Conwy - busy Quay and tiny Houses
Conwy, is a walled market town on the north coast of Wales, know for its famous fortress. After walking around the enormous Conwy Castle we headed to the little town, squeezed within the medieval walls. What a difference in dimensions! The smallest house in Britain, streets lined with tiny, charming cottages. But the first to see was the famous Conwy Quay.
For all so many attractions popular with tourists, the quay is still a pretty working environment. Fishing boats are many, fishing nets and equipment are everywhere, and - what cannot be visualised in a photo - a predominant smell of fish in different stages of its afterlife.
The Liverpool Arms pub we watched on TV documentary about Conwy a few months back, and we were determined to visit (coming from Liverpool). It is in a great location, where you can admire both the busy quay and the remnants of medieval walls nesting it.
Walking further down the Conwy Quay is the smallest house in Great Britain, officially measured by and named in the Guinness Book of Records. Its dimensions are 3.05 metres x 1.8 metres.
The little red cottage was inhabited continuously from the 16th century until 1900, even by a whole family at one point. The last owner was a 6-foot (1.8 m) tall fisherman – Robert Jones. The ceiling was too small for him to fully stand up without bending his neck. He was basically forced out on the grounds of health concerns by the local council.
What is so marvellous - the house today is still owned by his descendants! The tour around the small house was not available due to covid restrictions, but the look from outside was also pretty gorgeous.
We dived into a quieter part of the town, after all that buzz of the quay, to restore the senses to some order again.
Small square coloured cottages surround every corner of Conwy narrow streets. The York Place is a minute square at the end of little High Street.
Fairies had landed here some centuries ago and left an impact on the residents and this is often shown to the least details.
How true it is that Conwy is a fairy-land - you can meet and army of teeny-weeny gnomes on stairs.
For decades after the Norman conquest of Wales, the Welsh people were forbidden from entering the city walled garrison. Only the English settlers were given incentives to move to Conwy.
There were few rebellions against this rule and one was even successful, when the Conwy castle was taken over for a couple of months by the Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr. Welsh residents slowly appeared inside the town after that, in the 14th century, but had been treated with suspicion.
The town walls are enclosing 10 hectares (25 acres), forcing Conwy to remain a very small town. There are few entrances via narrow wall gates.
High Street and Castle Street are packed with Art and Craft shops, full of hand-made items, historic pubs, bakeries, fish and chips - a must for a coastal town.
The layout of medieval towns usually consist of a grid of straight streets. In the case of Conwy it is "T"- shaped plan stretching from the riverbank - Castle Street along the river and three streets running from it. And that's it. Very easy to navigate.
It all would be lovely, yet...
Conwy narrow streets are used not only as normal thoroughfares but as a parking lot as well. It makes the most unpleasant experience strolling there. Crossing the lite streets makes it sometimes almost ridiculously impossible - with the continuous stream of cars having little regard for pedestrians.
Walking on the tight and strait sidewalk pavements is a hard work, really - edging your way through other passers by and parked cars.
We were literally knocked out after just 10 minutes on High Street. We needed a recluse place immediately, a retreat from this overwhelming rabblement of notorious car horns, exhaust fumes and general nervousness of the public.
We found it, as in the medieval times - in the solemn solace of a church. St Mary and All Saints parish church has stood in the walls of Conwy since the 14th century. It retains some parts of the original abbey. Our tranquil moment was ceased by the fighting seagulls, though.
It reminded ourselves that we have yet not seen any jackdaws. For some reasons, the people born within the Conwy town walls are nicknamed "Jackdaws". Apparently it is after the birds nestling on the walls. The population of Conwy inner-walls is little more than 4,000. More the 10,000 lives outside the city walls.
We spotted some jackdaws, eventually.