Llangollen Tour

The present church dates from the 1200s, replacing an earlier wooden church. A wooden tower was added in 1500 but later replaced by the stone tower.

Inside the church is a spectacular carved oak ceiling that dates from 1530 and is amongst the greatest medieval treasures in Denbighshire. An ancient oak chest has three keyholes so that all three church wardens had to be present when it was opened!

The church was changed from a double nave form into a more conventional three aisled church in the mid-1860s.

Inside the church there is a plaque donated by Dr Mary Gordon who wrote a book about the Ladies of Llangollen in the mid 1930s. Strangely the figures were not modelled on the ladies, but on Mary Gordon and her sculptress Violet Labouchere. Immediately outside the church is a triangular memorial to the Ladies and their maid Mary Carryl.

From 1752 the Hand was kept by Thomas Edwards. He became friendly with Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, no doubt because many of their famous visitors stayed at the Hand. In the 1780s he begged them to use his pew in the church!

Jos Phillips owned the Hand Hotel in 1830 when Princess Victoria stopped in Llangollen with her mother and apparently his young daughter presented the Princess with a doll dressed in full Welsh costume.

Famous visitors to the Hand include Charles Darwin who stayed here in 1831 at the start of a geological tour of North Wales and the poet Robert Browning who stayed here for ten weeks in 1886 with frequent visits to his friends Sir Theodore and Lady Helena Martin at nearby Llantysilio.

By the 1920s the hotel had 60 bedrooms, a drawing room, dining room, billiards room, a smoking room and a writing room together with a covered garage with space for 30 cars.

Today the Hand Hotel continues to welcome guests, although some of the public rooms have changed their functions to reflect modern times and visitors can relax watching the river from the hotel gardens.

The area opposite the Royal Hotel was called ‘Ham and Egg Square’ in the 1800s as residents in the cottages used to cook quick and easy meals, usually ham and eggs, for travellers on the London to Holyhead road as well as for rail passengers.

Later it was known as Castle Square with businesses including a draper, a milliner and a farmers’ supply store.

Nearby is the former Welsh Baptist Chapel which was built at the same time. It was designed to hold a congregation of 400 but by 1982 the chapel was no longer needed. The building was restored and in 2003 it was opened by the great Welsh artist Kyffin Williams. Now called Y Capel, it houses a Tourist Information Centre, an exhibition space and a library on the upper floor.

They set up home in a cottage and renamed it Plas Newydd. They spent their time writing, reading, sketching and embroidering, as well as transforming the house and gardens. They added a porch in 1814 and held a ‘porch warming’ party for selected friends!

Cows grazed in the meadow in front of the house. The lower woodland garden where the Cyflymen stream runs was enhanced with rustic bridges, seats and a grotto, said to have come from Valle Crucis along with a font.

North Wales was becoming popular with tourists at that time and the Ladies together with their house and gardens became quite an attraction. The Ladies had a distinctive style, dressed in long dark coats with white ornamental neck cloths and top hats. Many famous people visited them including the Duke of Wellington, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and William Wordsworth. After his visit Wordsworth sent the ladies a poem composed in the grounds but Ladies were not amused by the house being referred to as a ‘low roofed cot’ and thought they could write better poetry themselves! Anne Lister of Gentleman Jack fame was another visitor.

After the deaths of Lady Eleanor Butler in 1829 and Miss Sarah Ponsonby two years later, the house and contents were sold in an auction lasting seven days.

Visitors can enjoy the beautiful house and gardens today.

An extension to Barmouth was built by the Cambrian Railway, which became part of the Great Western Railway in 1923.

The station still has the distinctive chocolate and cream colours of the company. Further alterations and extensions were carried out at the station in 1898 when the track was doubled in width and new facilities provided including longer platforms, waiting shelters, a new signal box and a footbridge.

Flood damage closed the line between Llangollen and Bala in 1964. The following year it closed permanently following the Beeching Report on how to make the railways viable and the last British Railways train steamed into the station in 1968.

Thankfully railway enthusiasts rallied round and by September 1975 an open day saw 60 feet of track laid and the heritage Llangollen Railway line was born. As the number of volunteers grew, so did the line that was extended to Carrog in 1996 and again to Corwen East on the edge of the town in 2015, making a total length of 10 miles.

Thomas the Tank Engine, The Flying Scotsman and the Mallard all regularly make an appearance and while thousands of tourists enjoy travelling on the heritage railway many more enjoy watching it up and down the line.