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Originally Posted by eastsussexred
The previous importance of the house or farm known as The Crispin was highlighted by a boundary line that was shown on the ordnance survey map of 1872 (attached).
At this time, there was still an ancient, 4-feet wide footpath shown on the map, which ran from the position where The Crispin had been located, all the way down to The Corn Mill at Felin Puleston.
The footpath, which was bordered with a hedge, ran along the western boundary of Wat's Dyke, most likely above the ancient ditch, with the banked up mound on the town side.
The Crispin Lane started on The Racecourse side of Mold Road, following the ancient pathway as far as the house known as The Crispin, where the footpath stopped, although the lane, which was later extended (in yellow) then continued in an arc toward Plas Coch.
Another boundary line (in blue) then ran from The Crispin, up past Plas Coch and back out onto the Mold Road. This boundary was described on the map as undefined, and it divided the lands owned by the Foulkes and Williams Wynn families, although it does not appear to have been a part of the ancient 4 feet trackway.
The lane on The Raceourse side of Mold Road seems to have taken its name from an ancient farm, called 'The Crispin', although by the middle of the 19th Century, the farm had diminished in size and was described as a cottage with stables and outbuildings. At this point, The Crispin had been taken over by the railway company, and its buildings were gradually demolished to make way for new lines, but its past importance can be seen in the ancient trackway and the fields and namesake properties that had also carried the name of Crispin, including an inn, which was still in existence in the latter half of the 17th Century.
Wat's Dyke also provided a traditional municipal boundary between the town, and land that was owned by the king, and that which had been owned by Valle Crucis Abbey, at Stansty.
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As confirmed by W. Alister Williams in The Encyclopaedia of Wrexham (2010) Crispin Lane took its name from a property which was recorded in early Latin documentation as ‘Crispianus’ later known as Crispin Farm.
The farm was situated on the town side of the lane, directly opposite the corner of the kop, in an area, which was historically known as Lower Crispin (see attachment). In the mid to late 19th Century, the field on which Crispin Farm was situated, was still known as Crispin field, although the name ‘Crispianus’ seems to suggest that the farm may have been a substantial property in the distant past, as was indicated on Ogilby’s Road map of 1675 (previously posted) which shows a substantial house in the location that Crispin Farm occupied. In front of Crispin Farm, on The Racecourse side of the lane, near to the car park for the current club shop, was a field known as Crispin Croft, and at the top end of the Racecourse (between Plas Coch and Mold Road, there was an area which was still known as ‘The Crispin’ in the late 19th Century. This area was used occasionally as an assembly point for military parades in the mid to late 19th Century, although The Crispin seems likely to have previously been the location of a garrison, which was established in the area, during The English Civil War (In his book ‘ Stansty- a story of the land and its people, Quentin Dodd had also recorded that a large number of musket balls were found embedded in a number of walls in the area, most likely due to target practice).
Opposite The Crispin, at the base of Stansty Park (where the road splits between Summerhill Road and Mold Road) there had previously been a blacksmiths, known as Crispin Smithy, and in the 19th Century there was also a house, known as Crispin Lodge, which was built at the base of Crispin Meadow, in the apex where the two roads used to meet; this was the family home of the borough surveyor- John Strachan.
Further along Mold Road, on the Stansty Park side, there was a public house, known as The Crispin Inn, which, according to the 19th Century historian- Alfred Neobard Palmer, had previously been one of the houses that had been owned by the Edwards family of Stansty (The Crispin Inn was also recorded on Ogilby’s Road Map of 1675). The Edwardses are believed to have occupied the area from 1317, when their ancestor- David ap Meilir is thought to have bought, at least part of the manor of Stansty. The manor consisted of two parts- Stansty Ucha (upper Stansty) and Stansty Issa- lower Stansty, the latter of which had been gifted to the monks of Valle Crucis Abbey by The Prince of Northern Powys in 1254. But after the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid 16th Century, the two parts were reunited as one manor, and while the church retained some of the tithe rights of the land, the Edwards family continued as tenants and formed the estate, which would come to be known as Stansty Park in the latter half of the 16th Century.
According to Alfred Palmer, the name ‘Crispin’ seems to have derived from St Crispin- the patron saint of leathermaking and shoemakers, and may have been associated with an ancient guild of shoemakers, dating at least as far back as a medieval shoemaker and weaver, called John ap John of Stansty, although no guild of shoemakers was ever recorded. Moreover, as I have previously posted, the St Crispin link could possibly have been related to the leathermaking activities of the white monks of Valle Crucis Abbey and the lay farmers who became the tenants of the Abbey’s lands in Stansty. Whatever the origin of the name, it seems to be related to leathermaking and/or shoemaking in the area around The Racecourse and much of Stansty, sometime very far back in history.
As for the house called ‘Crispianus’ it seems to have been a substantial dwelling, at least into the 17th Century, and appears to have had its own fishpond, fed by a spring; hence the name ‘Springfield’, which still persists to this day. (The tradition of building and using fishponds began in the Medieval Period and were usually built by the wealthy sectors of society, including monastic institutions. They were frequently built close to castles, manors and monastic buildings, due to the risks from poaching, which was controlled by harsh laws).
Crispianus, later known as Crispin Farm, was also the end point of a trackway, which would come to be known as Crispin Lane. The trackway, which ran along the top of the western side of the ditch of Wat’s Dyke, was still visible in the 19th Century, when it was shown on maps to run from Crispin Farm all the way to Felin Puleston Corn Mill, which was built in 1582. The track was described as a 4-foot-wide footpath, which in itself indicates that in the past it had been used as a Medieval trackway for small carts, but also, as the distance between the corn mill and Crispin Farm was more than 1.5 miles, then the trackway would appear to have been an ancient right of way, as it would not have been possible to just build a trackway without obtaining a right of way from all of the different owners of the lands along the route.
The fact that the trackway stretched from Crispin Farm to Felin Puleston Corn Mill also has historical significance, as the inhabitants of the Stansty were required, by law, to mill their flour at The Kings Mill, which had been in operation since the 14th Century, and as the name suggests, was owned by the crown. The mill at Felin Puleston therefore provided an alternative, without the additional fees as determined by the crown, and so the ancient trackway is likely to have been used by the inhabitants of Stansty in order to avoid using The Kings Mill.
While the trackway ended at Crispin Farm (highlighted in yellow on the attachment) there was also an ancient right of way (highlighted in blue on the attachment) which ran from Mold Road to Plas Coch and then along the boundary of The Racecourse, down to Crispin Farm, and which divided the lands owned by the Foulkes family and the Wynn family estates. This right of way was stopped by means of a court order issued in the 1840’s, despite a petition which had been raised by the inhabitants of Stansty.
The property known as Crispianus eventually lost its influence and became known as Crispin Farm, which was gradually demolished over the years, until the mid-19th Century when all that remained was a cottage with a cow house, stables and outbuildings, and which was briefly occupied by the stationmaster of the new Wrexham, Mold and Connah’s Quay Railway from 1866, until the latter stages of the 19th Century, when the remainder of the property was also demolished.
It seems almost certain that the land that The Racecourse was built on, had bore the name of Crispin, at some point in the very distant past.