water becomes insulated, but still it forms part of the county of Anglesey. It is a seaport, market town, (market on Saturday) and contributory borough. About three miles from the town the Stanley Embankment crosses the sands, and an arm of the sea, connecting the Isle of Holyhead with the main land of Anglesey. This vast embankment is three quarters of a mile in length, and on an average 28 feet in height, with a bridge of one arch 19 feet span, under which the tide, compressed into a narrow compass, ebbs and flows with great force and velocity.

Here ocean rushes from her wide domains,
With distant roar salutes the sandy plains;
Now slow, serene, the placid currents creep,
Then backwards roll terrific to the deep.

Though Holyhead is not of large pretensions, and cannot fairly claim the picturesque scenery of some parts of the Principality, yet its history is pregnant with interest. There is an air of the nautical about the place, and, though near to some of the most uncultivated parts of Wales, it appears to possess an ideality of its own, and one differing materially from that of the surrounding country. It has been but little noticed by some excursionists, who have favoured the public, through the medium of the press, with the result of their wanderings; although they have written largely and excellently on the Principality, they have scarcely thought it worth their notice to pay a passing tribute to this ancient place. Indeed, the Island of Anglesey, which has to be traversed in order to reach it, is flat and uninteresting. This circumstance, has, doubtless, had the effect of deterring many persons from visiting this place, and contemplating the grand marine views around it.

Mr. Walpole, whose splendid work appeared in 1784, makes the following remark on Holyhead:—“The village consists of a straggling confused heap of thatched houses built on rocks.” The Rev. R. Warner, who wrote his interesting and learned work on North Wales, in 1798, merely observes, “The parish of Holyhead reckons a population of about 2000.” Mr. Bingley, in his instructive volume, gives us some half-dozen lines on the place; but Mr. Aiken, and several others have not so much as named it. From what they had heard and read, they concluded that the insignificant village possessed but few events at all worthy of being recorded, and those few not of the most interesting nature. They, therefore, refused

To strike their harps amid the cheerless gloom.

Such was Holyhead a few years ago. At that time there was no harbour for her vessels, but what the rude hand of Nature had formed—no lighthouse streaming in the midnight gloom—no telegraph to announce to distant parties what vessels heaved in sight—no railway train gliding swiftly and smoothly along the iron-road—no joyous excursionists pouring in by thousands, paying their respects to the natives, beneath the shining of a Summer’s sun—no coachman with his sounding horn—no spirit for commercial enterprise—no Bible Society—no Missionary Society—no schools to “teach the young idea how to shoot”—no Saving’s Bank—no Libraries—no Mechanic’s Institute. It could not boast, like other towns, of advance in trade, or commercial prosperity. It had rather to hang its harp upon the willows, and wonder why all the mighty advantages that Nature had lavished on its transcendently lovely Bay, had been so long comparatively overlooked.

The present century rose on Holyhead like a sun in smiles. Her growth to importance has taken place within the last half century; the time of her visitation had dawned, her set time was come; the tide of her future prosperity sprung auspiciously; the sympathies of England were turned towards her—the wealth of England was expended on her—and the experience, science, industry, and enterprise of England were put forth on her behalf. The erection of South Stack Lighthouse in 1808, the commencement of the Pier, with its Harbour, Graving Dock, and Lighthouse in 1810, the Government establishment, and the completion of the great Parliamentary road, gave a commercial impulse to the place, and materially contributed to attract and support a thriving population.

The commencement of the Breakwater, or New Harbour, and the Chester and Holyhead Railway, sounded the tocsin aloud for the advancement of Holyhead; and the advantage was taken by the spirited inhabitants in a manner which did them credit. Within the last four years, in particular, it has rapidly increased in extent and improved in appearance: streets and public edifices, large and well built, seem to have started into existence as by the enchantment of some mighty magician; almost everything is new, and everything wonderfully improved, affording ample accommodation of every kind for the numerous visitors who may do themselves the honour of reposing within its precincts. The town is rapidly rising to that respectability and celebrity to which the salubrity of its air, its rich and varied prospects, by land and sea, so justly entitle it; but like most other places in a transition state, it exhibits a motley mixture of old and new houses. The important conveyances, vehicles to all parts of the country, the railway, and steamers, to and from Ireland daily, bestow on it a charm which it is in vain to look for in any other spot in the Principality.

There are places of worship, exclusive of the parish Church, for Independents, Baptists, Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. There are two Public Schools, conducted respectively upon the National and British plan; and an Infant School, under the auspices of the Independents. The British School was erected in 1848, on land given by the late Lord Stanley, of Alderley, and the Hon. W. O. Stanley, of Penrhos. A Mechanics’ Institute has been established—a new Church and Cemetery are in contemplation—a Gas Company is formed—accommodations for bathing are “looming in the future.” Indeed, although the writer is not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, yet he will venture to divine that, a few years hence, there will be a convenient Market-place—water will be brought to every roan’s door—gas, one of the greatest desiderata in the march of improvement, will illumine our streets, and other improvements necessary and desirable for the sanitary condition of the town, will follow in the wake, and Holyhead will be raised to that position which she is designed to occupy.

We trust the sun of Holyhead’s hope has at length arisen; may it be the beginning of a bright and prosperous day, not only in a commercial point of view, but in a moral aspect, for with increasing shipping, trade, population, &c., will Christian responsibility increase also; and benevolent efforts to meet the multiplied demand, we trust, will not be found wanting.