The Maelor

Open Country

"When I was a kid, a little junior baby map addict, it always worried me enormously - Flintshire (detached). Why is it detached? What's wrong with it?"

Mike Parker is obsessed by an area of Flintshire called the Maelor. On the map he says it looks like a calloused big toe sticking into the plump ribs of England. Situated slightly south of a line between Wrexham and Whitchurch, it follows few of the expected border rules. And to prove his point, he's taking Miles Warde on a tour, from the Wychbrook to Hanmer and the border post on the strange Fenn's mosses. You'll also hear from a local Welsh language teacher called Dr Cymraeg - aka Stephen Rule - and visit the vicarage where author Lorna Sage grew up. Her most famous book is called Bad Blood.

Mike Parker is the author of All The Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde