Places to see in ( Bethesda - UK )

Places to see in ( Bethesda - UK )

Bethesda is a town on the River Ogwen and the A5 road on the edge of Snowdonia, in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, colloquially called Pesda by the locals. It all started in 1823 when the Bethesda Chapel was built and the town grew around it. The chapel was rebuilt in 1840 and has now been converted into flats and is known as Arafa Don.

The town grew around the slate and stone quarrying industries; the largest of the local quarries is the Penrhyn Quarry. At its peak, the town was exporting its purple slate all over the world, and in doing so gained a reputation for being the world's best. The town was the site of a three-year strike led by the North Wales Quarrymen's Union from 1900. This led to the creation of the nearby village of Tregarth, built by the quarry owners, which housed the families of those workers who had not struck.

Most of the town is to the east and north east of the A5 road, with housing packed onto the hillside in irregular rows. This was due to the A5 marking the border between Lord Penrhyn's land, and the freehold land. This can still be seen in the layout of the current high street, where all the public houses are found on one side of the road.

In 1884 a branch of the London and North Western Railway's network from Bangor was opened. The line closed to passengers in 1951 and to freight in 1963. These days the trackbed of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway towards Porth Penrhyn is taken over by the Lôn Las Ogwen cycle path.

In its heyday, the population of Bethesda peaked at 10,000; it is currently around 4,327 people (2001 census), there are also the villages of Rachub and Tregarth nearby. Current opportunities for employment in the town are limited: there are a few manufacturing businesses; most businesses are in the low-paid service sector and hospitality industry. For employment with higher earning potential, residents tend to commute to towns along the North Wales coast. Bangor is the most popular destination, but some will commute daily as far as Cheshire. Because of the lack of degree-based employment opportunities, many young people move out of the area to places such as Cardiff and Manchester as soon as they are qualified. Ysgol Dyffryn Ogwen ("Ogwen Valley School") is a bilingual comprehensive school, with 374 pupils, established in 1951. Zip World Velocity in Penryn Quarry is the longest zipline in Europe, at just over 1600 metres long, and brings the town hundreds of visitors.

The architecture and layout of the town is largely utilitarian. Most of the buildings are constructed of stone with slate roofs. Some are constructed wholly of slate blocks, although such buildings tend to suffer from damp and structural slippage because the very flat and smooth surfaces of slate do not bind well to mortar. The town has 40 Grade II listed buildings, including three pubs, in addition to the substantial and imposing Grade I listed Nonconformist Jerusalem Chapel.

The upper parts of Carneddi, Cilfodan and Tan y Foel owe more to stone quarrying on the nearby hills rather than slate quarrying that supported the lower end of the town. At the eastern limits, the town is bounded by the rising land of the Carneddau mountains which form some of the more remote landscapes of Snowdonia. Much of Bethesda once consisted of discrete villages such as Gerlan, Rachub and Braichmelyn; their names are retained as districts of the town.

( Bethesda - UK ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Bethesda . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Bethesda - UK

Join us for more :
   / @placestoseein3171  
http://placestoseein87.blogspot.com.eg/
https://plus.google.com/1084608455791...
  / placestoseein87  
  / placestoseein1  
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/placestos...
  / places-to-see-in