your comments
Denise Williams, Doncaster, Yorks
Thank you Susan Roberts of Rhyl. That information is great. I have discovered, in my family history search, that my Great Grandfather, David Williams, married Sarah Roberts, so I am presuming that this is how the addresses came into my dad's possession (Lewis). His father James, used to walk at least once a year from Newcastle, to Prescot, Lancs and the Holywell area to visit relatives. He did this until his death in 1940. I have found Sarah and David on the 1891 census and are living in Lancashire, newly married, Sarah only on the 1901 census, living in Newcastle and Sarah and! David living in Prescot, Lancs on the 1911 census.
Mon Mar 30 08:51:23 2009
Susan Roberts, Rhyl
In reply to Denise Williams. I hope this information may be of some help to your enquiries. J.T. Roberts was my great grandfather, John Thomas Roberts of London House and D.T. Roberts was my grandfather, David Thomas Roberts who lived and worked as a policeman at Rhuddlan Police Station durring the 1950s. He died in 1986 in his late 70s and was the Mayor of Rhyl at one stage. I hope this information is useful for you Denise and if I can be of any further help please feel free to email me, the address is with the web team.
Thu Mar 26 09:30:11 2009
Susan Roberts, Rhyl
I am from a Greenfield family who, over the years, have scattered across the globe to Australia. I stumbled across this site after only recently discovering the vast information available online. Having researched historicaly my own place of birth I was a tad interested in my father's and indeed his father's place of being. A very breif introduction would be I hope of interest to Sophia in Sydney and Ken Roberts in Victoria. My Taid's name was David Thomas Roberts who was the local village policeman (Bobby) and my Nana was Mable Blodwen Roberts. They had two sons, Cyril and Kenneth (Australia).
Tue Mar 24 08:04:53 2009
Maureen Beardsley, Plymouth
My Gr/Grandfather Roger Jones' address was 5 White Houses, Greenfield. His daughter, my grandmother, was born there in 1882 and also died there in 1947 while she was visiting on holiday. As far as I know the houses were still there in the '60s. I have seen them on the old maps site and tried to work out roughly the same area on a modern map, but can't quite pinpoint it as I don't know the area.My dad had said they weren't far from the mill ponds.Does anyone remember these houses?
Wed Mar 18 09:28:24 2009
Denise Williams, S. Yorkshire
I have stumbled across this site while looking for information about London House, Greenfield. I am trying to piece together my father's family history, and yesterday came across a very old address book of my father's. He has 3 addresses of people we cannot recall and can only presume are relatives, of my grandfather, James Williams b.abt 1890, one of the addresses is for a J.T. Roberts, London House, another for D.T. Roberts, Police station, Rhuddlan? and another E. Davies, Frobisher? House, nr. Mostyn - long shot, I know but I wonder if Ken Roberts, or anyone else can help me out here?
Thu Mar 5 07:55:11 2009
Ken Roberts, Victoria Australia
I used to live in Delyn Road, Greenfield, No 24 and was a member of the 1st Greenfield Scouts. George Goulden was the Scout Master. 1946-1951 we moved to Holywell in about 1949 and lived in the Old School House in Brynford Street. My father was in the Police force. The scouts met in a room adjacent to the old hall at that time. A family named Roberts (not related) lived at the hall. The farmer was related to my mother, I think an uncle. I used to call him uncle Ned, and sometimes rode on the horse cart delivering milk with a pint ladle from a milk churn. My father was brought up in London House, Bagillt Road. The house was on the north side of the road between Cainton Cresent and Rayon Road. There were three cotages attatched to the house on the Greenfield (western) side. I seem to remember that there was a pub across the road. It was called The Gletch, I think. Back to the hall - there was an orchard beside the hall where we used to scrump apples and Sandbatch had a property behind the hall. There was also a pond 'the frypan pool' where we used to go tadpoling. I attended Greenfield Primary school from 1942-48.
Wed Mar 4 09:34:15 2009
Sandra Williams nee Roose
My grandfather, Thomas Watkins Roose, was born in Greenfield in 1863 and lived in Station Road, Greenfield in 1871. Does anyone have any old pictures of the old houses in Station Road or perhaps any information please?
Fri Feb 20 11:28:43 2009
L Quorn, Suffolk
My great grandmother, Eliza Boardman, was a parlour maid at Greenfield Hall in 1881. At that time the Head of the Household was a Charlotte Buxton (widow). My g/grandmother later married William Jones of Holywell.
Mon Dec 1 08:06:13 2008
Sion Edwards
I used to live in Glan y Don, Greenfield, and would like to know who owns horses field between the Mecca and Bala Avenue.
Wed Nov 12 08:55:11 2008
B Pugh, Flint
I remember Greenfield Hall very well. As a small child I lived in Sycamore Terrace, very close to the Hall, and played in the hay fields in front of the hall, and Hall's Woods to the rear. The woods were a wonderful sight in spring, full of bluebells. I remember my aunt, Mrs Mary Louisa Hughes, of Trevor Cottages, taking me to visit her friends who lived in the farm next to the Hall. I remember looking at the chickens on the farm. On the way home across the field, we found a headless chicken in the grass, and my aunt told me it must have been caught by a fox. The year would have been around 1951. On a lovely summer's day around the same year, my father took me to the garden fete held in front of the Old Hall. He won a doll for me by guessing its name was Mitsy. My late husband, Malcolm Pugh, had happy memories of attending the scout meetings at the Hall. I remember the day the Hall was demolished, it seemed as if everyone who lived in Greenfield came out and stood and watched. The village was not the same afterwards.
Wed Jul 23 09:25:14 2008
Sophia Roberts now Williams
Hello Martin Wilkes. Your grandma was my aunty Dolly. Uncle Ike was my dad's brother. Who were your mum and dad? I now live in Australia, near Sydney. Would love to hear from you. [My email address is with the webteam.]
Tue Jun 3 08:41:52 2008
Glenys Heath
I am a descendant of the Williams Family, David Williams was the licencee at the Royal Oak and then lived at London House, Greenfield. There is a London House on Bagillt Rd and one in Holywell. Does anyone recall the location of London House that I suspect may be the old Post Office in or near Basingwerk Terrace? My grateful thanks.
Mon Apr 28 09:54:07 2008
Emyr John, Drama Outreach Worker
Greenfield Ghetto Drama Group. The group is free to all teenagers living in Greenfield Valley and the surrounding area with an interest and commitment to drama. The group meets once a week in the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park. The initiative is run in conjunction with Clwyd Theatr Cymru Theatre for Young People and the Heritage Lottery Fund. For further details e-mail the Drama Outreach Worker at emyr.john@clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk.
Fri Mar 28 16:34:49 2008
Emyr John, Clwyd Theatr Cymru
The Greenfield Ghetto Drama group will perform their play about the history of the valley on July 19th, 2008 at the Heritage Park itself. I'll make sure the details appear here near the time! Many thanks.
Wed Mar 26 16:27:02 2008
Holly and Adam
Thank you this information is really useful. We go to a drama club with Sian. The play is on the history and the future of Greenfield.
Wed Mar 26 10:06:55 2008
Sian from Greenfield
Well to start these comments are really interesting. I attend a drama group right here at Greenfield and we are devising a play to show about the history of the Valley. All of this information is really helpful because it is so in-depth. Thank you for leaving all of this! The play will be held sometime in July. If you would like to see it, please do! I would be very pleased! I don't have any more information about that but you can try asking some people at the valley if they know any more about it. Maybe the website... Thanks anyway! Sian.
Tue Mar 25 11:14:40 2008
Don Hughes from Bristol
My father, John Thomas Hughes, was born in Holywell 1885. He was born at the Barracks. Would be interested in more information, also local schools he may have attended.
Mon Nov 12 09:32:40 2007
Martin Wilkes, Surrey
The Rock Inn; My Nanna Dolly Roberts (ne Shields) ran the Rock at the tender age of 16 in the early 1920s. Her father owned the Plough Inn just a little further down the road.
Wed Sep 26 08:50:35 2007
Sandra Griffiths nee Bradbury from Denbigh
Well, was so interested to read all your letters. I was born in the Brognallt, and later went to live in Chapel St Holywell, then went on to live in Trinity Road, Greenfield, and have not been on this site before, but am trying to remember some of you. I am a twin and have 1 brother, and I will look forward to reading some more of the letters.
Thu Sep 20 08:36:25 2007
Gwladys Harrison from Greenfield
There is a picture of the old Greenfield Hall in Morfa Newydd Care Home in Greenfield. I went to the grounds of the old hall once when I was a child with my mother to a fete. I lived in Primrose Hill, Brynford Street, Holywell, at the time. I married and we lived in Greenfield Street, opposite the textile mills where my husband and I worked. The Rock was just up the road from us and Mr D, as we knew him, was the landlord with his wife. It was a very small pub, with a roaring fire in the winter. Mr and Mrs Davies were excellent mine hosts, and when the pub was demolished you could see why it was called the rock. There was quite a vibrant community with Greenfield Terrace across the car park. St Winefride's Well was more popular then, and there were always one or two coaches on Sundays parked outside our window. There was a shop in Greenfield Street, which sold religious items, and a cafe at one time. Lower down towards Greenfield 'Johny Bara's' Bakery was in full swing, the building is still there. The Holywell Textile Mill was in full swing making tapestry blankets, honeycomb blankets. The Mill shop sold items of clothing made from the cloth made at the Mill. Worsted cloth was made at the Lower Mill, it was a hive of activity, noisy with all the looms clattering - sending the shuttles across with the weft through the warp to make the cloth. There were many characters working at the textile mill. Higher up the road towards Holywell was Greaves Chip Shop. She was a great lady who spent her last days working at the textile mill. We could go on forever. Very busy area.
Thu Jun 21 08:54:30 2007
Elizabeth Parry from Brecon
I'm interested to know how & why Holywell was able to support a printing business and several grocers shops.
Wed Jan 3 09:47:30 2007
Kayleigh Wood and Lindsay O'Brian, Greenfield
The abbey is scary and haunted. We often go there in the nights. There are a lot of strange goings on. We have been told stories of monks walking through the abbey and then disppearing. Also, one of us used to work in the cafe which is currently there which used to be owned by the man who owned all of the cotton mills around the abbey. As you walk around this area you get the feeling that it is not just mortal bodies who move around you! So check it out - there may be more stories to be told!
Wed Dec 13 12:21:27 2006
Tanya Wright (nee Jones)
My grandfather (Gwillym Jones) was the nephew of the orginal Jones the Gardner and spent a lot of time helping out in the gardens during the twenties and early thirties. He used to tell me tales of selling fruit and veg to local people from a horse and cart. The 'new' council estate in Greenfield is the site of the old hall and its gardens. My mother grew up in Trinity Road, the first street to be built on the new estate. She recalls playing in the ruins which were of course out of bounds!
Mon Nov 27 15:10:09 2006
Phil Edwards (Mr.) from Greenfield
I lived in Greenfield from June 1960 to May 1973 (when I got married.) We came from Holywell originally - living at No.1 The Brognallt, which were a row of terraced former lead miners cottages running down a small valley at the side of the Fire Station in Holywell, from what was the old A55 road. The cottages had no running water, toilet, or electricity. (Ours, being No.1 and nearest the main road, had been given an electricity supply, but we still had the old gas 'mantles' fixed to the wall). We had to carry all our drinking and bathing water from a single outside shared tap about 50 metres away. The block of outside toilets were also situated here. The house (or cottage) itself consisted of two rooms downstairs (lounge and tiny kitchen) and two rooms upstairs. We all slept in the one room, as the second room had no form of heating, and you see the bare roof tiles when you looked at the ceiling. We used this room as a store room. The kitchen had a sloping roughly quarry tiled floor, an old gas gooker, a 'Dolly Tub' (with a wooden lid my father had made) which held about 15 to 20 gallons of clean water. My father installed a 'Belfast' white pot sink standing on two brick pillars he'd made. We placed a galvanised bucket underneath to catch the water when mam had washed the dishes. We bathed in a much patched up tin bath, in front of the fire in the front room. We must have had to use a 'potty' if we wanted the toilet in the night. It was a very close knit community there though. Bonfire night was great, as everyone clubbed together and gave what little they could to buy some fireworks. We always had a great communal bonfire. My dad bought a second hand TV from a shop in Holywell in 1958 or 59, and almost all the row used to come up to watch the news or tennis etc. The row of houses were owned (I think) by an estate agent called Arthur Roberts. The rent my mother used to pay was 6 shillings and 8 old pence per week. I think this was quite a bit of money, when my father was only earning about £6.00 per week working as a road contractor. The local council condemned the row of houses as unfit for human habitation in 1959. They started moving the elderly people to newly built bungalows in Greenfield - Queens Road and Groesffordd, and eventually moved us to a house in Tan-y-Bryn, which was built on some of the grounds of the old Greenfield Hall. We moved into our brand new three bedroomed house on June 16th 1961. I was 9 years of age. I can't remember what my mam and dad thought of the place, but I remember me and my younger brother running wildly up and down the stairs, in and out of the rooms, amazed at the space, the toilet and bathroom. I started in Greenfield Primary School in the September. (It is very sad they are (or have by now) going to demolish the building). I don't remember the old hall. I seem to remember people talking of it being blown up, but I can't remember the date of this (perhaps it was demolished before 1961?). I can remember playing in the woods at the end of Tan-y-Bryn (which ended at the bottom of the hill leading up to Groesffordd). The woods were just across the road for us then. I always wondered how the woods were so well kept and tidy. I now realise that there must have been a whole team of gardeners working in them for the owners of the hall. I spent many happy years in Greenfield and made many friends. And yes, there was much more of a community spirit in those days. We used to go camping in the woods, and there was never any fear or problems. Phil Edwards (Mr).
Mon Oct 16 13:48:44 2006
Steven Hyndman-Jones, Flint.
Hello, I currently live in Flint with my wife and two sons, but always regard myself as being a Greenfield person. It's nice to hear about the history of the village and the many faces it has had over past decades. Being 'quite' young the lasting childhood memories I hold are of a village where the whole community knew everybody else, a village where your children were safe to roam the streets with very little threat of being harmed, but also a village that suffered greatly with the closure of its heavy industries. It seamed to be a place forgotten and overlooked with the decline of the area's major employers. Greenfield has a new face today, where industry has returned, housing has more than doubled and the community take great pleasure in using the renovated valley for recreational purposes. But one of the most upsetting acts of the local government body, was to demolish the perfectly sound building of the old Greenfield school, and the memories of most of the village's residents.
Fri Aug 18 11:02:38 2006
Bill Lowes. Holywell.
I lived in Kings Avenue, Mam and Dad are still there. I well remember playing in the hall when I was a kid, the tale for our gang was that there was a skeleton of a monkey in the cellar of the hall, no matter how hard we looked we never did find it. The other thing that has stayed with me was the walled garden at the rear of the hall. It is the only place in this country where I have seen a field mouse nest, as kids we would spend hours watching the mice run around. I never did get to see the hall demolished, I was in hospital at the time.
Mon Jul 31 15:02:50 2006
Neil Kendrick from Nottingham
I remember the day Greenfield Hall was 'blown up'. A few lads hid in a den in the field known as 'the lotties', where at one time there were genuine allotments - this field, next to the cemetry and now a housing estate, was a football pitch, an area of underground dens, and a field of fun for the kids of Dee View, Crosfield, Woodland Drive, Delyn Rd and beyond. At the bottom of the three streets lay three air-raid shelters, two of which I can remember getting into. Though I can't recall the fetes and sports days mentioned by David, I do still have some pictures of me as a toddler at these events.
Mon Jul 17 10:00:05 2006
Richard Griffiths, Bagillt formerly of Greenfield
The Rock Inn. It was situated opposite the Well on the Well Hill. The last landlady was Mrs Davies - I had my first pint there at the age of 14, in 1963!
Sun Mar 12 15:38:57 2006
Lin Eidmans, Cornwall
I was very interested in the article about Greenfield Hall and the School. I note that the webteam are looking for a photograph? I obtained a photocopy of a photo of Greenfield Hall from Flintshire Record Office in Hawarden about 18 months ago. You may be interested to know that on the 1901 census there is a note of staff and pupils present on census night. Mr J S Cumin was still Headmaster and my Nain (Grandmother) Martha Jane Evans is listed as Head Cook.
Fri Mar 3 15:43:58 2006
John D Jones, Greenfield
There are photographs of Greenfield hall in a booklet called Holywell and Greenfield in old photographs by D.R.Wilkes. Also a photo of the Rock Inn.
Mon Feb 20 14:28:12 2006
Stella from Essex
My late father, William Vernon Fowles, lived at Greenfield Hall, I think approx.1914-1920. I think the place must have be rented for him and the family by Sir Thomas Lipton. Sir Thomas was my grandfather,(grandmother was the housekeeper) although we have no written proof of this, but just look at my brother and you would not doubt it!There is a lot of history in my family that is very sketchy. There was also a brother John Fowles, who died in the 14-18 war and I remember taking my late mother to Holywell about 30 years ago where we saw his name on a memorial, I think near a park. I did have a booklet giving the history of Greenfield Hall but have serched high and low but unable to find it. Will keep looking.
Sun Feb 12 16:07:04 2006
S.C. Davies, Deeside
I remember the day they blew the old hall up. I was very young and climbed on our shed roof with my brother and sister. We lived in fulbrooke backing on to the hall. Some twenty years later one of the men who blew the hall became related through marrige to my sister. I was told that Mr N Cuckson from the grange, Holywell, set the dynamite. Sadly Mr cuckson is no longer with us. My sister and her husband William have all passed away but it's nice to remember sitting on the shed with my big sis and brother watching and listeing to the bang.
Mon Jan 30 00:33:47 2006
David Harpham, Kent
I, too, remember the Hall. We lived at the top of School Lane, overlooking the Hall's old parkland, and could just see its chimneys and roof from our house. Like Angie, I did have the occasional "peep" inside the derelict building. This was after Greenfield Scouts moved out of their temporary headquarters in the basement.
Does anyone else remember Greenfield Primary School sports days being held on the level area in front of the Hall and the Church "Garden Fetes" on the same ground, before everything gave way to the building of Queen's Road, Groesffordd and Tan-y-Bryn.
The fruit trees lasted for many years in a corner of Hall Woods in what, I suppose, had been part of the kitchen garden.
It was so sad to see the old hall collapse, at the hands of the demolition men - I believe they blew it up - into a dusty heap of rubble. I think it must have been in the very late 1950s or even 1960.
There are probably photos of the Hall in the County Records Office as the former Scoutmaster, George Goulden, had many shots of it among the Greenfield Scout Troop archives. I believe that much of the collection was deposited in the CRO after his death.
Mon Jan 23 14:02:27 2006
ANGIE COOPER Wolverhampton
I remember the Old Hall well - it was derelict when I lived in Fulbrooke but I could see it from my back bedroom window and must admit to "exploring" inside although we were forbidden to go near. Unfortunately my most abiding memory was the day the Hall was demolished to make way for the building of a new housing estate. That huge building site was also a forbidden playground; we had great fun there!
Sun Jan 22 13:54:56 2006
Janette Bowen from Greenfield
I would like to see proof that the hall was here by seeing a photo of it and records of it too. Also I would like to know about the Rock Inn Hotel on the New Road, Holywell, Flintshire. As far as I know no one knows anything about it or is not telling.
Wed Dec 28 20:29:27 2005
H Wiliams, Conway county
I used to go to the hall in the late 1940s. We were able to still pick fruit from the trees pears etc although the hall was then derelict. We used to go to the hall for school dinners for a while when I was about five or six years old i.e. 1944.
Mon Dec 19 02:02:55 2005
We're not updating this page but we still want your stories so get in touch or go to Memoryshare.
Our Jones family had a vital connection to Greenfield Hall, Holywell, Flintshire, through its then owner, Dr Richardson.
