Froncysyllte

Froncysyllte
The Cefn Railway Viaduct over the River Dee, seen from Froncysyllte with the A483 road viaduct in the background.
Froncysyllte  Froncysyllte shown within Wrexham
OS grid reference	SJ2731841189
Community	Llangollen Rural
Principal area	Wrexham
Ceremonial county	Clwyd
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LLANGOLLEN
Postcode district	LL20
Dialling code	01691
Police	North Wales
Fire	North Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
EU Parliament	Wales
UK Parliament	Clwyd South
Welsh Assembly	Wrexham
List of places: UK • Wales • Wrexham

Froncysyllte (Welsh pronunciation: [vrɔnkəˈsəɬte], UK: /ˌvrɒnkəˈsʌlteɪ/), commonly colloquially known as Fron, is a village in Wrexham county borough, Wales and stands on the banks of the River Dee and the Llangollen Canal. It is situated on the main A5 road which runs from London to Holyhead.

Its name is derived from the Welsh word fron, meaning a hillside or slope, along with the name Cysyllte, one of the old townships of the parish of Llangollen. The anglicised spelling Vroncysyllte was commonly used until the mid 20th century.

History

Froncysyllte is situated in the farming landscape of the Vale of Llangollen, but first developed as a settlement of cottages for quarry, limekiln, brick and tile-workers during the nineteenth century. The village was built on a high outcrop of limestone below several quarries; although the area's traditional industries have now gone, it still has a rich industrial archaeology.

Amongst the landmarks left around Froncysyllte by industrial development is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a World Heritage Site, which was built by Thomas Telford in 1795 to carry the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee.

Choir

Froncysyllte is famous for the Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir, which began in 1947, when plans were announced to hold the first Llangollen Eisteddfod. A local man, Gomer Powell, formed a choir, with JR Jones as first chairman. A local piano teacher, Lloyd Edwards, became the conductor and one of his students, Menna Hughes, became the accompanist.

Young men were persuaded to join, as 60 voices were needed to compete in the Eisteddfod. One of the first to join was Dennis Williams. He was 16 at the time and is now 75, making him the oldest and longest serving member. They signed a record deal in 2006 with Universal Classics. Their first commercial recording, Voices of the Valley, made it to the charts in November of that year. The choir came to fame when they were heard by Daniel Glatman, manager of the band Blue.

External links

• BBC Wales Froncysyllte minisite
• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Froncysyllte and surrounding area