Ffrith is a small village in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

Llanfynydd Llanfynydd is a village, parish and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The community population at the 2011 census was 499. It lies some 10 miles (16 km) north-east of the county town, Carmarthen. Bordering it are the communities of Llansaw ...

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

north-east The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Name

The name Ffrith (the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

double "f" is pronounced simply as "f") reflects a spelling and pronunciation particular to Flintshire: it is derived from a North Welsh word meaning variously a "pasture", "enclosure" or "forest" and borrowed originally from the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

word "frith", meaning a forest or game preserve.Owen, H. W. ''The place-names of east Flintshire'', University of Wales Press, 1994, p.297 The name Belmont or Bell Mount was also commonly used for the village in the 19th century. In local usage the village is usually referred to as "the Ffrith".

Location

The village is situated in the southernmost part of the county in the wooded valley of the

River Cegidog The River Cegidog () is a river in north-east Wales. It flows mainly through Flintshire but towards the end of its course it forms the border between Flintshire and Wrexham County Borough. Its source lies in the hills of southernmost Flintshire ...

at the point where the

Nant-y-Ffrith Nant-y-Ffrith refers to a stream and the wooded valley through which it flows on the border between Flintshire and Wrexham County Borough in Wales. The stream begins in moorland to the east of Llandegla. It passes Bwlchgwyn village before ent ...

stream flows into it. Neighbouring villages include

Cymau Cymau is a small village situated in the community of Llanfynydd, Flintshire on the edge of the mountains of north-east Wales. Its name is derived from the Welsh word ''cymau'', an old form of the plural for ''cwm'', "valley" or "hollow". The vi ...

to the east,

Brymbo Brymbo is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It lies in the hilly country to the west of Wrexham city, largely surrounded by farmland. At the 2001 Census, the population of the community area (including Brymbo village, a ...

to the south-east and Llanfynydd, one mile to the north. The nearest major settlements are

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county ...

to the south-east and

Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

towards the north-west.

History

Archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be cond ...

s have revealed evidence of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

presence in the area. A

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas ...

was built here, a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman R ...

is thought to have passed through and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

may have taken place. Several centuries later,

Offa's Dyke Offa's Dyke ( cy, Clawdd Offa) is a large linear earthwork that roughly follows the border between England and Wales. The structure is named after Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from AD 757 until 796, who is traditionally believed to h ...

was constructed across the area.Ffrith
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust In 2005 the archaeological television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4, Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television pro ...

'' led a dig in the area in conjunction with the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust. Several excavations were conducted throughout the village. Evidence indicates it was a substantial Roman settlement. In the nineteenth century, the village's size and importance grew as

quarrying A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their e ...

for

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

and

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

and mining for lead and

fireclay Fire clay is a range of refractory clays used in the manufacture of ceramics, especially fire brick. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines fire clay very generally as a "mineral aggregate composed of hydrous silicates of alumin ...

became more significant. A railway line, the Wrexham and Minera Joint Railway was built through the village and a small station, a number of shops and several

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s opened. Industry in the area declined through the twentieth century, with the last fireclay level closing in the late 1960s. The railway ceased operation in 1952. A large stone

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide va ...

still stands near the village. The village shops and pubs have all closed.Wrexham Evening Leader
/ref> There is a rare example of a

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses ( horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapet ...

dating from at least the eighteenth century in the village.

Welsh groundsel ''Senecio cambrensis'' (Welsh groundsel or Welsh ragwort) is a flowering plant of the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to Great Britain and currently known only from North Wales. It is a recently evolved plant that arose as a result of hy ...

was first discovered near Ffrith in 1948.

References

* Smuts, Bill, Jenner, Lorna & Sheerin, Nic (2006) ''Llanfynydd: a photographic journal'', Delmar Press.

External links

Photos of Ffrith and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{authority control Villages in Flintshire