Abergele, United Kingdom

Gwrych Castle was built between 1819 and 1825 at the behest of Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh. From 1894 until 1946 it was the residence of the Dundonald family. Gwrych Castle's present owner, California businessman Nick Tavaglione, who bought the landmark in December 1989, put Gwrych up for auction on 2 June 2006, but it failed to sell. The condition of the property is being monitored by the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust. It is undergoing renovation.

The boxers Bruce Woodcock (in the late 1940s) and Randolph Turpin (in 1952) trained at Gwrych Castle. The film Prince Valiant, was filmed there in 1996, starring Edward Fox and Katherine Heigl.

In a Welsh antiquarian book from 1860, it mentions that there has always been a 'local tradition or popular opinion that the original Abergele was overwhelmed by the sea' and that an inscribed stone at St Michael's parish church (built on the site of the old clas) which was once readable but had been weathered over time read;

Although through oral tradition, the elders believed that the weathered stone was a modern copy of the original which could be found on the other side of the wall which was far more weathered and illegible.

In 1890's, a third (bilingual) copy was made and presented by Mrs Taylor of Dolhyfryd and the vicar, David Evans. The updated inscription (with slightly altered text) on the tombstone reads in order:

"YMA MAE'N GORWEDD YN MONWENT MIHANGEL WR OEDD A'I ANNEDD DAIR MILLTIR I'R GOGLEDD"

"HERE LIETH IN ST. MICHAEL's CHURCHYARD A MAN WHO HAD HIS DWELLING THREE MILES TO THE NORTH"

As the sea is little more than half a mile away at this point, this suggests that the sea has made some considerable advance over the centuries.

Outside the church is a penitential stone where sinners had to do penance by standing, dressed in white, by the stone and beseech the congregation for mercy as they entered and left the church.

In 1868 the railway line through Abergele was the site of the worst railway disaster in Britain to that time. The result of a series of circumstances, errors and failures led to loose wagons containing barrels of paraffin, detached from another train at nearby Llanddulas, rolling down towards Abergele. The Irish Mail train from Euston to Holyhead ran into them. Its leading coaches were enveloped in flame which burned occupants alive. In all 33 people died.

An inquest was held a few days after and ran until early September of the same year. It concluded that it was no accident and that the two brakesmen of the goods train to which the petroleum wagons had previously been attached were to blame, and the deaths were manslaughter.

Abergele Sanatorium was built just outside Abergele in 1910; it became a community hospital in the 1980s.

On 30 June 1969, the evening before the investiture of the Prince of Wales in Caernarfon, two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (lit. 'movement for the defence of Wales'; MAC), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, were killed when the bomb they were planting outside government offices exploded prematurely.

In 2020 Abergele hosted the 20th edition of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! at Gwrych Castle, and in 2021 it hosted the 21st series due to the Covid pandemic restrictions in Australia.