HistoryPoints News

Nov 14, 2020

Fish trap for Colonel Pennant


When a humble quarryman dared to sue Colonel Pennant of Penrhyn Castle, Bangor, for confiscating his fishing net, the Colonel hired no less a person than Britain's solicitor-general as counsel. Yet the jury ...

decided that the quarryman and the public in general were entitled to fish at Aberogwen - where the Pennants claimed they had exclusive rights. The jury at Beaumaris in 1845 decided that on the main issue, the fisherman should receive £5 damages. There was ill-feeling locally that the Pennant family - whose enormous wealth stemmed from sugar production using slaves - had "usurped" the foreshore and taken it into the private Penrhyn Park estate, while punishing poor people for "trifling trespass" on the beach. For more on this David v Goliath dispute, use your mobile to scan the new HistoryPoints QR codes at the west end of Aberogwen car park. Or click here