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Wheatsheaf Junction

1844 establishments in the United KingdomRail junctions in WalesTransport in Wrexham County BoroughUse British English from March 2017Wrexham

Wheatsheaf Junction was the name given to the location where a branch of the North Wales Mineral Railway to Brymbo connected with Shrewsbury and Chester line between Wrexham and Gresford. The junction, which was 1.3 mi (2.1 km) from Wrexham General station, was built in 1844 during the period known as Railway Mania. It was designed to facilitate the connection between the mineral areas of Brymbo with Chester, Wrexham and Ruabon. The junction takes its name from the Wheatsheaf public house in Gwersyllt (at 53°04′19″N 3°01′09″W) under which the line ran. The branch, which was very straight in places, went directly up Gwersyllt Hill through the 220 ft (67 m) Summerhill Tunnel to Westminster Colliery. It then continued to the other side of Moss Valley through the 400 ft (120 m) Brymbo Tunnel to Brymbo Steelworks. Due to the steepness of the line, wagons on these sections were worked on incline planes using a two-rope pulley system known locally as 'brakes'. In 1862, the Wheatsheaf branch was superseded by a new branch line from the locomotive yard and works at Croes Newydd just south of Wrexham General. The railway, which was called the Wrexham and Minera Branch, connected both Brymbo and the mines and quarries at Minera. It was also a great improvement over the Wheatsheaf line because it could be worked throughout by steam engines. By 1882, the Moss Branch had opened connecting Westminster Colliery at Gwersyllt to Croes Newydd. Progressively parts of the original Wheatsheaf branch fell into disuse throughout the latter part of the 19th century. By 1918 only a yard for 269 wagons on the branch between Wheatsheaf Junction and Westminster Colliery (at 53°4′31″N 3°1′55″W) remained in operation. The junction was closed and the remaining line lifted after the colliery closed in 1925.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wheatsheaf Junction (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Wheatsheaf Junction
Churchlea,

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N 53.068888888889 ° E -2.9991666666667 °
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Churchlea

Churchlea
LL11 4RB
Wales, United Kingdom
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Pandy, Gwersyllt
Pandy, Gwersyllt

Pandy (Welsh: Y Pandy; standardised: Pandy; meaning the fulling mill) is a village near Gwersyllt and Rhosrobin, in Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The main entrance to Gresford Colliery stood in the village. Gresford Colliery Social Club is in the village and alongside it a memorial to the Gresford Disaster, which killed 266 men on September 22, 1934. Plas Acton Road originally linked the village to the main Chester Road, but was severed by the construction of the A483 by-pass. A footbridge crosses the new road maintaining the link for pedestrians. There are the remains of a mill on the River Alyn just below the village at the rear of the Pandy Business Park, in an area known as "The Wilderness". The Gresford Heath estate, built around the year 2000 on the site of the coalsheds for the former Colliery, doubled the population of the village. The naming reflects an attempt to raise house values in a former industrial village and to 'deWelshify' the village name. A new development of 9 luxury houses has been built on the site of the former Goodwins Milk/Express Dairy depot. There have been further plans for housing to go on the nearby fields to Pandy but local people have objected to more houses. The coal tip on the edge of the village is the proposed site of a development of a dry ski slope, located on the main Wrexham - Chester road. There are two small industrial estates in the village again on the old Colliery site.

Rhosrobin
Rhosrobin

Rhosrobin is a village situated in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north west of Wrexham city centre, close to the A483 road. The population of the village has expanded considerably in recent years and many of the older landmarks have been swept away to make room for new housing and commercial development, attracted by direct access along the B5425 to Wrexham city centre, and easy connection to the A483 (Trunk) at Pandy, for Chester and the North West of England beyond. Taking the B5425 (Llay) from Wrexham, the village boundary is now marked with a brown sign alongside the new Top Farm Road housing development. Following the Main Road over the Chester – Shrewsbury railway, the main commercial centre of the village can be seen. Although clearly located in Rhosrobin, the Rhosddu Industrial Estate takes its name from the old colliery that once occupied this whole area. The colliery was opened in the 1860s by The Wrexham Coal Company and at its peak employed almost 1000 men. The colliery closed in 1924. The only surviving building can be seen at the rear of the estate – the old wheelhouse is currently occupied by a pallets business. The Churchlea development to the side of the Olivet Christadelphian Chapel was built on the site of the disused North Wales Mineral Railway Company railway track. The route of the old track can be seen opposite Churchlea making its way to the long since gone Wheatsheaf junction in Gwersyllt. The short unadopted road running to the rear of the Chapel originally ran the full length of the land down to the main railway line, giving access to a cottage built beside the track and also to two long terraces of houses built on higher ground. Although the terraced properties were demolished in the 1970s, the land remained undeveloped until very recently. The cottage was demolished to make way for the Churchlea development. The village was served briefly by its own railway station, Rhosrobin Halt, which was actually situated in Pandy, opposite what is now known as the Pandy Business Park. The Halt was opened in 1932 by the Great Western Railway Co. and closed in October 1947. Very little remains of the structure, which was used mainly by colliers who worked at the large Gresford Colliery nearby. Continuing along the B5425, the former St Peter's Church building remains but is now a vets and the old Rhosrobin School, which had more recently seen service as a commercial laundry, has now been demolished to make way for a new housing development called St. Peter's Close. The old school bell moved with the laundry company to its new premises on Llay Industrial Estate. A murder was committed in Rhosrobin on Monday, 10 November 1902 when William Hughes shot his wife Jane Hannah Hughes. William Hughes was a native of Denbigh and served for many years in the Cheshire Regiment in India under the British Raj. On his return to Britain he worked as a collier in the Wrexham area. He married Jane Hannah Williams, his first cousin, in 1892. They separated in 1901 and Hughes was subsequently sentenced to three months in Shrewsbury prison for "family desertion". He was released on 6 November 1902 and on the 10th of the month he called upon his wife who by then was housekeeper to a Mr Tom Maddocks, a collier who was widowed with three children. When she came to the door Hughes discharged both barrels of a shotgun into her body from close range. Hughes was tried at Denbigh Assizes in January 1903 and despite pleas of insanity the jury took just ten minutes to find him guilty of murder. At 8 a.m. on Tuesday 17 February 1903 William Hughes, 42, was executed on the gallows at Ruthin Gaol. Hughes is believed to be the only man to have been hanged at the Gaol.