Who are we? A uniting Christian church, part of the Reformed tradition of the United Reformed Church of the UK and the Presbyterian Church of Wales.

Where are we? In the heart of Mold, Flintshire – on the corner of Tyddyn Street and Grosvenor Street, overlooking the local Tesco.

What do we do? We meet weekly on Sunday mornings to seek inspiration, spiritual meaning in the Bible message, the singing of the songs of God’s people and the preaching of the Word.

Anything else? 

• we enjoy fellowship together – all are welcome;
• we are an important resource for the celebration of baptism and weddings and for farewell at funerals;
• we have a regular Sunday School;
• we share an open communion service once a month;
• the buildings are a community facility available as a way of adding to the quality of life (and we hope to see this extended with some building plans).

We are here for all; looking for meaning, support and fellowship. Our mission is as a Christian local church to serve the whole community as best we can, providing worship facilities and social meeting opportunities for members, friends and community.

Services and meetings: we have services every Sunday Morning at 10.30 a.m and the Sunday School meets at the same time. Communion is celebrated monthly on the first Sunday: our minister leads the service on the first and third Sundays and on the other Sundays there are visiting preachers. Once a month. at the Parkfields Centre, there is an evening service of meditation following the well known Taizé pattern. Church members take part in Bible and Prayer Groups at different times of the year and there are special seasonal meetings with St John’s, Buckley and the other church in our pastorate, Ewloe Green.

Community activities: we want to make the best use of the church buildings and that means encouraging and supporting community groups that want to meet. Present users on a regular basis are the daily playgroup which meets on each weekday morning between 9a.m and noon and Monday afternoons as well. Other community use includes a weekly choir practice on a Thursday and the St John’s Ambulance meet on Wednesdays between 6 and 9p.m. We have ambitious plans for the reshaping of the church building which includes extended community use.

Background: the present church building was built in the 1860s and was known as the free church, perhaps because it was not part of the established Church of England. Soon after the church building was opened, it was in the location of the Mold Riots. After a long service, the church congregation in 1997, by then part of the United Reformed Church, united with the Parkfields Presbyterian Church of Wales, previously known as the Mold English Presbyterian Church, to form our Tyddyn Street United Church. The Parkfields building is now a Church Related Community Centre and the Tyddyn Street Church is closely involved as an outreach project.

The late Vic Harley’s contribution to the Church publication ‘Two Churches came to Tyddyn Street’ had this to say about the Mold Riots:

‘The church obviously was in the setting of the Riot. The story is well recorded and may be mentioned here – it happened on 2nd June 1869 and was caused by troubles at a local colliery, when after a fall in the market price of coal the owners reduced the miners’ wages. Some protesting miners were tried before magistrates at the court then in Hall Fields and two of them were sentenced to a month’s hard labour at Flint prison. The court case had attracted a crowd of 500 to 1000 people to the area, and when the convicted miners came out the crowd became hostile, and wanted to free them from the police.

‘A contingent of police and soldiers and police were already present in case of trouble and when the prisoners were taken to the railway station for their train at about seven o’clock, the crowd moved in for the rescue. A report a few days later in the Wrexham Advertiser described how a large crowd had gathered on the new road leading to the church and they threw loose stones lying around, some of them said to be up to 4 or 5lbs, at the police and soldiers, ‘causing frightful injuries’. Under pressure, the soldiers were are at last told to fire on the mob in self defence, and four people subsequently died as a result of injuries; they were Edward Bellis (aged 22), said to be throwing stones, Robert Hanaby (aged 19) ‘hit as he stood behind the hurdles in front of the Free Church and died immediately, Margaret Young’s husband (also 19), who had been cleaning at Bethesda Chapel and came out of curiosity to see what was happening, and Elizabeth Jones (aged 50) who died of a bullet wound in her back. The response of the soldiers subdued the crowd and the prisoners were taken by train to Chester.

‘My father used to say when he brought me to church that a man was struck by a bullet on the Church steps and died, and we used to look for bullet marks on the stonework. Seventy years ago I am sure we could see them, but by now the stonework has so weathered that I would not like to say that there are marks there any longer.

‘The church building was quite central to the violence. Apart from the report concerning Robert Hanaby, another report says that a Mr. Kean, a foundry manager, was looking on from near the church railings and was shot through his right arm and a young man walking with his girl friend was hit and had one of his fingers shot away by a bullet. Even if not entirely accurate the print [in the London Illustrated News] shows how near the church was to the [Mold] railway station, itself then not so old, and how involved the early church must have been in the troubles of the time.‘