Abermorddu () is a village in the county of Flintshire, Wales, 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, village, tow ...

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...

. Approximately 5 miles north of

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 count ...

along the

A541 road The A541 is an A road in North Wales. The road starts on the A525 in Trefnant, between St Asaph and Denbigh, and ends in Wrexham. On the way, it passes the town of Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can ...

, it is contiguous with the main village of Caergwrle and closely related to the village of Hope. In the 19th century there was a turnpike road known as Abermorddu Branch running from the tollhouse at King's Ferry to Abermorddu. Its name probably comes from the confluence (''aber'') of a small brook called ''Morddu'' with the

River Alyn The River Alyn ( cy, Afon Alun) is a tributary of the River Dee, in north-east Wales. The River Alyn rises at the southern end of the Clwydian hills and the Alyn Valley forms part of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Nat ...

.Davies, Ellis (1959) ''Flintshire Place-names'', UWP, p.1

Landmarks

Abermorddu Primary School, although originally in the village, has for the many decades had its site in Cefn-y-bedd, whilst the local

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

is in nearby Hope. To the northwest along the A541 is the ruins of

Caergwrle Castle Caergwrle Castle ( cy, Castell Caergwrle), also known as Queen's Hope in scholarly texts, is located in the town of Caergwrle, in Flintshire, Wales. It was built by the Welsh under Dafydd ap Gruffydd in service to Edward I of England. When Daf ...

. It was probably built by

Dafydd ap Gruffydd Dafydd ap Gruffydd (11 July 1238 – 3 October 1283) was Prince of Wales from 11 December 1282 until his execution on 3 October 1283 on the orders of King Edward I of England. He was the last native Prince of Wales before the conquest of Wa ...

after being given land by

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

of England after his initial conquest of Wales in 1277. It was damaged by the Welsh in 1282, and ceded to John of Cromwell in 1308 to rebuild it, but by 1335 it was in ruins and has remained as such. A new housing estate has sprung up in the village at Parc Celyn. The estate, with three and four bedroom houses, lies off Cymau lane, next to Abermorddu Primary School. Close to the housing estate is believed to be the remains of a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

burial chamber although the site is likely to be merely a barrow cemetery. A street in the estate is named "Llys Cromlech" (

Cromlech A cromlech (sometimes also spelled "cromleh" or "cromlêh"; cf Welsh ''crom'', "bent"; ''llech'', "slate") is a megalithic construction made of large stone blocks. The word applies to two different megalithic forms in English, the first being an ...

)/Dolmen Court) in testament to the prehistoric activity in the vicinity.

References

External links

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