HOLT, a small town, a township, a parish, and a subdistrict, in Wrexham district, Denbigh. The town stands on the river Dee, at the boundary with Cheshire, 4 miles ESE of Rossett r. station, and 5½ NE of Wrexham; presents, with its environs, a picturesque appearance; was the Castrum Legionis of the Romans, and the Castell Lleon of the Welsh; is known, in legal documents, as Lyons; was garrisoned by a detachment of the Roman legion from Chester; acquired a strong castle in the time of Edward I.; was, from time immemorial, a part of Powys land, and, for many centuries, the scene of numberless Border feuds; obtained a charter in 1410, and has ever since been governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, and a coroner; unites with Denbigh, Ruthin, and Wrexham, in sending a member to parliament; shows now a decayed aspect, little indicative of its former importance; is connected, by an old, narrow, stone bridge of ten arches, with Farndon in Cheshire; and has a post office under Wrexham, an ancient market cross, a church, a dissenting chapel, and a free school. The castle stood contiguous to the Dee; was built by Earl Warren; passed to the Fitzalans, the Beauchamps, the Stanleys, the Arundels, the Mowbrays, and the Crown; was garrisoned, in 1643, for Charles I., and taken and dismantled, in 1645, by the parliamentarians; had a pentagonal outline, flanked at the angles with towers, and fortified by bastions; was guarded, on the land side, by a deep fosse; and has left very scanty traces. The church is ancient, in tolerable condition; and has a red tower. Roman coins, and other Roman relics, have been found.-The township and the town are regarded as conterminate. Acres, 2, 763. Real property, £4, 898. Pop., 1, 008. Houses, 219.—The parish contains also the townships of Dutton-Diffeth, Dutton-Cacca, Dutton-y-Bran, Ridley, and Sutton. Acres, 6, 158. Real property, £10, 138. Pop., 1, 490. Houses, 322. The property is much subdivided. Garden vegetables are extensively grown. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. Asaph. Value, £101.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Winchester.—The sub-district includes also another parish of Denbigh, two parishes and part of an extra parochia1 tract in Flint, and part of the same extra-parochial tract and part of a parish in Cheshire. Acres, 20, 969. Pop., 4, 452. Houses, 953.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))