The village of Rhostyllen is on the south western outskirts of Wrexham. It's boundaries are formed by A5152 running from the south west to the north east, the A483 running from north to south and the Afon Clywedog which flows west to east, forming Rhostyllen's northern boundary. The first edition of the 25inch OS maps, published in 1872, depicts a relatively small village centred around a crossroads. Its amenities included two public houses - the New Swan and the Black Horse, as well as a Calvinistic Methodist chapel (NPRN 97283), which was built in 1828. About 0.5km east of the village was another public house - the Black Lion, and about 0.5km to the south east was Bersham colliery (NPRN 85024), which was sunk in 1864.
Rhostyllen had expanded by the time the second edition of the 25inch maps was published in 1899. In addition to the significant number of new houses that had been built, there were also five new places of worship. These were Holy Trinity church, built in 1876-7 (NPRN 12538); Ainon Welsh Baptist chapel, built in 1897 (NPRN 7604); a Primitive Methodist chapel (NPRN 7599); Salem Welsh Independent chapel (NPRN 97284) and Tabernacle English Presbyterian chapel (NPRN 7605).
The third edition of the 25inch OS maps was published in 1912. It showed that Rhostyllen now had a railway station on the Rhos branch of the Great Western Railway. Opposite the station, on the village side of the tracks, an iron foundry had been built. 'Schools' (NPRN 411176 and NPRN 411177) are noted a little to the south east of the village centre, on a new road called School Street. At the other end of School Street was Salem Independent chapel (NPRN 7603), erected in 1897.
Rhostyllen has seen more changes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Bersham colliery closed in 1986, and in its place there is now the Bersham Enterprise Centre. Bersham Board school (NPRN 411176) and Rhostyllen Council school (NPRN 411177) have both been demolished and replaced by Ysgol Rhostyllen, on the same site. Ysgol Rhostyllen primary school educates approximately 215 pupils aged three to eleven. Other amenities in the village include an industrial estate, health centre, post office, convenience shops, eateries and a parish hall. 'The Swan Inn' and 'The Old Black Horse' public houses, which appeared in the first edition of the 25inch OS maps (1872) remain open, as does the Holy Trinity Church and Tabernacle Presbyterian chapel.
Sources: modern and historic OS maps; google maps; Coflein database; Estyn report on Ysgol Rhostyllen, published in January 2018
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 12th February 2019