Newsletter January 2026

HOLYWELL HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWS

We hope your year has begun well and continues to be a good one. We have many exciting plans for the year ahead and the group continues to grow and prosper.

We may finally be seeing the back of January, but there are still 11 months of the year left to enjoy our 2026 calendars, the A4 spiral-bound Holywell Then & Now, and A4 all-year calendars in 2 designs, Transport in Holywell and Holywell’s Public Houses. Once again we have been amazed at the popularity of both the Christmas cards and the calendars – with cards and calendars being sent as far off as Australia! The calendars are available to buy from our stall at Nexus Creative Spaces, the pop up shop in Holywell town centre (at the rear of the Post Office), along with our greetings cards and books on local history. This year we have decided to add to our greetings card selection with two new cards – an Easter card and a Sympathy card. Our Easter card contains a bespoke verse evoking memories of the Easter Fair that came to Holywell every year, along with an illustration of a typical fairground scene from those bygone years – we can all remember the thrill of riding on those swing boats with the wind in our hair – such carefree days! Our sympathy card shows a picture of Holywell High Street from the late 1950s with a poignant verse for those whom we have lost from these familiar streets. These two new greetings cards will be available to buy in the next few weeks.

All of our merchandise, and details of where to purchase, can be found on the Merchandise page of the website.

We are also in the process of compiling a book of memories collected from the members of the Holywell Reminiscing Group. The motto of our group is Every Memory Matters, and we thought this an apt and fitting title for this collection of stories. This book should be available to buy at the end of March – the details of the release date will be on our Facebook page. Our group continues to meet every Tuesday morning at Holywell Leisure Centre (10:00-12:00). We’re always happy to welcome new members, if you’d like to come along and share your memories of Holywell with us. We also have a general knowledge quiz on a Thursday afternoon (1pm-3pm) - £2 per session which includes refreshments. For those who are not available to come to the meetings, we have our Facebook group, now with over 1600 members. The page is regularly updated with members’ stories and photographs, and our resident experts are always available to answer questions relating to the history of Holywell https://www.facebook.com/groups/2256532077884382

A Date for Your Diary Following the success of our first ever Holywell History Fair, we have decided to hold the event again this year. The Fair will be held on Sunday 12^th April 2026 at Holywell Leisure Centre, 9:30-3:30. As before, entry is free of charge and there is also free parking at the Leisure Centre. The café will be open for refreshments and there will be a raffle. If you would like to have a stall at the event, or you are able to donate a raffle prize, please contact us holywellhistoricalsociety@gmail.com      

We are continuing in our quest to forge links with local schools, to bring awareness of our rich heritage to the younger generation. This month we have been approached by Ysgol Bro Carmel who were looking for a contribution to their World War II project this term. Several of our members have first-hand experience of being a child during war-time, and we are looking forward to visiting the school to share our stories with the children, along with an informal presentation that will include our collection of World War II memorabilia.

A few weeks ago, we were delighted to be presented with a huge box of historical volumes, books on both social history of Flintshire and family history journals. This donation was made anonymously, and we’d love to know the name of our benefactor, so that we might thank them for their generous gift. The contents of this box will be duly indexed and added to our archive page on our website. Our archives are available to view on appointment. Please contact us for more information. holywellhistoricalsociety@gmail.com

We’re putting together the finishing touches for the Family History Hub website, which should be live by the end of next month. Our proposed Family History Group should also be up and running in the next few weeks. We are planning on an evening session once a month at Holywell Library. A start date is yet to be confirmed, but details will be posted on our Facebook page. In the meantime, we are happy to help with any family history queries you may have. Our resident genealogist, Donna Coulson, has over 30 years’ experience in family history research and is currently offering a free one-hour, one-to-one consultation  dcfamilyhistoryhub@gmail.com. 

Thanks to everyone who supported us by buying our merchandise in 2025. We look forward to seeing you at our History Fair in April.