Flintshire

Parishes

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Bodfari

"This place is, from its name, supposed to have been the Roman station Varis, and the opinion has been in some degree confirmed by the recent discovery of urns, ornaments, fragments of weapons, and other relics of Roman antiquity, in the grounds of Pontrifith, and some coins near the junctions of the rivers Clwyd and Whielor, the supposed site of the Roman station."
[ A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, S. Lewis, 1834]

Bodfari is an "ancient parish". It comprises the townships of Bodfari, in old Flintshire, and Aberwheeler, in old Denbighshire. The parish is generally regarded as being a Flintshire parish.

Bibliography

• Book of reference to the plan of the Parish of Bodfari (part of) Lieut.-General Sir Henry James, Director-General of the Ordnance Survey. London : Eyre & Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1875
• Cocking, Edna.    Bodfari parish registers      Hel achau, 37 (1992), p. 2-3
• Roberts, J L.     St Stephens Church Bodfari and Parish throughout the ages, 500 BC to 1930 AD        Rhuthun [i.e. Ruthin] : Clwyd Voluntary Services Council, 1978.
• Williams, Geraint.    Bodfari school and the railway         Denbigh and its past 7 (1992), p. 19-21

Church History

See Welsh Chapels and Churches for a photograph of Bodfari St Stephen's Church

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 092701.
The parish church, dedicated to St. Stephen, has a history which pre-dates the Norman conquest. It was extensively rebuilt in 1865.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Nonconformist Churches "Welsh Church Commission - County of Flint - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905"lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civilparish of "Bodfari":

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Church Records

Parish Registers

• The following Parish Registers have been deposited at Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden. They may be viewed on microfilm at the Flintshire Record Office, the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin, and 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 Flintshire and Denbighshire 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.

• The following have been incorporated into the I.G.I., as part of an "official extraction" programme.
  They were extracted from the Bishop's Transcripts, not from the Parish Registers.

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Civil Registration

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Bodfari are found under:

• Years 1837 - 1851: St. Asaph XXVII. nnn
• Years 1852 - 1946: St. Asaph 11b. nnn

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

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Description and Travel

Bodfari - on wikipedia

Bodfari - on Vision of Britain

Maps

Population

• In 1831- the population was 873.
• In 1901- the population was 756.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas (1911) gives the area of the parish as 4700 acres.

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Last Updated 16 Nov 2011 - Gareth Hicks