Holt, Denbighshire, Wales Genealogy

WalesWrexhamHolt

Holt is a village, community and ecclesiastical parish in County Borough of Wrexham, Wales.

Before 1974 the village was in the historic county of Denbighshire and, between 1874 and 1996 in the County of Clwyd. In 1996 it became part of the modern county of County Borough of Wrexham.

History
"A parish in the Union of Wrexham, hundred of Bromfield, county of Denbigh, comprising the borough of Holt, and the parochial chapelry of Isycoed, in which latter are the townships of Cacca Dutton, Dutton y Brân, Dutton Difieth, Ridley, and Sutton. ..... The borough of Holt is 29 miles (ESE) from Denbigh, 21 miles (E by S) from Ruthin, and 191 miles (NW) from London. This parish ..... is supposed to have contained, under the Roman dominion in Britain, an outpost to the station Deva (Chester); and the fortress erected here, according to some antiquaries, was called from that circumstance, Castra Legionis, or "the castle of the legion", preserved in its synonymous Welsh name of Castell Lleon, which was probably, by mistaking Lleon for the plural of Llew, changed into "the castle of Lions", or "Lyons", which it continued to bear for ages. ..... Though anciently a place of some note, the borough at present constitutes only an inconsiderable village, situated on the road from Wrexham to Nantwich, on an eminence rising gently from a spacious vale, and on the western bank of the Dee, in the navigable part of its course, and immediately above the point where this river is joined from the west by the powerful stream of the Alyn" [A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 &amp; 1849, Samuel Lewis]

Although it was a technically a chapelry of the parish of Gresford, which was (and still is) in the diocese of St. Asaph, Holt was in the diocese of Chester until 1849, when it was transferred to St. Asaph. It formerly contained the townships of Caca Dutton, Dutton Diffaeth, Dutton y Brain, Hewlington, Holt, Ridley and Sutton; but in 1829, Caca Dutton, Dutton Diffaeth, Dutton y Brain, Ridley and Sutton went to the new parish of Isycoed.

For more information on Holt see:


 * Holt at Genuki

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Holt at Vision of Britain

Web Sites

 * Holt Parish Church at Clwyd FHS
 * Holt War Memorial at Clwyd FHS