Pentrefoelas

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Pentrefoelas
Denbighshire

The Foelas Arms
Location
Grid reference: SH8751
Location: 53°2’56"N, 3°40’48"W
Data
Population: 339  (2001)
Post town: Bettws-y-Coed
Postcode: LL24
Dialling code: 01690
Local Government
Council: Conwy
Parliamentary
constituency:
Clwyd West

Pentrefoelas is a village and parish in Denbighshire. The village lies on the A5 road between Betws-y-coed to the west and Cerrigydrudion to the east. The Merddwr river, a tributary of the River Conwy, flows through it. The parish had a population of 339 at the time of the 2001 census.[1] It has an area of 13,300 acres and covers a large region around the village including part of Mynydd Hiraethog, Llyn Alwen and part of Alwen Reservoir.[2]

The name of the village comes from pentre (Welsh language for "village") and a nearby hill, Foel Las ("green bare-topped hill").[3] The hill is the site of a motte built around 1164 in the time of Owain Gwynedd. Old Voelas House, home of the Wynne family, was built at the foot of the hill in 1545. It was demolished in 1819 and a new site was established a mile to the west. The current Voelas Hall was built in 1961 and was designed by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis.[2]

Plas Iolyn

Other houses around the village include Plas Iolyn, home to the 16th-century MP Ellis Price and his son, the poet Tomos. It is now a farmhouse.

Y Giler, built in the 16th century, was the home of the poet Rhys Wyn and is now a pub.[2] The village had a chapel in mediæval times but the site of the current church was first used in the 1770s and the current building dates from 1857–1859.[4]

References

  1. "Census 2001: Parish Headcounts: Conwy". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/viewFullDataset.do?instanceSelection=03070&productId=779&$ph=60_61&datasetInstanceId=3070&startColumn=1&numberOfColumns=8&containerAreaId=790561. Retrieved 9 April 2013. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Davies, John; Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines & Peredur I. Lynch (2008) The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales, University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
  3. Owen, Hywel Wyn & Richard Morgan (2007) Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales, Gomer Press, Llandysul, Cardiganshire.
  4. Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust. Pentrefoelas Church. Accessed 13 March 2012.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Pentrefoelas)