Two Short Walks in Mold

The Mold Town Trail starts from Bailey Hill-the entrance is by the war memorial at the northern end of the High Street.
Once through the gates, take the left hand footpath to avoid the steep steps.
Lord Robert de Montalt established a fortification on this small natural hill in 1093.
In Flintshire many of these castles were formed by reshaping prominent glacial landforms and Mold is such a castle.
Mold is unique in that is has two baileys. A bowling green ooccupies the lower bailey
whilst the northern side of the motte is occupied by the Gorsedd Stone Circle of the National Eisteddford of 1923.
The original name for Mold-Y Wddrug- may refer to the pre-norman use of the site of the castle as a memorial or tomb

Return to the entrance via the Lower Castle Bailey which offers good views of the Clwydian Range of hills.
The Pendref Chapel cost £1600 to build and opened on 6th July 1828.
As well as the large congregation,2000 people stood on top of Bailey Hill to listen to the preacher.
Land for the chapel was donated by Sir Thomas Mostyn.

Continue to walk west down Pwll Glas and you will see the former Cottage Hospital on the left, built in 1877and closed in 1977,
it was paid for by public donations.It provided for 12 patients who had to pay a minimum of 25 shillings per week to stay there.
When they were well enough they were encouraged to clean and do gardening.

If you cross the road you will see stonecarvings set into the wall of Tan y Coed
reputed to have come from the original tower of St Mary's Church.

Continue along the Upper High Street and see the fine examples of late Georgian Houses on the right.
Go past the Dolphin Public House and enter the churchyard of St Mary's Parish Church on the left.
If you walk to the rear door you will see the table tombs one of which is to Richard Wilson, the foremost landscape painter of his day.

Leave the churchyard via the South steps and return to the High Street.

On the site of Barclays Bank on the right was born the composer John Ambrose Lloyd in 1815.

Continue along the High Street past the corner shop of 30 High Street which is supposed to be haunted by a young girl,
and stop at Plas yn Dre at 24 High Street next to the large black and white building.
The area around the High Street in the late 18th Century would have been occupied by public houses, workers
cottages, shops and town houses-Plas yn Dre was one of these.

Now walk down the alley between 9 and 11 High Street.
Historically cattle were sold on the High Street itself hence its greater than average width
but in 1879 a purpose built cattle market was opened.

Turn left along Chester Street to the Old Court House.
It is reputed that the small holes in the stonework on the south and east facing walls are from bullets fired during the Mold riots of 1869.

At the bottom of the street where the Tesco's store is now used to be the old railway station

Retrace your steps along Chester Street and walk under the archway on the right under the Savoy Restaurant sign to Prices Row,
here you will find the only remaing example of 19th century industrial houses fronting a courtyard in Mold - built in 1850.

Retrace your steps along Chester Street and stop at the crossroads.
This was the focal point of the town in the 18th and 19th century.

A memorial once stood in the middle of the cross roads however it was dismantled in 1884 as it was considered a 'resort for idlers'.
The Assembly Hall was built in 1849 and replaced a much older Leete Hall from around 1470.
The older hall was connected with the feudal past of Mold and was the manorial court of Sir Thomas Stanley.
The new Assembly Hall and indoor market was built to a classical design.
A third storey was added in 1879 but removed in 1979. In the early 1960s The Beatles played here

Walk up New Street to Y Pentan where author Daniel Owen ran a tailors shop before becoming a Preacher and Local Councillor
and then the first Chairman of Mold Urban District Council in 1894

Proceed along New street where on the left is the Bethesda Chapel and Schoolroom.
The chapel was built in 1819 and was reconstructed in 1863. Externally the chapel is monumental in scale, the school extension was
added in 1893 in honour of Daniel Own's achievements. An obelisk stands in front of the chapel to honour Roger Edwards

From the Bethesda Chapel cross over the road down a narrow alley way into Meadow Place,
walk through the car park on the right into the square opposite the post office. and on to Earl Road.
A number of the buildings here demonstrate the mastery of the edwardians at reproducing
former historic styles of architecture on a civic scale.
The Town Hall built in 1911 is a particularly fine example of neo-baroque architecture
It was built following a donation by Peter Roberts, a local manufacturer of rubber goods
and a pioneer in the development of the pneumatic tyre

Retrace your steps into the square and finally observe the statue of Daniel Owen placed there

The Geolological Mold Trail starts from DSG Chartered Accountants in Wrexham Street.
The pebbles outside this building are Triassic (250 million years old) are very hard and made from the the same material as glass,
they probably came from the Stoke area where there are many pebble beds like these.

W Roberts in Wrexham Street, like many other buildings in the town, has a slate roof-
the slate was from Blenau Ffestiniog in Snowdonia.
The Scope Charity Shop has a base made of igneous larvikite quarried only from Southern Norway.
The reflecting crystals are of feldspar- this rock also occurs at Burrel News in the High Street

Lloyds Bank was built by the Mold Marketing Company of sandstone quarried from local coal seams.
Notice the colour and how the material is roughly hewn.

Barclays Bank and the Ambrose Lloyd Plaque. The building is made of portland stone, a shaped jurassic limestone from Dorset.
The County Offices on Earl Street are built of the same material. It is composed of shell fragments about 150 million years old.
The plaque to Ambrose Lloyd is made of marble.

Books Galore and Just Shoes are two brick buildings with metamorphic slate roofs

St Mary's Church is built on the site of an earlier church.
Margaret Beaufort commisioned this buiding as a an offering for the victory of her son Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth.
The buiding took about 100 years to complete and is made of sandsrone. Look up at the statues of people and animals.
In the churchyard you can see gravestones of igneous rock(granite). A slate(metamorphic) headstone stands near to a
sandstone(sedimentary) one of the same date, the slate one has hardly weathered whereas the sandstone can hardly be seen

The War Memorial commemorates those who died in the second world war and is made of white granite.
A quartz stone stands at the foot of the steps that leads up to the Mold Field of Remembrance Plaque.
The plaque itself is made of marble. Looking across the road there are two limestone pillars.

Mold is the birthplace of Thomas Owen and his statue is in the Square.
The upper and lower portions of the statue are made of limestone whilst the middle is made of sandstone.
The copper from the bronze statue has run down and stained the limestone green.

The Bethesda Chapel was erected in 1863 and is made of sandstone.
The two plaques are of particular interest, the top one is of marble on slate whereas the bottom one is of marble on polished basalt.
Here the trail ends and hopefully says the author it has given you
a glimpse into the local geology around Mold and why it is so important to conserve it

The information on this page was taken from two leaflets-
The Mold Town Trail issued by Flintshire County Council and Walking through the
past- A geological trail for Mold produced by The Countryside Council for Wales