2 minute read
Mystery Box
This wooden box was given to Trefor Thompson – Author of The Prestatyn and Dyserth Railway – by Miss Gwyneth Kermode of Meliden many years ago.
Trefor recently presented the box to Dyserth Environmental Group and we have no idea what it would have been used for. It is about 9 inches (23 cm) tall. Externally the base is 6.75 inches (17cm) and the top it is 5.25 inches (13.5cm).
Miss Kermode’s grandfather was John Lean who became Manager of Talargoch Lead Mine in 1876. He was always known by his honorary title of Captain Lean, or just Captain John and lived in a big company house called Buarth Isaf in Meliden. In 1884 when the mines closed he bought the house and renamed it Brookdale.
Brookdale was home to four generations of Miss Kermode’s family; she died in May 1989.
She had told Trefor that the engraving on the box stood for Talargoch Mining Co.
The Talargoch Mining Company was registered 1857 and was dissolved in 1874. A new company, The Talargoch Mining Co Ltd, was incorporated in 1875 and one of their first acts was to appoint the aforementioned John Lean (apparently a Cornishman who spoke fluent Welsh).
The mines closed in 1884, so this box has to be at least 140 years old.
