Llanrhos

Llanrhos (English: 'Church on the moor') is a village to the east and south of Llandudno in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The parish traditionally includes Deganwy, the Craig-y-Don district of Llandudno, the Little Orme and Penrhyn Bay.[1] Until the 19th century, the name Eglwysrhos was used interchangeably with Llanrhos, but seemed to fall out of favour with time. From the 19th century Eglwysrhos was predominately used to describe the wider parish, and Llanrhos the village inside its boundaries. The parish was almost entirely rural until the 19th and 20th century when urban and residential developments began to be built - first at Deganwy, then Craig-y-Don and later Penrhyn Bay. It is bordered to the north by Llandudno Parish, and to the southeast by the parish of LLangwstenin.[2]

Llanrhos

Saint Hilary's church at Llanrhos
Llanrhos
Location within Conwy
OS grid referenceSH790800
Community
Principal area
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLLANDUDNO
Postcode districtLL30
Dialling code01492
PoliceNorth Wales
FireNorth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
  • Aberconwy

Notable buildings

Saint Hilary's Church

The Church in Wales parish church is dedicated to St Hilary and is in the diocese of St Asaph.[3] It is said to have been erected on the site of a mid-6th-century church built by Maelgwn Gwynedd, whose castle was within the parish on the twin peaks at Deganwy. The church was rebuilt by the Cistercian monks of Aberconwy Abbey in 1282 and remained largely unchanged until extensive rebuilding in 1820 and 1865, paid for by the Mostyn family and local landowners. The rebuild incorporated the roof beams and many other features of the late medieval church and these are still in place. Local legend recounted by Thomas Pennant in his 1784 work A Tour in Wales, has it that Maelgwyn died at the church, having taken refuge there to avoid the yellow pestilence. The plague is colourfully said to have taken the form of a fair women with the powers of a basilisk, who slew Maelgwyn with a glance as he incautiously looked out of a window.[4] He is said to have been buried beneath the south door. St Mary's well (Welsh: Ffynnon Santes Fair) is west of the church; once lost it was rediscovered after local flooding in June 1993, being excavated and restored the following year. It is said that Maelgwyn's church was originally dedicated to Saint Mary, before the Cistercians rebuilt and rededicated the holy site to Saint Hilary.[5][6]

Gloddaeth Hall

The historic mansion of Gloddaeth Hall was the home of Iorwerth Goch of Creuddyn and pre-dates the 13th century conquest of Edward I. By 1460 it had become through marriage one of the homes of the Mostyn family, members of which lived there until about 1935 when it became a girls' boarding school, which closed in 1964. In 1965, Lord Mostyn transferred the lease to Saint David's College for boys, which is now co-educational.

Bodysgallen Hall

Bodysgallen Hall, within the village, home of its bachelor owner, Ievan Lloyd Mostyn, until his death in 1966, was sold in 1967 for £15,000 with the contents being sold for £35,000. Cadwallon Lawhir's 5th century AD residence ruins are extant atop a woodland knoll above the present Bodysgallen Hall (Williams, 1835). The square tower (non-defensive) has a five-storey, ascending anti-clock wise, extant spiral staircase, which yields commanding views to the north (Lumina Technologies, 2006). Bodysgallen Hall is now a five-star destination hotel.

The Mostyn Arms and the Queen's Head

The village was once home to two sizeable public houses, The Mostyn Arms and The Queen's Head. These buildings flanked the church to the north and south, a proximity which was to be their undoing when the pious Lady Augusta Mostyn ordered their demolition in the latter years of the 19th century. The adjacency of the public houses to her estate was another factor which hastened their demise, as Lady Mostyn felt the nearness of such temptations was hampering the productivity of her workers. In 1898 Lady Mostyn came to an arrangement with the owner of the Mostyn arms - Sam Hughes - providing him with a freehold a short distance to the north on which he could build a new premises. This building still stands today on the southern outskirts of Llandudno and is called The Links Hotel (Gwesty Links in Welsh).

Llanrhos Temperance Hotel

True to her convictions, in 1908 Lady Mostyn would go on to build a temperance house known as Llanrhos Temperance Hotel opposite the church, which later found use as a sub-post office. The building still stands and is now in use as a private residence.[7][8][9]

Llanrhos Grange

Over the years Llanrhos Grange was also known as Bryn Lupus and Swinglehurst. It was a substantial 2-storied stucco building with grounds.[10] It is notable for being the birthplace of famous mariner Harold Lowe, who was fifth officer on the RMS Titanic when she sank on her maiden voyage. Its last usage was as a convalescent home for men, run by the Manchester and Salford Hospital Saturday Fund and renamed after the eponymous chairman, Chas Swinglehurst. By 1965 the building had fallen into disrepair and was demolished. Bryn Lupus Road which runs east-west through the village, linking it with Deganwy, bears testament to the vanished building.[11]

Notable people associated with Llanrhos

Notes
  1. "Parish boundaries of Eglwysrhos". Family Search. 5 July 2018.
  2. "Proposed extension to Llanrhos cemetery". THE CLWYD-POWYS ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST. 1 February 2001. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Alt URL
  3. "St Hilary's, Llanrhos". Aberconwy.church. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  4. Pennant, Thomas (1784). A Tour in Wales. Digitally archived by Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales. London: Printed Privately for the Author. p. 328.
  5. "Llanrhos Church". History Points. 5 July 2018. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016.
  6. Slattery, Kevin (5 July 2018). "St. Mary's Well and Crogfryn Lane, Llanrhos". Deganwy History. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018.
  7. Richards, Fiona (1 June 2011). "A Walk around Llanrhos" (PDF). Deganwy History. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 July 2018.
  8. Lawson-Reay, John (2017). Secret Llandudno. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 60. ISBN 1445670453.
  9. "Proposed extension to Llanrhos cemetery". THE CLWYD-POWYS ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST. 1 February 2001. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Alt URL
  10. "Llanrhos Grange". Coflein. 5 July 2018. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018.
  11. Rivers, Elan (1 January 2013). "The story of Hugh Lupus, the Norman Earl of Chester and his connection with Deganwy" (PDF). Deganwy History Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 July 2018.
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References
  • Ivor Wynne Jones. Llandudno Queen of Welsh Resorts Landmark, Ashbourne Derbyshire 2002 ISBN 1-84306-048-5 .
  • Rev. Robert Williams, The History and Antiquities of the Town of Aberconwy and its Neighbourhood, (1835)
  • C. Michael Hogan and Amy Gregory, History and architecture of Bodysgallen Hall, North Wales, Lumina Technologies, (2006)
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