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

[WasanActonlad]

here here
inside left is seconded in his statement

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

Morning Inside Left. The are quite a few references online to the first race at The Racecourse being 1807, but I have cross-checked the newspaper report, attached above, from 1806 with racing journals of the day, which also confirm that race-meetings occured at The Racecourse in October 1806. The prizes then were in the form of subscription purses and a Silver Cavalry Cup, all valued at £50 each. The subscription purse is then named as The Town Purse in 1807. A Gold Cup was also added later. The 1806 newpaper article refers to 'The New Course' which would suggest that in 1806, public races were first started on The Racecourse; However, until last night, I had never seen any references to horse racing on The Racecourse prior to this date. But last night I found the article, attached above, which reported Wrexham Races on 'The New Course' from 15th to 18th September 1800, and the prizes are also valued at £50 each, but were in the form of plates, at that time. I feel pretty sure that these public races also occured on our Racecourse and so this takes the previously known date of public racing at our spiritual home, back another 6 years.
The newspaper report did not come up on a standard targeted ' Wrexham Races' online search of the newspaper archives, but rather as I was trolling through pages looking for something else, and so I believe that this is why researchers havent found and recorded the 1800 date previously.

The term 'New Course' suggests what it says i.e. a new course, first used in that location; and I believe that is why other research believed this was when the Wrexham Races started (1806)
But there could be another interpretation; i.e. a new course, which was formed (upgraded) from an earlier racecourse in that location; and based on what I have read, I believe that might be the case.
All rather boring to some I suppose, but I have a strong inkling that the original Turf Tavern was built much earlier in the 18th Century, due to its architecture.
I then also found last night, a report of The Wrexham Races from 17th September 1792, but these races seem different in terms of the way they are reported, i.e. they seem more of of a country fair type event, with no mention of horse race prizes and with such country fair events as 'smock races' and 'pudding eating contest' added onto the horse racing events. Apparently from the 17th to 19th Century, female smock races, attracted enormous male audiences due to the fact that women would race each other dressed only in their smock undergarments, but as this was the 18th Century, they didn't wear knickers. Word Wenches: Smock Races!
(ideas for WST, just in case our attendances ever drop).

The races reported in 1792 occured in precisely the same dates (17th-19th September) as the following years races, and while there is no mention of where in Wrexham these races took place, from what I have read, the area that is now The Raceourse had been used by, and was considered by townsfolk, as a kind of traditional area where the towns events took place. There are also plenty of newspaper articles from earlier in the 18th Century, in which, horses were brought into town and stabled at places like The Eagles Inn 'during the racing season' and so, like most other significant towns of that time, The Wrexham Races most certainly date further back in time. Just a question of finding out where the races were based in the earliest days.
Incidently, I have also found that what we now call Crispin Lane, had earlier in its history been a toll road, like Mold Road was also a turnpike Road, and that a part of that road, and possibly part of The Racecourse was owned by a family named Foulkes, with the other part owned by WW Wynn.
Joseph and Margaret Foulkes were listed as the landlords of The Turf Tavern in 1819.
Later, Crispin Lane was bordered with high hedges and became known as a lovers lane.
As I said; boring to some, but I find it all a bit addictive, and hopefully, it will add additional depth to our fantastic history

There is a book in The Victoria and Albert Museum, which gives reference (attached) to a cup that was a prize at the 1804 Wrexham Races. And so it appears to confirm that the 1800 race at The Racecourse was just one of the established annual races that continued at the ground into the 20th Century. Hopefully, I will find additional references that link the 1792 Wrexham Races, and possibly early races, specifically to our Racecourse too.

[eastsussexred]

Attached. Descriptions of the Racecourse (track) in 1852 and 1866

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

There is a book in The Victoria and Albert Museum, which gives reference (attached) to a cup that was a prize at the 1804 Wrexham Races. And so it appears to confirm that the 1800 race at The Racecourse was just one of the established annual races that continued at the ground into the 20th Century. Hopefully, I will find additional references that link the 1792 Wrexham Races, and possibly early races, specifically to our Racecourse too.

Reference to Wrexham Races 1801,

[eastsussexred]

Attached is a map of The Racecourse dated 1819, with The Turf Tavern also shown.
Opposite The Racecourse (where the train station is today) is a field with a pond in it, named as Bryn Llyn or Bryn Elyn; next to The Groves.
I understand that during the early to mid 17th Century, these fields, opposite The Racecourse, were collectively known as Crispins Field.

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

Attached is a map of The Racecourse dated 1819, with The Turf Tavern also shown.
Opposite The Racecourse (where the train station is today) is a field with a pond in it, named as Bryn Llyn or Bryn Elyn; next to The Groves.
I understand that during the early to mid 17th Century, these fields, opposite The Racecourse, were collectively known as Crispins Field.

Next to the name- Bryn Llyn, on the attachment, which I understand, in Welsh, refers to the pond or lake on a mound or hill, is an eclosed area bordered with hedges, where Crispin Cottages stood, facing towards The Racecourse. Most of these cottages were sold in the mid 1800's, when the railways expanded and the first train station was built, but at least one of the cottages remained and was gradually enclosed in an island, disected by railway lines on either side.
On the right of the attachment, was a church yard and vicarage. The red dots on the image, are houses.

[eastsussexred]

THE SHOEMAKERS

In 1620, a survey was made of the possessions of Charles- Prince of Wales, including the Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, of which, Wrexham was included.
The survey, which was compiled in Latin, was later translated and summarised in a series of books by Wrexham historian- Alfred Neobard Palmer, and which were published at the end of the 19th Century.
The Survey recorded that much of the trade in Wrexham at the begining of the 17th Century revolved around agriculture and livestock markets, with the consequential manufacture of flannel, gloves and leather goods, such as shoes and boots, which were sold in local shops, and provided much of the income of the town’s inhabitants, although there were also quite a few small-scale malt kilns in the town at that time.
The survey also recorded the street names and the names of fields in the area, and Palmer noticed that many of the fields (some of which were separated into smaller parcels of land) were named according to the crafts and trades, which historically had provided the industry of the town; - such as Butchers Field, Glovers Hollow, Receivers Field (receiver for the Lordship) and the Field of the Tenter-hooks (later known as Tenters Field) etc. Additionally, he noted, that many of these field names were listed in an earlier record ‘The Common Fields’ of Wrexham (1562) and he concluded that the field names dated back to a time when the industry of the town was being established (the leather industry in Wrexham, for example, has been dated back to the 14th Century) with traders or groups of traders gradually buying the freehold or leasehold of parcels of land, and that these ancient field names of old Medieval Wrexham had carried through to the 17th Century.
Palmer then specifically identified two parcels of land; - Shoemakers Mound, off Chester Road, and Shoemakers Hollow, near Bradley Road, and he linked both of these plots with the area of land that we know as The Racecourse.

‘On one side of Crispin Lane is a piece of land, now traversed by the Great Western Railway line, which was formerly called "Crispin field" and on the other side of the same lane was a large field (on the north side of the present Race Course) known as "Crispin croft".
The triangular croft in the apex of which Crispin Lodge has been built, and whose base forms one side of Stansty Park, is called " Crispin meadow," while a second "Crispin field" lies opposite to it on the other side of the Mold Road.
Now these several closes, or three of them, seem to have been connected with a tavern which once stood in Stansty, called “The Crispin Inn." But St. Crispin was the patron saint of shoemakers; and it may very well be that in the name of this
inn we have another indication of the former existence in Wrexham of some such incorporated society of these craftsmen as has been supposed.
Whatever be the explanation of the names which have been
cited, they are, it cannot be denied, very curious and interesting.’
A.N. Palmer

[eastsussexred]

Originally Posted by eastsussexred

THE SHOEMAKERS

In 1620, a survey was made of the possessions of Charles- Prince of Wales, including the Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, of which, Wrexham was included.
The survey, which was compiled in Latin, was later translated and summarised in a series of books by Wrexham historian- Alfred Neobard Palmer, and which were published at the end of the 19th Century.
The Survey recorded that much of the trade in Wrexham at the begining of the 17th Century revolved around agriculture and livestock markets, with the consequential manufacture of flannel, gloves and leather goods, such as shoes and boots, which were sold in local shops, and provided much of the income of the town’s inhabitants, although there were also quite a few small-scale malt kilns in the town at that time.
The survey also recorded the street names and the names of fields in the area, and Palmer noticed that many of the fields (some of which were separated into smaller parcels of land) were named according to the crafts and trades, which historically had provided the industry of the town; - such as Butchers Field, Glovers Hollow, Receivers Field (receiver for the Lordship) and the Field of the Tenter-hooks (later known as Tenters Field) etc. Additionally, he noted, that many of these field names were listed in an earlier record ‘The Common Fields’ of Wrexham (1562) and he concluded that the field names dated back to a time when the industry of the town was being established (the leather industry in Wrexham, for example, has been dated back to the 14th Century) with traders or groups of traders gradually buying the freehold or leasehold of parcels of land, and that these ancient field names of old Medieval Wrexham had carried through to the 17th Century.
Palmer then specifically identified two parcels of land; - Shoemakers Mound, off Chester Road, and Shoemakers Hollow, near Bradley Road, and he linked both of these plots with the area of land that we know as The Racecourse.

‘On one side of Crispin Lane is a piece of land, now traversed by the Great Western Railway line, which was formerly called "Crispin field" and on the other side of the same lane was a large field (on the north side of the present Race Course) known as "Crispin croft".
The triangular croft in the apex of which Crispin Lodge has been built, and whose base forms one side of Stansty Park, is called " Crispin meadow," while a second "Crispin field" lies opposite to it on the other side of the Mold Road.
Now these several closes, or three of them, seem to have been connected with a tavern which once stood in Stansty, called “The Crispin Inn." But St. Crispin was the patron saint of shoemakers; and it may very well be that in the name of this
inn we have another indication of the former existence in Wrexham of some such incorporated society of these craftsmen as has been supposed.
Whatever be the explanation of the names which have been
cited, they are, it cannot be denied, very curious and interesting.’
A.N. Palmer

In summary, he concluded that as the trade of the Medieval town increased, an organistion or Guild of Shoemakers was formed and they invested their combined profits to buy parcels of land, including a number of fields which became known as Crispins Fields (after St Crispin- the Patron Saint of their organisation) and a tavern called The Crispin Inn.

The lower section of these fields would come to be known as The Racecourse.

[terrytactics]

Fascinating, please keep it coming eastsussexred.
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