Pendist or Oatmeal Market, Caernarfon
This open space was long used for trading and has had many different names over the centuries. On John Speed’s 1610 map of Caernarfon it is shown as Oatmeal Mar[ket], with a mill nearby.
Turf Square was another name, marked on Victorian OS maps. People came to the square from the Rhosgadfan area to sell peat and heather. This tradition also explains the alternative Welsh name Clwt y Mawn. Clwt is commonly found in place-names and denotes a patch of land. Mawn is Welsh for peat.
The current Welsh name for the square is Pendist. This name was written in a 1797 will. It also appears on John Wood’s 1834 map of the town, albeit Pendist is placed just around the corner on Bangor Road. In May 1852 a baby was born to Ann and David Jones, of the “flour warehouse, Pendist”.
The name is thought to come from the Middle English pendis, a variant of pentice which corresponds with “penthouse” in more recent English. It originally denoted a sloping roof or hut attached to the main or end wall of a larger building.
You can read more about the square’s history on our page about Turf Square.
With thanks to Caernarfon Civic Society
Postcode: LL55 1AN View Location Map