Ruabon, Denbighshire, Wales Genealogy

Ruabon (Welsh: Rhiwabon) is an ancient parish in the north-east of Wales, between Wrexham, Llangollen and Oswestry. Until 1974 Ruabon was in the ancient county of Denbighshire, and between 1974 and 1996 it was part of the newly formed county of Clwyd. Since 1996 it has been part of the County Borough of Wrexham

History
Substantial remains of Offa's Dyke (Welsh: Clawdd Offa) can be seen on the western outskirts of Ruabon. This massive earthwork, stretching from Chepstow in the south to Prestatyn in the north, was constructed in the late 8th century by Offa, King of Mercia, as a boundary between Saxon Mercia and Celtic Wales. Traces of an earlier dyke, Wat's Dyke, can be seen on the eastern side of the Ruabon. It would be several centuries before Ruabon and the lands to the east of Offa's Dyke would be returned to Wales.

The ancient parish of Ruabon (derived from the Welsh Rhiw Fabon, or "hillside of Mabon", a local saint), was made up of the townships of:
 * Ruabon (which also included the hamlets of Belan, Bodylltyn, Hafod, and Rhuddallt)
 * Cristionydd Cynrig (also known as Y Dref Fawr or Cristionydd Kenrick in English)
 * Coed Cristionydd
 * Dynhinlle Uchaf (also known as Y Dref Fechan or Cristionydd Fechan)
 * Dinhinlle Isaf
 * Morton Anglicorum (the “English Morton” or Morton Below the dyke)
 * Morton Wallichorum (the “Welsh Morton” or Morton Above the dyke).

An older English spelling, Rhuabon, can sometimes be seen.

In 1844, Coed Cristionydd and part of Cristionydd Cynrig became part of the new parish of Rhosymedre; and Cristionydd Fechan and Moreton Above became part of the new parish of Rhosllannerchrugog. Later in 1879, Dynhinlle Uchaf and the remainder of Cristionydd Cynrig became the new parish of Penycae.

The area was, for centuries, under the influence of nearby Chirk Castle and, later, the Williams Wynn family of Wynnstay in Ruabon.

The Ruabon area was formerly heavily industrialised with large deposits of iron, coal and clay. Iron was worked in Gyfelia and Cinders as far back as the Middle Ages but heavy industry dominated the entire parish in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hafod Colliery, the last working colliery in the Ruabon coalfield, closed in 1968.

Iron was worked at Ruabon; Acrefair; Cefn Mawr and Plas Madoc; and zinc at Wynn Hall. In 1867 Robert Graesser, an industrial chemist from Obermosel in Saxony, Germany established a chemical works at Plas Kynaston in Cefn Mawr to extract paraffin oil and wax from the local shale. This was the start of the long association between the chemical industry. The site was later acquired by the American chemical company Monsanto, their first venture in Europe.

Much of the mineral wealth of the area was exported by canal over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Shropshire Union Canal, until the railway reached Ruabon in 1855.

Ruabon sat on vast deposits of clay. At Afongoch there were three clay companies very close together: "Monk & Newell", the “Ruabon Brick & Terra Cotta Ltd." or "Jenks' Terracotta Works" (or "Gwaith Jinks") and the "Tatham Brick & Tile Works" or "Afongoch & Tatham Tileries". At Hafod, the Cornish engineer Henry Dennis founded a clay works next to the Hafod Colliery. The Dennis company became world famous for its tiles but closed in 2008. Other large brickworks existed at Pant, Rhosllannerchrugog, Acrefair and Newbridge.

Census Records
The parish of Ruabon formed part of the Wrexham Registrar's District.

Church Records
The following Ruabon Parish Registers have been deposited at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth:

Civil Records
The parish of Ruabon formed part of the Ruabon sub-district of the Wrexham Registration District and any entries for births, marriages or deaths from 1837 in Ruabon will appear as Wrexham in the GRO Indexes.

Poor Law Union
The Wrexham Union was created on 30 March 1837 and the parish of Ruabon formed part of this.

A workhouse was built at Croesnewydd in Bersham, Wrexham.

The records of the Wrexham Union are now held at Denbighshire Record Office in Ruthin.