England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Newmarket St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Newmarket lies in northwestern Flintshire roughly 7 miles northwest of town of Holywell. Newmarket, or rather Trelawnyd its original Welsh name, sits on the A5151 toad which Holywell through to Rhuddlan. Trelawnyd was renamed to Newmarket following the creation of a market at the instigation of the local landowner John Wynne in the early 18th century, the market failed to survive and the modern Ordnance Survey shows the main village as once again Trelawnyd. It is a compact village with a substantial presence on the A5151 with a northward extension onto the lower slopes of Gop Hill. In early times lead ore was extensively worked but by the time of this transcript that had been worked out, as a consequence pastoral farming was the main economy partially accompanied by the unsuccessful market with its limited trade and specialist skills. The parish contains many traces of early occupation, including imposing burial mounds and a stretch of the original line of Offa's Dyke, the National Trail follows a more westerly route forming the boundary with neighbouring parish of Dyserth. Newmarket is drained westwards by a small stream which plunges down a small waterfall in Dyserth before crossing the Vale of Clwyd to meet Afon Clwyd and join it for its final few miles to the Irish Sea at Rhyl. Newmarket is sited at around 160 metres above the hill and is overlooked by Gop Hill at 244 metres the highest point of this block of higher ground. By the standards of this area Newmarket was a rather small parish covering only a little over 1,000 acres yet supporting a population of close to 700 parishioners. Domesday Book penetrated this area of Wales and Newmarket was recorded as a holding of one Robert of Rhuddlan with assets of a single plough, it was just one of a number of tiny holding that this Robert held within the wider parish none of which carried significant assets.

The Church

St Michael's church sits south of the A5151 and on the southwestern corner of the village on Cwm Road. The church was closed in 2021 following long-tern decline in its congregation and was placed on the market to be sold as a private house, at the time of writing there is still access to the churchyard but this cannot be guaranteed should any sale go ahead. The church is a single chambered edifice topped with a western bellcote, it was largely remodelled in 1724 but some medieval roof trusses remain to show it was originally from the later Perpendicular period of the 15th century. The 18th century work was, in its turn, replaced in 1895-7 by a thorough restoration which reverted some windows to a Perpendicular style, exposed the internal masonry by removing plaster and added a vestry to the northwest. To all intents and purposes the church is thus a mixture of 18th and 19th century work with little remaining of its early origin. The churchyard sits on a bend of Cwm Road and is entered through a neat lychgate, a triangular area outside providing suitable parking, the churchyard has few obstacles for the photographer.