Welsh legacy

Conwy in north Wales is among the most enchanting of our small towns. It’s like a toy fort, its encircling walls surviving intact until Thomas Telford had to breach them for his bridge. He did it elegantly, even delicately, creating a suspension bridge that actually enhanced the little town. It was for our brutal, automanic age to bulldoze through a road bridge in an act of architectural rape.

But that apart, the town is a gem. Within the encircling walls there is a medley of little twisting lanes that give the impression of being in a far larger town, for the visitor is never quite certain where the lanes are leading. One of these is Crown Lane. Rather steep. Very narrow. On the left-hand side as you go up it is a massive wall with a few windows — all evidently of great age but withdrawn, enigmatic. In the past, the town’s grandees, finding themselves living in proximity to the mob, were unwilling to run open house.