Dyserth Heritage Trail
Heritage trails produced by Dyserth Environmental group. The leaflet lower down can be downloaded as a PDF Below this there is a Google Map of the Trail locations - click on the blue markers for information.
in 2021 Dyserth was included in the website version of North East Wales Digital Trails
In 2018 Dyserth was one of the first places to be included in the TrailTale App
In 2020 Dyserth was included in the North East Wales Digital Trails App
Click on the picture to go to the website
Click to download the leaflet (opens in a new window)
Click on the blue markers for information
A DOG’S GRAVE. On the bank of the stream across the road from the church, just before the electricity sub-station, is a small upright stone. This marks the grave of a dog owned by a vicar of the church, the Rev. John Owen, who died in 1908. The inscription is now difficult to make out, but it reads as follows: 9 THE CHURCHYARD has been extended on at least three occasions and now contains over a thousand graves and is reaching the limit of its capacity. Its most noticeable features are the ancient yew trees and two hooped 17th century graves at the S.E. corner of the church. Just beyond the west entrance to the church is a flat tombstone much covered in grass of a man called Jones who served with Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar. His descendants still live in the area and the men in their family bear the middle name of Trafalgar. A walk through the churchyard is a walk through the history of the village. 8 THE PARISH CHURCH of Saints Bridget and Cwyfan. A religious site since at least the 11th century, but the earliest parts of the present building are late medieval and include the nave and the buttressed west front. The church has been altered and extended throughout its life - a beam in the nave bears the date of 1579 - but the most extensive alterations were carried out in the late 1870s by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Inside the church are the remains of two Celtic crosses which predate the oldest parts of the building. Most glorious is the east window which contains medieval glass representing a partial Tree of Jesse. Local legend says the window came from Basingwerk Abbey in Holywell at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries but it was probably designed for its present position. 8 THE OLD BISHOP’S PALACE is across the river from the New Inn. It is now a care home but was originally a church building used for a time as the palace of the Bishops of St. Asaph. From about 1600 to 1604 Bishop William Morgan (below) lived here. He produced the first translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1588. Another resident was Bishop Richard Parry who revisited Morgan’s work in 1621 so it would conform to the newly written King James’ Bible. This is private property but from the road to the rear you can see a Latin inscription up on the wall. This indicated that the building was partly restored by Bishop Bagot in 1799, and added to by the Vicar George Strong in 1824. 7 MAES HIRADDUG - steps from the railway lead up to this North Wales Wildlife Trust nature reserve. This Site of Special Scientific Interest includes over 2 acres of unimproved grassland which has never been ploughed or treated with fertiliser, and is surrounded by a small woodland. It contains a huge variety of wild flowers. 2 SIAMBR WEN - Currently lost in the undergrowth are the ruins of a medieval manor house, said to have been occupied by Sir Robert Pounderling, once constable of Dyserth Castle nearby - of which very little remains. 3 Situated opposite Dyserth Hall is a low stone structure extending below the level of the current road. This was apparently a well which supplied the drinking water for lower Dyserth. Locals had a key which enabled them to access the water. 5 BODNANT FORGE – Before the Meliden-Rhuddlan road was re-routed the forge was at the roadside on the original crossroads, with the Crown Inn (now a house) on the other side of the road. The forge now stands in a private garden behind Bodnant Forge bungalow. 6 AT DYSERTH WATERFALL the River Ffyddion drops some 70 feet over the falls on its way to join the River Clwyd west of Rhuddlan. The massive walls there could be medieval and probably supported a waterwheel. The Domesday Book of 1086 mentions a mill in the Dyserth area, possibly at the falls, but its location is not known. The most recent mill at the falls was to the right of the river, shown in many old postcards. It was still working in 1875 but by 1905 was derelict and was demolished in 1952, the mill house was also demolished, in 1981. The path up the steps between the walls continues over the hill and joins public footpaths to the upper village and the Dyserth - Prestatyn walkway. 11 THE SCHOOLS. At the end of the churchyard and opposite the Red Lion is a grey stone building which now serves as the church hall. Although no written evidence can be found to support this there seems little doubt that this was the first school in Dyserth. After its replacement by a building at the top of the hill in 1863 this structure was used variously as a cobbler’s shop, a garage and as a hay store. Inside the car park is a Grade 2 listed building - a red telephone box. 11 THE RAILWAY - In 1869 the London and North Western Railway opened a branch line from the main line at Prestatyn to Dyserth. Initially this served the Talargoch Lead Mines and the two Dyserth Quarries. It was not until 1905 that a passenger service was opened. This was operated by a steam railmotor and proved very popular, running several trains a day. It would wait for latecomers and stop for people hurrying across fields to catch it. The passenger service closed in 1930 but the mineral line continued in operation until 1973. The track has been converted into a walkway which passes the SSSI Field and Siambr Wen leading towards the Clive Engine House 2 1 3 4 BETHEL CHAPEL was built by the Welsh Presbyterians. Their first meetings were in Rose Marie Cottage in Carreg Heilin Lane. This chapel was opened in 1823, and extended in the 1840s. In 1867 some adjoining land was given so the chapel was extended again. It is now privately owned. In 2002 Bethel moved to Dyserth Chapel in the High Street, which they share with the United Reformed Church. 12 CLIVE ENGINE HOUSE was built in 1860 in another attempt to improve the drainage of the mine. It housed a 100-inch cylinder steam-powered beam engine and is one of the best surviving examples of a Cornish engine house in Wales. It served the Clive shaft, which took its name from the Windsor-Clive family who had owned the land over the mine. Restoration works were carried out in early 2012. Easiest approach is from A547. 4 DYSERTH HALL – built in the 17th century by the Hughes family, the most important landowners in the area at the time. Later the tied house for the mine captain of the Talargoch mine and eventually bought by the Roberts family. No public access. 5 THE NEW INN is believed to be around 400 years old. Said to have been a pay house and hostelry for local miners it is also believed to have offered accommodation for visitors to the church opposite. Open every day for food and drink. 10 WATERFALL SHOP. Originally a single-storey stone cottage which served various purposes and was once part of the stables for the Red Lion. In the 1920s Mr Henry Parker, landlord of the Red Lion, converted the building for his son Walter who sold ice-cream and refreshments. Enlarged later, the building is now The Waterfall Shop. 11 THE RED LION HOTEL was built in Victorian times as a semi-detached dwelling house on the right, called Drayton House, together with the Red Lion on the left. The two were amalgamated into one building in 1968/9 when the last tenant left the house. The distinctive gables were removed in 2016. 12 The replacement school (Pendre) for the old school opposite the Red Lion was built on land given by the Bodrhyddan estate and at a cost of £250. It was in use until the 1950s when it was itself superceded by the building in Thomas Avenue. It served for a time as the church hall and as a library but was eventually sold and converted into two dwellings. Opposite is what was until recently the Cross Keys Inn. 14 Near the end of Lower Foel Road, where it meets Cwm Road, there is a (Grade 2 listed) ancient boundary stone set into the wall marked with the letters RM, the initials of Sir Roger Mostyn (c1569-1642) who acquired much land here in the 1590s. Roger Mostyn was an ancestor of William Mostyn who built the 17th century house, Pentre Cwm, on the road from Dyserth out to Cwm 17 BRYN-Y-FELIN Was once the location for a bakehouse, a slaughterhouse and a Police Station. When the oven was ready in the bakehouse - now “Mount View” - a bugle would be sounded to let people know they could bring their own dough to be baked. “Bryn Estyn”, built in 1902, was the slaughterhouse & butchers’ shop. “Graystones”, a few yards away, was the village Police Station. Until recently the property housed two prison cells. From Bryn-y-Felin (“The Bryn”) a footpath leads down across the stream above the waterfall and on towards Carreg Heilin Lane, passing another path leading down to the foot of the waterfall. 15 The old QUARRY OFFICE is now Quarry House Surgery. The crushing plant had its own rail system which carried limestone high above the road by the office, to the lime kilns. 19 10th edition, April 2018 Designed, produced and printed by Peter J Robinson for Dyserth Environmental Group, Printing (paper & printer ink) funded by Dyserth Community Council. Colour photographs copyright © Peter J Robinson Further information available on www.dyserth.com REFRESHMENTS AVAILABLE The Waterfall Café The New Inn The Red Lion Hotel toThe Bodunig Inn in the High Street, with shops, a Fish & Chip Shop, a café in Ftankie’s Farm Food Shop and an Indian Takeaway. Dyserth Falls Resort, north of the Clive Engine House. Car parks 11 12 4 10 15 16 P HOREB CHAPEL (now the Fish & Chip shop) was established by the Union of Welsh Independents in 1843. It became the English Congregational Chapel in 1871 due to a diminishing Welsh-speaking congregation and an increase in the number of English-speaking attendees. In 1927 the congregation moved to a new building nearby, which in 1972 became the United Reformed Church. It was renamed Capel Dyserth Chapel in 2006. There is a plaque on the wall of the Fish & Chip shop to remind us of its history. 16 Older LIME KILNS in the area were generally set into the side of Moel Hiraddug so that material could be fed in from the top. Limestone from the quarry was stacked in alternate layers with fuel such as low quality coal and fired by igniting wood at the bottom entrance. High temperatures changed the limestone into quicklime which was raked out at the foot of the kiln and could be sprinkled with water to produce “slaked” lime. This had many uses, including spreading on fields as a soil improver and in the building industry to produce lime mortar. 18 Dyserth Heritage Trail 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 12 11 13 14 P P P 7 15 16 17 18 D y s e r t h - P r e s t a t y n W a l k w a y Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright & database right 2018 Permissive path 19 N v10 MYNYDD SEION CHAPEL was built by the Wesleyans. They started meetings at Llewerllyd Farm in 1798 and built their first chapel, now Coronation Hall in Maes-y-Llys, in 1822. In 1896 they moved to this building on Waterfall hill. By 1988 the chapel was no longer viable and the congregation had joined with Bethel. 13 12 The trail is now available on the TrailTale App
Dyserth Heritage Trail
Heritage trails produced by Dyserth Environmental group. The leaflet lower down can be downloaded as a PDF Below this there is a Google Map of the Trail locations
In 2018 Dyserth was one of the first places to be included in the TrailTale App
In 2020 Dyserth was included in the North East Wales Digital Trails App
in 2021 Dyserth was included in the website version of North East Wales Digital Trails
Click on the picture to go to the website
Dyserth Heritage Trail click on the image to download
Click on the blue markers for information