6. The Water Gate

Sold rock is not really solid. Rock becomes boulders, boulders become stones, stones become gravel, gravel becomes silt or sand. Wind sometime has an effect but usually this process is the result of water action. Rain, the sea, brooks, streams and rivers constantly wear away at the stone, slowly but surely, almost insidiously grinding it down.

Ask any miner or potholer what there worst fear is of being underground. Is it gas, or is it cave ins that scares them the most and the answer is no. What really makes these subterranean  workers and explorers scared is water.

Drowning with stone above and stone below is not a pleasant thought. The darkness can be nullified but the persistent drip, drip, drip and the often distant sound of fast lowing water sets fear into heart the most courageous mole. Mines and cave systems can change minute to minute in terms of water depth depending on what the rain has been doing in the proceeding days, weeks and even months. 

Pete had first moved to Harlech when he was eleven, moving from fairly cosmopolitan north Cheshire to rural Wales had been a bit of shock. His parents had been teachers and then suddenly they owned a cafe come restaurant in North Wales. The gardens of which were heavily terraced with a 30 foot dry stone wall which mirrored the castle itself. A stream emerged half way down the garden. It apparently,  ran under the buildings large cellar. Rumour had it there was a tunnel from these cellars right into the castle.

Harlech is built around water and on water. Streams appear then disappear throughout the village then merge below the castle and head north towards the estuary. When Pete had first heard of the siege of the castle he had always wondered if the occupiers had somehow got food and water through underground culverts, natural and man made.

Edward I started to have the castle built in 1283 and used the  french Master James of St George as its designer and master mason. Architecturally similarities to fortifications in the Holy land are evident and it is believed that some of St George's apprenticeship was served out there.

The Castle was largely complete by 1289 for a cost in today's terms of just under £4 million. In 1404 it was captured by the legendary Owain Glyndwr.  In his earlier years Glyndwr had trained as lawyer in London and fought with the the English in the Scottish borders. Later he would hold his first welsh parliament in Machynlyth where his coronation as Prince of Wales took place. The second parliament was held in Harlech. He held the castle for nearly five years until the future King, Henry V, and 1000 men lay siege to it for 8 months. Glyndwr's wife and two of his daughters and four grandchildren were captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London and later died. Glyndwr, it is safe to say was not particularly happy with the English and continued to wage a guerrilla war against them. The date and place of his demise is unknown, but his place in welsh history is fixed. He was thwarted from ever going into Harlech Casatle again.