The massive Wrexham AFC history thread (The sad case of a founding members and player of Wrexham...)

[Bobo99]

Could Crispin Lane have also been a thoroughfare for the working men of the period, thousands of miners, steelworkers and brickmakers would have been traversing by foot from their homes to wherever they had current employment. The Acton and Wrexham Colliery would have been a candidate for this foot traffic from the Broughton area.

I have also been curious about the ditch that ran through Acton. The parts I recall in the 1960's ran from the previously mentioned Quarry "Valley" (south of the 4 dogs entrance) all the way through to the end of Rhosnessni Lane by St David's School. The Ditch in parts was often filled with water and we'd make rope swings across. This ditch does not appear to have been a Lane or run to Acton Hall and is not part of Watt's Dyke. I will post the aerial photo when I can relocate it. The ditch's direction would have taken it towards Rhosddu/ Stansty if it had continued on.

[WasanActonlad]

Coming along herbert Jennings ave from rhosnessni..
About a 100yrds from junction with top of elm grove ..the open field on the right ..as far as the mormon church alongside the subway...has a pronounced bank...
This is the remains of a "Ha" ditch..which would have been used to keep cattle and sheep from grazing from in front of acton hall...

[WasanActonlad]

Was this the ditch you are referring to..?

[Bobo99]

Originally Posted by WasanActonlad

Was this the ditch you are referring to..?

Hi WasanActonlad. Yes it's in that vicinity. I'm trying to find the aerial photo of Wrexham from about 1950 which clearly shows the outline of the ditch.
Looking at the 1898 OS map, it shows what I believe is the direction of the ditch as a series of bold dots, these bold dots according to an OS legend, are the boundary of historical "Townlands". If you follow this bold dotted line around Wrexham it says along its length, "Parly. Boro. By. (Wrexham Contributory to Denbigh)". If you follow the dots they take you across Chester Rd, through the Rhosddu Park next to the allotments and along Spring Rd and then end up right behind the Kop at the racecourse. Hopefully this map link will work.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoo...layers=171&b=1

[Bobo99]

Correction to that, the ditch is just above the bold dotted line, it runs through the letter C in the word "Acton Park" on the map. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoo...layers=171&b=1

[eastsussex]

Originally Posted by Bobo99

Correction to that, the ditch is just above the bold dotted line, it runs through the letter C in the word "Acton Park" on the map. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoo...layers=171&b=1

The line in question is a contours line Bobo, showing the height in elevations on the survey. The other dotted lines that you reffered to in your previous posts are municipal boundaries- parliamentary,urban and district boundaries as well as parish boundaries. The dotted line immediately behind The Racecourse was the town boundary that seperated the old ville of Stansty from the town of Wrexham. In this location, the boundary directly followed the earlier Wats Dyke boundary line, but Stansty later extended beyond the dyke, closer to the Rhosddu end of Crispin Lane

The legend for the map in question is located here https://maps.nls.uk/view-sp/128076894

[Bobo99]

Originally Posted by eastsussex

The line in question is a contours line Bobo, showing the height in elevations on the survey. The other dotted lines that you reffered to in your previous posts are municipal boundaries- parliamentary,urban and district boundaries as well as parish boundaries. The dotted line immediately behind The Racecourse was the town boundary that seperated the old ville of Stansty from the town of Wrexham. In this location, the boundary directly followed the earlier Wats Dyke boundary line, but Stansty later extended beyond the dyke, closer to the Rhosddu end of Crispin Lane

The legend for the map in question is located here https://maps.nls.uk/view-sp/128076894

Hi, I can see the 300 contour line, but it's the adjacent continuous line that I believe is the ditch. I finally found the 1958 RAF photo, if you save it and zoom in you can clearly see the ditch. https://coflein.gov.uk/en/archive/61...n&type=archive

[WasanActonlad]

As mentioned previously ...it appears to be part of the ha
That is still evident where elm grove meets herbert Jennings avenue..

[eastsussex]

Originally Posted by Bobo99

Could Crispin Lane have also been a thoroughfare for the working men of the period, thousands of miners, steelworkers and brickmakers would have been traversing by foot from their homes to wherever they had current employment. The Acton and Wrexham Colliery would have been a candidate for this foot traffic from the Broughton area.

I have also been curious about the ditch that ran through Acton. The parts I recall in the 1960's ran from the previously mentioned Quarry "Valley" (south of the 4 dogs entrance) all the way through to the end of Rhosnessni Lane by St David's School. The Ditch in parts was often filled with water and we'd make rope swings across. This ditch does not appear to have been a Lane or run to Acton Hall and is not part of Watt's Dyke. I will post the aerial photo when I can relocate it. The ditch's direction would have taken it towards Rhosddu/ Stansty if it had continued on.

Hi Bobo.
You can still see the 4-foot-wide pathway following the boundary line of Wat’s Dyke as a dotted line on this OS map from 1872.
The old Fishpond/Durrack’s Pond on Crispin Field is still visible on the map, as too is the location of ‘springfield’ and Spring Gardens, although ‘the witches pool’ is no longer in existence at this time, as the drainage work needed to build the railway station removed the standing water and left the pool as a patch of marshland.
You can also see where the dotted line/footpath was diverted slightly to the west, immediately behind The Racecourse, in 1866 (as previously mentioned).

https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341204

Additionally, there was another spring at the nearby ‘old gravel pit’ at the Rhosddu end of Crispin Lane, which was also removed to facilitate the construction of the WM&CQ railway sheds and turntable in 1866, and in later meetings of The Highways Board, it was suggested that that a new gravel pit could be dug in that area to extract the stone needed for the construction of highways.
https://newspapers.library.wales/vie...64/4579469/26/

This correlates with the information attained from numerous geological surveys of the area, which have all identified that the local strata was comprised of layers of sand and gravel that were laid down due to the convergence of ice flows, thousands of years ago, but this information, in-itself, also provides us with the composition of the land, through which the ditch of Wat’s Dyke was excavated; i.e. the ditch had a gravel base.
Now, the name ‘Stansty’ (like many of the towns around Wrexham) is believed to have been derived from an Anglo-Saxon word ‘stan’ meaning stone’ and ‘sti’ or ‘sty’ relating to a road, pathway or enclosure (a stone pathway or enclosure) but the only feature in the landscape that we know in the immediate area, which matches this description, is the ditch of Wat’s Dyke- a gravel (stone) pathway that forms an enclosure between the Anglo Saxon settlements of Stansty and Wrightelsham (Wrexham).
The ditch itself would have formed a natural holloway- (Anglo Saxon-halo weg) meaning a harrowed path or sunken lane bounded within high hedge banks

https://thedorsetrambler.com/2015/02...ient-highways/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunken_lane

Holloways’ frequently originated as Anglo Saxon boundary ditches

https://orionmagazine.org/article/go...ins-holloways/

Hence- these holloways’ provided rights of access between Anglo Saxon enclosures.


As with much of the information that I add to this thread, this is my own take on the history of the area, based on my own research and interpretation, but as far as I am aware, there have not previously been any attempts to explain why the Anglo Saxons named ‘Stansty’ after a stone road/pathway or enclosure, nor any historical evidence provided as too where that road/enclosure may have been located. But the existence of a holloway in the ditch of Wat’s Dyke provides both the location and etymology from which the name of Stansty itself may have been derived.
In later times, the base of the ditch would have naturally silted up, leaving a muddy footpath i.e. crid pler lane- muddy shoemakers lane, with the name of Crispin being derived from St Crispin- the patron saint of shoemakers- hence ‘Crispin Lane’.