Overton-on-Dee

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Listed cottages on the high street in Overton-on-Dee
Listed cottages on the high street in Overton-on-Dee

Overton-on-Dee (Welsh: Owrtyn) is a small rural village 7 miles from the market town of Wrexham. The village is situated on the edge of an escarpment which winds its way around the course of the River Dee which is where the name of Overton-on-Dee is derived from.

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[edit] Geography

Overton-on-Dee is seven miles from Wrexham and exactly twenty-two miles from both Chester and Shrewsbury. Its neigbouring villages are Bangor-on-Dee and Penley whilst the small towns of Ellesmere and Ruabon are only a short distance away.

[edit] History

The town was, until 1974, in an exclave of the traditional county of Flintshire known as Maelor Saesneg (English: "Saxon or English-speaking Maelor"), sometimes called "Flintshire Detached", and was its administrative centre. Between 1974 and 1996 Overton was in the short-lived county of Clwyd. Strangely, the community (parish) and county boundary between it and Erbistock (in former Denbighshire) is, in part, on the west side of the river due to oxbow formation in the river.

[edit] St Mary the Virgin Church and its yew trees

St Mary the Virgin Church which dominates the high street
St Mary the Virgin Church which dominates the high street

The churchyard of St Mary the Virgin dominates the high street and is famous for twenty-one very ancient yew trees. The yew trees are traditionally one of the Seven Wonders of Wales and commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme:

Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,
Snowdon's mountain without its people,
Overton yew trees, St Winefride wells,
Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.

At 1,500 to 2,000 years old, the oldest tree predates the church, whose earliest stonework is probably Norman. In 1992 the village celebrated the 700th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to Overton by Edward I in 1292 with a royal visit from the present Queen who planted a new yew tree.

[edit] Buildings and heritage

Overton has a fine collection of 18th and 19th century buildings, many of which are listed as buildings of architectural or historic interest. Even the old telephone box has been "listed". The village centre is also designated as a Conservation Area.

Most of the town was once owned by the Bryn-y-pys Estate. The 1848 sale particulars, with 4,300 acres and a majority of the houses and farms in the town, run to several pages. It was made clear that the estate wielded "Great Political Influence", as without the secret ballot at general elections, the purchaser, who would be virtually everyone's landlord, was guaranteed of a place in Parliament.

The yew trees within the churchyard
The yew trees within the churchyard

There are several interesting buildings in the town including: the "Cocoa and Reading Rooms", a terrracotta building of 1890, built to promulgate temperance, now the library; almshouses and a Victorian village pump.

[edit] Recreation

The village has the ususal sporting recreational areas of cricket, football, bowls and tennis, but more intersting, it has a boules pitch which is used for competition with its twinned town of La Murette in France. Overton is also an excellent rendezvous point for walkers as it finds itself on the map of the Maelor Way, a 38km long-distance footpath; this in turn links up with Offa's Dyke Path National Trail at Bronygarth and the Sandstone Trail, Llangollen Canal, South Cheshire Way, and the Marches Way.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 52.96989° N 2.93357° W

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