Still waters run deep in the little village of Nercwys, a stone’s throw to the south of Mold. Today it is calm, quiet, rather quaint you may be minded to say. But behind that idyllic, rural glamour, is a history of industrial graft and grind. It began with the lead - this is Flintshire, after all, but it continued with the coal, with several collieries springing up here, there and everywhere about the village. And with the coal came all manner of further industry, including brickworks. In the 1850s, the owners of the Nerquis Colliery built a railway from their works to Coed Talon, and the age of Steam came to the village. But as the lead and coal industries faded through the 20th century, the village returned to its older, agrarian past.

It’s not clear when Nercwys as a village originated, but it is possible, if not likely that it settled about a llan, now the site of St Mary’s. The churchyard has a teardrop shape to it, suggesting a curvilinear origin. And St Mary’s has medieval touches and flairs to it, including some fascinating sepulchral slabbery. It would be something of a surprise to find it did not have ancient depths.

There is much to see here, in beautiful Nercwys.  

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