Pwllheli | |
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Housing near Pwllheli town centre |
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Pwllheli shown within Gwynedd | |
Population | 4,076 (2011) |
OS grid reference | SH374350 |
Community |
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Principal area | |
Ceremonial county | |
Country | Wales |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | PWLLHELI |
Postcode district | LL53 |
Dialling code | 01758 |
Police | North Wales |
Fire | North Wales |
Ambulance | Welsh |
EU Parliament | Wales |
UK Parliament | |
Welsh Assembly | |
Pwllheli (Welsh pronunciation: [pʊɬˈhɛlɪ]) is a community and the main market town of the Llŷn Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Llŷn) in Gwynedd, north-western Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011 of whom a large proportion, 81 per cent, are Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru was founded. It is the birthplace of the Welsh poet Sir Albert Evans-Jones (bardic name Cynan).
The town's name means salt water basin.
The town was given its charter as a borough by Edward, the Black Prince in 1355, and a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on 'Y Maes' (="the field" or "the town square" in English).
The town grew around the shipbuilding and fishing industries, and the granite quarry at Gimlet Rock (Welsh: Carreg yr Imbill).
During the 1890s, the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a Cardiff businessman. This work included the Promenade, roads and houses at West End. A tramway was built linking the town to Llanbedrog. The trams ran until 1927 when the section of track between Carreg-y-Defaid and Tyddyn-Caled was seriously damaged by a storm. Andrews ran the Cardiff Road section in 1928, and offered to sell the tramway to Pwllheli Corporation at the end of the season, but they did not take up his offer. He then sold the assets, and the Corporation removed the tracks during the winter of 1928/29.