7 wonders of wales

7/31/2019 7 Wonders of Wales

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7 Wonders of Wales

Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,Snowdon's mountain without its people,Overton Yew-trees, St. Winifred wells,Llangollen Bridge and Gresford bells

The anonymous nursery rhyme listing the so-called seven wonders of Wales was probably writtenby an English visitor to North Wales sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century.

Pistyll RhaeadrTranslated as the spring of the waterfall, the impressivecascade, at 240 ft (74 metres) is the highest in Wales. Thewater drops first into a rock basin, and then descends under anatural arch of stone. Of the justly-famed falls, 19th Centuryauthor and traveler George Borrow remarked: "I never sawwater falling so gracefully, so much like thin, beautiful threadsas here."

Wrexham SteepleThe steeple of the famous rhyme, which can be seen for manymiles as the tallest building in the town, turns out to be not asteeple at all, but the 16th century tower of the Church of St.Giles.The richly-decorated tower, 135-feet high, with its four strikinghexagonal turrets, was begun in 1506. It is graced by manymedieval carvings including those of an arrow and a deer, theattributes of St. Giles. The interior of the church also contains

many late medieval carvings and monuments. On a windowyou can find the words of the 1819 hymn by Reginald Heber,"From Greenland's Icy Mountains." Just outside the church,west of the tower is the grave of Elihu Yale, with its long,fanciful epitaph containing the following lines:

Born in America, in Europe bred,In Africa travell'd, and in Asia wed,

Where long he lov'd and thriv'd;At London dead.


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Snowdon's Mountain

Snowdon gets its English name from the Saxon Snow Dun, the snow hill or fortress; it is but onemountain inside the largest of the three national parks of Wales (845 sq. miles). Within the park(Parc Genedlaethol Eryri) are several mountain ranges, with 15 peaks over 3,000 feet. For manyUS visitors, the park, whose Welsh name Eryri means "home of eagles," resembles a miniatureWestern Colorado because of its extremely steep and rugged slopes. Though tiny by worldstandards, the precipitous heights found in many areas of the park helped train the British team thatconquered Mt.Everest in 1953 The highest point is Yr Wyddfa (3,560 ft), named after Rhita Gawr, agiant killed by King Arthur said to be buried in a cairn (Gwyddfa Rhita) on top of the mountain. Intoone of its lakes, Llyn Llydaw, the mighty Excalibur,(Caledfwlch) was thrown by Arthur, mortallywounded nearby. Other heights on the same mountain massif are Crib-y-Ddysgyl, Crib Goch,Lliwedd and Yr Aran.

Overton Yew TreesFor many centuries, the pleasant village of Overton was located inMaelor Saesneg (English Maelor), a part of Flintshire entirelysurrounded by English territory. It is now in the county of Denbigh aspart of Wrexham Maelor, the new parliamentary district.

At Overton, St. Mary's Church dates only to the 13th century, thoughthere may have been a small Christian oratory on the site as early asthe seventh century. One of the oldest features of the church is aNorman circle cross built into the western pillar of the Nave. Onanother pillar by the pulpit is an unusual brass processional crossthat was brought back from Abyssinia by British soldiers in the 19thcentury. Rescued from a scrap pile in that unfortunate country, theinscribed cross may date to the sixth century. Some of the 21famous yew trees in the churchyard date back at least to the 12th

century, when the first stone church was erected.

Perhaps the yew tree, which begins again with new roots after theolder tree has rotted away and therefore lasts for many centuries,

has a pre-Christian tradition. It is certainly difficult to ascertain the importance to Welsh history ofthe Overton yew trees and their inclusion in the nursery rhyme unless one considers the honoredplace of Welsh mercenary soldiers in the armies of England. Yew's elastic properties made it theideal wood for the longbow, for over three centuries the main weapon of the English army. Edwardthe 1st is said to have decreed that yews trees should be planted in all English churchyards toprovide a plentiful supply of wood for the longbow. To effectively utilize its power, a large body of


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archers was recruited in Wales, a country with a long military tradition, and where the longbow mayhave been first developed. In the 14th century, these soldiers were paid six pence a day, muchmore than they could ever have earned on the farms or in the mills in their home villages.

St. Winifreds Well

The well, originally formed from a mountain spring, is housed below the town on the side of a steephill in the shrine of St. Winifride (Gwenffrwd or Gwenfrewi), regarded as the finest survivingexample of a medieval holy well in Britain.

When a local chieftain named Caradoc attempted to rape Beuno's niece Gwenffrwd, she ran to thechapel for sanctuary, but though she failed to reach the doors, her refusal to submit to her pursuercaused him to cut off her head in his rage. The head rolled down the hillside, a spring miraculouslyappearing where it came to rest in a deep hollow. Beuno reattached Gwenffrwd's head, and shelived to become an abbess and later, a saint. The would-be rapist Caradoc, meanwhile, fell deadunder the saint's curse.

The well formed from the spring then became a place ofpilgrimage visited by the rich and poor and famous,including Richard 1st, to pray for his Crusade; Henry V(both before and after his famous victory at Agincourt),who came on foot from Shrewsbury; and King James II,who came here to pray for a son (a prayer which, inbitter irony, was granted by the birth of the ill-fated OldPretender).

St. Winifred's Well is the only shrine in Britain that hasan unbroken tradition of pilgrimage since the earlyMedieval period.

Llangollen Bridge

The original bridge is supposed to have been constructed by Henry 1st and believed reconstructedin 1346 by Dr. John Trevor, Bishop of Saint Asaph . The bridge offers a great view over the riverDee, and because of this it is also called Dee Bridge. Up to the I9th century Llangollen town waslocated south-east of the bridge around Bridge Street and Church Street, and to the north-westaround the old village green, which has now disappeared , but is remembered by such names as'Green Lane; and 'Green Lodge' which still exist.


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Gresford Bells

The village of Gresford, is the home of the seventh wonder, the bells of the Parish Church of AllSaints. Not only are the peal of bells of note, listed it is said for the purity of their tone, but theChurch itself is remarkable for its size, its beauty, its interior monuments, and its yew-filledchurchyard.

Though the present edifice was built in the late 13th Century by a Welsh patron with the wonderfulname of Trahaearn ap Ithel ap Eunydd (and his five brothers), additions and improvements in the14th and 15th centuries obscure much of the original building. The very size of All Saints meantthat it was probably a place of pilgrimage for centuries, housing a relic or stature of a saint that hassince disappeared. A niche in the Lady Chapel is thought to have held this artifact, probably astatue of the Virgin (a modern statue now occupies the space). Some of the stained glass windowsin the church came from the dissolved abbey at Basingwerk on the banks of the Dee belowHolywell. The church was also richly endowed by Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, whoseintervention at the Battle of Bosworth helped Henry Tudor overcome Richard III in his successfulquest for the throne of Britain.

The earliest record of the peal of Gresford bells dates back only to 1714.An apparatus was installed in the belfry in 1877 so that all eight bells

could be chimed by one person. The tenor bell is 1.2 tonnes (comparewith Britain's largest, the Great Paul in London at 16 tonnes and thelargest bell in a ringing peal, the emanuel at Liverpool Cathedral at 4tonnes). The bells are rung regularly for church services, and the oldcustom of ringing on November 5th is still continued, though it is unclearwhether this is to commemorate the successful landing of William ofOrange in 1688, or the Gunpowder Plot of Guy Fawkes to blow upParliament in 1605. During World War II, the custom of tolling the passing bell was discontinued, aswas the practice of signifying the curfew. During the last War, the bells were to be rung only as aninvasion warning.

Inside the impressive church, one of the most remarkable finds was discovered in 1907 byworkmen, the Gresford Stone. This is a Roman altar that was hidden for centuries, being used as a

stone block in the rebuilding of the medieval church. The altar has four carved sides and adecorative depression at the top, used for the placement of offerings to the goddess Nemesis (or

Atropos) depicted on one side. She is holding a pair of shears to cut short the thread of a person'slife. The altar was probably part of a Romano-Celtic shrine dating back to 100 to 350 A.D.

During the first half of the 20th century, the work force at the United Wrexham and WestminsterColliery Company, with mines in the Gresford area, reached 2200 men. Alas, in the frantic rush toexploit the newly-discovered coal seams of the region, a whole array of safety procedures andrescue systems was conveniently ignored by the pit owners and managers. A number of totallyunqualified junior officials were also put in charge of safety procedures at the Dennis section at the


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Gresford Colliery, where.their interest lay in simply increasing coal output than in the safety orworking conditions of the miners. Shot-firing rules were not observed, and no emergency drills werecarried out. We can only imagine the dreadful scene that took place on the twenty-second ofSeptember, 1934.

The bells of Gresford solemnly announced to the world that one of the greatest tragedies in thehistory of Welsh coal mining had taken place that morning when an explosion and fire rippedthrough the Dennis section of the mine. Apart from the lucky six men who escaped the blast, alongwith a few men at the pit bottom, all the men working that day were killed -- a total of 266 miners.Such was the force of the explosion and the immensity of the following fire, that the pit was sealedoff and the dead miners entombed forever where they lay. Over 160 widows were left in thesurrounding villages to provide for over 200 children.

Following the disaster, a court of enquiry was held from October 1934 until July 1936. The miners'families were represented by Sir Stafford Cripps (of later fame as a wartime Cabinet Minister under

Attlee), who charged the owners and mine officials with 43 offences of negligence. It is sad to relatethat, despite the expertise of Sir Stafford, only six offenses were proved, with ludicrously minorfines imposed. Relieved at their undeserved good fortune, the owners continued to operate the restof the mine until 1973, with a few mountainous slag heaps still remaining today to show that thearea was once a centre of the coal industry.

7 wonders of wales

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