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Cenarth is one of the most famous villages in Wales. Its fame is the waterfalls on the river Teifi that runs through a village that has been there for centuries. Geraldus Cambrensis (Gerald the Welshman) Journeyed through there and wrote of it in 1188. Standing close by the falls is a watermill on a sight where one has been worked for centuries with an early record from 1293 of a rent of 33 shillings and 4 pence. Salmon migrating the river jump the falls, a fact also recorded by gerald. Despite the fact that Cenarth is famous as a centre for coracle fishing none has netted there since 1970 where one pair ceased netting. They were the victim of a 1935 by-law that prohibited the transfer of licences, so it was on the death of the last licensee 25 years later that a tradition of hundreds of years ended. In 1807 there were so many coraclemen at Cenarth that an observer wrote " There is scarcely a cottage in the neighbourhood without a coracle hanging by the door". Coracle images are still to be seen around the village from postcards to a full size coracle on the wall of the white Hart. Standing in a restored building that was once used for boiling potatoes and keeping pigs in close to the mill is Martin Fowlers National Coracle Centre a museum opened in 1991 by Earl Lloyd George the grandson of David Lloyd George. On display are coracle examples from many other Welsh rivers where today none are to be seen also nets and other coracles from Ireland and Scotland also coracles from India and a Vietnamese one that was rescued from a police compound in Hong Kong that was used by "boat people". There is also a well-stocked gift shop, also the mill is open as part of the visit.
Martin Fowlers National Coracle Centre
By 1630 the mill and weir was owned by the Vaughn family and it was their descendant Lord Cawdor who sold the property during the late 20th century.
Martin Fowlers National Coracle Centre
Martin Fowler
Cenarth today - little has changed
Cenarth in the 1950s
