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The city of Wrexham has two main city parks, these being Bellevue Park and Acton Park. On the outskirts of the city there is also open parkland on and surrounding the Erddig estate. There is also a city centre green and various smaller parks and open spaces.
A total of 13 parks and green spaces in Wrexham city have been, or are in the process of being, legally protected with green space charity Fields in Trust ensuring they can never be built on, nor lost to development. A further 24 parks and open spaces have also been awarded the protection in the wider Wrexham County Borough. [1]
Bellevue Park (Parciau; 53°02′36″N2°59′59″W / 53.0434°N 2.9997°W ) – opened in 1910. It is located to the south-east of Wrexham city centre in Offa. It hosts a Queen Victoria statue originally from Gulidhall Square on Chester Street, [2] and a bandstand pavilion opened in 1915. [3] The park has hosted the National Eisteddfod of Wales twice in 1912 and 1933. [2] The park was neglected during the 1970s, and many of the amenities were in a poor state of repair.[ citation needed ] A major project was undertaken to refurbish the Park back to its original splendour. This was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Urban Parks Project, Welsh Development Agency, and the European Regional Development Fund.[ citation needed ] The park reopened in its restored original Edwardian condition in June 2000. [2] It now boasts children's play areas, a bowling green constructed in 1914 [2] which is home to the Parciau Bowling Club, tennis, and basketball courts and an original Edwardian bandstand set in an amphitheatre. In the summer months social events take place in the park, such as music concerts, and children's outdoor activity events.
Acton Park ( 53°03′42″N2°58′46″W / 53.0616°N 2.9795°W ) is 0.5 miles (0.8 km) north of Wrexham city centre, between the communities of Acton and Borras Park and the suburb of Garden Village. [4] The site of the park was originally the landscaped grounds of Acton Hall, created in the 1790s. [5] [4] The grounds and hall were transferred to Wrexham Municipal Borough Council in 1947, with the hall demolished in 1954. [4] The park covers approximately 64 acres (26 ha). [5]
Acton Park features a bowling green, tennis courts, a children's play area, a Japanese-style garden and a large lake which has attracted diverse wildlife. [5] The general layout of the park has remained unchanged since it was laid out in the 18th century and now boasts many mature trees. The park also is home to Gorsedd stones, originally constructed for the National Eisteddfod in Bellevue Park, until they were moved to Acton Park. [2] [4]
Llwyn Isaf ( 53°02′52″N2°59′36″W / 53.0477°N 2.9932°W ), – which is situated alongside Wrexham Guildhall, is a popular green area within the city centre. The green was originally the landscaped grounds of a mansion house of the same name. It now lies at the centre of Wrexham's civic centre just off Queens Square and near Wrexham Library, with it sometimes known as "Library Field". The Welsh Children in Need concert was held at this location in 2005. Council-sponsored events such as Christmas fairs [6] and the Wrexham Food and Drink Festival (Wrexham Feast) are held on the site. [7] [8] The green hosts a bandstand. [9]
Dean Road Field is a playing field in Rhosnesni, located off Dean Road and Holt Road. The council considered changing the status of the field into a "town or village green". [10] Proposals to construct housing on the site have faced local opposition. [11]
Nine Acre Field (sometimes partly Welsh: Cae Nine Acre) is an open space in Wrexham. In September 2022, the council proposed it become the Queen Elizabeth II Park, following her death a few weeks prior, in which the council would also protect the site as a permanent green space. [12] In June 2023, it was announced the site would be re-opening for public use. [13]
The Morgan Llwyd Memorial Park, also formerly known as the Dissenters' Burial Ground, (or the Dissenters' Graveyard [14] or The Bun Hill Fields of North Eastern Wales), [15] is a former nonconformist graveyard in Rhosddu, Wrexham.
The site was originally a quillet ("small tract of land"), possibly the field called Talar-y-geifr, [15] that was part of the Wrexham Regis "common fields" [16] (an open-field system on common land) [15] and was used as a burial ground for two centuries by Wrexham Dissenters, [16] also termed nonconformists. [14]
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and Monmouthshire used the term "Dissenter's Graveyard" and compared it as the Bunhill Fields of Wrexham. [14] In 1655, the site appeared in the will of Daniel Lloyd, the possible original donor of the land, which Lloyd allocated for a "new churchyard", and the site covered 21⁄2 roods (0.625 acres (2,530 m2)). [14] The site was acquired around 1655, during the Commonwealth of England [15] and Interregnum, [17] by a congregation under Morgan Llwyd O Wynedd, who was later buried on the site in June 1659. [16] [14]
After Llwyd's death, the congregation's successors from Chester Street Baptist Church later managed the burial ground. [16] The last record of the site belonging to the Dissenters was in 1697. [15] Although by 1779, the successors could not locate the papers proving the transfer, nevertheless it was not doubted that they had full ownership rights by the start of the 18th century. [15] Other dissenter groups were also allowed to be buried on the site. [16] In 1820, it was claimed there was a gravestone on the grounds engraved with "1656" as the date; although later surveys could not locate the stone to verify it, there was no suspicion that the original claim was a mistake. [15]
On one night in 1848, the brasses on almost all the ground's tombstones (except one) were vandalised and destroyed, as their brasses were removed, which was possibly linked to Wrexham races that night. There are no full burial records of the site. [15]
In 1857, the perimeter hedge around the graveyard was replaced with a wall, while in 1883 part of it was given up to allow the widening of Rhosddu Road. [15] [14]
The ground was officially closed in 1888 by an order of the council, [15] although some later burials were permitted, with the last occurring in 1901. [16] In April 1912, a memorial to Morgan Llwyd was unveiled at the graveyard's entrance by Margaret Lloyd George. [17] In 1960, the ground was acquired by Wrexham Borough Council, [17] and laid out to be a park for the wider use of the borough. [16] The grounds reopened on 1 May 1963 as the "Morgan Llwyd Memorial Park". [17] [18] It is now regarded as a public park. [19]
Located opposite the memorial park, on the other side of Rhosddu Road, is Rhosddu Park. It was noted to potentially be the first park in the UK, alongside the opposite former cemetery, to put up signs discouraging human defecation, alongside other notices to discourage anti-social behaviour. [20] [21] [22] In Summer 2019, a community event fair "fun day" was held in the park. [23] It is also known as the “Rhosddu Recreation Ground”. It was created through the generosity of owners of the Island Green Brewery, William and John Jones. Some consider it as Wrexham’s first public park. [19]
There are other protected open spaces across Wrexham, including open spaces at Anthony Eden Drive, [24] Rosewood Avenue, [25] Wyndham Gardens, [26] and Tanycoed. [27] Recreation grounds at Queen's Park (Caia Park), [28] playing fields and play areas at Brickfield (Court Road, Erddig Road), [29] Ashfield (next to Wrexham Tennis Centre), [30] and Coed Aben. [31] As well as Owain Glyndwr Fields at Maesgwyn, [32] Rhosnesni (the Rhosnesni playing fields, coloquially Spider Park) [33] [34] [35] and Tanydre. [36] All protected by Fields in Trust and managed by Wrexham council.
There is also a green in Garden Village. [37]
Erddig Park ( 53°01′50″N3°00′10″W / 53.0306°N 3.0027°W ) is two miles (3 km) south of the city centre, where the city meets the Clywedog Valley. The park is owned and managed by the National Trust, and is home to Erddig Hall and its formal gardens. [38] The park is also home to a number of notable historic features. These include a hydraulic ram known as the "Cup and Saucer", [39] which is used to pump water from the park to Erddig Hall, and the remains of Wristleham motte and bailey [39] which is thought to be the beginnings of Wrexham as a city in the 12th century.
There are three allotments in the city of Wrexham, and an additional one in Tanyfron, in the wider county borough. The three within Wrexham city are located on Erddig Road, Victoria Road, and Prices Lane. [40]
There are seven parks and country parks on the outskirts of Wrexham, in the wider Wrexham County Borough, at Tŷ Mawr (Cefn Mawr), Alyn Waters (Gwersyllt), Minera Leadmines (Minera), Bonc-yr-Hafod (Hafod), Moss Valley (Moss), Nant Mill (River Clywedog trail) and Stryt Las (Johnstown); as well as two other country houses at Brynkinalt and Iscoyd Park.
Wrexham is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county of Denbighshire, and later the county of Clwyd in 1974, it has been the principal settlement of Wrexham County Borough since 1996.
Wrexham County Borough is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire and Shropshire to the east and south-east respectively, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the north-west. The city of Wrexham is the administrative centre. The county borough is part of the preserved county of Clwyd.
Wrexham is a parliamentary constituency centred on the city of Wrexham in the preserved county of Clwyd, Wales in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1918, and is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Andrew Ranger of the Labour Party.
The London Borough of Islington is short of large parks and open spaces, given its status in recent decades as a desirable place of residence. In fact, Islington has the lowest ratio of open space to built-up areas of any London borough. The largest continuous open space in the borough, at 11.75 hectares, is Highbury Fields.
Acton is a suburb and community in Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It spans the north-eastern part of Wrexham. The area is largely residential and at its centre, lies Acton Park, the location of the former Acton Hall.
Erddig is a country house and estate approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wrexham, Wales. It is centred on a country house, which dates principally from between 1684 and 1687, when the central block was built by Joshua Edisbury, and the 1720s, when the flanking wings were added by its second owner, John Meller. Erddig was inherited by Simon Yorke in 1733, and remained in the Yorke family until it was given to the National Trust by Philip Yorke III in 1973.
Wrexham is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the North Wales electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to nine constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Ysgol Morgan Llwyd is a Welsh-medium comprehensive school in Wrexham, in north-east Wales, UK. It is the first, and is the only Welsh-medium secondary school in Wrexham County Borough. It is named after the seventeenth-century preacher and author Morgan Llwyd. The school has been open at its present location in Cefn Road since 2000. Previously it was located on Stockwell Grove. The Headteacher is Ms. Catrin Prichard.
Rhosnesni is an area and electoral ward in the community of Acton in Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 3,683. The settlement developed around the toll gate on Holt Road and was expanded in the late 19th century by the addition of estate houses for the Acton Park estate. Following the breakup of the Acton estate in the 20th century much of the local land was bought up by private developers and Rhosnesni became an urban area.
Rhosddu is a suburb and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, covering the north-western parts of the city of Wrexham and comprises the wards of Grosvenor, Garden Village and Stansty.
Stansty is an area and electoral ward in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, lying to the immediate north-west of the city of Wrexham. It is a former civil parish and township. Stansty is also an electoral ward to Wrexham County Borough Council. The ward population as taken at the 2011 Census was 2,114.
Garden Village is a suburb of the city of Wrexham and an electoral division (ward) in the community of Rhosddu in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 2,035 It lies to the west of Chester Road and borders the wards of Stansty to the south and east, Gwersyllt East and South to the north west, Little Acton and Acton to the west, and a small section of Gresford to the north.
Plas Coch is an area of the community of Rhosddu, in the city of Wrexham, Wales. A major retail and educational area of Wrexham, it lies to the north-west of Wrexham city centre. Formerly known as Lower Stansty, the term has fallen out of use in preference for Plas Coch in recent years, likely due to the popular retail area which shares its name.
Caia Park is a suburb and community in Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It was created in 1985 after a Boundary Commission review of the four community areas within Wrexham, of which Caia Park occupies its east, with the others being Acton, Offa, and Rhosddu. At the 2001 census, the community had a population of 11,882 in 5,019 households, increasing to 12,602 in 2011.
Llwyn Isaf, also known as the Library Field, is a green space in the centre of Wrexham. It is surrounded on two sides by the city's guildhall and on another by the library.
Wrexham city centre is the administrative, cultural and historic city centre of Wrexham, in North Wales and is the area enclosed by the inner ring road of the city. It is the largest shopping area in north and mid Wales, and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough. Many of its streets are pedestrianised.
Offa is a community and electoral ward in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, covering most of the south-western portion of the city of Wrexham. It is bordered by the communities of; Rhosddu, and Caia Park to the north, Abenbury to the east, Esclusham, and Marchwiel to the south, and Broughton, Coedpoeth, and Gwersyllt to the west.