Mold, which has a totally different name in Welsh, Yr Wyddgrug, relates to the bailey hill where the Normans built a castle. Mold is an historic market town, gateway to the Clwydian Ranges and birthplace to a renowned Welsh novelist, Daniel Owen. Indeed where we were staying was in Llys Daniel Owen after one and the same.
Yr Wyddgrug means “prominent mound” and it is believed that there was an ancient mound, cairn or tumulus here that provided a prominent position for the Normans to build their castle. This is where the Welsh name comes from.
After the Normans had built their castle, it was described in Latin as “high hill” - Mons Altus – and in Norman French as Mont-Haut. One theory is that Mont-Haut morphed into Muhauld then to Moald before finally becoming Mold. The Motte and Bailey Castle was built by Robert de Montalt, so the other theory is that the name of Mold could have morphed from that.
Cittaslow, part of a trend known as the Slow Movement, has made it to Mold which is the first Cittaslow town in Wales. Cittaslow's goals include improving the quality of life in towns by slowing down its overall pace, especially in a city/settlement's use of spaces and flow of life/traffic through them. Cittaslow resist globalisation whereas a transition town aims to increase self-sufficiency from a grass-roots level by reducing the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction and economic instability, but theoretically a town could be both, I suppose.
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