The village of Bodelwyddan (pronounced Bodel-withan) is about 5 miles or 8 kilometres south of Rhyl and shares the same LL18 postcode, and is my kind of place: only one public house and more than sixty listed buildings.
Its most famous landmark must be St. Margaret's Church or 'the marble church'. The old photos above, of the exterior and the pulpit, are by Rhyl photographer Rae Pickard.
Much admired is the church's east window designed by father and son Michael and Arthur O'Connor in 1859:
Also widely known is Bodelwyddan Castle; the version that exists today is an 1830s rebuild. Here is a 1960s-looking scene of horse riders at the castle when it was Lowther College private school for girls:
In recent years the castle has been a hotel. Of the following cards the second is postmarked 2014 and finds the business renamed fancifully as Bodelwyddan Coast Hotel:
Do you remember the Wayside Cafe? This card is postmarked 1965:
Here are a couple of World War 1 shots of Kinmel Park Camp near Bodelwyddan. The lower one is circa 1917 and labelled "Canadian soldiers and civilian visitors".
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In present times Bodelwyddan is the home of Rhyl's nearest general hospital Ysbyty Glan Clwyd of which I am not a huge fan.
The population of the village may treble in a few years if the building of 1,700 new homes goes ahead; Denbighshire Council allocated land for this purpose despite bitter local opposition.
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The following references are added here for indexing purposes: Hovis bread, Warner Leisure Hotels.
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