NAMES, PUBS, PEOPLE AND CUSTOMS

At one time the word Llanymynech was thought to mean: ‘Place of the Miners’ but local historians now believe that the name actually refers to: ‘The Place of the Monks’. The plural of monk in Welsh is ‘mynaich’ and ‘Llan’ means place or village. The first written record is of a place called: Llanemeneych in 1254.

As with all ancient communities Llanymynech has undergone many changes over the years, particularly in recent times, but the basic layout of the village is much the same as it was over a hundred years ago. The main roads are in the form of a cross with the border between England and Wales running north to south down the main street until it veers away through the bar of The Lion Hotel.

Standing in the same position from which the old photograph above was taken, in the early 1900s, it is apparent that this aspect of the main street remains virtually unchanged, although the porch of The Cross Keys Hotel was removed after being almost demolished by a car one dark night in October 1953. It would be virtually impossible to safely take such a photograph today, times have changed and over 14,000 vehicles a day now travel this major route between Liverpool and Swansea! The village awaits a much needed bypass!

In the 19^th century Llanymynech was very much a self-sufficient community with many thriving shops and businesses. Besides The Cross Keys, there was The Lion Hotel, previously called the Red Lion Inn; The Bradford Arms, with a smithy next door, and known in coaching days as The Old Coach; The Sun, and The Dolphin.

In the 1800s The Dolphin was known as The Holly Bush, apparently because the proprietor used to place a barrel of beer for sale under a holly bush as a licence was not then required. ‘Dolphin’ is a corruption of the word ‘Godolphin’, the name of the family who once owned the inn. In 1901 The Lion had stabling for 12 horses; The Bradford 14; The Cross Keys 15, and The Sun 2.

In Station Road, just over the railway bridge, was a clog factory which burnt down in 1939. Villager Charlie Ingram remembers: “But their loss was our gain because we had barrow loads of (wooden) clog soles for our fires!”

From the same era Charlie also remembers a butcher’s shop, bicycle shop, bakery, general stores, news agents (corner shop), chemist, saddler, tailor, post office, garage, a cobbler and a chip shop, and, opposite the old post office, Mrs. Lewis’s shop, renowned for her faggots!

Across the main road from The Cross Keys, on the corner, stands Ty Croes, once a small farm then a corner shop. Opposite Ty Croes, in the 1870s there was a large field and in the corner a wooden building known as the Market Hall, where articles for sale were placed on fair days. Near this was a large slough, or cesspit. The field seemed to be the usual place for fights, the losers being thrown into the slough! According to John Fewtrell, writing in the Montgomery Collections: “So low were the morals of some of the inhabitants, that a man has been known to roll himself into the centre of it, (the slough),for a small quantity of beer . . . .”

In the 1700s the parish had a Wake Sunday, usually the first Sunday after February 5^th. Crowds flocked to the village, mainly to go to the public houses and spend their time drinking and fighting. Football was played in the churchyard after the services were over. On Wake Tuesday, in the same week, the festivities were again carried out. In the evening farmers and their friends met at The Lion Hotel, where a ball was held. On Thursday a ‘Mayor’ was elected. He was decked in ribbons, his face painted red or black, and a huge cabbage was suspended on his back with it’s head downwards. He was then carried, in a wheelbarrow, to the main farmhouses in the area and everyone was supplied with beer. The very drunk procession ended up at The Dolphin where the ‘Mayor’ was tipped into the nearest large puddle.