Denbighshire

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Ruabon / Rhiwabon

"A parish in the Union of Wrexham, hundred of Bromfield, county of Denbigh; 5 miles (SW by S) from Wrexham; containing, in 1841, 11292 inhabitants. ..... The parish is situated in a picturesque part of the county, within three miles of the great Holyhead road, and is bounded on the south by the river Dee. The village ..... seems to have been indebted for its original prosperity to the noble mansion of Wynnstay, in the immediate vicinity, and to owe its present importance chiefly to the mines of ironstone and coal which abound, especially in the southern and western parts of the parish. ..... The parish comprises an important part of the Denbighshire coal tract, of which the principal seam is here nine feet thick; and its mineral wealth in coal and iron ore, particularly in the southern and western parts of it, has caused the establishment of numerous works. The whole give employment to from 1400 to 1500 men and boys. ..... Offa's Dyke and Wat's Dyke both intersect the parish, and in their courses approach within a quarter of a mile of each other, near the village, but diverge as they are traced either northward or southward, so as shortly to leave an interval of several miles."[ A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

The ancient parish of Ruabon comprised the townships of Belan, Bodylltyn, Cristionydd Cynrig ( or Y Dref Fawr), Coed Cristionydd, Cristionydd Fechan ( or Y Dref Fechan, or Dynhinlle Uchaf), Dinhinlle Isaf, Hafod ( or Hafod y Gallor), Moreton Anglicorum ( or Moreton Above), Moreton Wallichorum ( or Moreton Below) (where Above and Below refer to Offa's Dyke), Rhuddallt, and Tref Robert Llwyd.
On 24 May 1844, Coed Cristionydd and part of Cristionydd Cynrig went to the new parish of Rhosymedre.
On 3 September 1844, Cristionydd Fechan went to the new parish of Rhosllanerchrugog.
On 28 October 1879, Moreton Above and the remainder of Cristionydd Cynrig went to the new parish of Penycae.

Bibliography

• Edwards, Ifor.     Claymaster of Ruabon         Country Quest 28/7 (1987), p. 5-6
• Edwards, Ifor.         Claymasters and clayworkers in the old parish of Ruabon        Trafodion (Denbighshire Historical Society), 35 (1986), p. 83-99.
• Edwards, Ifor.        Gazetteer of clayworks in the Wrexham and Ruabon district       Trafodion (Denbighshire Historical Society), 36 (1987), p. 47-83
• Edwards, Ifor  and T. W. Pritchard.    The old parish of Ruabon in old picture postcards   2nd ed.     Zaltbommel, Netherlands : European Library, 1991.
• Fairclough, Oliver.     William Parry of Ruabon:        Friends newsletter [National Museums and Galleries of Wales], May 2004, 29-32
• Gilpin,  Dennis W.    Ruabon Boys Grammar School        Wrexham : Bridge Books, 1999.
• Palmer, Alfred Neobard.            A history of the parish of Ruabon       Wrexham : Bridge Books, 1992.
• Pritchard, T W.    Remembering Ruabon      Wrexham : Bridge Books on behalf of the Ruabon & District Field Club Millennium Book Committee, 2000.
• Ruabon Parish Church, Denbighshire / [research and original text by T.W. Pritchard ; editing, design and photography by R.J.L. Smith]. Much Wenlock : R.J.L. Smith, c1998.
• The Parish Church of St.Mary,Ruabon,Denbighshire(Diocese of St.Asaph).         Gloucester: British Publishing, 1968.

Church History

See Welsh Chapels and Churches for a photograph of Ruabon St Mary's Church

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

St Mary's Church site

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 Civilparish of Ruabon :

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Church Records

Parish Registers

• The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
  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.

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

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.

I.G.I.

• There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. Mary's, Ruabon.

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Civil Registration

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Ruabon 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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Description and Travel

Welcome to Ruabon site

Ruabon - on wikipedia

Ruabon photographs - on geograph.org.uk

Ruabon - on the welsh icons site

Maps

On Clwyd FHS's site there is a diagram showing parish names/positions with links to pages for the parish church

Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R., Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: History Data Service, UK Data Archive [distributor], 17 May 2001. SN: 4348.   Here is a gazetteer/finding aid plus a set of overview maps to accurately identify the position of parishes within the county

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Population

• In 1831- the population was 8353.
• In 1901- the population was 3483.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Last Updated  9 Jan 2013 - Gareth Hicks