The Mold cape
A view of Mold c.1778
A mile west of the town is Maes Garmon, (The Field of Germanus), the traditional site of the Alleluia Victory by British forces led by Germanus of Auxerre against the invading Picts and Scots, which occurred shortly after Easter,0. AD43[2]
Mold developed around Mold Castle. The motte and bailey was built by the Norman Robert de Montalt in around 1140. The castle was part of the military invasion of Wales by Anglo-
Anglo-
With the end of the Welsh Wars, the Statute of Rhuddlan brought the introduction of English common law. This led to an increase in commercial and business enterprise in the township that had been laid out around Mold Castle. Trade between the Welsh community and English merchants in Chester and Whitchurch, Shropshire soon began. During the medieval period, the town held two annual fairs and a weekly market which brought in substantial revenues as drovers brought their livestock to the English-
Mold, c.1795
Nevertheless, tensions between the Welsh and the English remained. During the War of the Roses, Reinalt ab Grufydd ab Bleddyn, a Lancastrian captain that defended Harlech Castle for Henry VI against Yorkist forces, was constantly engaged in feuds with Chester. In 1465 a large number of armed men from Chester arrived at the Mold fair looking for trouble. A fight broke out which led to a pitched battle; eventually Reinalt triumphed and captured Robert Bryne, a former Mayor of Chester. The Welsh captain then took Bryne back to his tower house near Mold and hanged him. In retaliation up to 200 men-
By the late 15th century the lordships around Mold had passed to the powerful Stanley family. In 1477 records mention that Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby had appointed numerous civic officials in Mold (including a mayor), was operating several mills, and had established a courthouse in the town.
However, in the 1530s, the Tudor antiquarian John Leland noted the weekly market had been abandoned. By now Mold had two main streets: Steate Byle (Beili) and Streate Dadlede (Dadleu-
As the government of Elizabeth I had established royal representatives (Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, and Lords Lieutenant) in every county of Wales. Mold developed into the administrative centre for Flintshire. By the 1760s, the Quarter Sessions were based in the town; the county hall was established in 1833, and the county gaol in 1871.
In 1833, workmen digging a prehistoric mound at Bryn yr Ellyllon (Fairies' or Goblins' Hill) discovered a unique golden cape, which dates from 1900–1600 BC in the Bronze Age. The cape weighs 560 g and was produced from a single gold ingot about the size of a golf ball. Unfortunately it was broken when found and the fragments were shared out among the workmen, with the largest piece going to Mr Langford, tenant of the field in which the mound stood. The find was recorded by the vicar of Mold and came to the notice of the British Museum. In 1836 Langford sold his piece to the Museum and subsequently most of the pieces were recovered, though there is a tradition that the wives of some of the workmen sported new jewellery after the find! Restored, the cape now forms one of the great treasures of the British Museum in London.[4][5]
Mold hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1923, 1991 and 2007. There was an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1873.
Mold was linked to Chester by the Mold Railway, with a large British Rail station together with adjacent marshalling yards and engine sheds; however, these closed when Croes Newydd at Wrexham was opened. The station was closed in 1962 in the Beeching Cuts of the early 1960s, though the track survived until the mid-
St. Germans in Celtic Times
It is generally accepted that St. Germ ans takes its name from Saint
G erm anus, who was Bishop o f Auxerre, and who lived from 380 to
448. Germ anus was a G allo-
Rom e, and, w ho, until his consecration as Bishop b y Bishop Am atre, in
418, was an administrator in his home province. H is fam e as a Bishop
spread because o f his devotion and zeal in the opposing o f Pelagianism ,
the current heresy, and his fight against Pelagianism brought him several
times to these shores. W hether or not he ever visited this corner o f
C ornw all it is hard to say, and there is little historical evidence to support
it, though w ith several churches dedicated to his nam e, it is not im possible
that he should have sojourned here en route from G aul on his missionary
journeys as a champion o f O rthodoxy.
T h e geographical nature o f St. Germ ans m ust have marked it out as
a place for human habitation from a very early date, and in C eltic times
there most certainly would have been a village on the site, the large hill
behind, known as Colgear H ill, acting as a protection against pirates who
infested the Cornish estuaries. T h e name Colgear, originally K ilgear,
contains the word ‘C aer’, which means a fortress. W ith the tidal river
as a useful means o f com m unication there well could have been an
enclosed fortified C eltic village. Christianity for the most part had come
to these people from the great missionary centre o f W ales and Ireland,
and m any saints on their journeys from those places to the new colony
in Brittany passed across Cornw all, and left their names behind them. A
fine exam ple o f this is St. W inwallo, one o f the most famous Saints o f
Brittany who founded an abbey near Brest, is revered w ith several
shrines in Cornwall and D evon. One o f these being a chapel in the south
part o f the parish o f St. Germ ans, a place now called St. W innols. T h e
adjacent farm is called Eglaroose, in ancient days was called Eglos-
m eaning ‘the chapel on the prom ontory’, showing that in C eltic times
St. W inwallo’s Chapel was an independent church, the foundation o f
w hich was probably older than St. Germ ans itself, but although m aintained as a chapel o f ease b y the Priory until the Reform ation not a stone
now remains.
Cornw all does not seem to have been subdued b y the W est Saxons
until jabout 830 in the reign o f Egbert. Before that the Cornish Church
m anaged its own affairs w ithout reference to the Saxon C hurch established by St. Augustine. T h is church in Cornw all was essentially
m onastic and all the principal churches were monasteries, wherein the
Bishops were the A bbots or else subordinate to them . Am ongst these we
may be fairly certain that one was to be found at St. Germ ans, though
it is curious that the old C eltic name o f St. Germ ans (if it ever had one)
has not survived.