Wrexham County Borough 35 - Coedpoeth - Hot trees/Portugal opens up but only to fly to /you can eat indoors/ a plan is coming together slowly /the story of Winifred Davies

---

May is drifting on as each month drifts along. Boris has opened up our country and life is for the time being feeling a little more like normal . We now can eat inside . We can have more guests at weddings. No limits on the numbers at wakes . Swimming and the gyms have all re-opened but for how long ? Boris has announced that he intends to follow his road map and open up the country properly by the 21st June . Portugal gave the green light to travellers who flooded at the first opportunity the airports and the planes. The chance of a holiday was too great to overlook . Spain and France are still locked down countries and for the first time in many years it seems the ferry companies might open up a route from the UK to Porto in order to bypass travel to Spain and France . With the Indian variant now in our country it seems that the opening up of the country might not be fiction rather than fact. The science says it is not a good idea to holiday abroad nor to open up the country further . Covid just wont go away . It keeps looming around in varying forms. It hangs like a shadow over our lives . One where we are forever looking over our shoulder .

I found myself in Coedpoeth . Literally translates as Hot Trees or burnt trees. Now that always makes me smile for some reason . Perhaps we don't smile enough these days. This probably refers to the burning of charcoal in the village. A fact I never knew . The area was in 1411 called a waste an uncultivated area . A common with the rights of the common land. It was made up of four hamlets . The Nant named after the welsh word for a stream with its two mills on the River Clywedog . The Clywedog I walked close by at the Kings Mill in Wrexham . Adwy'r Clawdd meaning the gap in the dyke referring to a gap in Offas Dyke. The Talwrn from the welsh word for a cockpit and the Smelt . All these names still exist today and make up roads or areas in the small village high up above the town of Wrexham that I was now standing in. I could see the town in the distance . The tower of the parish church could be easily seen rising above the town skyline. Many years ago there was a ruling that nothing was to be built higher than the Parish Church tower. That changed in the late 60's/70's when the Police Tower was built . That did not last as long as the parish church . It competed for many years for height and was an ideal nesting site for pairs of Peregrine Falcons. With a change in policing the building became a white elephant and down it came leaving the parish church the highest building in the town again .

There were once quite a number of several small scale coal mines in the area and lead smelting mills . All signs of industry long gone in Coedpoeth .

I had to drive to Coepoeth to have my hair cut. But as always I was early which meant that I had to waste time wandering around waiting for 9.30. I parked up and walked the High Street . I like wasting time as long as the weather is fine .

The houses were all built of a stone. A stone that had become blackened over the years . The new church opened in 1875 dedicated to St Tudfil. How many churches and chapels could a village sustain I wondered ? . A Victorian church , not one but two chapels close to where I had parked . Salem Chapel long closed . The windows covered and the doors barred . The old churchyard overgrown . Brambles and nettles covered the area . The gravestones poked out like broken teeth . It looked sad and abandoned and in need of some TLC. Rehoboth chapel had closed and been knocked down . The Salvation Army Hall was converted to a house , On the carpark was the combined church shared between the Salvationists and the Catholics. Coedpoeth is a traditional welsh speaking village and an interesting one at that . Even on a dull old day it was giving up its secrets to me.

Coedpoeth once had a railway station on the Wrexham and Minera Railway which in turn was part of the Great Western Railway . In 1914 the local suffragettes burned down the station . A little village the hotbed of womens suffrage. So Coedpoeth was proving to be an interesting village when you dig deeper. Perhaps all villages are like this. On the surface nothing . Bubbling beneath a wonderful and interesting story.

There had even been a CArnegie Library built in 1904 and named the Coedpoeth Free Library. Built at a cost of £1,500 all of which was donated by the Scottish American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. The old library now closed was built of the same blackened sandstone as the rest of the village . Opposite is a memorial park with the gates that commemorated teh dead of the First World War. I kept finding more and more interesting corners , nooks and crannies .

I walked up and down the High Street and headed to the St Tydfils . In the grounds was a cross . I had seen it times many. On the face of it I thought it was the villages war memorial but there were no wreaths of poppies laid around it. A cloth of white had been draped around the arms of the cross . I went over to look at it from close up. It was not a war memorial but a memorial with a story that I had long forgotten . The cross commemorated the life of Miss Winifred Davies a missionary from Coedpoeth who worked in the Congo. I vaguely remembered the story from school of the local missionary killed helping the people of the Congo . Trained as a nurse in Liverpool Coedpoeth resident Winifred Davies headed off to help others in a country ravaged by civil war. Her death was reported in parliament . Her tragic death was not certain only speculation . Her Majesties Ambassador in Kinshasa believed that there was no doubt that 51 year old Winifred had been killed during an engagement between Congolese forces and rebels near Opienge on Sunday 28th May. She was engaged by the World Wide Evangelical Crusade to serve with the Heart of Africa Mission . A very brave lady who was captured by rebels when her missionary was overun. She was held captive for three years and no attempt had been made to rescue her due to the remoteness of the area and the fact that her life could have been endangered . There had been some negotiations with the rebel leader to free her but all were unsuccessful . The government here were chastised for not working harder bearing in mind that Winifred was 51 and must have been terrified . Nothing was known of where her body was and no steps had been taken to bring her home . The Congolese government had been chastised for not bringing the rebels to justice for murdering this missionary. I vaguely remember in the 60's being told that about a missionary from Coedpoeth had been killed whilst serving but had forgotten the story until today . Memories of that mornings assembly at school came to mind as I stood in front of the simple cross in the churchyard still decorated and with flowers around it .

So from the state of the Congo I found myself thinking about holidays. It looked more and more like the North East of England , the borders of Scotland and odd bits thrown in along the way . Perhaps Berwick again . Over the border and see where the roads lead us . Gabby needs a trip out . She is feeling forgotten again .

---