The Druid, the Moose, the Beluga and the Lion.
- Stewart
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
The hand operation mentioned in the previous post might have put paid to any thoughts of cycling during my recent trip with Mrs Bygone Boozer to Denbighshire, but we managed to occupy ourselves with a bit of walking. Whilst I know Eryri very well from my days in Bangor half a century ago this area, just south of Mold, was completely unknown. I may well have popped in to see friends in Ruabon and Brymbo on the odd occasion, but the Clwydian hills were a delight waiting to be discovered. An area of limestone – just like home, with quarries – just like home, and former lead mines – just like home, but without the hordes of people that the Peak District seems to attract.
Monday's route took us past the Druid Inn in Llanferres. Opening at noon, and with the time being 12:04, we felt that it would be inappropriate not to pop in to take on some fluid and fodder.
It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the difference in light intensity, but having passed through the door they fell upon the welcoming sight...
...of a pair of reasonably local cask offerings.
Being lunchtime, and with a few miles still to complete, I opted for the lighter Cwrw Madog/Madog's Ale from the Purple Moose brewery in Porthmadog. The beer is named after William Maddocks who built The Cob to reclaim land from the sea and thereby essentially founded the settlement of Porthmadog – which is also named after him. This 3.7% bitter, with its slightly nutty aroma and hints of fruitiness, went well with my duo of pork sausages, mash and rich gravy. And it was Celebration Time! Even with thirteen stitches still in the palm of my hand I managed to grip a glass using my thumb and all four fingers for the first time in a couple of years. Plenty enough reason to celebrate, even if we ignore the fact that it also happened to be my mty-nth birthday.
With fodder ingested and fluids imbibed we returned to our accommodation where we stated looking into a bit of the history of the Llanferres. Upon examining the Ordnance Survey's 25-inch map from 1910, we found that next to the Druid used to be the Red Lion.
The Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust, in its 2014 Historic Settlement Survey, mentioned both of the pubs in its description of the development of the village:
"There is currently no evidence for a nucleated settlement here. Evans in 1795 depicted only a couple of buildings in the vicinity of the church and even by the mid-19th century, the church was accompanied only by the Druid Inn to the south, the rectory built in c.1813 to the west and two farms, Ty'n Llan to the north and Rhos Farm further north still. A second public house, the Red Lion, had come into existence only a few metres to the south of the Druid Inn by the end of the 19th century."
With the discovery of the Red Lion, it obviously had to become the subject of a blog post. This meant that a photograph of it would be needed. We'd have to walk that way again and, naturally, call in once more at the Druid.
However, that return visit to the Druid would have to wait a couple of days, for we had to nip back to Derbyshire so that I could see my consultant and, hopefully, have the stitches removed. As the wound was healing well, they duly were.
Once back in Denbighshire it was time to capture that photograph of the former Red Lion. I appreciate that I could've simply used Mr Google's services, but that would've removed the excuse to revisit the Druid.
To justify the food and drink we felt that it had to be a decent walk, so we set off from Eryrys to ascend Foel Fenlli, before dropping down into Llanferres for a well-earned lunch.
From the summit we got a view of the Peak District, or it seemed like it judging by the number of people in sight. Moel Famau seemed to be crawling with folk. Meeting just five other people on our outing I think we chose the right peak to climb!
Whilst on the summit we were buzzed by a beluga. That's not a white whale beluga but a white Airbus 300-600 Beluga, on its way from Toulouse to Hawarden Airport and no doubt carrying parts between the company's Broughton and Toulouse plants.
From the summit it was downhill all the way – well almost – into Llanferres and the Druid, passing the former Red Lion as we did so.
The Red Lion must've popped up around 1870, or a few years earlier. Whilst the Druid is recorded in the 1841 census, the Red Lion first makes an appearance in the headcount of 1871, when lead miner John Jones is in residence.
John and his family were still there ten years later...
...but had moved on by 1891 when labourer Edward Edwards was supplementing his income by selling beer.
The family's first language is pretty much certain to have been Welsh as all of them were bilingual except for young Margaret, who was a Welsh monoglot in 1891. However, after a decade at school she had added English, maybe with the help of a Welsh Not, to her list of languages.
After Edward Edwards died in May 1907, and was interred in St. Berres' Churchyard a couple of hundred yards away, his widow Margaret continued running the pub. She was still there in 1911...
...along with son Abel...
...but she joined Edward in St. Berres' in 1918. Did the Red Lion die with her? Whilst digging about for info I'm sure that I read somewhere that the pub closed in the 1920s, but I can't for the life of me find that reference now. And neither can I find the Red Lion named in any of the two hundred and fifty plus entries in the enumeration district for the 1921census. One thing's certain though. It's definitely a bygone boozer these days, earning its keep as a private residence and going by the name of Pine View Cottage.
But its neighbour is certainly still going. No sausages for me this time, but the black pudding and hash brown stack still needed to be washed down by some Purple Moose.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
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