Cefn Mawr is a village with an industrial background made up of sandstone quarries, ironworks, clay works and coal mines. Its name meaning ‘big ridge’, it is one of several villages in the wider community of Cefn on the northern slopes of the Dee Valley, currently part of the ‘Buffer Zone’ of the World Heritage Site and under-explored by tourists.

As our programme and project film highlight, there is a wealth of cultural and social history to explore in Cefn Mawr. Many people say that Cefn is the birth place for the aqueduct, with all the mineral resources being utilised in its creation and then alongside the developing railways used to create wealth for the visionary entrepreneurs. Heavy industry in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries was characterised by forges and blast furnaces in Cefn Mawr, as well as coal pits, products of which were transported along the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The chemical works at Plas Kynaston, (formerly the Plas Kynaston Foundry, where the ribs for the arches of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct were cast) has gone through expansion and diversification over the years and is one of a number of large manufacturers to have ceased production within the village recently. The Cefn (Newbridge) Viaduct is a Grade II listed railway viaduct located over the River Dee between Cefn and Chirk, close to Cefn Mawr (and Cefn-bychan), Pentre and Newbridge. The viaduct forms the eastern boundary of Tŷ Mawr Country Park and is around a mile downstream of its more famous cousin, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which was built from stone quarried in Cefn! Cefn Mawr was the catalyst for the valley’s heavy industry.