Pentre Bychan
Encyclopedia
Wrexham (county borough)
Wrexham is a county borough centred on the town of Wrexham in north-east Wales. The county borough has a population of 130,200 inhabitants. Just under half of the population live either within the town of Wrexham or its surrounding conurbation of urban villages. The remainder living to the south...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
.
It is situated between Rhostyllen and Johnstown
Johnstown, Wrexham
Johnstown is a village in the county borough of Wrexham, Wales, and forms part of the old coal mining community of Rhosllannerchrugog.The disused coal mine at Hafod is situated to the east of the village and the mine's former coal tip has now been converted to a country park, Bonc yr Hafod...
in the ward of Esclusham
Esclusham
Esclusham is a local government community, the lowest tier of local government, part of Wrexham County Borough in Wales.The community includes the villages of Bersham, Rhostyllen, Aber-oer, Llwyneinion and Pentre Bychan, as well as a number of smaller settlements, the park at Erddig, and an area...
, some four miles from Wrexham town centre.
The Pentre Bychan estate was once of great importance in the area. The 16th century house originally belonged to the Tegin family. It was a single storey building, half-timbered with wattle and daub
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
. In 1620 the estate was purchased Hugh Meredith and the Meredith family, who owned several local coal mines, occupied the estate until 1802 when Thomas Meredith, the last of the male line, died. In 1823 the hall was replaced with a larger, three storey, dressed-stone building with gables, which had a stable block and coachhouse at the rear. The hall was surrounded by landscaped gardens which included a brick dovecote
Dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
which dated back to 1721.
The house was used to house refugees during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The building was purchased by Denbighshire
Denbighshire
Denbighshire is a county in north-east Wales. It is named after the historic county of Denbighshire, but has substantially different borders. Denbighshire has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited part of Wales. Pontnewydd Palaeolithic site has remains of Neanderthals from 225,000 years...
County Council in 1948, who at the time administered the area, and was demolished in 1963. The Wrexham crematorium was later built on the site, located on Pentre Bychan Road, off Smithy Lane. The house's magnificent gardens and woods remain
The ancient monument Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke is a massive linear earthwork, roughly followed by some of the current border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to wide and high. In the 8th century it formed some kind of delineation between the Anglian kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys...
runs through Pentre Bychan.
Dee Valley Water and Scottish Power are prominent businesses located on the Wrexham Road at Packsaddle Bridge.
The classical pianist Llŷr Williams
Llyr Williams
Llŷr Williams is a Welsh pianist.-Childhood:Llŷr Williams was born in 1976 in the village of Pentre Bychan in Wrexham, Wales....
was born in Pentrebychan in 1976
Dr Roberts a local general practitioner with a surgery in nearby Johnstown lived for many years at `Barn Hey' in the village.
Countryside Walk
Pentre Bychan can be visited as part of one of Wrexham County Council's Countryside Walks.After viewing the Hafod Y Bwch Gateway, the walk begins at Croesfoel Farm, once the smithy for gatesmiths Robert and John Davies whose ornamental gates con be seen at Leeswood Hall and Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle is a castle located at Chirk, Wrexham, Wales.The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward I's chain of fortresses across the north of Wales. It guards the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley...
. There is a plaque to read giving some small amount of history, as Wrexham Council's route guide suggests, and there is parking space for one car only. Opposite the now converted farm house is a public footpath sign next to a stile. One walks into a field along the line of a hedge, before crossing the hedge at a stile and veering off across the middle of another field where no path is evident, following the line of electricity pylons before reaching another stile. In the woodland there is a stile on the path to the left which leads into the lower end of a boggy field which is the site of Llyn Tro (a former moated house). The foundations of this can be seen by walking to the left, around the edge of this field towards a wooded area. The route then suggests retracing ones steps and crossing a country road into a field of horses. Once one has crossed this field the B5097 is reached. Crossing another road, one reaches another stile into a field towards Cadwgan Hall Farm (the original hall oak framework is at Avoncroft Museum of Buildings, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire). The footpath runs along the right hand side of this field and into the woods, then onto a road. One turns left here and walks past Cadwgan Hall Farm, before turning left again at the stile into another field. One then reaches the remains of a railway bridge, and crossing another road, following the line of a disused railway embankment, the path turns left into some trees and emerges in the site of Pentre Bychan Crematorium. The brick dovecote can be seen. The rest of the route leads across a field and the main road back to Croesfoel Farm.