The River Gwenfro ( cy, Afon Gwenfro) is a small river in
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 ...
, north
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. It is a tributary of the
Clywedog.
[''Rand McNally encyclopedia of world rivers'', 1980, p.167] The name Gwenfro is possibly derived from the
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...
words ''gwen'' (feminine of ''gwyn''), "white", and ''bro'', "border", "boundary".
[Davis, E. ''Flintshire place-names'', University of Wales Press, 1959, p.79] (However ''bro'' here means "vale", and ''gwen'' is likely to mean "holy", thus "holy vale".)
The river rises at a number of small springs south and east of the village of
Bwlchgwyn, including a place called ''Ffynnon y Ceirw'' ("spring of the stags"). It flows eastwards for several miles through a rather deep valley, and is joined by several other streams; it then passes through
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 ...
city centre, where it is largely culverted, and joins the Clywedog at King's Mills.
The section of the river that passes through Wrexham city centre was culverted in 1881 and now passes beneath Brook Street.
The Gwenfro was an important water source for Wrexham industry and has had pollution issues. Although still periodically affected – an incident in 2006 led to a fine for
Welsh Water – fish including
brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morp ...
and
roach
Roach may refer to:
Animals
* Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea
* Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae
** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes
* California roa ...
are now present.
[Water firm pollution killed fish]
BBC news, 28-07-07
References
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Gwenfro
2Gwenfro