Was there a Village called Lleimedig ?

[arthurk]

That's a good find, Gadget. I've been wondering about an unpronounceable railway station - the nearest one looks to have been Preesgweene (later renamed Weston Rhyn), about a mile away, but Wikipedia says only local trains stopped there. The next nearest, and both quite likely served by faster trains, would have been Gobowen and Chirk.

There was a line from Whitchurch to Oswestry via Ellesmere, which might have offered the best connections from northern England - there would probably have been connections at Oswestry to all the above stations.

[Gadget]

The nearest, as you say, would be Chirk or Gobowen. There was the Glyn Valley tramway which was just for rock from the quarry in Glyn Ceiriog. I don't think it was passenger transport.  The main  line, (in my day)  ran Chester - Wrexham - Ruabon- Chirk - Gobowen and on to Shrewsbury.  There were transfers at Ruabon for Llangollen and on to Dolgelly/Dollgellau. 

My grt grandfather's diary (1900) suggests that there were trains to Welshpool and Oswestry from Chirk

I'm wondering if the young girl might have mixed up the places. I think I used to do the same when visiting my Aunty in Hyde when I was young!


PS - When I was in Durham in the late 60s, I got the train from Durham to Chester and changed there.

[Gadget]

PS
Chirk, although a coal mining village in those days, was the station that served Chirk Castle so had  very good transport links.

[Gadget]

Barry~

In one of my local history books* covering St Martin's Parish, I've found a listing and photographs of property included in the sale of the Quinta Estate in 1928. This probably includes your relatives' dwelling. The photographs include  a property listed as Ty'n y Fron cottages. Number 1 was let to a Mr J Parry.

* A History of the Parishes of St Martin's and Weston Rhyn, by C  Neville Hurdsman. Pub - Bridge Books, Wrexham, ISBN 1-84494-004-7

[bazlynda]

Hi Gadget,
 Thank you so much for your response.
I think you may have solved the mystery!
Caemeddigg definitely fits within the clues.

In response to your other questions,
my Elizabeth Pierce had parents George Pierce (b.20Apr 1808 St Martins;  d.2Mar1873 Oswestry) and Mary Edwards Lloyd (b.20Dec1803 Chirk; d.1876 Oswestry)
And Elizabeth did marry John Parry in 1859

Thank you for your great help and advice.
I am going to find a copy of that book now!.

Kind Regards

Barry

[Gadget]

Happy to have helped, Barry.  I enjoyed the search.

It also brought back many memories of when I lived in the area.


Gadget 

[arthurk]

The nearest, as you say, would be Chirk or Gobowen. There was the Glyn Valley tramway which was just for rock from the quarry in Glyn Ceiriog. I don't think it was passenger transport. 

According to Wikipedia it carried passengers until 1933, and some of the carriages have been preserved and are in use on the Talyllyn Railway:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyn_Valley_Tramway

A stop at Pont-faen (if there was one - it seems feasible) would have been nearer to Caemeddigg than Chirk was, but not by much; Preesgweene/Weston Rhyn would have been nearer still.

(For more on the tramway, see the external links at the foot of the Wikipedia page.)

[Gadget]

A local group ais opening it again. I think it's fairly soon according to a Facebook site.  Here's the local organisation's  site :

https://www.glynvalleytramway.org.uk

My Great Uncle was involved in the financing of it in the early 1900s

 

[Gadget]

I do like this description:

o adapt to operating difficulties and the opening of the giant granite quarry at Hendre, the GVT was rerouted to meet the Great Western Railway at Chirk station and extended to Hendre in 1888, when it was also converted to steam working. Slate, flannel, coal, timber, the mails - even gunpowder for the quarries and live fish in milk churns were carried but the mainstay of traffic was granite. Passenger services were again offered and while stations and booking offices were provided at Chirk and at Glyn (the passenger terminus) it was not until 1st October 1893 that the GVT purchased the land on which to construct its waiting room at Pontfadog.

Trains generally ran mixed, with passenger and freight vehicles making up one train. A normal day would see about four mixed and two goods trains passing through Pontfadog in each direction though there were passenger excursions in the summer months and at bank holidays.

and

Silin of the ‘Wrexham Leader’ newspaper graphically brought the GVT operations at Pontfadog to life when he published an essay in the paper in the 1970’s. It described a trip up the line on Whit Monday, 1924. The train was an hour late and packed out but 'it was impossible to pass such important places as Pontfaen and Castle Mill without setting down.’

‘In due course, after passing and repassing charabancs loaded with visitors we reached Pontfadoc where all the delays appropriate to an important station were to take place.’

'The doors of the White Swan were open and some of the passengers could not resist the temptation to enter and taste the beverage. They felt sure that the train would wait for them. But they soon found out that they were taking too much for granted.

“The whistle of the engine was heard again and we were moving off just as the last customers emerged from the inn. They had to scamper across the road and only just managed to clamber aboard before we were spinning along to Dolywern and on to Glyn where we went our several ways.”