First Porthmerion the series "The Prisoner" was filmed here...I remember watching that series.
The Village was created and built by Clough Williams-Ellis
He was an influential advocate of the establishment of National Parks in England and Wales and was responsible for the demarcation of Snowdonia National Park’s boundary which he presented to King George and Queen Elizabeth in 1951. He built for clients in Wales, England and Ireland and even once in Shanghai. His contribution to architecture has been considerable, although critics excessively sympathetic to modernism tended to ignore his achievements.
The Prisoner
Patrick McGoohan not only starred as Number Six, the leading role in The Prisoner, he was also the creator and driving force behind the 17 episode series. The series was financed by ITC Entertainment with David Tomblin as the Producer and George Markstein as script editor. Many well known actors had guest roles in the series: Leo McKern, Peter Bowles, Eric Portman, Patrick Cargill, Mary Morris, Paul Eddington and Donald Sinden to name but a few. It was probably one of the most influential pieces of televison of the 1960s not only in the UK and USA but also in France, Australia and many other countries. Even The Beatles were fans. Its cult status was confirmed with the establishment in the 1970s of the official Prisoner Appreciation Society.There is no escape. The prisoners have had all desire to escape taken away, either by their purposeless existence, brainwashing or surgery. Number 6 is the only one with the will to escape, the one who refuses to be broken: "I am not a number; I am a free man".
Our Hosts
it will never float
The Hotel £285 per night
local church-prime view of the ocean
log with all sorts of coins hammered in
yes we left one also.
History
A Brief History
The first historical reference to Portmeirion was by Gerald of Wales in 1188: "We crossed the Traeth Mawr and the Traeth Bychan. These are two arms of the sea, one large and one small. Two stone castles have been built there recently. The one called Castell Deudraeth belongs to the sons of Cynan and is situated in the Eifionydd area, facing the northern Mountains.”. The castle of Aber Iau is mentioned by Edward Lhuyd in Parochalia II (1700). Aber Iâ had a foundry, small shipyard and a few cottages. In 1814 its most infamous inhabitant, yr Hwntw Mawr, was publicly hanged in Dolgellau for the murder of a local maid. However by the 1850s gentrification had set in. In 1861 Richard Richards wrote a description: "Neither man nor woman was there, only a number of foreign water-fowl on a tiny pond, and two monkeys, which by their cries evidently regarded me as an unwelcome intruder. The garden itself was a very fine one, the walls of which were netted all over with fruit trees...Aberia, then, gentle reader, is a beautiful mansion on the shore of Traeth Bach, in Merionethshire." (Pen & Ink Sketches)
Clough acquired the site in 1925 for something under £5,000. It was then, as Clough wrote, "a neglected wilderness - long abandoned by those romantics who had realised the unique appeal and possibilities of this favoured promontory but who had been carried away by their grandiose landscaping...into sorrowful bankruptcy." Clough immediately changed the name from Aber Iâ (Glacial Estuary) to Portmeirion: Port because of the coastal location and Meirion as this is Welsh for Merioneth, the county in which it lay. The first article about Portmeirion appeared in The Architects Journal (January 6 1926) with photographs of scale models (above) and preliminary designs prepared by Clough to impress potential investors. In this article John Rothenstein writes: "On the sea-coast of North Wales, quite near his own old home, Plas Brondanw, he has acquired what he believes to be an ideal site, and he is engaged upon plans and models for the laying out of an entire small township. The results of his scheme will be significant and should do much to shake the current notion that although houses must be designed with due care, towns may grow up by chance."
The concept of a tightly grouped coastal village had already formed in Clough's mind some years before he found the perfect site. Clough sometimes later suggested the development was unplanned but these drawings and models suggest otherwise. It appears that he had quite a well defined vision for the village from the outset and that to a large extent he stuck to it. Portmeirion was built in two stages: from 1925 to 1939 the site was ‘pegged-out’ and its most distinctive buildings were erected. From 1954-76 he filled in the details. The second period was typically classical or Palladian in style in contrast to the Arts and Crafts style of his earlier work. Several buildings were salvaged from demolition sites, giving rise to Clough’s description of the place as “a home for fallen buildings”.
“An architect has strange pleasures,” he wrote in 1924. “He will lie awake listening to the storm in the night and think how the rain is beating on his roofs, he will see the sun return and will think that it was for just such sunshine that his shadow-throwing mouldings were made.” His last building, the tollgate was built in his 93rd year. Portmeirion gave Clough pleasure during his life and he hoped that it would give pleasure to others. His motto was “Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct for the Future.” He fought for beauty, “that strange necessity”.
AA tireless campaigner for the environment Clough was a founder member of both the Council for the Protection of Rural England in 1926 and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales in 1928 (and of which he was president for twenty years). He was an advocate of rural preservation, amenity planning, industrial design and colourful architecture.
The first historical reference to Portmeirion was by Gerald of Wales in 1188: "We crossed the Traeth Mawr and the Traeth Bychan. These are two arms of the sea, one large and one small. Two stone castles have been built there recently. The one called Castell Deudraeth belongs to the sons of Cynan and is situated in the Eifionydd area, facing the northern Mountains.”. The castle of Aber Iau is mentioned by Edward Lhuyd in Parochalia II (1700). Aber Iâ had a foundry, small shipyard and a few cottages. In 1814 its most infamous inhabitant, yr Hwntw Mawr, was publicly hanged in Dolgellau for the murder of a local maid. However by the 1850s gentrification had set in. In 1861 Richard Richards wrote a description: "Neither man nor woman was there, only a number of foreign water-fowl on a tiny pond, and two monkeys, which by their cries evidently regarded me as an unwelcome intruder. The garden itself was a very fine one, the walls of which were netted all over with fruit trees...Aberia, then, gentle reader, is a beautiful mansion on the shore of Traeth Bach, in Merionethshire." (Pen & Ink Sketches)Clough acquired the site in 1925 for something under £5,000. It was then, as Clough wrote, "a neglected wilderness - long abandoned by those romantics who had realised the unique appeal and possibilities of this favoured promontory but who had been carried away by their grandiose landscaping...into sorrowful bankruptcy." Clough immediately changed the name from Aber Iâ (Glacial Estuary) to Portmeirion: Port because of the coastal location and Meirion as this is Welsh for Merioneth, the county in which it lay. The first article about Portmeirion appeared in The Architects Journal (January 6 1926) with photographs of scale models (above) and preliminary designs prepared by Clough to impress potential investors. In this article John Rothenstein writes: "On the sea-coast of North Wales, quite near his own old home, Plas Brondanw, he has acquired what he believes to be an ideal site, and he is engaged upon plans and models for the laying out of an entire small township. The results of his scheme will be significant and should do much to shake the current notion that although houses must be designed with due care, towns may grow up by chance."The concept of a tightly grouped coastal village had already formed in Clough's mind some years before he found the perfect site. Clough sometimes later suggested the development was unplanned but these drawings and models suggest otherwise. It appears that he had quite a well defined vision for the village from the outset and that to a large extent he stuck to it. Portmeirion was built in two stages: from 1925 to 1939 the site was ‘pegged-out’ and its most distinctive buildings were erected. From 1954-76 he filled in the details. The second period was typically classical or Palladian in style in contrast to the Arts and Crafts style of his earlier work. Several buildings were salvaged from demolition sites, giving rise to Clough’s description of the place as “a home for fallen buildings”. “An architect has strange pleasures,” he wrote in 1924. “He will lie awake listening to the storm in the night and think how the rain is beating on his roofs, he will see the sun return and will think that it was for just such sunshine that his shadow-throwing mouldings were made.” His last building, the tollgate was built in his 93rd year. Portmeirion gave Clough pleasure during his life and he hoped that it would give pleasure to others. His motto was “Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct for the Future.” He fought for beauty, “that strange necessity”.AA tireless campaigner for the environment Clough was a founder member of both the Council for the Protection of Rural England in 1926 and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales in 1928 (and of which he was president for twenty years). He was an advocate of rural preservation, amenity planning, industrial design and colourful architecture.
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