Bodfari

Coordinates: 53°13′12″N 3°21′40″W / 53.220°N 3.361°W / 53.220; -3.361

Bodfari is a village in Denbighshire, Wales. Until the local government reorganisation of 1974, Bodfari was in the historic county of Flintshire.

The ancient parish of Bodfari comprised the townships of Bodfari, which was in historic Flintshire, and Aberwheeler, in historic Denbighshire.

Location

Bodfari is located at the approximate grid reference SJ093701. The village lies on the A541 road at the point where the road passes through a gap in the Clwydian Hills, the gap being part of the valley of the River Wheeler (Welsh: Afon Chwiler).

The Offa's Dyke National Trail passes through the village, and for walkers completing the trail south to north, Bodfari is usually the final overnight stop on the 177 mile route.

The parish church

References

External links

Moel Famau

Moel Famau (or Moel Fama) is the highest hill within the Clwydian Range, formerly Flintshire Range, on the boundary between Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales. The hill, which also gives its name to the Moel Famau country park, has been classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1985. It is also surrounded by several well-preserved Iron-Age hill forts.

A northern part of the Offa's Dyke footpath, one of the UK's most popular National Trails, crosses the summit of Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower.

Name

Although historical sources attest to a variety of spellings (such as Moel Famma, Moel Vamma and Moel Fammau), the only two in common use today are Moel Famau and Moel Fama. The first word moel is a common Welsh place-name element meaning 'a bare hill'. The meaning and preferred spelling of the second element are less certain.

Attestations from as early as the fourteenth century consistently show that the second element ends in –a. This conforms to the local pronunciation (Welsh: [ˈvama]) and is 'the preferred spelling', according to the Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales. The meaning of the 'Fama' is somewhat uncertain, but it is probably a lenited form of a personal name, 'Mama'.

Jubilee Tower

The octagonal Jubilee Tower (generally called Darwen Tower) at grid reference SD678215 on Darwen Hill overlooking the town of Darwen in Lancashire, England, was completed in 1898 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and also to celebrate the victory of the local people for the right to access the moor. It was opened to the public on 24 September 1898.

85 feet (25.9 m) in height, walkers can climb to the top via the internal staircase to admire the views of North Yorkshire, Morecambe Bay, Blackpool Tower, Cumbria, the Isle of Man, North Wales, Derbyshire, elsewhere in Lancashire, and surrounding moorland.

Background

Packmen, peddlers, farmers and labourers used tracks and moorland paths to go about their business. In the 1870s the Lord of the manor of Over Darwen, the Reverend William Arthur Duckworth, blocked ancient rights of way preventing access to the moor even though he was an absentee landlord. Game rights were a valuable commodity and Duckworth did not wish to have his land devalued by trespassers on the moors. William Thomas Ashton, manager of Eccles Shorrock's mines at Dogshaw Clough and Entwistle Moss used the moorland footpaths well to deliver coal to farmers and other customers. Whenever Duckworth's gamekeepers blocked his way Ashton cleared the paths. The struggle led to the courts where Duckworth lost and in September 1896 people resumed walking the moorland footpaths and, as Ashton died in 1884, his sons led a procession onto the moors in celebration.

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it.

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning. The word can be traced directly back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēw-. The word for the card game of the same name has a different origin.

History

The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from one place to another. A common form of lashing sticks, logs, and deciduous branches together involved the use of long reeds or other harvested fibers woven together to form a connective rope capable of binding and holding together the materials used in early bridges.