Gwynedd Archaeological Trust

Ymddiriedolaeth Archaeolegol Gwynedd

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The Menai Straits 2000 years of history

The main Porthaethwy Ferry operated from a pier 175m north-east of Ynys y Moch, the small island on which the main pier of the suspension bridge on the Anglesey side now stands. The point of embarkation and disembarkation on the mainland was a rocky shelf on the shoreline below the nineteenth-century house, Bodlondeb. The crossing involved, from the mainland, a westerly traverse of 300m.

At this time the revenue of the ferry was still divided between the Crown and private interests. During the first half of the sixteenth century, however, this distinction was removed and all the royal interests in the ferries were combined in one lease.

In 1594 John Williams, brother of Hugh Williams of Cleifiog, Anglesey, was granted a reversionary lease in the ferries and in time, through various grants and transfers, the operation of the Porthaethwy Ferry passed into the hands of the Williams family in perpetuity.

One of the family, Coningsby Williams, petitioned in 1687 for a licence to build a house for ferrymen on Porthaethwy Common - there was none on the Anglesey shore. This house still stands, as the oldest building in Menai Bridge. It was called the ‘Three Tuns’ during the time of the ferry and later commonly known as the Cambria. It stands on a terrace in the rising ground up from the shoreline, some 50m west of the landing place.

The landing place is marked by a substantial stone pier which follows the slope of the shoreline to the low water mark, providing access at high and low water slack. The approach to the ferry house was up a rocky slope above the pier. This access is still in use as a footpath marked by a flight of modern concrete steps. By the early nineteenth century a small cluster of buildings had accumulated near the ferry, mostly built to serve the ferries and stables.

In the late seventeenth century the Bishop of Bangor established a cattle fair on the Caernarfonshire side, at Borth. By a process undocumented, the authority of the Bishop extended to cattle sales on the Anglesey side too.