A quick trip round Caernarfon

Picking back up on our short Wales trip...

Caernarfon (Welsh: Fort in Arfon)  is at the southern end of the Menai Strait; the body of water separating mainland North Wales from the island of Anglesey, and is probably best known for its castle; the location where, in 1969, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II became Charles, Prince of Wales.

The castle was built by Edward I of England between 1283 and 1330 and was intended to be the seat of English rule in Wales. It stands on the banks of the River Seiont, as it nears its mouth at the sea.

Just across Castle Square is the Presbyterian Church of Wales which was built in 1882 and conducts a weekly Sunday morning service in English.

And in front of the church is a war memorial which is topped by this griffin and was designated a grade 2 listed building in March 2002.

Down the side of Castle Square is the statue of Sir Hugh Owen (1804 - 1881), a significant Welsh educator who pioneered higher education in Wales and founded the University of Wales in Aberystwyth.

And further on again, is David Lloyd George; Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 - 1922, at the head of a coalition government. (Currently, even the word 'coalition' makes me shudder!) He guided the country through the first world war and was then a significant figure at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

Although he was actually born in Manchester, Lloyd George was of Welsh descent and the only prime minister ever to have English as a second language. He left Manchester when only a few months old, living first in Pembrokeshire and later in Caernarfonshire, from where his mother came.

Lloyd George is the constable of Caernarfon Castle.