Bangor-on-Dee

The anglicised name refers to the village's proximity to the River Dee. However, the older Welsh name, Bangor-is-y-Coed (or Bangor Is-Coed) literally means "Bangor" (a settlement with a wattle enclosure) "below the wood/trees". This form was first recorded in 1699, while an alternative name of the parish, "Bangor Monachorum" ("Bangor of the monks"), was first recorded in 1677. ==History==

A monastery was established at Bangor in about AD 560 by Saint Dunod (or Dunawd) and was an important religious centre in the 5th and 6th centuries. The monastery was destroyed in about 613 by the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelfrith of Northumbria after he defeated the Welsh armies at the Battle of Chester, which probably took place near Bangor-on-Dee; a number of the monks then transferred to Bardsey Island and appear among lists of saints. Before the battle, monks from the monastery had fasted for three days and then climbed a hill to witness the fight and pray for the success of the Welsh; they were massacred on the orders of Æthelfrith. The scholar Bede wrote that 1200 monks were slaughtered and only 50 escaped. is believed to have been built. The Bangor-on-Dee Bridge, a five-arched stone arch bridge across the River Dee, dates its reconstruction to 1658 and it is believed to have been reconstructed to the designs of Inigo Jones and replaced an older medieval bridge. A 1903 suspension bridge by David Rowell & Co. is nearby at Pickhill Meadows. ==Transport==

Bangor had a station on the Cambrian Railways' Wrexham to Ellesmere line which crossed the River Dee via an iron bridge to the north of the village. This line was opened in 1895 and ran through an entirely rural area. The line closed for passenger services in 1962. ==Recreation==

South-west of the village there is Bangor-on-Dee racecourse, a National Hunt racecourse. There are also two pubs, a basketball court and river activities such as fishing and rafting. ==See also==