In 1637 Henry Bushell, the lessee of the royal mines in Cardiganshire, petitioned King James to set up a local mint in Aberystwyth Castle so that locally mined silver would not have to be sent all the way to London to be coined. The metal was struck into half-crowns, shillings, half-shillings, groats, threepences, half-groats, pennies, and halfpennies. The coins were struck with the Prince of Wales' plume of feathers, on both sides, and an open book, which was Bushell's personal sign. Coins were printed from 1638 until 1642 when the mint was moved to Shrewsbury, and eventually Oxford. The feather plumes and open book marks can be found on coins minted in the next two years and on coins marked with "ox", the sign of the mint in Oxford.
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| A coin made in Wales |
The locally created money and ammunition aided the Royalist movement in the civil war of 1642. During the war, Royalists garrisoned Aberystwyth Castle for their battles. In 1645 the castle was tested when the Parliamentarians besieged it. Eventually the castle was yielded to the Parliamentarians. Two years later the House of Commons that the castle at Aberystwyth was to be disgarisoned and demolished. That same year, John Vaughn of Trasecoed, one of the first burgesses of Aberystwyth to be elected to the House of Commons, took a prominent part in taking Aberystwyth Castle with the Parlimentarian forces.
In 1649, Charles I is beheaded and the castle at Aberystwyth is destroyed. Some people believe the Parlimentary forces blew up the castle using gunpowder meant for use in the mines, but there is no evidence to prove that this event took place, or even exactly how it was dismantled. The ruins survive to this day. This destruction could very well hold bearings on the next few years of the town. In 1650 a traveler wrote of his first impressions of Aberystwyth as a "miserable market town" and its buildings as "transformed into confused heaps of unnecessary rubbidge." Mayhaps, this description could be tied to the fact that this year is the same year that the chapel called St. Mary's is washed into the sea.
It would be thirty years before the town of Aberystwyth had any other historical news to report: thirty years exactly in fact. In 1690, the first town hall was built and it stood on the same site which now boasts a clock tower on Great Darkgate street.
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| The clocktower that stands on the site of the old town hall. |
The town of Aberystwyth was surrounded by mines: coal, silver, etc. This was easily apparent in the town itself. Daniel Defoe commented on Aberystwyth in the 1720's calling the town, itself, "a populous, but very dirty, black, smoky place," and the people "looked as if they lived continually in the lead or coal mines." But the people were still very aware of their town and its rich history. In 1739 the Aberystwyth Court Leeds presented "That if any person for the future shell undermine, dull down and Carry away the Stones of the Towers or Castle Walls Shall be obliged to pay five pounds."
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| Aberystwyth Castle at Sunset |
The Pryce family resurfaces on the Aberystwyth political front when a member was elected in 1741. It would not be until 1868 before a person outside of the Pryce family - whether family members, or someone who owed allegiance to them - would be elected in Aberystwyth.
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| Map of Aberystwyth in 1940 |
The town of Aberystwyth was noticeably growing, as evidenced by paperwork and records of the time period. In 1743 trouble arose surrounding the mill. Apparently some townspeople were taking corn to mills outside the town and the courts were forced to address the issue of the mill needing to expand in order to meet the needs of the town's growing population. The silver-lead mining industry also grew with the town. At it's height in 1744 there were four iron foundries making mining machinery and a commercial port to export ore. The ore industry grew so large that in 1763 townspeople petitioned to have the Customs House for their port moved from Aberdovey to Aberystwyth. The ease of transportation now available to the town, allowed it to grow even more.
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