page_title: Traeth Mawr
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Traeth Mawr / History / Early years
caption_attribution_description: Ffestiniog Railway locomotive David Lloyd George on the Cob, heading towards Blaenau.
context_page_description: Traeth Mawr is a polder near Porthmadog in Gwynedd in Wales. The area was formerly the large tidal estuary of the Afon Glaslyn. It was created after large-scale land reclamation occurred in the late 18th century and the early 19th century. A large embankment, called the Cob, separates the area from the sea and carries a road and railway line.
context_section_description: The original estuary of the Afon Glaslyn was a dangerous place; many people were said to have died in the quicksands trying to cross the Traeth Mawr. In the late 18th century, various landowners around the edge of the estuary began to systematically reclaim land of between 50 acres (20 ha) and 100 acres (40 ha). Between 1770 and 1800 this resulted in the creation of about 1,500 acres (607 ha) of new land.
  Around 1798, William Madocks bought the Tan-yr-Allt estate near Penmorfa Marsh. Soon afterwards he reclaimed an area of sand from the sea and the river by building a 2 mi (3.2 km) earthen bank from Prenteg to Clog-y-Berth (now Porthmadog). The township of Tremadog was founded within the new area. A wooden-tracked railway was used in the dyke's construction. The rails were later used by the Croesor Tramway.
caption: Ffestiniog Railway locomotive David Lloyd George on the Cob, heading towards Blaenau
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