Pentrefoelas is a village and

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, ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is a county borough in Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south, and Denbighshire to the east. Other settlements in the county borough include Abergele, Betws-y-Coed, Colwyn Bay, Conwy ...

, Wales. The village lies on the

A5 road A5 Road may refer to: ;Africa * A5 highway (Nigeria), a road connecting Lagos and Ibadan * A5 road (Zimbabwe), a road connecting Harare and Francistown ;Americas * Quebec Autoroute 5, a road in Quebec, Canada * County Route A5 (California) or B ...

between

Betws-y-Coed Betws-y-coed (; '' en, prayer house in the wood'') is a village and community in the Conwy valley in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located in the historic county of Caernarfonshire, right on the boundary with Denbighshire, in the Gwydir Forest. ...

to the west and

Cerrigydrudion Cerrigydrudion, sometimes spelt ''Cerrig-y-drudion'', () is a village and community in Conwy, Wales. Until 1974 it was part of the historic county Denbighshire, when it became part of the newly formed county of Clwyd. When the county of Clwyd wa ...

to the east. The Afon Merddwr river, a tributary of the

River Conwy , name_etymology = , image = Boats in River Conwy.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = Boats in the river estuary at Conwy , map = , map_size = , map_caption = , pus ...

, flows through it. The community had a population of 356 at the time of the 2011 census, 70% were able to speak Welsh. It has an area of 53.86 km² and covers a large region around the village including part of

Mynydd Hiraethog Denbigh Moors ( Welsh: Mynydd Hiraethog) is an upland region in Conwy and Denbighshire in north-east Wales, between Snowdonia and the Clwydian Range. It includes the large reservoirs Llyn Brenig and Llyn Alwen, and the Clocaenog Forest, which h ...

, Llyn Alwen and part of

Alwen Reservoir The Alwen Reservoir or Cronfa Alwen is a long reservoir near Pentre-Llyn-Cymmer in Conwy County Borough, Wales. History The reservoir and dam were constructed between 1911 and 1920 bAlexander Binnie, Son and Deacon(Resident Engineer John M. Pa ...

. It is in the electoral ward of

Llangernyw Llangernyw () is a rural, mostly Welsh-speaking, village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. Overview At the 2011 census, the community had a population of 1,079 of whom 63.7 percent were Welsh speakers. The comparable figures for the ...

. The community includes the small settlement of Rhydlydan. The name of the village comes from ''pentre'' ( Welsh for "village") and a nearby hill, ''Foel Las'' ("green bare-topped hill"). The hill is the site of a

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

built around 1164 in the time of

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 ...

. Old Voelas House (or Plas Foel Las), mansion 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 two kilometres to the west. The current Voelas Hall was built in 1961 and was designed by the architect

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

.Davies, John; Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines & Peredur I. Lynch (2008) ''The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales'', University of Wales Press, Cardiff. Other buildings around the village include: *''Plas Iolyn'', home to Rhys Fawr ap Maredudd, his son Robert ap Rhys (the chaplain to Cardinal Wolsey), his grandson the 16th-century MP Elis Prys (known as Dr Coch and notorious for his oppression of the district) and his great-grandson, the poet

Tomos Prys Tomos Prys (c.1564–1634) was a Welsh soldier, sailor and poet. He was the eldest son of Ellis Price MP, of Plas Iolyn, Pentrefoelas, Denbighshire. Life He followed a seafaring life for many years, joining expeditions under both Sir Walter Ral ...

. It is now a farmhouse. *''Gilar'', built in the 16th century for the poet Rhys Wyn ap Cadwaladr (fl. c. 1600), perhaps by his father Cadwaladr ap Maurice after receiving a substantial grant of land from Henry VIII in 1545–1546, which included the land later occupied by Plas Iolyn and Old Voelas House. *The village had a chapelry of

Ysbyty Ifan Ysbyty Ifan (often formerly anglicised as Yspytty Ifan) is a small, historic village and community in the Conwy County Borough of Wales. The population in 2011 was 196 in 76 households (29 household spaces had no usual residents), over 79% of t ...

built in 1766 and known as ''Voelas Chapel''. The ''Parish Church'' was built on the same site in 1857–1859.Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust
''Pentrefoelas Church''
Accessed 13 March 2012. *The Pentrefoelas watermill (''Melin Voelas'') for grinding flour dates from 1815 and was restored by Clwyd County Council as part of a heritage scheme. The ironwork for the external overshot waterwheel was originally cast by the

Llanrwst Llanrwst ('church or parish of Saint Grwst'; ) is a market town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy, in Conwy County Borough, Wales, and the historic county of Denbighshire. It developed round the wool trade and became known als ...

Foundry probably sometime in the 19th century File:Pentrefoelas.jpg, View towards the village File:Plas Iolyn 768546.jpg, Plas Iolyn File:Gilar - geograph.org.uk - 768450.jpg, Gilar File:The church, Pentrefoelas NLW3361362.jpg, Parish Church c. 1875 File:Graveyard, Pentrefoelas - geograph.org.uk - 612273.jpg, Graveyard, Pentrefoelas File:Pentrefoelas, watermill - geograph.org.uk - 55300.jpg, Pentrefoelas watermill

Climate

Notable residents

Charlotte Godley Charlotte Godley (14 November 1821 – 3 January 1907) was a New Zealand letter-writer and community leader. Family She was born as Charlotte Griffith-Wynne in Voelas House (subsequently demolished) in Denbighshire, Wales in 1821. She was the ...

(née Griffiths-Wynne), born in Voelas House, was the wife of

John Robert Godley John Robert Godley (29 May 1814 – 17 November 1861) was an Anglo-Irish statesman and bureaucrat. Godley is considered to be the founder of Canterbury, New Zealand, although he lived there for only two years. Early life Godley was born in Dubl ...

, founder of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand. * Edward Wynne-Finch, born in Voelas House, first-class cricketer

References

External links

A Vision of Britain Through Time

British Listed Buildings

Geograph

Office for National Statistics

Pentrefoelas
{{authority control Villages in Conwy County Borough Communities in Conwy County Borough