Dale Street or Cilbedlam, Menai Bridge
Dale Street or Cilbedlam, Menai Bridge
If you're at the eastern end of the street, by the &caws cheesemaker’s shop, look up to see the vintage “Dale Street” sign on the brickwork. The name refers to the slight valley, or dale, from the top of Hill Street or Lôn Pen Nebo (behind you) down to Dale Street. One house in Dale Street is still called Dale Park.
The street’s Welsh name is Cilbedlam.
In 1875 historian W Wynn Williams was alerted to ancient objects found during quarrying operations near the junction of the roads to Beaumaris and Holyhead. He was told that Cil Bedlem (sic) was the name of a cottage which had stood in the vicinity. There was also a local legend of a cave of the same name, used by gipsies, which extended under the road and was possibly a remnant of ancient copper mining.
In the early 1970s, Menai Bridge council appointed a panel to devise Welsh names for streets which had only English names. The panel chose Cilbedlam as the Welsh name for Dale Street. The old name may have appealed to panel members because there was a school near the junction with Wood Street and the area was often a jumble of vehicles and pedestrians.
On one side of the street stands a row of fake shops, built as a film set for the S4C TV series Rownd a Rownd.
With thanks to Prof Hywel Wyn Owen, of the Welsh Place-Name Society and Terence PT Williams
Postcode: LL55 5AL View Location Map
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