Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WREXHAM

WREXHAM, a town, two townships, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Denbigh. The town stands on an affluent of the river Dee, and on the Chester and Shrewsbury railway, near Offa's dyke and Wat's dyke, 13 miles SSW of Chester; was known to the Saxons as Wrightesham or Wrightelesham; was given, by Edward I., to Earl Warren; was a place of "good bokeler makers'' in the time of Henry VIII.; was occupied by the parliamentarians in the civil wars of Charles I.; unites with Denbigh, Holt, and Ruthin in sending a member to parliament; consists, as a borough, of W.-Abbott and W.-Regis townships, and part of Esclusham-Below; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts, a polling place, and the headquarters of the county militia; publishes two weekly newspapers; carries on brewing, malting, tanning, rope-making, and a great trade in connexion with neighbouring mines; comprises several spacious, well built, well-paved streets, crossing one another at right angles; underwent great improvement during several years up to 1868, by reconstruction of buildings, constriction of new streets, and formation of water-works and public sewers; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, three banking offices, two chief inns, a town hall with public rooms, a market house, a theatre, a literary institute, a very fine later English church, reckoned one of the seven wonders of Wales, surmounted by a remarkably ornate tower, and restored in 1866-8 at a cost of about £4,000, a chapel of ease built in 1858, eleven dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, four endowed schools with aggregately £379 a year, an infirmary, charities £326, markets on Thursdays and Fridays, ten annual fairs, and races in October. Pop. of the borough in 1851, 6,714; in 1861, 7,562. Houses, 1,442.

The two townships are W.-Abbott and W.-Regis. Acres, 1,271. Real property, £4,890 and £17,665; of which, in W.-Regis, £130 are in railways, and £450 in gasworks. Pop., 2,557 and 4,959. Houses, 521 and 913.—The parish includes 13 other townships,-one of them electorally in Flint; and comprises 15,879 acres. Pop. in 1851, 15,520; in 1861, 19,780. Houses, 3,980. Brymbo Hall, Pentre-Bychan, Erdigg, Gwersyllt, Llwy-non, and Cefn are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. Asaph. Value, £626.* Patron, the Bishop of St. A. The vicarage of Minera, and the p. curacies of Brymbo and Berse. Drelincourt are separate benefices.—The sub-district excludes one township of W. parish, but includes three of Gresford. Acres, 14,754. Pop., 17,546. Houses, 3,521.—The district contains also Ruabon, Holt, and Hope sub-districts; and comprises 78,592 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £15,775. Pop. in 1851, 40,078; in 1861, 47,975. Houses, 10,018. Marriages in 1866, 456; births, 2,104,-of which 139 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,260,-of which 509 were at ages under 5 years, and 31 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 3,677; births, 15,093; deaths, 9,857. The places of worship, in 1851, were 21 of the Church of England , with 12,255 sittings; 19 of Independents, with 2,987 s.; 13 of Baptists, with 3,308 s.; 2 of Unitarians, with 710 s.; 19 of Wesleyans, with 3,021 s.; 6 of New Connexion Methodists, with 860 s.; 11 of Primitive Methodists, with 968 s.; 7 of the Wesleyan Association, with 811 s.; 25 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 4,939 s.; 4 undefined, with 193 s.; 1 of Roman Catholics, with 305 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 68 attendants. The schools were 34 public day-schools, with 3,232 scholars; 54 private day-schools, with 1,215 s.; and 95 Sunday schools, with 9,451 s. The workhouse is in Bersham township.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, two townships, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Wrexham AP       Wrexham Regis CP/Tn/AP       Wrexham SubD       Wrexham RegD/PLU       Denbighshire AncC
Place names: WREXHAM     |     WRIGHTELESHAM     |     WRIGHTESHAM
Place: Wrexham

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