Situated on south side of Llangollen Canal 200 m NE of Froncysyllte village is a large and impressive bank of limekilns, built alongside the Llangollen Canal (originally known as the Ellesmere Canal, completed to this point from the south in 1802) in order that lime for agricultural (and building) uses could be transported to the south. The different design of lime drawing arches indicates that the lime kilns were gradually extended in number from the three original kilns on the west. The limekiln bank is shown on 1843 the Tithe Map and apparently known as Biddulph's Limekilns in 1822 when a section of Telford's London to Holyhead Road (the A5) was constructed between there and Chirk. A smaller block of two lower, and possibly earlier, lime kilns west of the main site is incorporated in gardens of dwellings.

This group of six large lime kilns is built into the steep escarpment between the canal and the A5 above. There is a high retaining wall in roughly squared and coursed limestone, the centre section of which has been repaired in concrete. The easternmost and last-built lime-drawing arch is pointed with three brick voussoir rings. The next two drawing arches are segmental. The three western and earliest drawing arches (all blocked) are round-headed each with a single ring of stone voussoirs. Much of the retaining wall over the two westernmost kilns has fallen.

The top of the kilns had two railways running along their northern and southern edges in order to charge the central charging-cones with limestone from the inclined-plane up to the Froncysyllte Limestone Quarries. In 1931 the site was owned by the 'Chirk Castle Lime & Stone Co.' at a time when the boat dock, probably used to unload coal to work the kilns, was being filled-in, presumably because the kiln operators were receiving the coal via their newer connection to the Great Western Railway.

Source references:

Denbighshire Record Office: Llangollen (Cysyllte Tp) Tithe Map, 1843;
C D R Jones & D Parry, Telford in the Dee Valley, Clwyd County Council, 1989, p26.
The above account is based on the Cadw Listed Building description no. 19962.


Stephen R. Hughes, RCAHMW, 29 May 2007