Ruabon, Wrexham, Wales Genealogy

Wales

Wrexham

Parishes of Historic Denbighshire

Ruabon

A guide to genealogy in Ruabon, with information on where to find birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records; census records; wills; cemeteries; maps; etc.

Ruabon (Welsh: Rhiwabon) is a village, community and ecclesiastical parish in the County Borough of Wrexham, Wales Genealogy, Wales.

History

Substantial remains of Offa's Dyke (Welsh: Clawdd Offa) can be seen on the western outskirts of Ruabon. This massive earthwork, stretching from Chepstow in the south to Prestatyn in the north, was constructed in the late 8th century by Offa, King of Mercia, as a boundary between Saxon Mercia and Celtic Wales. Traces of an earlier dyke, Wat's Dyke, can be seen on the eastern side of the Ruabon. It would be several centuries before Ruabon and the lands to the east of Offa's Dyke would be returned to Wales.

The name is derived from the Welsh Rhiw Fabon, or "hillside of Mabon", a local saint. An older English spelling, Rhuabon, can sometimes be seen.

The ancient parish 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 as Y Dref Fawr or Cristionydd Kenrick in English)
• Coed Cristionydd
• Dinhinlle Uchaf (also known as Y Dref Fechan or Cristionydd Fechan)
• Dinhinlle Isaf
• Morton Anglicorum (the “English Morton” or Morton Below the dyke)
• Morton Wallichorum (the “Welsh Morton” or Morton Above the dyke)

(Morton Anglicorum seems to be vaguely defined but within Morton Below.)

In 1844, Coed Cristionydd and part of Cristionydd Cynrig became part of the new parish of Rhosymedre; and Dinhinlle Uchaf and Moreton Above became part of the new parish of Rhosllannerchrugog. Later in 1879, Dynhinlle Uchaf and the remainder of Cristionydd Cynrig became the new parish of Penycae.

The area was, for centuries, under the influence of nearby Chirk Castle and, later, the Williams Wynn family of Wynnstay in Ruabon.

The Ruabon area was formerly heavily industrialised with large deposits of iron, coal and clay. Iron was worked in Gyfelia and Cinders as far back as the Middle Ages but heavy industry dominated the entire parish in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hafod Colliery, the last working colliery in the Ruabon coalfield, closed in 1968.

Iron was worked at Ruabon; Acrefair; Cefn Mawr and Plas Madoc; and zinc at Wynn Hall. In 1867 Robert Graesser, an industrial chemist from Obermosel in Saxony, Germany established a chemical works at Plas Kynaston in Cefn Mawr to extract paraffin oil and wax from the local shale. This was the start of the long association between the chemical industry. The site was later acquired by the American chemical company Monsanto, their first venture in Europe.

Much of the mineral wealth of the area was exported by canal over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Shropshire Union Canal, until the railway reached Ruabon in 1855.

Ruabon sat on vast deposits of clay. At Afongoch there were three clay companies very close together: "Monk & Newell", the “Ruabon Brick Terra Cotta Ltd." or "Jenks' Terracotta Works" (or "Gwaith Jinks") and the "Tatham Brick & Tile Works" or "Afongoch & Tatham Tileries". At Hafod, the Cornish engineer Henry Dennis founded a clay works next to the Hafod Colliery. The Dennis company became world famous for its tiles but closed in 2008. Other large brickworks existed at Pant, Rhosllannerchrugog, Acrefair and Newbridge.

Today the village of Ruabon is a suburb of the town of Wrexham, Wales Genealogy.

Ruabon Parish
Jurisdictions
County bef 1974	add here
County 1 Apr 1974-31 Mar 1996	add here
County 1 Apr 1996 -	add here
Civ Reg District	Wrexham (1881)
Reg Sub-district	Ruabon (1881)
Probate Court	add here
Diocese	add here
Rural Deanery	add here
Chapelry	add here
Poor Law Union	Wrexham
Hundred	Bromfield
Province	add here
Hamlets	add here

Administration

Years	County
pre 1536	Powys Fadog
1536 - 31 March 1974	Denbighshire
1 April 1974 - 31 March 1996	Clwyd
from 1 April 1996	Wrexham

Civil Records

The Registry Office for the parishes of Ruabon and Erbistock was in High Street, Ruabon. Births, marriages and deaths in Ruabon are recorded in the GRO indexes as:

Years	Sub-district	District	Volumes
1 Jul 1837 - 1974	Ruabon	Wrexham	XXVII (1837-51) 11b (1852-1946) 8A (1946-74)

Church Records

• The following Ruabon Parish Registers have been deposited at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth:

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1559 - 1945	1599 - 1964	1559 - 1963

• The Clwyd Family History Society have published:

• 19 volumes of the Ruabon parish registers from 1599 to 1906 which include all baptisms, marriages and burials.
• St. Mary's churchyard monumental inscriptions
• Garden of Rest Monumental Inscriptions

• There are no official records available on the IGI for Ruabon parish.

Nonconformist Church Records

The following chapel records from Ruabon parish are available on the IGI:

Chapel	Years	Batch Number
Providence Calvinistic Methodist, Ruabon	1832-1837	C101751
Independent Chapel, Ruabon	1814-1837	C101731
Bethlehem Independent Chapel ("Capel Bychan"), Rhosllannerchrugog	1810-1831	C101761
Jerusalem Calvinistic Methodist ("Capel Mawr"), Rhosllannerchrugog	1810-1837	C101871
Cefn Wesleyan Methodist, Cefn Mawr	1815-1837	C101611
Particular Baptist, Penycae	1789-1837	C101901

Census Records

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a Family History Center or at the Family History Library.

The parish of Ruabon formed part of the Wrexham Registrar's District.

Year	Parts
1841	missing
1851	HO107/2503 folios 15-378
1861	RG9/4280 folios folios9-end RG9/4283 folio 80
1871	RG10/5652 folios 17-end RG10/5653 folio 189
1881	RG11/5512 folios 11-end RG11/5514 folio 124
1891	RG12/4612 folios 8-179 RG12/4613 folio 168
1901	RG13/

Poor Law Union Records

Ruabon formed part of the Wrexham Union which was created on 30 March 1837. A workhouse was built at Croesnewydd in Bersham. The records of the Wrexham Union are now held at Denbighshire Record Office in Ruthin.

Cemeteries

• St Mary's Churchyard. (All headstones have now been removed)
• Garden of Remembrance, Church Street. (All headstones have been arranged along the perimeter)
• Mount Pleasant (the current cemetery)

The Clwyd Family History Society have published the following Ruabon monumental inscriptions:

• St. Mary's Churchyard, Church Street, Ruabon
• Garden of Rest, Church Street, Ruabon

Maps and Gazetteers

• Vision of Britain - Ruabon
• Ordnance Survey map of Ruabon

Bibliography

• A. N. Palmer, "The History of the Parish of Ruabon" reprint 1992
• G. G. Lerry, "Collieries of Denbighshire", reprint 1968
• T. W. Pritchard, "Remembering Ruabon - Cofio Rhiwabon", 2000

Websites

• Ruabon Parish Church at Clwyd FHS.
• Ruabon War Memorial at Clwyd FHS.
• Ruabon Parish Church at CPAT.

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