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Ruabon
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.jpg) The Vaults public house and the roundhouse, Ruabon | |
  Ruabon Location withinWrexham | |
| Population | 4,274 (2011 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SJ303438 |
| Community |
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| Principal area | |
| Preserved county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WREXHAM |
| Postcode district | LL14 |
| Dialling code | 01978 |
| Police | North Wales |
| Fire | North Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
| Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
52°59′10″N3°02′20″W / 52.986°N 3.039°W /52.986; -3.039  Map of the community | |
Ruabon (Welsh:Rhiwabon;pronounced[r̥ɪʊˈɑːbɔn]) is a village andcommunity inWrexham County Borough,Wales. The name comes fromRhiw Fabon,rhiw being the Welsh word for "slope" or "hillside" andFabon being a mutation fromSt Mabon, the original church name, of earlier, Celtic origin. An olderEnglish spelling,Rhuabon, can sometimes be seen.
In 2001, more than 80% of the population of 2,400 were born in Wales, with 13.6% having some ability in Welsh.[2]
There is evidence that a settlement existed in Ruabon in theBronze Age. In 1898, building works in the centre of Ruabon exposed acist or stone urn containingcremated human remains dating from 2000 yearsBC. In 1917, the remains of a Bronze Ageround barrow were discovered on the playing fields ofRuabon Grammar School; they contained human remains, aflint arrowhead and a bronze axe.
Overlooking Ruabon, the Gardden (Welsh:Caer Ddin) is an ancienthillfort surrounded by circular ditches, dating back to theIron Age.[3]
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The ancientparish of Ruabon was made up of the townships of Ruabon (which also included the hamlets of Belan, Bodylltyn, Hafod and Rhuddallt), Cristionydd Cynrig (also known asY Dref Fawr orCristionydd Kenrick inEnglish), Coed Cristionydd, Cristionydd Fechan (also known asY Dref Fechan orDynhinlle Uchaf), Dinhinlle Isaf; Morton Anglicorum (the “English Morton” or Morton Below the Dyke) and Morton Wallichorum (the “Welsh Morton” or Morton Above the Dyke).
In 1844, Coed Cristionydd and part of Cristionydd Cynrig became part of the new parish ofRhosymedre, and Cristionydd Fechan and Moreton Above became part of the new parish ofRhosllannerchrugog.Later in 1879, Dynhinlle Uchaf and the remainder of Cristionydd Cynrig became the new parish ofPenycae.
Ruabon is within thehistoric county ofDenbighshire and, between 1889 and 1974, was administered byDenbighshire County Council. From 1974 until 1996, it was administered as part ofClwyd. From 1996, it has been administered as part of the County Borough of Wrexham.
St Mary's is aGrade I listed church, in the churchyard between Bridge Street and Church Street. Included in the listing is the lych gate and churchyard walls. The church is listed on the National Monuments Record of Wales.[4][5][6][7] The parish is in theMission Area of Offa in theChurch in WalesDiocese of St Asaph.[8]
In the 1850s the English writerGeorge Borrow toured Wales and wrote an account of his journey in the bookWild Wales:
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The Williams-Wynn family were major landowners in north and mid-Wales and also across the English border. For centuries they had a great influence on the political, cultural, social and literary life of Wales. Although the family owned several houses throughout Wales, the seat of the family was atWynnstay in Ruabon. The fifthbaronet became so powerful that he was given the unofficial title of "The Prince IN Wales".
Wynnstay had passed into the possession of the Wynn family (as they were then known) through marriage. The estate, originally known simply asRhiwabon, was owned by the Eyton family who later changed its name to "Watstay". On inheriting the estate, SirWatkin Williams-Wynn took on the additional surname of Wynn and commissioned the building of a newmansion, to be known asWynnstay, to replace the original building.
The arms of the Williams-Wynn family show an eagle with the Welsh motto "Eryr Eryrod Eryri" which translates into English as "The Eagle of Eagles of the Land of Eagles", the "Land of Eagles" beingSnowdonia and reflecting the family's origins in that part of Wales.
One of Wales’ greatestharpists was under thepatronage of the Williams-Wynns.John Parry (“John Parry Ddall, Rhiwabon”) was born in about 1710 on Pen Llyn and was blind from birth. He lived on the Wynnstay estate but spent much of his time at the family'sLondon home where he performed on the Welshtriple harp for London's cultural elite.
Parts of the grounds were landscaped byCapability Brown and the park was regarded as one of the largest and most important in Wales, containing several important monuments: a column byJames Wyatt, erected in 1790 as a memorial to the fourth baronet; the Nant y Belan Tower and theWaterloo Tower.
In 1858, the ‘old’ Wynnstay was destroyed by fire, with many valuable manuscripts being lost.Sir Watkin built a new mansion on the same site. During theSecond World War the hall and part of the park became theheadquarters for theRoyal Engineers Survey, a specialist branch of the RE responsible for providing training forsappers who staffed the mobile Map Production units which were part of allBritish Army operations. RE Survey moved out in 1946. There was also a fire in the stables adjoining the hall during the same War while the hall was used asbilleting for officers.
Because of heavydeath duties, the Williams-Wynns moved from Wynnstay to nearby Plas Belan, a house in the estate grounds, and finally left Ruabon forever in 1948, severing a link with Ruabon of over two centuries. Lady Daisy Williams-Wynn continued to live at Belan for much longer than 1948. Much of the estate was put up for sale and the house became aprivate school,Lindisfarne College (which took its name from the island ofLindisfarne inNorthumberland although it had no connection with the island). The school itself closed in bankruptcy in 1994 and the house was converted into luxury flats.
The organ at Wynnstay was built byJohn Snetzler in 1774 forSir Watkin Williams-Wynn's London home inSt James's Square but was moved to Wynnstay in 1863. During the sale of Wynnstay and its contents, the organ, and many other treasures, were acquired for thenation and are now displayed at theNational Museum inCardiff.
The woodlands within the estate were taken over by theForestry Commission and the trees were felled and replaced byconifers. Further destruction took place when parts of the estate grounds were built over during the construction of the Ruabonbypass.
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The Ruabon area was once heavily industrialised with large deposits ofiron,coal andclay. Iron was worked in Gyfelia and Cinders as far back as theMiddle Ages but heavy industry dominated the entire parish in the 18th and 19th centuries. Coal was extracted frompits at the Green,Plas Madoc, Plas Bennion,Wynn Hall, Afon Eitha, Cristionydd, Groes, Plas Isaf, Plas Kynaston, Gardden, Brandie, Aberderfyn,Ponkey and Rhos, but many of these were hit by flooding in 1846 and ceased production. Later collieries were built at Wynnstay, Vauxhall and Hafod.Hafod Colliery was sunk in 1867 to replace the former Wynnstay Colliery (whose Engine House and Fan House can still be seen on either side of the B5605 to Rhosymedre) after flooding caused it to close in the 1850s. Hafod, at first called New Ruabon Colliery, was once the biggest employer in the area. It closed in 1968. The colliery's coal tip has since been preserved asParc Bonc yr Hafod. The last colliery to work the Ruabon coalfield wasBersham, which at one stage connected with Hafod underground, and closed in December 1986.
Iron was worked at Ruabon,Acrefair,Cefn Mawr and Plas Madoc, andzinc at Wynn Hall. One of the main companies was theBritish Iron Company and their successors, the New British Iron Company, who operated ironworks and collieries at Acrefair from 1825 to 1887. In 1867 Robert Graesser, an industrialchemist from Obermosel inSaxony, Germany, established a chemical works at Plas Kynaston in Cefn Mawr to extractparaffin oil and wax from the localshale. This was the start of the long association between the chemical industry and Cefn Mawr.
Much of the mineral wealth of the area was exported by canal over thePontcysyllte Aqueduct on theShropshire Union Canal, until the railway reached Ruabon in 1855. The site was later acquired by the American chemical companyMonsanto, their first venture in Europe, but in 1995 it was sold and renamed Flexys, a specialist in chemicals and additives for the rubber industry. The site was later operated asSolutia[9] but closed in 2010.
At Afongoch there were three clay companies very close together:
At Hafod, theCornish engineer Henry Dennis founded a clay works next to the Hafod Colliery. The Dennis Company became world-famous for its tiles and still operates today.
At Cinders, the Wynnstay Brickworks was to the right of the Ruabon–Overton road near Cinders Farm. It produced bricks, tiles and drainage pipes for the Wynnstay estate.
Other large brickworks existed atPant-yr-Ochain, Rhos, Acrefair,Trefor and Newbridge.
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Ruabon railway station is on theShrewsbury to Chester line which was formerly part of theGreat Western Railway fromLondon Paddington toBirkenhead Woodside.Transport for Wales services operate from Ruabon to destinations includingCardiff,Birmingham,Chester,Llandudno andHolyhead. Former services included theWrexham & Shropshire service toLondon Marylebone. The railway here was also the junction to the now-closedRuabon–Barmouth line, along sections of which now run theLlangollen Railway,Bala Lake Railway and theMawddach Trail, now a cycle track.
Until the 1960s, most of the local industries were connected to one or other of the main lines, or to theRuabon Brook Tramway (or one of its branches) which followed a route further North between Trevor and Wrexham viaRhosllannerchrugog.
TheBritish merchant shipRuabon, a steamer of 2,004 gross register tons (GRT), was captured and sunk byGermanU-boatU-20 on 2 May 1916. The ship wastorpedoed about 160 miles/258 km W by S of the island ofUshant inBrittany en route fromSeville,Spain toTroon,Scotland. The ship was owned by John Cory & Sons of Cardiff.
Substantial remains ofOffa's Dyke (Welsh:Clawdd Offa) can be seen on the western outskirts of Ruabon. This massive earthwork, stretching fromChepstow in the south toPrestatyn in the north, is associated withOffa, the 8th-century king ofMercia, and marked the boundary betweenSaxon Mercia andCeltic Wales.
Traces of an earlier dyke,Wat's Dyke, can be seen on the eastern side of Ruabon. It would be several centuries before the lands to the east of Offa's Dyke would be returned to Wales.
Ruabon is also the name of anelectoral ward toWrexham County Borough Council, though the ward only covers the northern part of the community. The southern part of the community (including the south of the Ruabon village) is covered by the Penycae and Ruabon South ward.[10] Each ward elects a county councillor.
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Ruabon's first school was the Endowed Grammar School, founded in the early 17th century close to the church. This school later became theRuabon Grammar School and eventually moved to the outskirts of Ruabon, near Mill Farm. Ruabon Grammar School provided education for boys in the parishes of both Ruabon andErbistock for several centuries.
In 1922 a girls'grammar school was built, using temporary accommodation, on a site adjacent to the boys' school but they had to wait until 1962 before a permanent school was built nearby. In 1967 both the boys' and girls' grammar schools merged to formYsgol Rhiwabon, aComprehensive School.
TheRuabon National School, aChurch of England foundation, was built on Overton Road in the late 1840s. It later became St Mary'sChurch in Wales School and was completely rebuilt on the same site in 1976.
To cope with an expanding population another school was provided byDenbighshire Education Committee on Maes y Llan and opened in 1912. This later became Ysgol Maes y Llan. It was always known as the Council School.
Lindisfarne College, an independent school, moved fromWestcliff-on-Sea inEssex to Wynnstay in 1950. The school closed, through bankruptcy, in 1994.
The village is home to pubs, small shops and a post office on its high street. A late 17th-century prison orlockup still exists next to the Vaults public house. These were common in rural areas in the 18th and 19th centuries often next to public houses where miscreants were detained while awaiting transport to the nearest town.[11] As of July 2012, an old industrial unit on the former Ruabon Industrial Estate has a planning application submitted by developersCapital & Centric Plc for a new supermarket on the disused site, potentially creating 300 jobs for the area.[12][needs update] Ruabon is served by theA483 trunk road which bypasses the settlement just to the east.
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