Davies of the Clwyd Valley

The Clwyd valley runs through North Wales up to the coast near Rhyl. But our history is centred near the town of Rhewl, (south of Denbigh). It was anticipated that tracing the genealogy of the Davies family would be a straight forward exercise in the usual way, however this proved not to be the case as the history of the family, especially in Chester, was inextricably tangled up with the history of the family firm of confectioners, so the research was extended to cover that as well. This produced a surprise in the form of Robert Jones Davies, of whom none of the present generation had any knowledge at all and, although there was a vague family memory of the Roodee Works and some confectionery activity there, nobody seemed to know who operated it, exactly where it was sited nor where it fitted into the family history. Robert Jones Davies was crucial, not only to the foundation of the confectionery business but to the actual presence of the Davies family in Chester, all established solely due to his enterprise. It is therefore surprising that a personality of such fundamental importance to the Davies story was apparently quite unknown in recent times and it has taken such an effort to uncover the tale. Hopefully this history will now remedy the omission.