Wrexham

Wrexham was probably founded before the 11th century, most likely during the Mercian advance westwards in the eighth century, on the flat ground above the meadows of the River Gwenfro. The Welsh kings of Powys reconquered the area in the 11th century, after which Wrexham formed an integral part of the Powys lordship of Maelor — which is why it does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. Under the princes of Powys Fadog it grew as a trading town and administrative centre; in 1202 Madoc ap Gruffydd Maelor, Lord of Dinas Brân, granted demesne lands in “Wrechcessham” to the abbey of Valle Crucis, and by 1220 we have the earliest reference to a church here.

After the death in battle of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, Wrexham became part of the Marcher lordship of Bromfield and Yale, and by 1327 it was a market town — one of the largest settlements in Wales and a celebrated centre for Welsh craftsmen, famed in the 14th and 15th centuries for its bucklers, still listed as “wreckesham Buckelers” in the 1547 inventory of Henry VIII. In 1391 the town was wealthy enough to support a bard, a jester, a juggler, a dancer and a goldsmith. The main body of St Giles was rebuilt in the late 15th and early 16th centuries into one of the finest pieces of ecclesiastical architecture in Wales.

Darker chapters followed. In 1584 St Richard Gwyn, a local recusant schoolteacher and Welsh-language poet, was convicted of high treason for his Catholic beliefs and, on 15 October that year, hanged, drawn and quartered at the Beast Market; he was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. During the English Civil War the town served as military headquarters for both sides, and a quarter of its houses burned down in 1643 while troops were quartered here. In the 17th century Wrexham became a “Puritan Metropolis” under figures such as Morgan Llwyd, Vicar from 1645, and for a time was the largest settlement in Wales. The Industrial Revolution brought coal and lead mining, iron, steel, leather and brewing.

Modern Wrexham is a working city as much as a historic one — a centre for manufacturing, retail, education and administration serving North Wales and the Welsh borderlands. The obvious starting point is the Tudor church of St Giles, which towers over the historic city centre, followed by the National Trust property at Erddig and the nationally significant industrial heritage of the Clywedog Valley. Wrexham A.F.C. is one of the oldest professional football teams in the world.

The city lies between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, close to the Cheshire border. Walking the centre with the etymology in mind is a quiet pleasure: Wrecsam and Wrexham, water meadows and river meadows, Welsh and English layered over one another for a thousand years.