Nant Mill Community Trust

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Nant Mill Community Trust

We focus on the conservation and protection of Nant Mill and the surrounding area of Wrexham.

01/09/2026

It's the day of the Coedpoeth Carnival in about 1907, and Samuel Evans of Nant Mill has decorated his milk cart.

Every other weekday of the year, he would deliver his milk, butter and vegetables around the village, charging 5 old pennies per quart. You’d bring out your milk jug, and he’d dispense it from the churn. (For comparison, a two-pinter costs about £1.20 in Coedpoeth today.)

This vintage photo (newly colourised for us) inspired his granddaughter Gillian Clarke to write the poem ‘Taid’, which was published in her collection ‘Ice’:
“My grandfather stands a breathless moment
in hundred-year-old sunlight
for the slow click of the shutter… “

She remembers:
“...Taid
in his chair by the fire in the big farm kitchen,
old man, black-browed, breath lost to emphysema
from a lifetime milling corn… “

The Evans family lived and worked there for over 50 years, and many of their descendants still live locally.

Our thanks to Gillian Clarke and Peter Jones for the pictures, and to her and Carcanet Press for permission to quote the poem. Steve Brien of Coedpoeth & Minera Camera Club has kindly colourised them.

13/08/2026

During their time at Nant Mill, Samuel and Sarah Evans were blessed with no less than TEN children, five girls and five boys. Their grandson Peter Jones shared these photos with us, and they’ve now been colourised for our delectation.

They show Edith Ellen, born at Nant Mill in 1917, and someone we believe to be George Samuel Evans, born in 1907, with his sheepdog. The other picture shows youngest son John Maldwyn or ‘Johnny’ Evans, who died young after being kicked by a horse. The wound became infected and, sadly, antibiotics were only in the very early stages of development then.

The bacteria-killing properties of a mould extract were noticed in 1928, and the first antibiotic, penicillin, was isolated from it and then refined in quantity during the 1940s. Would it have been available to a civilian in Wrexham, though? It seems not.

Our thanks to Peter Jones for sharing the photos and to Steve Brien of Coedpoeth & Minera Camera Club for colourising them.

06/08/2026

Did you know that you can see TWO mills at Nant Mill?

In 1734, Mary Myddelton (then owner of the Plas Power estate), instructed her tenant to build a new watermill at Nant Mill. She supplied the ‘good quality dressed stone’ and other materials and he, a millwright and a miller (both highly skilled professions), did all the work. And he did it free of charge!

Why would he do that? He was to run the mill for 21 years, and millers traditionally kept a portion of all the grain that they ground for local farmers, to act as their wages.

A hundred years later, Plas Power was owned by the FitzHugh family and a new, modern mill was constructed at a cost of £1,000. That’s our Nant Mill, and it had two of the more efficient ‘overshot’ waterwheels.

Where’s the older one? The 1970s photo gives a clue; stand with your back to the toilets, and the wall opposite you is all that remains of it. If you look carefully at the lawns beyond, you’ll see traces of the old mill race, where it returned water back to the river.

Credits: 1771 Plan; Courtesy of North East Wales Archives.
1963 map; By permission of National Library of Scotland.
1970s pic: WCBC.

24/07/2026

Help Bring Nant Mill Back to Life 🌿

For centuries, Nant Mill has stood beside the River Clywedog, from a 15th-century corn mill to a much-loved visitor centre. Since closing in 2018 its future has been uncertain, but now our community has a real opportunity to restore it.

The Nant Mill Community Trust is working with partners to reopen the site as part of a £1.7m regeneration project for the Clywedog Valley. But to unlock major National Lottery Heritage funding, we must raise £40,000 in match funding.

Your donation will help deliver:
• A reopened visitor centre
• New educational and wildlife displays
• A vibrant community space connected to the Clywedog Trail

Every contribution brings us closer to reopening Nant Mill for families, walkers, schools and future generations.

Donate today: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/nant-mill

23/07/2026

Family Fun at the River 💦

As part of Groundwork North Wales' Meet Your Local Rivers project, in partnership with The Dee Trust / Cynefin Dyfrdwy, they're holding free summer events across Wrexham.

27th July - Mindful Art & Craft by the River at Nant Mill
11th August - Mini Raft Building at Nant Mill
17th August - Nocturnal Walk at King's Mill
24th August - Guided Walk at Minera Lead Mines

Be sure to get in touch today to book your place by emailing [email protected]

These events are made possible thanks to funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation 💚

21/07/2026

Did you know that this young lady once lived at Nant Mill?

Her name was Ceinwen, daughter of Samuel Evans and Sarah Evans. Who could have taken these romantic pictures of her out in the fields among the harvesters? (Note she's wearing her best dress, not sweating at the harvest!)

Well, in 1933 the National Eisteddfod was held in Wrexham and the BBC sent their 'Engineer-in-charge of Outside Broadcasting', a Mr Jones, to arrange their radio broadcasts from the event.

He was billeted to stay at Nant Mill farmhouse - from these photos he took, would you say he rather fancied her? They went on to marry, and lived near Cardiff.

Their daughter, Gillian Clarke, was National Poet of Wales from 2008 - 2016, and the poems about the house and family are included in her collection 'Ice'.

Help us keep this history alive by donating to the Nant Mill crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/nant-mill

Photo credit: Our thanks to Gillian Clarke for these photographs.

20/07/2026

Groundwork North Wales are hosting free events this summer, with two right here at Nant Mill!

27th July - Mindful Art & Craft by the River at Nant Mill
11th August - Mini Raft Building at Nant Mill

Don't forget to book your place by emailing [email protected]

17/07/2026

Did you know Nant Mill farmhouse once held a family of 12? 📣

Samuel Evans grew up at Nant Mill, and in 1903 he married his sweetheart Sarah Roberts from Little Berse. His widowed mother moved into a cottage in Tudor Street, Coedpoeth, and the young couple took over Nant Mill and the farmhouse.

In those days of long evenings and large families, they went on to fill the house with ten children; five girls and five boys. And Sarah was in charge of feeding all of them, including their farm labourers, and supplying cream, butter, and vegetables for Samuel's milk round.

Poet Gillian Clarke, daughter of one of the five girls, Ceinwen, wrote:

"Dark rooms where once ten children slept in feather beds,
three little ones together, Ceinwen, Elen, Vi,
cool curls, warm limbs across each other's bodies."

And "rooms of daughters, a croglofft of five sons,
ovens of baking bread, cauldrons of cawl,
in the now-vanished farmhouse beside the river."

Help us keep this history alive by donating to the Nant Mill crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/nant-mill

Photo credit: Our thanks to the Evans family relatives who shared these photographs.

Address

Nant Mill Visitor Centre
Wrexham
LL113BT

Telephone

+441978757524

Website

http://www.groundworknorthwales.org.uk/projects/clywedog-valley-partnership/

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