Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/893

Rh WRENTNALL. 881 WRIBBENHALL. form a township. The Lancashire and Yorkshire railway has here a joint station for TJI ifthouso and Wrenthorpe. WRENTNALL, a tnshp. in the par. of Church Pul verhach, co. Salop, 7 miles N.W. of Church Stretton. WRESSELL, or WRESSLE, a par. in the Holme- I Beacon div. of Harthill wap., East Riding co. York, 3* miles N.W. of Howden, and 25 from Hull, hy the Hull, Belby, and Milford Junction branch of the North-East- ern railway, on which it is a station. It is situated on the river Derwent, over which the railway passes on an iron hridge of seven arches. The par. contains the limits, of Blind, or Bourne, Nowsholme, and Loftsome, at which last is a bridge, erected in 1800, at a cost of 4,000. At the time of the Domesday survey it was held by Gilbert Tyson, and came in the 13th century to the Percys, who built the castle, described by Leland as forming a quadrangle, with square towers, in which the Earls of Northumberland lived in state. This castle was forfeited by the Percys after the battle of Shrewsbury, but was restored to them in 1457, and in 1650 was taken and dismantled, by order of parliament. In the middle of the 18th century it became the property of the Wyndhams, was burnt in 1796, and is now a ruin. The living is a vie." in the dioc. of York, val. 160. The church is dedicated to St. John of Beverley. WREST, or SILSOE, the park of Earl de Grey, co. Beds, 4 miles S.W. of Shefford. It is situated near the river Ivel, and contains a collection of historical por- traits. WRESTLINGWORTH, a par. in the hund. of Big- gleswade, co. Beds, 6 miles N.E. of Biggleswade, 10 S. of St. Neot's, and 2 S.E. of Potton. The village is situated on the road from Cambridge to Bedford, near the river Rhee. The living is a rect. in the dioc. of Ely, val. 148. The church is dedicated to St. Peter, The Independents have a chapel. There is a mixed National school. The charities produce about 62 per annum. WRETCHWICK, a hmlt in the par. of Bicester, co. Oxford, 1 mile S.E. of Bicester. WRETHAM, EAST and WEST, pars, in the hund. of Shropham, co. Norfolk, 6 miles N.E. of Thetford. These two places with the hamlet of Stone Bridge form one continuous village. A littlo to the E. of the church passes the Roman road collet! the Peddar Way, near which is a large tumulus. The land is principally arable. Wretham Hall, the seat i>i the Birch family, to whom the manor belongs, is the principal residence. The living is a rect.* with that of West Wretham annexed, val. 547, in the dioc. of Norwich. The church is dedi- cated to St. Ethelbert. It is situated in East Wretham, the church of West Wretham, formerly dedicated to St. Lawrence, being in ruins. There is a village school. WRETTON, a par. in the hund. of Clackclose, co. Norfolk, 1 mile W. of Stoke Ferry, and 6 miles from Downham Market. The village is situated near the river Wissey. The living is a cur. united with Were- ham. The church is dedicated to All Saints. The Pri- mitive Methodists have a chapel. The charities produce about 17 per annum, besides 25 acres of fuel allotment. J. B. 8. Bradfield, Esq., is lord of the manor. WREXHAM, a par., market town, parliamentary and municipal borough recently incorporated, but locally in the hund. of Bromfield, co. Denbigh, 12 miles from Chester, 22 S.E. of Denbigh, and 179 N.W. of London by road, or 185 by the North- Western and Shrewsbury and Chester railways, on which it is a station. It is eituated in a mineral district on the borders of Flint- shire, into which county the parish extends, including the tnshps. of Wrexham Abbot, Wrexham Regis, and Kbclusham, which form the borough, together with the chplries. of Berse Drelincourt, Brymho, and Minera, besides ten other tnshps. The town of Wrexham is a thriving and increasing place on the Gwenfrwy brook, a feeder of the Clywedog, itself an affluent of the river Dee. It is one of the oldest towns in North Wales, being mentioned in the Saxon chronicles as Wrighteaham or Wrighteksham, a strong place on the Mercian border, and after the conquest of Wales by Edward I. was granted to Earl Warren by the name of Welsh JIaelor, It is described by Leland as containing "sum mer- chauntes and good bokeler makers," and subsequently, in the civil war of Charles I., it was occupied by the Roundheads, who turned the church into a prison. By the Reform Act of 1832 it was created a parliamentary borough contributory to Denbigh, and since 1851 has received a charter of incorporation. The population of the parish in 1861 was 9,904, and of the borough 7,562, inhabiting 1,442 houses. The town consists of several wide streets, well paved and lighted, crossing each other at right angles, but the sanitary arrangements are im- perfect. It contains some well-built houses and shops, also a townhall with public rooms, built of brick, the county prison or bridewell, a new market-house, an in- firmary, theatre, three commercial banks, savings- bank, and literary institute. Brewing, malting, and tanning are carried on, and there is a factory for making patent flat and round ropes. The principal trade, however, is in connection with mining opera- tions, there being a rich coalfield to the W. of the town in beds from 2 to 15 feet thick, mines of iron- stone and lead, and extensive quarries of new red sandstone within the parish. Wrexham is the head- quarters of the county militia, and seat of a new county court and superintendent registry, and the head of a Poor-law Union, comprising 56 parishes and tnshps. within the counties of Denbigh, Chester, and Flint. The county magistrates hold petty sessions here for the hundreds of Bromfield and Gale. Wrexham gives name to a deanery in the archdeaconry and diocese of St. Asaph. The living is a vie.* in the dioo. of St. Asaph, commuted at 626, in the patron, of the bishop. The parish church, dedicated to St. Giles, is often called one of the " seven wonders " of North Wales. It occupies an elevated site near the centre of the town, from which circumstance and its great height it is visible for many miles round. The present structure was built about 1470 in the place of a previous one destroyed by fire in 1457, and which was collegiate. The body of the church is 178 feet long by 62 feet broad, with a tower 135 feet in height, surmounted by a balustrade, from which spring four lantern-shaped turrets of open-work crown- ing the buttresses, and on three sides of the tower are rows of saints in canopied niches, 30 figures in all. On the S. wall, near the tower, hangs a painting of King David, said to be by Rubens, and above the commu- nion table one of the " Last Supper," presented by Governor Yale. In the chancel is the monument by Roubilliac, in marble, to the memory of Miss Myddleton of Chirk Castle, representing a female figure starting from the grave at the sound of the last trumpet ; there are also two medallion monuments by the same sculptor, several ancient tombs, and much grotesque sculpture, both within and on the outside of the church, the most note- worthy being the grotesque head and armorial bearings on the corbels in the nave. The churchyard contains an unusual number of quaint epitaphs, including the well-known rhyming one of Governor Yale of Plas Gro- now, " Born in America, in Europe bred, in Africa travelled, and in Asia wed." There are besides a dis- trict church, chapels-of-ease at Berse Drelincourt, Brymbo, and Minera, a Roman Catholic chapel, and eleven chapels belonging to various dissenting bodies. The charities produce about 800 per annum, of which 50 belong to the Presbyterian chapel, and 15 to the grammar school founded in 1603. There are also National, Roman Catholic, and Sunday schools. Near the town is an oval course of nearly a mile, on which races take place annually in October. Market days are Thursday and Saturday. Fairs are held on the third Thursday in January, 23rd March, 6th April, Holy Thursday, 16th June, 7th August, 19th September, 29th October, third Thursday in November, and second Thursday in December. the par. of Kidderminster, lower div. of Halfshiro