Llangollen

Llangollen is a small town in Denbighshire, north Wales, famous for the Llangollen International Eisteddfod, the Llangollen Canal and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Llangollen Railway.

"The Dee is here crossed by a 14th-century bridge of four arches, one of the seven wonders of Wales, built by John Trevor, afterwards bishop of St Asaph (Lianelwy). The Anglican church of St Cohen, Norman and Early English, has a monument in the churchyard to the Ladies of Llangollen, Lady Eleanor Butler and Hon. Sarah Ponsonby, of Plas Newydd, (1778 to 1829 and 1831 respectively).

The house is now a museum. Castell Dinas Bran (the castle of the town of Bran; the mountain stream below is also called Bran), the ruins of a fortress on a high conical hill about I m. from the town, is supposedly British, of unknown date. An old ruynous thinge, as the Elizabethan poet Churchyard calls it even in the 16th century, it was inhabited, apparently, about 1390, by Myfanwy Fechan of the Tudor Trevor family and beloved by the bard Howel ab Einion Llygliw, whose ode to her is still extant. Valle Crucis Abbey (Lion Egwest) is a Cistercian ruin at the foot of Bronfawr hill, some 2 m. N.W. of Llangollen, founded about 1200 by Madoc ab Gruffydd Maelor, lord of Dinas Bran and grandson of Owen Gwynedd, prince of Wales. Llan Egwcst, dissolved in 1535, was given by James I. to Lord Edward Wootton. In the meadow adjoining, still called Llwyn y Groes ( grove of the cross ), is ,Elisegs Pillar.

Eliseg was father of Brochmael, prince of Powys, and his grandson, Concen or Congen, appears to have erected the pillar, which is now broken, with an illegible inscription; the modern inscription dates only from 779. At Llangollen are linen and woollen manufactures, and near are collieries, lime and iron works. Brewing, malting and slatequarrying are also carried on. Within the parish, an aqueduct carries the Ellesmere canal across the Dee." [ 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica] The Ladies of Llangollen lived in the town, and the River Dee passes through the town.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.