Corwen is a small town in Denbighshire situated along the A5, Thomas Telford's great post road between Holyhead and London. Due to its convenient location in the Dee valley, Corwen had developed into an important centre for cattle drovers by the sixteenth century, but increased in importance after Telford's road streamlined coach travel, and particularly after the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1864.

As can be seen from the prominent life-size statue in the market square of Corwen, the town and its surroundings boast of strong links with Owain Glynd'r who began his revolt against the English Crown from his nearby ancestral home at Glyndyfdwy in 1400. Although the manor was destroyed by Prince Hal's forces in 1403. According to local folklore, Glynd'r regularly attended the mass in Corwen at Saints Mael and Sulien's Church and an imprint of his dagger can be seen on the stone lintel above a doorway in the church. In the twentieth century, the author John Cowper Powys lived here and wrote his novel Owen Glendower (1941) about the Glynd'r Rising.

The rural town offers great access to walking tours into the surrounding area and is linked by a heritage railway to the town of Llangollen.

Record updated as part of the AHRC-funded project 'Journey to the Past: Wales in historic travel writing from France and Germany'.
R. Singer (Bangor University) and S. Fielding (RCAHMW), 2017.