Dafydd ab Edmund, 1425-1500

Dafydd ab Edmund lived at Yr Owredd (The Arowry) Hanmer where he was a wealthy landowner. After he had won the bardic chair at the Welsh National Eisteddfod at Carmarthen in 1451, he defined the rules for writing Welsh poetry (cywddau). He lived through the Wars of the Roses during which Hanmer church was destroyed but his poetry shows little sign of the turmoil of the time. He wrote mainly love poetry along with some religious poetry and odes to great men and events. Born in 1425 he was buried at Hanmer in about 1500.

Sir Thomas Hanmer, Garden Writer 1612-1680

Sir Thomas Hanmer`s Garden Book of 1659 is one the earliest and most important garden books in the English language. He was exiled during the Civil War and took the opportunity to study gardens in France, Holland, and Italy. Allowed to return to a quiet life in Hanmer, he devoted his enforced leisure to his garden at Bettisfield Park.

Sir Thomas had shown sympathy with the Puritan cause in parliament but when Roundhead troops captured Hanmer and stabled horses in the church it was too much for him. He led a troop of Welsh Royalists who ambushed them. The Cavaliers won the day but lost the war and Sir Thomas the Cavalier went into exile.

Matthew Henry, Bible Commentator & Diarist 1662-1714

Matthew Henry`s biography of his father, `The Life and Death of Mr Philip Henry`, made both of them well known. Philip Henry, known as `Heavenly Henry`, was the puritan minister of Worthenbury during the Civil War. His diaries and letters were collected and published by one of his descendants, Matthew Henry Lee, who became vicar of Hanmer in the 19th century. But Matthew Henry`s lasting reputation is based on his Bible Commentary, which is still in print today.

Mary Fawler Frances Maude, Hymn Writer 1819-1913

Mary was the writer in 1847 of the hymn `Thine forever! God of love.` She was the wife of Revd Joseph Maude, the vicar of St Mary`s Church, Chirk. Her son, Joseph also became vicar of Chirk in his turn. She was born Mary Fawler Hooper in Bloomsbury Middlesex and died in Chirk, where she is buried in the churchyard.

Randolph Caldecott, Illustrator and Children`s Writer 1846-1886

Randolph Caldecott knew Hanmer well during his six years working at the Whitchurch branch of the Whitchurch & Ellesmere Bank from 1861. He was a welcome visitor at Brook House Farm, Hanmer, where he spent some very happy times.

When he published his first two illustrated books for children, he chose things he knew well. `The House that Jack Built` was about Brook House in Hanmer, and `John Gilpin` was about horse riding, which he had enjoyed so much around the area.

Randolph Caldecott went on to transform the world of children`s books in the Victorian era. Children eagerly awaited the two books illustrated by him, priced at a shilling each, which came out each Christmas for eight years.

R S Thomas, Poet 1913-2000

R S Thomas was a Welsh poet whose standing continues to grow since his death with a stream of publications about his life and poetry. He was ordained into the Church in Wales in 1936 and became curate at Chirk and then at Hanmer where he lived in Tallarn Green vicarage with his new wife.

He was a prolific writer and priest all his long life. At Tallarn his poetry changed as he found his own more troubled and fierce voice. When he left Hanmer for Welsh parishes he began to learn Welsh and gradually became the forbidding figure of later life. The sentiments expressed in his stronger poems tended towards the extreme along with some of his political views.

A second connection with Hanmer is that whilst there he wrote poetry about the Rising of Owain Glyndwr who was married there to Margaret Hanmer in about 1380.

Lorna Sage, Literary Critic and Biographer 1943-2001

Lorna Sage wrote the award winning biography `Bad Blood`. Lorna Sage was born in Hanmer Vicarage whilst her father was away at the war. As the granddaughter of the then vicar of St Chad`s Hanmer, Canon Meredith Morris, she spent her early years in Hanmer Vicarage. Her story of her grandfather, the school, and the village tells of conflict at home, drinking and a series of affairs. She became a professor of English literature and published books of literary criticism.