Bala, Gwynedd

Bala is a market town in Gwynedd, Wales, formerly an urban district of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake, 17 miles (27 km) north-east of Dolgellau, with a population (2001 census) of 1,980. It is little more than one wide street, Stryd Fawr (Welsh for 'Big Street' but more usually translated as 'High Street').

In the 18th century, it was well-known for the manufacture of flannel, stockings, gloves and hosiery. The Tower of Bala (30 ft. / 9m high by 50 ft. / 15m diameter) is a tumulus or "moat-hill", formerly thought to mark the site of a Roman camp. The theological college of the Calvinistic Methodists and the grammar school, which was founded in 1712, are the chief features, together with the statue of the Rev. Thomas Charles (1755-1814), the theological writer, to whom was largely due the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Bala hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1967 and 1997.

External link

• Bala information

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.