Wrexham - History

History

Evidence of human activity in the Wrexham area have been found as far back as approximately 1600 BC. However the first known settlement was known as Wristleham Castle, a motte and bailey located in what is now known as Erddig Park, established in 1161. King Edward I of England is on record as having briefly stayed at Wrexham during his expedition to suppress the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn in 1294. The town became part of the county of Denbighshire when it was created in 1536. Wrexham was divided into two distinct townships, Wrexham Regis (which was under the control of the King) and Wrexham Abbot (generally the older parts of the town, which originally belonged to Valle Crucis Abbey at nearby Llangollen).

To the east of Wrexham, there are the remains of Holt Castle. The castle and the nearby late medieval bridge were the scene of constant skirmishes during the Civil War in the 17th century. The River Dee in this area is deep and wide. The bridge at Holt was the first crossing point south of the city of Chester and hence was of major strategic importance.

In the 18th century Wrexham was known for its leather industry. There were skinners and tanners in the town. The horns from cattle were used to make such items as combs and buttons. There was also a nail-making industry in Wrexham.

In the mid-18th century Wrexham was no more than a small market town with a population of perhaps 2,000. However, in the late 18th century Wrexham grew rapidly as it became one of the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution began in Wrexham in 1762 when the entrepreneur John Wilkinson (1728–1808) known as 'Iron Mad Wilkinson' opened Bersham Ironworks. In 1793 he opened a smelting plant at Brymbo. At the top end of the Clywedog Valley, about ten minutes' drive from Wrexham, Minera Lead Mines are the remains of the profitable lead industry that dates back to prehistoric times.

Wrexham gained its first newspaper in 1848. The Market Hall was built in 1848, and in 1863 a volunteer fire brigade was founded. Wrexham was also home to a large number of breweries, and tanning became one of Wrexham's main industries. In the mid 19th century Wrexham was granted borough status.

Wrexham's mining heritage is nearly all gone. Most former mines have been converted into industrial and business parks – one such development at Bersham Colliery has the last surviving head gear in the north Wales coalfield. Just off the A483, on the edge of Wrexham, the Gresford Disaster Memorial stands witness to the 266 miners who lost their lives after a series of explosions at Gresford colliery in September 1934. In the mid to late 19th century Wrexham had over 35 breweries, and grew a proud tradition of brewing both ale and lager. In 1882 German immigrants set up Britain's first lager brewery under the name of Wrexham Lager. In 2000 the Wrexham Lager Brewery was the last one to close. A number of the original brewery buildings remain, most notably Wrexham Lager on Central Road (offices), Soames Brewery on Yorke Street (Nags Head) and Border Brewery on Tuttle Street (converted apartments). Wrexham Lager was revived in October 2011 to serve the pub trade and is now available in various pubs throughout the county.

Just 2 miles (3 km) south of Wrexham town centre, Erddig, a National Trust property, was home to the Yorke family until 1973. Its last resident, Philip Yorke, handed over a house in need of restoration as years of subsidence caused by the workings of Bersham Colliery had caused a lot of damage. The house was voted one of the two most popular stately homes in the UK by a National Trust/Channel 5 publication.

The cemetery in Ruabon Road in Wrexham contains 40 Polish war graves. The burials of the soldiers were made in the years 1946 and 1947. The graves are under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A memorial to the memory of the Polish armed forces and their families was erected at the entrance to the cemetery in 1989. The inscription on the memorial, in Polish, English and Welsh, reads: "In memory of the Polish soldiers and their families, for whom a return to a Free Poland was not given, who rest here and in other cemeteries in Wales". The Polish war graves are located in a special plot in the cemetery. The plot contains both Polish and Commonwealth war dead.

After World War II, the former munitions factory ROF Wrexham was closed, leaving the many buildings derelict. In the 1950s British Celanese opened a large factory there followed by Firestone, Owen Corning, Kellogg's and BICC.

Wrexham did at one time had a large brewing industry. The leatherworks in Petrefelin and Tuttle Street, the many coal mines in the area, the brickworks in Abenbury, Brymbo Steelworks and the breweries all closed in the latter half of the 20th century, along with some of the newer ones such as Courtalds, Firestone and Owens Corning. Wrexham was suffering from the same problems as much of industrialised Britain and saw little investment in the 1970s.

In the 1980s and 1990s funded in part by the Welsh Development Agency (WDA), a major dual carriageway (part of the A483) was built, extending the existing bypass and connecting it with nearby Chester, which in turn had connections with other big cities such as Manchester and Liverpool. A new single carriageway was also built to improve links towards Shrewsbury and Birmingham.

Wrexham's former police station on Regent Street, originally the barracks for the Royal Denbighshire Militia, is now home to Wrexham County Borough Museum. The museum has two galleries devoted to the history of the town and its surrounding communities.

A link road to the Wrexham industrial estate was completed in July 2012, at a cost of £25 million. The link road had suffered many delays due to funding problems and more recently due to local wildlife concerns.