Denbighshire

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Llandrillo yn Rhos

"A parish in the Union of Conway, partly in the hundred of Creuddyn, county of Carnarvon, but chiefly in the hundred of Isdulas, county of Denbigh, on the shore of the Irish sea, 5 miles (NE) from Aberconway, containing 1133 inhabitants. The village of Llandrillo is composed of three houses only. ..... There are four weirs along the shore, where an immense quantity of fish of various kinds is taken dring the season, particularly mackerel and salmon. ..... A considerable quantity of limestone is shipped hence to Liverpool."
[ A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

The ancient parish of Llandrillo yn Rhos lies in the extreme north-west corner of Denbighshire. It originally contained the townships of Eirias, Colwyn, Rhiw, Cilgwyn, Llwyd Coed, Mochdre, and Dinerth (also spelled Dinarth). It was bounded on the east by Llysfaen parish, on the west by Llangwstenin and Eglwysrhos parishes (in Caernarfonshire), and on the north by the sea. Until 1924, the parish of Llysfaen and the adjacent township of Eirias formed a detached portion of Caernarfonshire, within Denbighshire. There was also a detached portion of Eirias township in the extreme north-west corner of the parish.
The main settlements were the villages of Colwyn (now known as Old Colwyn) and Mochdre, in the townships of those names. Practically all of the township of Rhiw belonged to the Pwllychrochan estate; and, following the sale of the estate in 1865, it formed the nucleus of the present town of Colwyn Bay. Similarly, a large part of the township of Dinerth, belonging to the Bostock estate, formed the nucleus of the town of Rhos on Sea.
With the growth of the holiday trade during the Victorian period, and the increasing population, new churches were built; and eventually the parish was divided. The parish of Colwyn was formed in 1844, Colwyn Bay in 1893, and Brynymaen in 1900. Most of the township of Cilgwyn was transferred to the parish of Llanelian.
The present ecclesiastical parish is therefore very much reduced in size.
The modern town is also known as Rhos-on-Sea.

Bibliography

• Evans, Rev .E. D.      The parish church of Llandrillo-yn-Rhos.         Rhos on Sea ; 1965.
• Kilgour, Fred.      Dan y don tua Llandrillo yn Rhos     Llafar Gwlad. No. 70 (2000), p. 15
• Llandrillo-yn-Rhos        Mold : Clwyd Library and Museum Service, 1993.
• Thomas, Darlah.    A pier for Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, 1864-5        Clwyd Historian = Hanes Bro Clwyd. No. 61 (Winter 2009/10), p. 8-13
• Timothy,  Rev T. E. (curate of Llandrillo-yn-Rhos)       Llandrillo-yn-Rhos            Shrewsbury : L. Wilding, 1910.
• Venables-Williams, W.  An archaeological history of Llandrillo-Yn-Rhos and the immediate neighbourhood    Colwyn Bay : R. E. Jones and Bros., printers, [18--?]

Church History

The Ancient Church of Llandrillo yn Rhos - on the Wales Directory site

Church of St Trillo -  on CPAT

Capel Sant Trillo - the Gt Orme site

St. George's, in the centre of the new town (SH 839801), was opened in 1913, as a chapel of ease to the parish church.
The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Nonconformist Churches Nonconformist places of worship for Llandrillo yn Rhos were included in the "Welsh Church Commission - County of Denbigh - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905"under the Civilparish of Colwyn Bay. Details will be found on the parish page for Colwyn Bay.

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Church Records

Parish Registers

• The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin.
  They may be viewed on microfilm at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
  These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

• Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :

Bishop's Transcripts

• Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
  Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
  The films may also be viewed at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.
  In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

I.G.I.

• There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. Trillo's, Llandrillo.

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Civil Registration

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Llandrillo yn Rhos are in the format :

• Years 1837 - 1851: Conway XXVII. nnn
• Years 1851 - 1930: Conway 11b. nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Description and Travel

Rhos on Sea - on wikipedia

Rhos on Sea - on geograph.org.uk

Maps

On Clwyd FHS's site there is a diagram showing parish names/positions with links to pages for the parish church

Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R., Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: History Data Service, UK Data Archive [distributor], 17 May 2001. SN: 4348.   Here is a gazetteer/finding aid plus a set of overview maps to accurately identify the position of parishes within the county

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Population

• In 1831- the population was 1133.
• In 1901- the population was 982.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

• Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 1481 acres.
  [ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated  2 April 2013 - Gareth Hicks