The fertile land of Ystrad Alun has been occupied since pre-historic times. Oral tradition locates the Alleluiah Battle of 429 AD - when the Britons defeated a combined raiding party of Picts and Saxons - at Maes Garmon on the outskirts of the town.
The story relates how the foreigners were ambushed, not by weapons, but by the Britons banging their shields and bellowing 'Alleluiah' at the top of their voices many times. The foe fled in panic, many of them drowning in the Alun. It was reputedly a bloodless encounter. The conquering Normans gave the name Mohaut (written as Mont Alto - High Hill) to the prominent hillock known as Yr Wyddgrug. Here they built a succession of wooden castles that were, on numerous occasions, laid siege to or burnt to the ground by the Welsh.
The first family to occupy the fortification as Lords of Mold were the Montalts. Their emblem of a lion rampant appears on the present badge of Mold, the other insignia being the Prince of Wales feathers. During the Middle Ages Mold was ruled independently of the King's lands and, to the disgust of neighbouring shires, harboured felons from justice. In the 15th century the lordship came into the hands of the powerful Stanley family and around 1495 Margaret Beaufort (wife of Sir Thomas Stanley and mother of Henry VII) financed the re-building of St Mary's Church.
On completion in the 1520s its splendour contrasted sharply with the town itself which was described as a poky little place of some forty houses. Having supported the defeated Royalist cause during the Civil War, Sir Charles Stanley, Earl of Derby, not only lost his lands but was also executed as a traitor. A group of Parliamentarians purchased the manors of Hawarden, Hope and Mold and became collectively known as The Lords of Mold.
They encouraged coalmining in the Alun Valley and leadmining on Mold Mountain. Those local gentry who took advantage of this opportunity, as well as speculating upon their own estates, benefited financially enough to not only rebuild their country houses but also, during the 18th century, to erect large town houses for themselves in Mold itself.
The accelerated growth of the district's industries during the nineteenth century resulted in a rapid rise in population that, in turn, brought with it social problems. Two upheavals, in 1830 and 1869, saw rioting on a large scale with four killed during the latter unrest.
The production of coal in particular was boosted with the coming of the railway in 1849 but by the early twentieth century production was well past its peak, the First World War simply delayed pit closures. Lead mining experienced a similar fate.
