Former Cross Keys Hotel, Mold
The corner building here was once the Cross Keys Hotel. Today it’s part of Y Pentan, a pub which continues along New Street and includes the former tailor’s shop of novelist Daniel Owen.
John Davies, licensee of the Cross Keys, was given permission to build a slaughter house behind the hotel in 1868. There were objections that the facility would be closer to the most thickly populated part of Mold than slaughterhouses which had been closed down for environmental reasons.
During the Victorian “tithe war” (rebellion against the Church of England tax), the vicar of Nannerch sent a bailiff to seize goods from people in arrears in 1888. A crowd of protestors shadowed the bailiff. One farmer tussled with him. Another had flooded a meadow to try to keep him out. Finally he took lunch at the Cross Keys – where he confiscated a sack of straw from the landlord as tithe payment.
In August 1902 an unconscious young man named Dobb was brought to the Cross Keys Hotel after being gassed in a ballooning accident. American parachutist Alma Beaumont had come to Mold to wow the crowds at Mold Fire Brigade’s annual sports day. Her act involved ascending by balloon, then jumping out and using a silk parachute to control her descent. She and Dobb were employed by a London ballooning firm.
There was a problem with the valve feeding gas into the bag of the balloon, and Dobb crept under the bag to rectify it. “In loosening the pipe, he was overpowered by the fumes of the gas,” reported the Cheshire Observer. Dobb seemed dead, but Dr Edward Williams revived him through artificial respiration. Dobb lay unconscious at the Cross Keys until 4am the day after the accident. Dr E Williams later sued the balloon firm for £3 14s as payment for his “constant attendance on the man for a considerable time”.
In May 1902 novice parachutist Edith Brookes, 23, from Llanarmon had fallen to her death in Sheffield after her parachute failed to open. She and her sister Maud, a famous parachutist, often visited Mold.
Postcode: CH7 1NY View Location Map
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