Babell
Babell is a hamlet in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the community of Ysgeifiog.
| Babell | |
|---|---|
 Babell, Flintshire | |
  Babell Location within Flintshire | |
| OS grid reference | SJ1573 |
| Principal area | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | North Wales |
| Fire | North Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
The hamlet takes its name from the Babell Methodist chapel, built in 1836, but the surrounding area, a township of Ysgeifiog parish, was formerly known as Gelliloveday or Gellilyfdy. The name was recorded in the Domesday Book in the form "Cheslilaved", and as "Kelliloveday" in 1602.[1] It has been suggested to mean "wych elm wood" (from Welsh gelli, "wood", and llwyv, llwyfanen, "wych elm"),[2] but the placename scholar Ellis Davies stated that it probably came from the personal name "Loveday", ("Lyfdy"): "Loveday's wood".[1]
There is a section of the ancient earthwork Offa's Dyke nearby at Llyn-Ddu.[3] Although rural the area is dotted with old copper workings from the 19th century.
The notable 17th-century antiquary John Jones lived at the hall of Gellilyfdy, to the west of the present-day village.
References
- Davies, E. (1959) Flintshire place-names, University of Wales Press, p.72
- John Gwenogryn Evans, Facsimile & text of the Book of Taliesin, v1, 1910, xxiii
- Sir Cyril Fox, Offa's Dyke: a field survey of the western frontier works of Mercia in the seventh and eighth centuries A. D., OUP, 1955, p. 22
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