Wrexham (county borough)

The rural western part of the county borough is mainly devoted to pastoral and the eastern to arable farming; agriculture is therefore an important part of the local economy. The main economic activity is, however, centred around Wrexham town, the commercial centre of north Wales. In the past, Wrexham was a market town, noted for its breweries and tanneries, and bordered by mines producing coal, iron, lead, and other minerals, and by brickworks. Mining has ceased, tanning has disappeared, and only a single brickworks is still in operation. Wrexham is still a busy market town, and today it is home to a long list of major British and foreign companies. The products manufactured include textiles and clothing, electronic consumer goods, and processed foodstuffs. Many of the industrial estates have been built on the sites of former collieries.

There are many Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age sites in the upland areas, and there are some traces of the Roman occupation of this part of Wales. Offa's Dyke is a reminder of the struggles between the Welsh and Mercian kings in the 8th and 9th centuries. Rival Welsh princes battled for control until the arrival of the Normans in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The Welsh Marches, as the region is known, remained turbulent until the time of Edward I of England, who established control in the late 13th century. The county of Denbighshire, of which the area of the county borough of Wrexham was at that time a part, was first formed by an Act of Henry VIII of England in 1536. During the English Civil War (1642-1649) the county was a Royalist stronghold.

The town of Wrexham, which has been a thriving market and administrative centre since the 14th century, takes its name from the Latin and old English for “hamlet of the king”, suggesting English origins; the town lies on the Mercian side of Offa's Dyke, the early boundary between the Anglo-Saxons and the Welsh. The area's industrial development was based on the wealth of mineral deposits to the west of the town, including coal, ironstone, lead, zinc, silica, and limestone. In 1793 John Wilkinson established a smelting works at Brymbo and sank pits to mine coal and ironstone, and soon there were many active mines in the neighbourhood. Towards the end of the 19th century, many of the small collieries were phased out, to be replaced by larger and deeper mines. However, the last of these was closed in 1985, finally ending the area's long association with mining.