Coed Talon station site geograph-3112705-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Coed Talon (also spelt "Coed-talon") is a small, formerly industrial village between Leeswood and Treuddyn in

Flintshire Flintshire () is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, the Dee Estuary to the north-east, the English county of Cheshire to the east, Wrexham County Borough to the south, and Denbighshire to the west. ...

, Wales. Its name is derived from the Welsh word ''coed'' ("wood") and the word ''talwrn'', anglicised to "Talon", meaning a "hillside devoid of trees" or "threshing-floor" (perhaps referring to a wood beneath a bare hillside).Davies, E. ''Flintshire place-names'', University of Wales Press, 1959, p.38 Other translations of "Talwrn" suggest the words "lumber", "spot" or "field" (reference from University of Wales translation tool).

History

The area, about four miles from the market town of

Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal ...

, was primarily agricultural until the nineteenth century, when following the discovery of coal and iron ore seams, an ironworks and a series of collieries were opened. In 1892, a bed of fireclay was discovered and a brickworks was subsequently opened. There was also a

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...

quarry nearby at Waun y Llyn. The industries were served by a branch of the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

, who in 1892 introduced a passenger service to Coed Talon, running over part of the Wrexham and Minera Joint Railway to Brymbo in

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

.Coed Talon
Disused Stations The station closed in 1950 and the line to Brymbo was taken out of use shortly afterwards, though goods trains from

continued until 1963. In the 1950s, Coed Talon had a sawmill which was operated by the Jones family at Liverpool House which is still present on the main road through the village. Talon Jones was the main operator of the sawmill (son of Jonathon and Elizabeth Jones who may have owned areas of Coed Talon). It is unknown if Talon Jones was named after the village or vice versa, however, it is interesting that some translations of Talon (or Talwrn) refer to lumber (sawn wood).

Recent developments

The village still has a pub called the ''Railway Inn''. The small-scale colliery workings at Coed Talon operated until 1987, and were subsequently worked by the opencast method. A brickworks also continued in operation at Coed Talon until relatively recently. The village's hotel was sold and converted into dwellings in the 2000s. The steam train used to pass by Coed Talon CP School in the 1950s on its way to & from the Silica Works. Due to the village's close proximity to Treuddyn (and its Welsh-language primary school, Ysgol Terrig), the numbers of Welsh speakers are above the county's average and continue to grow.

References

Villages in Flintshire {{Flintshire-geo-stub