The village of Talysarn is situated six miles south of Caernarfon. According to Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, 'Tal y Sarn essentially consists of two convergent ribbon patterns of development, one along the turnpike built in the 1840s at the foot of the slope alongside the railway, the other along the hen lon higher up. These join at the eastern end of the village, in what was an early focus of settlement near Cloddfa'r Coed and the area known as Pen y Bont. Although there had been some intermittent development probably from the end of the eighteenth-century, associated with the prosperity of the slate workings at Cloddfa'r Coed, the village is largely a development of the period 1850 and 1870, built to house slate quarrymen and their families on the lands of Coedmadog farm, laid out along the course of the turnpike roads and of the Nantlle Railway. The village is associated with the preacher John Jones and with the bard Robert Williams Parry. Though there are a number of traditional vernacular buildings, the dominant house-type is the standard two-up two-down design, albeit built out of local stone. Some buildings are constructed from quarry rags, though most are constructed of field stones, at least where the construction material is visible, with possibly some use of rags or poorer quality stone in side-walls and back-walls. Many have been rendered or pebble-dashed. Several impressive chapels survive, though all are now closed or face immediate closure. The Nantlle Vale Hotel, a substantial building erected in the 1860s, vies for prominence with the chapels (e.g. Capel Mawr NPRN 7012). Tal y Sarn is an excellent example of a speculative builder's village.'
In the late nineteenth century the village had a railway station (NPRN 41448), and employment was available from a number of nearby quarries - Coedmadog (NPRN 420095); Talysarn (NPRN 402462); Gwernor (NPRN 420098); Ty'n y Werglodd (NPRN 400632); Tan-yr-Allt (NPRN 400631) and Dorothea (NPRN 40539). There were also six chapels and a church to serve the community's religious needs - Seion Welsh Independent chapel (NPRN 7000); Bethania Baptist chapel (NPRN 7002); Salem Baptist chapel (NPRN 7005); Hyfrydle Calvinistic Methodist chapel (NPRN 7007); Tal-y-Sarn Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel (NPRN 7012) Tal-y-Sarn Wesleyan Methodist chapel (NPRN 7015) and St. John's church (NPRN 421531).
Today, Talysarn is home to a primary school educating around 100 pupils aged 3 to 11 through the medium of Welsh. Seindorf Arian Frenhinol Dyffryn Nantlle (Nantlle Vale Royal Silver Band) have their practise room in the village too (NPRN419239). Although the post office closed in February 2013, it re-opened in the Community Centre in July 2013. Equally, the village's one remaining public house - The Halfway Inn - was closed in 2016, but there is a communal effort by the local community to reopen the premises as a ?village hub? with a cafe/shop and meeting place for village groups in the day and a pub in the evenings.'
Sources: Gwynedd Archaeological Trust Historic Landscape Characterisation of Talysarn, by D. Gwyn and D. Thompson, published in 2001; Estyn Inspection report of Ysgol Talysarn, published January 2017; Daily Post article: 'Gwynedd villagers pull together in bid to buy axed pub' published 24th July 2017 and 'Delight as village gets its Post Office back' published 26th June 2013.
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 29th October 2018.