was described as containing a salt house. St Mary’s church The isolated parish church is situated in a rectilinear churchyard alongside the Iscoyd Brook. It is a whitewashed brick building constructed in 1830, with a spire and clock added in 1898. It replaced an earlier thatched, timber-framed building that collapsed in 1829 during an attempt to restore it. The church contains some panelling reused from the earlier building, as well as a 1696 monument to the clergyman and diarist Philip Henry, who lived nearby, and a memorial dated 1782 to local landowner Richard Congreve, who was the first burial in the church grounds. The rector between 1885 and 1926 was the Rev. Joseph Jacob, an amateur botanist and author. Jacob, an editor of the Royal Horticultural Society Daffodil Yearbook, was responsible for the large-scale planting of daffodils which still grow in the churchyard, and developed cultivars of daffodil, crocus and Lachenalia named after Whitewell. The White Well, the well or spring from which the settlement takes its name, possibly a holy well associated with the church site, is located south of the churchyard. Writing in 1876, the Vicar of Hanmer Canon M.H. Lee noted that the Domesday Book recorded many church land holdings in the area, suggested a link with the monastery at Bangor-on-Dee and speculated that the pre-1829 chapel had been Anglo-Saxon in origin. While there is some indication of a place of worship being on the site from very early times, and it has been suggested that the well marks the site of the original chapel, the current assessment of the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust is that there is no firm evidence that the well has special religious significance. A second well is located some 40 metres south-west of the White Well. Historic buildings Although most buildings within Whitewell itself are of 19th century origin, there is a grade II listed thatched carriage shelter, probably dating from the 17th or 18th century, close to the church. Also within the parish is the mansion of Iscoyd Park, a grade II* listed 18th century house. There is a listed war memorial near to Iscoyd Park. Whitewell Parish Hall is grade II listed and along with the rectory is in the style of John Douglas, although not previously attributed to him. References Villages in Wrexham County Borough