welcome to
trevor
The small village of Trevor envelops Trevor Basin at the northern end of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Situated in the parish of Llangollen, Trevor’s name is anglicised from Trefor, meaning ‘large village’. The first 11 miles of the Llangollen Canal is an outstanding piece of industrial and engineering heritage comprising embankments, tunnels, viaducts and aqueducts, including the stunning Pontcysyllte Aqueduct itself and 31 other listed structures. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we share our special status with the Grand Canyon, the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a magnificent feat of civil engineering designed by Thomas Telford in 1795, transported minerals quarried and mined for heavy industry, carrying the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee. A wealth of innovation, design and manufacturing took place here, much of which was exported across the world, although the area is now described as ‘post-industrial’.
Trevor gave its name to the powerful landowning family whose ancestral home was on site, and, later, to the industrial settlement represented by the present-day village. Other sites of significance in Trevor today include the Trevor Tower, Trevor Scout Hut and Trevor Basin Tramline. Further notable heritage and architectural landmarks in the area include J.C. Edwards Wall which still stands as a gateway of the Trefynant Fireclay Works which closed in 1965. Begun by J.C. Edwards who started working with his father in the 1860s, by 1896 he was described as ‘the largest and most successful manufacturer of terracotta in the world’. J.C. Edwards tiles were used to decorate the fireplaces and kitchens of the Titanic!
The magnificent Pontcysyllte Chapel Tearooms, formerly the Bryn Seion Chapel, was built from local Ruabon brick in 1902 in the Classical style with a large arch, and is a grade II listed building. Bryn Seion Chapel was the focal point of the village and many locals were married, baptised in the River Dee and attended Sunday school here. The Pontcysyllte Chapel Tea Rooms today is a very popular community and tourist destination with a reputation for very good food. The murals on the adjoining disused building that depict local history and places were recently refurbished and repainted by local artist Emma-Jayne Holmes and members of the community. The mural project consisted of panels in Trevor, and Froncysyllte Community Centre was funded through Wrexham County Borough Council shared prosperity fund.
Today, in Trevor Basin, Glandŵr Cymru Visitor Centre and Anglo Welsh host hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. Day to day, the basin is the epitome of waterway life with dog walkers, the hustle and bustle of Anglo Welsh day trippers and holiday boats, and surrounding narrowboat communities in Fron coming and going. The lovely and busy Telford Inn is a grade II listed building situated in the the basin. This was a late 18th century house formerly known as Scotch Hall thought to have been built by the Ellesmere Canal Company for Telford supervising engineer Mathew Davidson during the construction of the Aqueduct. Its original name was supposedly chosen by Thomas Telford; the bridge behind it is still known locally as Scotch Hall Bridge today.
We invited Emma-Jayne Holmes to capture waterway life, landscapes, heritage and community observations in Trevor, Fron, Cefn and Chirk in her sketchbooks earlier this year.
The Clinker Path
One of the village’s unique environmental features today is the Clinker Path, which was created as a result of these industries, their legacy repurposed and rewilded. The path’s construction meant that the previously inaccessible woodland area, formerly a dumping ground for industry, was cleaned up. This process uncovered multiple exciting objects connected to the industrial engineering of Trevor’s past, such as bricks and ‘clinker’ (furnace waste material) from J.C. Edwards’ brick-making works. Trevor’s heritage industries were limestone quarrying and brick-making.
The Clinker Path was a community-led placemaking initiative made possible by the Our Picturesque Landscape project funded by Heritage Lottery. It was built as a result of community desire for woodland and canalside walks suitable for dog-walkers and families around the village. Local figure Sue Kempster was instrumental in making the path a reality and was also instrumental in the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation of the area as a member of the community council, platforming local people and community voices in significant local decision-making.
LOCAL SCHOOLS Creative Learning opportunities
In 2025 Trevor Basin will have a brand new Glandŵr Cymru Education Resource Space.
To understand more about the uniqueness of the World Heritage Site and how the waterways can represent schools, learners and their communities, Glandŵr Cymru invited schools across Wrexham to apply to take part in a Creative Learning opportunity alongside filmmaker, photographer, storyteller and actress Jenny Berrisford.
Madras VA Aided School have been working with 29 learners and their teacher from year 2 and 3 to create an advert for the new Glandŵr Cymru Education Resource Space. The learners have been wondering and imagining the future of education at Trevor Basin with the four purposes of Curriculum for Wales firmly embedded into what a visit to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has to offer schools across Wales and beyond!
Ysgol Acrefair have been working with 22 learners and their teacher from year 3 to represent how and why the aqueduct was built. Taking on the role of investigators, the learners have been exploring, ‘who used the aqueduct in 1805?’ Over the duration of the enquiry the learners have developed their knowledge and skills in film and digital media to create a video report of the grand opening of the aqueduct.
The learners have had the opportunity to explore their locality and their sense of belonging. Broadening their understanding of geographical and historical concepts and linking to Curriculum for Wales across Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Humanities, Language, Literacy and Communication and Science and Technology.
Ysgol Bryn Alyn chose 29 learners from their year 7 and 8 classes to explore whether learners can lead their own learning in a place-based environment. Given the freedom, the learners split into working groups for different tasks including research, design and filming and have created an art trail around Trevor Basin using QR codes to highlight the key information they have researched. With the learners leading the way, they have developed skills and knowledge across Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Humanities, Language, Literacy and Communication and Science and Technology.
The initiative has been led by Hannah Greys. Hannah has experience most notably in art logistics, at Creative Skillset Cymru developing projects for colleges and universities focused on Professional Development for teaching staff and with Arts Council of Wales’ Creative Learning Cymru programme supporting schools and early years settings
across Wales.
Contemplation boat
by local storytelling facilitator Nan Pickering
Nestled amongst our floating market, you will find The Contemplation Boat – or our own Stream of Consciousness – where we invite you to step on to the water and go with the flow of your thoughts.
Nan Pickering, whose practice includes self expression for wellbeing, has been supporting people in local communities to explore their thoughts around nature, place and belonging. Part of Nan’s self expression practice is freewriting, or stream of consciousness writing, where the writer is encouraged to write or explore their thoughts in any form, on the blank page, to a prompt.
You will be invited on board and encouraged to be still and mindful for seven minutes, to close your eyes and to see where your mind can take you whilst on board, cradled by the water beneath you and
suspended in time.
Glandŵr Cymru Green and Social Prescribing development
Nan Pickering has specialist knowledge and interest in the areas of recovery, and the importance of being authentic and sharing vulnerabilities in safe, non-judgemental spaces.
Nan has also been working with us, Green Health Wales, Public Health Wales and Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board this year to explore the development of the first green and social prescribing programme for Glandŵr Cymru across the World Heritage Site. In partnership with Green Health Wales who have a key focus area to map, link and promote existing programmes, we engaged with clinicians across Wales to explore the new Social Prescribing Framework for Wales launched earlier this year. We have been identifying the opportunities and barriers such as transport for clinicians and patients in accessing Green and Social Prescribing Programmes to help us to develop a sustainable ‘place-based’ programme. We are in the early stages of this work.
Nan has been leading the development of this work with The Bridge that Connects project team involving the mapping of the array of brilliant initiatives in the area that we aim to signpost and support in the future. Nan also works for one of these key initiatives, local organisation Community Wellness, at their Cefn Mawr sessions who have been delivering a deep-rooted and meaningful programme throughout 2024. We are looking forward to continuing to develop this in the new year.
