Pont Fawr
bridge in Llanrwst, Conwy County Borough, Wales

Pont Fawr (also known as Llanrwst Bridge) crosses the River Conwy in the town of Llanrwst, Conwy County Borough, Wales. Traditionally attributed to the architect Inigo Jones, it was built in around 1636. The bridge is 51 m (167 ft) in length and carries vehicles and pedestrians. It is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled monument.
History
The present bridge was a replacement for an earlier crossing destroyed by flooding. Permission for reconstruction was given in 1634, and the bridge carries datestones on both sides giving a completion date of 1636. There is a long tradition which attributes the design of the bridge to Inigo Jones. This arises from the commissioning of the bridge by Sir Richard Wynn (1588–1649) who served as Treasurer to Queen Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I, and who had connections to Jones. Although there is no documentary evidence linking Jones to the bridge, he did design a plaque for Wynn which was placed in Llanrwst Church. In his Clwyd volume in the Buildings of Wales series published in 2003, the architectural historian Edward Hubbard notes that the suggested connection is "less wildly impossible than other Jones attributions in Wales".
The public source identifies “Pont Fawr” as bridge in Llanrwst, Conwy County Borough, Wales. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pont, Fawr and bridge.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Pont Fawr”, the useful work is to connect “bridge in Llanrwst, Conwy County Borough, Wales” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17736653. Authority coordinates are 53.137, -3.798. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1636, 1634, 1588 and 1649.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pont Fawr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.