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2009

The Lavan sands may would have looked a lot different than it does now if the proposed barrier had been built across the Menai straights (later a wooden bridge). A considerable portion of the bay is left dry when the tide is out. This tract, which extends for several miles along the coast, is called the Lavan sands, and is supposed to have been inhabited, prior to its being inundated by an encroachment of the sea, in the sixth century. Its ancient name, Traeth Lavan, or Traeth Wylovain, of which the present is a contraction, signifies "the place of weeping," and seems to have reference to the lamentations of the inhabitants when their lands were overwhelmed. Over these sands ply’s a ferry to Beaumaris from Aber, a distance of four and half miles of which four miles are fine sands. The ferry originally belonged to the crown; and in the reign of Edward II., an order was given to Robert Power, chamberlain of North Wales, to inspect the state of the boat, which was then out of repair, and either to repair it, if practicable, at the expense of the bailiwick, or to build a new boat, at the expense of the king. It appears that the inhabitants paid annually into the Exchequer the sum of thirty shillings, for the privilege of this ferry, which was granted to the corporation by charter of Elizabeth 1st, in the fourth year of her reign. The sands, at low water, are firm, and safely passable on foot; but during certain intervals of the tides, they are extremely hazardous, and consequently great precaution is necessary. The passage may be effected in the interval between two hours before, and two hours after, low water; at other times it is attended with difficulty and danger, and several persons have perished in the attempt. During foggy weather, the great bell of Aber is rung to direct passengers to the point of their destination, from which they would be otherwise in danger of wandering. Of the pre-Conquest ferries that of the Conway (shifted, perhaps, a little upstream to come under the shadow of Edward I.'s new castle) was taken over by the Crown with the other appurtenances of the Welsh princes, and leased to a succession of farmers. The Llanfaes ferry was similarly annexed, and vested, virtually as a perpetual tenancy, in the burgesses of the new borough of Beaumaris, in whose custody it remained until it ceased to operate (after a century of steadily dwindling traffic) in 1830. In this case there appears to have been no change of location until, after some 400 years, the Anglesey landing place was shifted from Beaumaris Green to the Point ; on the opposite shore (where the Lavan sands had to be negotiated before the sea was reached) the point of departure varied with the state of the tides ; only in the eighteenth century, it would seem, was this point fixed at Aber, with a row of guide posts across the sand (maintained by Beaumaris Corporation) to lessen the every-present menace of the tides. The sand gave the local people some trouble with the courts as can be seen here.
The humble petition of Rowland ap Robert Postmaster of Beaumaris in the County of Anglesey to the honourable Sir Peter Mutton kt and Mr. Littleton Justices of Assizes in North Wales. Most humbly show that your petitioner and his servants have been employed these xx years and above in carrying his Majesties packettes to Conway and in guiding noblemen & gentlemen strangers that rid for his Majesties affaires by post that way, And many times when sudden mists and fogs’ doe fall, the danger is very great upon the sands that ye kings packettes and subjects are like to perish which moved me about 4 years past to be a humble petitioner to the then Judges of Assizes, that they would be pleased to give order that at every mile end of the sands, a main post might be fixed, and every quarter of a mile smaller stakes that may guide such of his Majesties subjects as have cause to travel that way which they were pleased to grant and gave then present order to certain gentlemen of Caernarvonshire to see it preformed but as yet it is not done."
A delay of four years in carrying out an order of the Great Sessions ! And it is very doubtful whether this worthy postmaster of Beaumaris ever saw his pet scheme carried out. But in fairness to the dilatory gentlemen of Caernarvonshire it should be pointed out that they had far more urgent work to do in their own County than having posts put up across the Lavan sands ; and in any case they probably felt, and not unreasonably, that the gentlemen of Anglesey should be made to do it.
The Llanfaes (later Beaumaris) ferry, took passengers who had crossed the Lavan Sands, into Beaumaris. The Llanfaes ferry is attested in documentary sources from 1292, nine years after the conquest of Gwynedd. At that time five ferrymen worked the ferry at their own expense as part of the commuted rent they paid for the tenements they held. The king paid the cost of providing the boat and it seems clear that these ferrymen were tied estate workers, albeit specialised, on the demesne of the former Prince.