WREXHAM, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Denbighshire, North Wales, 11 miles south-south-west of Chester and 201 miles from London by rail. It was characterized by the poet Churchyard in the 16th century as “Trim Wricksam towne, a pearle of Denbighshiere,” and the description is not altogether inapplicable at the present day, the streets being spacious, with many handsome houses. Wrexham church, dedicated to St Giles, contains 14th and 15th century work, but was in great part reconstructed at the beginning of the 16th century. The tower, erected between 1506 and 1520, has been styled “one of the seven wonders of Wales.” It is 135 feet in height, and consists of several successive stages panelled throughout, and decorated with numerous statues of saints placed in niches of the buttresses. It is surmounted by an open-work balustrade, from which spring four lantern-shaped turrets of pierced open-work. The church was restored in 1867. It contains a large number of monuments. The bells, ten in number, are the most famous in the principality. In 1647 the church was used as a prison by Cromwell. The other principal public buildings are the guild-hall (formerly the old grammar school); the public and corn exchange (formerly the Union Hall), opened in 1873, after alteration, at a cost of £4900; the infirmary; and the infantry barracks of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. In the neighbourhood there are a racecourse and training-ground. The town is situated on the edge of the Denbighshire coalfield, in the vicinity of coal, iron, and lead mines. It has long been celebrated for its ales, and possesses also corn and paper mills and tanneries. The surrounding country is very fertile, and the agricultural trade is of some importance. The parliamentary ...