BODVARI (BOD-FARI), a parish partly in the Caerwys division of the hundred of RHUDDLAN, county of FLINT, and comprising
the township of Aber-Whielor, which supports its own poor, in the hundred of RUTHIN, county of DENBIGH, NORTH WALES, 4
miles (N. E.) from Denbigh, on the road from Holywell to that town, and containing 873 inhabitants. This place is, from
its name, supposed to have been the Roman station Voris, and the opinion has been in some degree confirmed by the recent
discovery of urns, ornaments, fragments of weapons, and other relics of Roman antiquity, in the grounds of Pontrifith, and
some coins near the junction of the rivers Clwyd and Whielor, the supposed site of the Roman station. The supposition is
further corroborated by the direction of the Roman road from Chester, which, uniting with the north-east branch of the
Watling-street, continued to Bedvari, whence, crossing the county of Denbigh, it passed over the Conway to Caerhen. The
village is delightfully situated near the confluence of the two rivers, and the surrounding country is remarkably
picturesque and beautiful. The living is a dischs,rged rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St. Asaph, rated in the
king's books at £9. 5. 4.p and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. Asaph. The church, dedicated to St. Stephen, and
situated on a gentle eminence, is a neat edifice with a lofty square embattled tower: the interior is neatly fitted
up,and appropriately ornamented; the pulpit and reading-desk are of black oak, exquisitely carved, and in the front is
the date 1574. To the east of the village is Mod y Gaer, or the " Hill of the Camp,". apparently a British work, and
probably constructed for the purpose of defending the pass through the Clwydian mountains. Through this pass, which is
remarkable as being the only natural break in this chain of mountains, extending for more than twenty miles in a direction
from north to south, flows the river Whielor, near the bank of which an excellent turnpike-road has been constructed,
winding round the base of a hill, called Moel y Parc, and connecting the counties of Denbigh and Flint. The tithes of the
township of AberWhielor belong to the Bishop of Bangor. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor of the
whole parish amounts to £ 508.6., of which sum 124.14. is assessed on that part of the parish which is in the hundred of
Rhuddlan.