Ancient Bwlchgwyn
Romans, Celts & an ancient landscape
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The Lost Hillfort of Bwlchgwyn
Bwlchgwyn's story begins long before the modern village developed. Evidence suggests that people were living in this upland landscape by at least the Bronze Age, when a hillfort or defended enclosure stood on Fron Heulog, overlooking the surrounding countryside.
The site has unfortunately been lost to later quarrying, and little can now be seen of what once stood here. Historical accounts place the beginnings of the River Gwenfro among the springs and wells beneath the old ramparts of the fort, close to the ancient upland farm of Craig-Corn.
The location would have commanded an impressive position above the surrounding landscape. The shallow lead deposits of the area may also have attracted early activity, with later traditions suggesting that both the native Britons and the Romans exploited mineral resources around Bwlchgwyn.
Although the fort itself has disappeared, possible traces of this ancient landscape may survive within the modern village. Hedgerows opposite the George Edwards & Son bus depot have been described as ancient boundaries associated with this early period
The Bronze Age Dead – Maes Maelor
Just west of Bwlchgwyn, beside the A525 towards Llandegla, another remarkable trace of the area's prehistoric past survives at Maes Maelor.
Here stands a prehistoric round barrow, an earthen burial mound probably dating from the Bronze Age, around 2300–800 BC. The monument is now protected as a Scheduled Monument and is considered nationally important for what it may preserve about prehistoric burial and ritual practices.
Early archaeological records describe two substantial mounds at Maes Maelor, one on either side of the road. When recorded in the early twentieth century, both were around 10 feet high and more than 100 paces in circumference, although one had already been heavily disturbed by the removal of material. Today, the surviving grass-covered mound remains a striking feature beside the A525.
Maes Maelor also appears in Bwlchgwyn's local traditions. Writing around the beginning of the twentieth century, Edward Kendrick recorded that it was said that fighting had once taken place there, although he admitted that he did not know the details himself and believed further information could be found in Lord Mostyn's library.
Together with the lost hillfort at Fron Heulog, the barrows provide another reminder that the uplands around Bwlchgwyn were occupied and used long before the arrival of the Romans.
The prehistoric burial mound at Maes Maelor
The people before Rome
Before the Roman conquest, north-east Wales was associated with the Deceangli, one of the native Brittonic peoples of Wales. Their territory included an area particularly rich in lead and other minerals.
When Roman power extended into north-east Wales during the first century AD, those mineral resources became increasingly important. Lead produced in the region was subsequently transported through the Roman economy, including towards the major legionary fortress at Deva — modern Chester.
Lead, Romans and the Ffridd Mining Settlement
By the Roman period, the mineral-rich uplands around Bwlchgwyn formed part of a much wider landscape of lead mining and metalworking in north-east Wales.
Roman activity in the area may stretch back as far as AD 63–69. A Roman lead ingot found near Rossett bears the name of Marcus Trebellius Maximus, Governor of Britain at the time, and was made from north-east Wales lead. Its inscription names a mining site beginning Magul…, which has yet to be identified. Ffrith and Minera have both been suggested as possible locations, tantalisingly placing Bwlchgwyn between the two possible sites.
It has long been suggested that shallow lead veins around Bwlchgwyn were worked first by the native Britons and subsequently during the Roman occupation. Just down Glascoed Road, beyond Waen Farm, archaeological evidence provides a particularly intriguing connection with this period: the site recorded as the Ffridd Roman Mining Settlement.
Ffridd Roman Mining Settlement map
Ffridd Roman Mine today, viewed from Glascoed Road
Ffrith – Bwlchgwyn's Roman neighbour
Only a short distance from Bwlchgwyn lies Ffrith, where substantial evidence of Romano-British occupation has been discovered.
Finds of lead slag and melted lead have led to suggestions that Ffrith was an important centre for lead working, while Roman coins, pottery, jewellery and other objects have also been uncovered around the settlement. Local research has suggested that some of the ore processed here may have come from the lead-rich ground around Bwlchgwyn and Nant-y-Ffrith.
With the great legionary fortress of Deva Victrix at Chester to the east and valuable mineral deposits in the Welsh uplands to the west, the countryside around Bwlchgwyn and Ffrith occupied an intriguing position between the two.
Examples of Roman objects from the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Coins, brooches and pottery were among the types of material reportedly discovered at Ffrith in 1828. These objects are illustrative and are not the original Ffrith finds.
A remarkable discovery in 1828
Further evidence of Ffrith's Roman past came to light in 1828, when work to level part of Offa's Dyke uncovered an extraordinary collection of Roman material. Finds reportedly included numerous coins, decorated fibulae or brooches, rings, pins, beads, pottery and urns, together with what was described as a votive altar bearing a damaged inscription.
Later archaeological accounts record the discovery as including 22 copper coins and a silver coin. The precise location of the find was unfortunately not recorded, but it adds to the considerable body of evidence for Romano-British activity in the Ffrith and Nant-y-Ffrith area.
The finds were also known to the Wrexham historian Alfred Neobard Palmer, who later wrote extensively on the history and archaeology of the district. Accounts associated with Palmer identify coins of the emperors Domitian, Antoninus and Trajan among the discoveries.
Did a Roman Road Pass Through Bwlchgwyn?
The Roman settlement at Ffrith lay on an important route linking Deva (Chester) with Caer Gai, near Bala, but its precise course around Bwlchgwyn remains uncertain. Several researchers have suggested that the road passed through Bwlchgwyn towards Llandegla, an idea recorded as early as 1870.
The evidence is intriguing, but no route through Bwlchgwyn has been conclusively established.
Interested in the detail? Open the section below to explore the historical evidence and proposed routes.
The Roman settlement at Ffrith lay on an important route linking Deva (Chester) with Caer Gai, near Bala. Archaeological records identify the Roman road at Ffrith, but its precise course through the uplands around Bwlchgwyn has long been a subject of discussion.
The pioneering Roman-road historian Ivan D. Margary suggested that one branch followed the old route climbing from Glascoed, passing along the ridge above Nant-y-Ffrith and into Bwlchgwyn. From here, its suggested course follows approximately the line of today's main road westwards towards Llandegla and Pen-y-stryt, a name meaning “the end of the road”, before continuing across the moors.
An account published in Archaeologia Cambrensis in 1871 provides an early clue, recording a Roman road said to lie several feet beneath the surface between Glascoed and Pant-derwydd (location uncertain), following an old road towards Pen-dinas and Aber-derfyn. The writer believed the route continued westwards towards Caer Gai and Bala. Much later, local researcher Ifor Edwards traced a similar route from Ffrith, through the valley behind Glascoed Hall and towards the old turnpike road at Bwlchgwyn, passing Fron Heulog.
The connection with Bwlchgwyn was being suggested as early as 1870. Writing from Nant-y-Ffrith Hall, R. V. Kyrke described a tradition that a Roman road ran up the valley through Bwlchgwyn's lead-bearing district. He suggested that ore from these hills may have been taken to Ffrith for smelting. (R. V. Kyrke, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1871, p.98)
There is even an intriguing clue in a much later document. Norden's survey of the area in 1620 records the name “howle y Glascoed”. The Welsh word heol, meaning road or way, has sometimes been associated by historians with ancient routes.
Another possible route was investigated more recently. In the 1980s local researcher John Dutton reported discovering what he believed to be an ancient mineral road after noticing a series of ditches while walking along Nant Road in Bwlchgwyn. With Charlie Harston, he traced the suspected route for seven or eight miles towards Maeshafn. They believed the road may have been Roman and connected with the movement of lead and other minerals through the mining districts of north-east Wales. Surviving sections were described as cambered, with kerbs and side ditches, while near Rhydtalog part of the road was reportedly found only a few inches beneath the surface.
Whether every part of the route through Bwlchgwyn is genuinely Roman remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that Bwlchgwyn stood close to a landscape of Roman settlement, mining and communications, and some of the old routes crossing the village may be considerably older than they first appear.
An ancient track near Bwlchgwyn. Some routes across these uplands may preserve lines travelled for many centuries.
Ancient Tracks That Survive Today
Whatever their precise origins, old tracks still provide a physical link with the landscape travelled by generations before us.
Between Bwlchgwyn, Glascoed and Ffrith, an old packhorse trail survives through the countryside. Today's Bwlchgwyn–Nant-y-Ffrith walking route follows part of it after leaving Ffrith, crossing the river and passing beneath the old mineral tramway before reaching Glascoed Hall. Wrexham Council notes the possibility that this route may even have been used during the Roman period to transport lead from Minera towards Ffrith.
The route is particularly fascinating because Ffrith itself developed on the line of the Roman road from Chester towards Caer Gai. A historic packhorse bridge also survives at Ffrith, demonstrating that this corridor continued to be used long after the end of Roman rule.
Another old route can be traced from the Old Road near Tan-y-Bwlch Farm, heading westwards across the uplands towards Llandegla. Like the Glascoed track, its age and origins are difficult to establish with certainty, but it forms part of a much older network of lanes, tracks and paths crossing the moors around Bwlchgwyn.
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