GENUKI : Gresford, All Saints

Gresford

"A parish in the Union of Wrexham, partly in the hundred of Bromfield, county of Denbigh, and partly in that of Mold, county of Flint. ..... The parish is very extensive, comprising upwards of twelve thousand acres; and the village is delightfully situated on the western side of the road from Wrexham to Chester, near the head of a beautiful valley, which opens into the Vale Royal of Cheshire. ..... The little vale of Gresford is one of the most lovely in the principality, enlivened by the meanderings of the river Alyn through its meadows, and finely varied with richly wooded eminences, on one of which stands conspicuously its beautiful church, remarkable for the elegance of its architecture and its picturesque appearance."
[A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

Until the early nineteenth century, the parish of Gresford was of very great extent, as it included the chapelries of Holt and Isycoed, and the detached township of Erddig.
On 30 June 1840, the townships of Allington, Burton, Marford and Hoseley (a total of 6780 acres) became the new parish of Rossett.
In November 1851, the township of Gwersyllt went to the new parish of Gwersyllt.
When Archdeacon Thomas wrote his "History of the Diocese of St. Asaph" (1908 - 1913), the parish of Gresford consisted of the townships of Gresford, Llay, Borras Riffri, Borras Hofa, and portions of Burton, Allington and Marford & Hoseley.

Church History
Church Records
Civil Registration

Population
Statistics

Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 346550.
The Church in Wales official web site has an excellent history of the parish church - All Saints, Gresford.
(Note - the site includes a number of colour photographs, therefore some pages may take a little while to download)

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

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Nonconformist Churches

"Welsh Church Commission - County of Denbigh - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905" lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civil parish of Gresford :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Church of Christ, Cam yr Alyn	Baptists	50
Not named	Wesleyans (English language)	100
Golley	Primitive Methodists (English language)	40
Llay	Primitive Methodists (English language)	90

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Church Records

Parish Registers

The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin.
They may be viewed on microfilm at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, at the A.N. Palmer Library, Wrexham, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1661 - 1976	1672 - 1988	1661 - 1979

Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1660 - 1810	1670 - 1812	1660 - 1811

Bishop's Transcripts

Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
The films may also be viewed at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.
In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

Deposited at the National Library of Wales	Microfilmed copies
1670 - 1898	1670 - 1897

I.G.I.

There are no official I.G.I. entries for All Saints, Gresford.

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Civil Registration

When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Gresford was assigned to the No. 1 ("Hope") sub-district of the Wrexham Registration District; which, initially, was co-extensive with the Wrexham poor law Union.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Gresford are in the format :

Years 1837 - 1851: Wrexham XXVII.nnn
Years 1851 - 1930: Wrexham 11b.nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Population

In 1831- the population was 3849.
In 1901- the population was 2056.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 5200 acres.
[ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated 23 Nov 2009 - Gareth Hicks