Ysceifiog, also written Ysgeifiog, is a small village,

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 ...

and parish in

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It lies on a back road just north of the A541 highway between

Nannerch Nannerch is a village and community in Flintshire, Wales, located within the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. At the 2001 Census the population of Nannerch was 531, reducing to 496 in 2011. History Nannerch (pr ...

and

Caerwys Caerwys is a town in Flintshire, Wales. It is just under two miles from the A55 road, A55 North Wales Expressway and one mile from the A541 road, A541 Mold, Flintshire, Mold-Denbigh road. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census, the popula ...

. The name translates roughly as "a place where

elder tree ''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...

s grow".Glossary of Welsh Placenames
Ordnance Survey The parish includes the villages of

Lixwm Licswm is a small village in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the community (Wales), community of Ysceifiog. Licswm was formerly a mining village, and one explanation of its unusual name was that it was given to it by miners who moved to the ar ...

, to the east of Ysceifiog village, and

Babell Babell is a hamlet in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the community (Wales), community of Ysgeifiog. The hamlet takes its name from the Babell Presbyterian Church of Wales, Methodist chapel, built in 1836, but the surrounding area, a township ( ...

, to the north.

Notable residents

The antiquarian and copyist of Welsh manuscripts John Jones (c.1585-1657/8) was born and brought up in the small mansion of Gellilyfdy in Ysceifiog parish.

Thomas Wynne Thomas Wynne (July 20, 1627 – January 16, 1692) was personal physician of William Penn and one of the original settlers of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania. Born in Ysceifiog, Wales, where his family dated back seventeen generat ...

(1627–1692) was born in Ysceifiog, where his family dated back seventeen generations to

Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...

. Wynne became personal

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

and was one of the original settlers of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...

. He also served as speaker for the first two Pennsylvania Assemblies of the Province in Philadelphia in 1687 and 1688. The poet William Edwards (Wil Ysceifiog) also lived there in the first half of the 19th century, and

John Owen (1733-1776) John Owen may refer to: Sports * John Owen (footballer) (1849–1921), English footballer and educator *John Owen (athlete) (1861–1924), American sprinter *Johnny Owen (1956–1980), Welsh boxer * John Owen (cricketer) (born 1971), English crick ...

, one of the pioneers of Methodism in Flintshire, was a native of Ysceifiog.

Today

The village

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, the ''Fox Inn'', is a substantially unaltered 18th century building, with a front room listed on

CAMRA The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is the ...

's register of nationally important pub interiors.Wales Pub Guide: The Fox Inn, Ysceifiog, Flintshire
''Daily Telegraph'' The village committee maintains the local village hall which plays hosts to varying village events. The local football team, Ysceifiog F.C., joined the Llandyrnog and District Village Summer League in 1976. It took them 31 years to win a trophy. Although taking the name of the village Ysceifiog Wolves JFC, a successful junior league football team coming runners up in the Tesco UK Championships in 2011.

Sources

*Dewi Roberts ''The old villages of Denbighshire and Flintshire'' (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. 1999)

References

External links

*
Photos of Ysceifiog and surrounding area on geograph.org.ukWebsite of Ysceifiog Community Council
{{authority control Villages in Flintshire Communities in Flintshire