Portmeirion

This summer, I really wanted to revisit Portmeirion. It is the location of the Village in the famous 1960's television programme, the Prisoner.

Portmeirion was built by the welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis, to show that the development of an area of nautural beauty would not mean defiling it.
Clough was a conservationist and a campaigner for the protection of the environment.

The picture above is of the Tollbooths. The Tollbooths have over 20 years between them,
the tollbooth on the right was built in 1976 and was Clough's last addition to the village.
The Tollbooth on the left was built in 1999.

This is the original entrance board to Portmeirion, and it survived until the introduction of decimal currency in the 1970's.
"That visitors to Portmeirion may be sufficiently discouraged and so kept to acceptable numbers A toll of 5 shillings per head has had to be imposed. To avoid it please turn back here." The disc in the board turned, and the price could be raised. For example, it was set to 10 shillings when King Edward VIII was there as Prince of Wales.

As I wandered along in Portmeirion, my eye was drawn to the Bell Tower.

Clough called this Tower built in 1928 the Campanile. His reason
for building it was, "The need for the Campanile was obvious enough - It was imperative that I should open my performance with a dramatic gesture of some sort."
The Campanile and the buildings around it have an Italian feel to them, Clough had recently been travelling in Italy.






Another thing that caught my attention was this bird, beast, griffin?
I'd love to know what it is, apart from great to look at.





Then there was this plaque, on a stone lion that was given to Clough by his friends on his 90th birthday. I misread it at first and wondered what on earth a goth birthday might be!

It was late in the afternoon by the time I arrived at Portmeirion, having visited Machynlleth and Corris craft centre first, I guess this relaxed couple were as tired as I was.



I hope to revisit Portmeirion very soon and to make a full day of it.
(Thank you Darren.)


References.
http://www.portmeirion-village.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner
http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion
Robert Llywelyn's Portmeirion Guide book.