New Brighton, Flintshire

OS grid referenceSJ252653CommunityPrincipal areaPreserved countyCountryWalesSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townMOLDPostcode districtCH7Dialling code01352PoliceNorth WalesFireNorth WalesAmbulanceWelsh UK ParliamentSenedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament 53°10′48″N 3°07′05″W / 53.180°N 3.118°W / 53.180; -3.118

New Brighton (Welsh: Pentre Cythraul) is a small village in Flintshire, in north-east Wales. It lies between the towns of Mold and Buckley, in the community of Argoed.

New Brighton lies on the A5119 road and has a hotel, the Beaufort Park Hotel.

A New Brighton electoral ward exists, formed from the northern half of the Argoed community,^[1] with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 3,001.^[2] It forms part of an "Argoed and New Brighton" (Welsh: Argoed a New Brighton) council electoral ward.^[3][4]

Very few names are recorded for this part of Argoed before the mid-ninteenth century, with a farm (south-west of the modern village) recorded as "Tre Argoed" in the sixteenth century and a map of 1840 showing a local tavern named "Blue Bell".^[5] The name New Brighton does not appear until 1861, following the construction of a row of miners cottages by the owner of the Argoed Colliery, Josiah Catherall. It has been suggested that the name New Brighton may have arisen as many of the workers came to Flintshire from New Brighton, Merseyside but this has been disputed in recent years.^[5][6]

The Welsh name, Pentre Cythraul has been translated as "Devil's village" or "Devil's hamlet".^[7][8][9] While the change from "Catherall" to "Cythraul" (a Welsh name for the devil) may seem like a "mischievous variation" or colloquialism on the Catherall family name, and Welsh authors recorded this as the derivation as early as 1902, there is no record of the village under the name Pentre Catherall.^[5][10]

In 1913 the name was recorded under another variation, "Bentre'r Gwr Drwg"^[11] With "Gwr Drwg" (lit. evil man) used in place of Cythraul by Welsh speakers who did not wish to envoke the name.^[12] However, the form Pentre Cythraul persisted into the twentieth century when Ellis Davies described it as "the old name" for New Brighton.^[13]

By 2018, the Welsh name did not appear on the list of standardised Welsh place-names published by the Welsh Language Commissioner, Aled Roberts.^[14] The place-name panel stated that they recommend using "New Brighton" in English and Welsh because "as the district became more anglicised and the coal-mining links disappeared, the forms Pentre Catherall and Pentre Cythrel were largely forgotten".^[15]

As a result of the name being not officially recognised, it would not be added to road signs or appear on Ordinance Survey Maps but is accepted by organisations such as the Royal Mail and DVLA.^[16] The decision resulted in a locally launched bid to get the Welsh name officially recognised. In 2019, the commissioner's office stated that they were "reviewing its decision" following a number of enquiries.^[5]