Rhostyllen () is a village in

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough, with city status in the United Kingdom, city status, in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It borders the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire and Shropshire to ...

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

, south-west of the city of

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

. At the time of the 2001 census, area Wrexham 014A, which includes Rhostyllen itself, had a population of 1,383 in 599 households.Wrexham 014A Key Figures
Office for National Statistics

Etymology

Its name may be derived from the Welsh words ''rhos'' ("moor", or " rush pasture") and ''estyll'' ("staves" or "planks").

History

Rhostyllen was a part of the old

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Esclusham Below (i.e. "below"

Offa's Dyke Offa's Dyke () is a large linear Earthworks (Archaeology), earthwork that roughly follows the England–Wales border, border between England and Wales. The structure is named after Offa of Mercia, Offa, the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon king of Mer ...

) and in 1879 was incorporated into the new ecclesiastical parish of Esclusham. The parish church, Holy Trinity, was completed in 1877.Esclusham, Holy Trinity
, Clwyd FHS The corresponding

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Esclusham became the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

of Esclusham in 1974. Rhostyllen is a former mining village, with Bersham (or Glanyrafon) Colliery, which before closure in December 1986 was the last working

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

in the

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

coalfield, situated to the east of Wrexham Road. Like other villages in the area, many of its buildings are nineteenth-century miners' houses built in the distinctive local "Ruabon Red" brick.Landscape Character Area 7c
Wrexham County Borough Council This character is under threat as the village becomes increasingly linked to the outskirts of Wrexham by infill and commercial development along the A483 road.

Amenities

The focal point of the village is the village hall, built in 1924, and its recreation grounds.Davies, Jenkins and Baines, ''The Welsh Academy encyclopaedia of Wales'', University of Wales Press, 2008, p.267

Transport

Rhostyllen's

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

was closed to passengers as long ago as 1931; the village was also formerly served by the line of the Wrexham and District Electric Tramways Company, opened in 1903, which ran from Penybryn in Wrexham to Johnstown and Rhosllannerchrugog: the halfway

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains o ...

was situated at the ''Black Lion'' in Rhostyllen. Rhostyllen is served by the

A483 The A483, officially described as the Swansea to Manchester Trunk Road, although now ending in Chester, is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs from Swansea in Wales to Chester in England via Llandovery, Llandrindod Wells, Oswestry and W ...

trunk road.

Erddig

The eighteenth-century house and parkland at Erddig, now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

, is nearby.

References

External links

Wrexham County Borough Council

www.geograph.co.uk: photos of Rhostyllen and surrounding area
{{authority control Villages in Wrexham County Borough