Wrexham County Borough

Wrexham County Borough (Welsh: Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) 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 along the England–Wales border, 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.

The county borough has an area of 193 square miles (500 km²) and a population of 136,055. The north of the county borough is relatively urbanised and centred on Wrexham, with a population of 44,785, its industrial estate and several outlying villages, such as Brynteg and Gwersyllt. To the north east is the border village of Holt, while to the south of Wrexham, Rhosllanerchrugog, Ruabon, Acrefair and Cefn Mawr are the main urban villages. Further south again is the town of Chirk, near the border with Shropshire, while the Ceiriog Valley to the south-east and English Maelor to the south-west of the county borough are rural. The county borough was historically split between Denbighshire and Flintshire, with it all later being part of the county of Clwyd.

The county borough is flat in the east and hilly in the west. The long salient to the south-west incorporates most of the Ceiriog Valley and includes part of the Berwyn range. The River Ceiriog forms part of the Shropshire border in its lower stages before meeting the Dee east of Chirk. The Dee itself enters the county borough near Cefn Mawr and flows east and then north-east toward Cheshire, creating a wide plain. It forms part of the border before fully entering England at the county borough's north-east corner. The north-west of the county borough, down to Chirk, is part of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, and includes the Ruabon Moors uplands.

Wrexham includes the remains of two significant medieval castles: Chirk, which is now a country house, and Holt, of which only fragments remain. The county borough has a strong industrial history; a notable early business is Bersham Ironworks, in the Clywedog Valley, which operated between 1715 and 1812 and pioneered cannon manufacture. The area is part of the North Wales Coalfield and significant mining took place in the nineteenth century. Tanning and brewing were also significant industries. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Cefn Mawr is an important surviving piece of early industrial infrastructure and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The contemporary economy of the county borough has diversified into industries such as engineering, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and food processing, with agriculture dominant in the south-east and south-west. The county borough also contains Wrexham University, one of Wales' three Roman Catholic cathedrals, Wrexham Industrial Estate and the UK's largest prison, HMP Berwyn.

In 1848, concerns over the sanitary conditions, in particular the threat of cholera, in the growing town of Wrexham, led to locals launching a petition in February 1857 for the town to be incorporated. In September 1857, the town was granted a charter, spanning the two townships of the town, Wrexham Abbot and Wrexham Regis, as well as part of Esclusham Below, and forming the borough of Wrexham, with a borough council (a corporation) and mayor under the terms of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. During incorporation the town was also given a coat of arms.

Between 1894 and 1974, as part of Denbighshire; the remaining civil parishes surrounding but excluding the town were part of the Wrexham Rural District, civil parishes in the Maelor region were part of the Overton Rural District, renamed Maelor Rural District in 1953. Whereas civil parishes in Chirk and the Ceiriog Valley were from 1894 part of either the Chirk Rural District or Llansillin Rural District, until they were merged into the Ceiriog Rural District in 1935, and abolished in 1974 to become part of Clwyd's Glyndŵr district.

The Local Government Act 1958 formed the Local Government Commission for Wales tasked to review the potential reform of local government in Wales. In their 1963 report, the commission rejected proposals for the establishment of Wrexham as a county borough.

The borough of Wrexham, Wrexham Rural District (except Llangollen Rural and Llantysilio), Marford and Hoseley (from Hawarden Rural District, Flintshire) and the neighbouring Flintshire exclave of the Maelor Rural District, were abolished in 1974, all being absorbed into the Wrexham Maelor district of the then administrative county of Clwyd. Chirk and the Ceiriog Valley were part of the Glyndŵr district.