Babell is a hamlet in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the community of Ysgeifiog.

Babell
Babell, Flintshire
Babell is located in Flintshire
Babell
Babell
Location within Flintshire
OS grid referenceSJ1573
Community
Principal area
Preserved county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHOLYWELL
Postcode districtCH8
Dialling code01352
PoliceNorth Wales
FireNorth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
List of places
UK
Wales
Flintshire
53°14′N 3°16′W / 53.24°N 03.27°W / 53.24; -03.27

The hamlet takes its name from the Babell Methodist chapel, built in 1836, but the surrounding area, a township of Ysgeifiog parish, was formerly known as Gelliloveday or Gellilyfdy. The name was recorded in the Domesday Book in the form "Cheslilaved", and as "Kelliloveday" in 1602.[1] It has been suggested to mean "wych elm wood" (from Welsh gelli, "wood", and llwyv, llwyfanen, "wych elm"),[2] but the placename scholar Ellis Davies stated that it probably came from the personal name "Loveday", ("Lyfdy"): "Loveday's wood".[1]

There is a section of the ancient earthwork Offa's Dyke nearby Llyn-Ddu.[3] Although rural the area is dotted with old copper workings from the 19th century.

The notable 17th-century antiquary John Jones lived at the hall of Gellilyfdy, to the west of the present-day village.

References

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  1. ^ a b Davies, E. (1959) Flintshire place-names, University of Wales Press, p.72
  2. ^ John Gwenogryn Evans, Facsimile & text of the Book of Taliesin, v1, 1910, xxiii
  3. ^ Sir Cyril Fox, Offa's Dyke: a field survey of the western frontier works of Mercia in the seventh and eighth centuries A. D., OUP, 1955, p. 22
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  •   Media related to Babell at Wikimedia Commons