Gwynfryn is a hill-top village 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, ...

Minera Minera ( cy, Mwynglawdd; ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It adjoins the village of Coedpoeth. The community, which in addition to Minera village includes a number of smaller hamlets such as Gwynfryn and New Brigh ...

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the ...

, Wales. Its name, originally that of the village chapel, is formed from the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

words ''bryn'', "hill", and ''gwyn'', "white": "white hill". At the time of the 2001 census, its population combined with that of the neighbouring, larger village of

Bwlchgwyn Bwlchgwyn is a village in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, on the A525 road, west of the city of Wrexham and south-east of the town of Ruthin. Bwlchgwyn is part of the community of Brymbo. In the 2011 Census the population of the village was ...

was 1,148. Like the neighbouring villages of Minera and Bwlchgwyn, Gwynfryn is associated with the development of lead mines and limestone quarries in the vicinity. It is situated at the head of the Clywedog Valley in a hilly

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

area.Landscape Character Area – Minera, Gwynfryn, Bwlchgwyn
Wrexham County Borough The area was originally known as Plas-Gwyn ("white hall") Mountain, its name on the 1879 and 1900

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

s of

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, or as Pentre-Bais ("petticoat village"). According to a local story the latter name was changed to Gwynfryn by the disapproving village postmaster (or schoolmaster, in some versions).Minera history
BBC North East Wales
Minera History There was a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Gwynfryn, which in 1905 had a congregation of 194.Minera

GENUKI GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

There was also a small

Church in Wales The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The p ...

chapel, St David's, which as of 2010 has been closed. The musician, composer and

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

adjudicator Thomas Carrington (1881–1961) was born in Gwynfryn.Thomas Carrington
National Library of Wales

References

{{authority control Villages in Wrexham County Borough