Place Name
Aberconwy Abbey was founded by an order of Cistercian monks, originally from Caernarfon, in the 12thCentury. It was to become the most important abbey in north Wales. In 1186 a group of monks left their abbey in mid-Wales to found a new religious house in the north of the country, they originally settled on Rhedynog Felen near Caernarfon but by 1199 they had been granted land in Conwy by Llywelyn the Great who had recently become ruler of Gwynedd. Thanks to his support the abbey grew to over 40,000 acres and became politically very important especially in negotiations with the English. In 1283 Edward I forced the monks to move from Conwy to Maenan, so he could construct a castle and walled town at Conwy. The move had been completed by 1284, with Edward financing the building of a new abbey. The order was closed down under Henry VIII’s land grab against the church, the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537. Like many of the roads on the St Helier’s estate this is named after British monasteries and abbeys in remembrance of the area’s historic ownership by Westminster Abbey. The road names are in alphabetical order, of which Aberconway Road in the north west of the estate is first.
