Ffrwd

Grid reference: SJ302553
Co-ordinates: 330290, 355317
Bearing: SW

The tiny village of Ffrwd lies at the north-eastern end of the Cegidog valley, between Ffrith and Cefn Y Bedd.

This was once a centre of considerable industrial activity; metalworking, mining and quarrying. There was a plan in the late nineteenth century to run a branch of the Ellesmere Canal through here, but the project foundered.

Grid reference: SJ303553
Co-ordinates: 330312, 355330
Bearing: W

This is The Ffrwd public house, formerly known as The Red Lion.

If you have a copy of Chumbawamba's 1995 album Swingin' With Raymond, the track Salome (Let's Twist Again) contains a sample of Babs Fox playing the organ in the lounge of this pub, as half of that album was recorded at the former Windings studio just a couple of hundred yards up the road. Can a Blue Plaque be far behind?

© Nigel Stapley