The Medical Hall, Abergele

Extract from the Abergele Field club and Historical Society Review No 7. 1988

Medical Hall, Abergele by R Fred Roberts

Inscription on the Medical Hall Medical Hall Medical Hall and the Harp Inn

The dilapidated building situated next to the Harp Inn in Market Street was a pharmacy from its erection in 1872 until the business was closed some few years ago. As witness to this the apothecary’s symbol, a pestle and mortar, is affixed to the corner of the building. The edifice was latterly known as Medical Hall, but for many years previously the name had also been attached to the pharmacy at Canol Dre, the building now occupied by the National and Provincial Building Society.

The inscription "W.M.W. 1827" is carved on a stone inserted into the wall of the building above the shop front although the business was first established in 1820. These initials refer to William and Mary Williams, husband and wife, who lie interred in St Michael’s churchyard.

Also interred there is Moses Williams, Surgeon, the brother of William Williams, who died 21st March 1833 aged 30 years. It was Mary Williams who carried on the business after the death of her husband and it was here that John Hannah was apprenticed as a druggist subsequently conducting the business on his own account until the early years of this century. It is interesting to note that ‘William Williams, Druggist’ is listed as subscriber to W.L. Louis’ ‘Gleanings of a tour in North Wales etc.’ in 1824.

William Williams was the son of Cadwalader Williams, Miller, of Pentr’r Felin, Llansantffriad, Glan Conwy. After he had established himself in Abergele he invited his younger brother John to join him as surgeon’s apprentice. John, who with his brothers had been educated at the Harrington Academy in Liverpool, was passionately fond of natural history, flora and fauna. He spent some time at Gwydir before moving to Ashridge, Co. Hertford, and to Kew Gardens, where he had accumulated a vast collection of grasses, before joining his brother as an apprentice surgeon in Abergele. He gained his M.D. degree in Dublin in 1832 and established himself as a surgeon in Corwen.

However he was tempted to join the Californian gold rush in 1849 but after spending three years as a surgeon in the diggings his health was shattered. He returned from America to take up practice at Froncysyllte in 1853 and later moved to Wrexham. He died in 1859 and is buried at Mold. His chief claim to fame is his book ‘Faunula Grustensis’ which he completed during his younger days at Llanwrst and later Abergele.

This is an account of the flora and fauna of the parish of Llanwrst and is a truly remarkable volume. The full, albeit cumbersome, title of this work is ‘Faunula Grustensis – being the outline of the Natural Contents of the Parish of Llanwrst, Comprehending some account of the general History, Commerce and Agriculture, also a Trioglot Catalogue in Latin, English and Welsh’. The volume, printed by the redoubtable John Jones, ‘Pyll’, at his press in Trefriw, is remarkable for the list of plant names given in three languages and is evidently a labour of love as well as being the fruit of much scholarship.