Ceiriog Valley

The Ceiriog Valley or Dyffryn Ceiriog is part of the County Borough of Wrexham in north-east Wales.

It was formerly in the traditional county of Denbighshire until 1974 when it became part of the short-lived county of Clwyd until 1996. However, parts of the Ceiriog Valley extend into Shropshire, England.

The Ceiriog Valley runs west to east, south of the Vale of Llangollen. The valley receives relatively few tourists despite being only a few miles from the A5 road, which is used by many visitors to North Wales. It is a hidden gem.

Lloyd George, former British Prime Minister, described the Ceiriog Valley as being A little bit of heaven on Earth. It has also been described as Little Switzerland .

Literary figures

Three notable Welsh poets come from the Ceiriog Valley: John Ceiriog Hughes (Ceiriog) (1832 - 1887) was born on a farm near Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog; Huw Morus (Eos Ceiriog) (1622 - 1709) was born and lived near Pandy, in the Ceiriog Valley; and the Rev. Robert Elis (Cynddelw) (1812 - 1875) was a Baptist minister in Glyn Ceiriog from 1838-1840. The Ceiriog Memorial Institute in the village of Glyn Ceiriog was built as a memorial to them all, and contains stained glass windows dedicated to each of their memories.

The Welsh language novelist Islwyn Ffowc Elis was born in Wrexham, but spent most of his formative childhood years on a hill farm in the Ceiriog Valley.

Threatened in 1923

In 1923 a proposal was put before the British Parliament to flood 13,600 acres of the upper Ceiriog valley, to form a reservoir to provide water to the Corporation of Warrington, evicting the local farming and working population and completely obliterating the village of Tregeiriog. The water would, in part, been used for Warrington's brewing industry. Opposers of the proposal used the slogan "They want to take the "W" out of WALES and turn it into ALES". The proposal was opposed by many Welsh MPs, and was defeated.

Villages & hamlets in the Valley

The largest village in the Ceiriog Valley is Glyn Ceiriog (also known as Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog).

The Ceiriog Valley is divided into three communities: Ceiriog Ucha; Glyntraian and Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog. Villages within each of these communities include:

• Ceiriog Ucha:
  • Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog
  • Tregeiriog
• Glyntraian
  • Dolywern
  • Llechrydau
  • Llwynmawr
  • Pontfadog
• Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog
  • Glyn Ceiriog
  • Nantyr
  • Pandy

Bibliography

• Dewi Parry Jones & Robert Owen Jones, "100 Years in the Valley - Y Glyn a Fu" (1998)
• Dewi Parry Jones & Robert Owen Jones, "100 Years in the Valley Volume II - Y Glyn a Fu" (1999)

Further reading

• Gordon Emery - Guide to the Maelor Way (1991) ISBN 1-872265-98-7