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Portmeirion, Wales

 

Changes in organisation of agriculture in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries meant that villages lost their central position in British rural life. English farmland had long been farmed on a strip system where tenant farmers tended a number of strips in an area, shared out so that everyone got a share of the best land. A village lying in the middle of a network of strip fields was a convenient place to live. But then enclosures began, with scattered strips amalgamated into single larger and more efficient farms. As part of this change land owning farmers moved to buildings on their new enclosed farms. Hundreds of villages disappeared. But as these changes occurred there was a nostalgic reaction in which villages were idealised. One of the most remarkable manifestations of village nostalgia is Portmeirion on the north west coast of Wales. Built by architect William Clough Ellis between 1925 and 1975 Portmeirion is an incredible fantasy of a village based on Italian architecture. It aims to show how a beautiful setting can be enhanced by development.

 

 

 

Of course the reality of village life was not much like it's idealisation, and the fantasy element of Portmeirion lends itself to use as a film and television location. Most famously Portmeirion played the part of "The Village" in the 1960s television series The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan. Interestingly this show fosused on many of the basic reasons that village nostalgia came about. The Prisoner was very much concerned with the fear that life in an industrial world was reducing the importance of individuality. Patrick McGoohan lays it out quite clearly in the first episode, with his angry rant: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered." On the other hand McGoohan's character Number 6 is not a throw back to old rural England. He is instead the epitome of urban slick, a secret agent who has resigned, and wants to drive off in his open top car and have a dry Martini somewhere. Unfortunately his superiors refuse to release him until they know why he has mysteriously resigned. So Number 6 finds himself confined to the Village, a surreal idealised village world where he is trapped in a society which is scary in its technical perfection. Number 6 feels himself reduced to the anonymity of a number, and yet is under constant surveillance and has no anonymity at all. He is in a village where everybody knows his name and what he is doing - which of course is how life once was in real villages. Out of these contradictions a very successful television series played itself out.

 

Personally the nightmare Prisoner scenario of a future where everything is organised and people are a number is still a long way off. In my experience of a busy summer weekend in Portmeirion, the service in one of the cafes was reassuringly slow, and the lasagna when it came was a bit on the cool side. It's a lovely place though.

Portmeiron is one of the most popular tourist destinations in north Wales. There is a four star hotel, and luxurious guest houses, often used by celebrities. There are a number of shops and restaurants, a wonderful beach and woodland walks.

Address: Portmeiron Ltd, Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, LL48 6ER.

Directions: Portmeirion is just off the A487 a few miles south of Porthmadog in north Wales. Click here for an interactive map centred on Portmeirion.

Opening Times: Open daily, except Christmas Day, 9.30am - 7.30pm.

 

 

 

Contact:

telephone: 01766 770000

e-mail: info@portmeirion-village.com

web site: http://www.portmeirion-village.com/?lID=1