In the wake of the English conquest a small borough was founded in the shadow the the castle of the Welsh Princes (NPRN 95281).
The borough recieved its charter in 1284 and there were twenty three burgages in 1308, rising to twenty seven by the middle of the fourteenth century. A burgage was a building plot with certain rights and duties attached. The plots at Criccieth were the same size as those at Caernarvon, roughly 6.0-7.0m wide and 20m deep. The constable of the castle acted as mayor and the burgesses joined with the castle garison at times of crisis, as happened in the troubles of 1294-5. This was an English borough in which the Welsh could not hold burgages.
The borough was destroyed with the castle in 1403-4 and failed to recover. In the early sixteenth century Leland saw only two or three poor houses, observing that 'there hath been a franchisid toune, now clene decayed'.
Even the location of the borough is now uncertain. Perhaps the most likely location is the area between the castle and the rock of Dinas, including Castle Square and the street now called Lon Bach, where there is room for all the recorded burgage plots. Marine Terrace follows the line of an outer rampart where it skirts the castle rock and the Town Hall would also have been built on its line. The harbour would presumably have been at Aber-marchnad at the eastern end of Castle Street.
The modern town is clustered around the common of Y Maes in the Marchnad valley. Here stands the medieval parish church of St Catherine's (NPRN 11898), some 500m north of the castle.

Sources: Beresford 'New Towns of the Middle Ages' revised edition (1988), 47, 546
Avent CADW Guide to Criccieth Castle (1989)

John Wiles 19.07.07