Ponciau
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
within the community
Community (Wales)
A community is a division of land in Wales that forms the lowest-tier of local government in Wales. Welsh communities are analogous to civil parishes in England....
of Rhosllannerchrugog in the county borough of Wrexham, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
.
Ponciau is located close to the villages of Legacy, Pentre Bychan
Pentre Bychan
Pentrebychan is a village in the county borough of Wrexham, Wales....
and Johnstown and is overlooked by Ruabon
Ruabon
Ruabon is a village and community in the county borough of Wrexham in Wales.More than 80% of the population of 2,400 were born in Wales with 13.6% speaking Welsh....
Mountain.
History
The Welsh word 'ponc' means bank or hillock and the village takes its name from the large number of spoil tips which formerly covered the area. This was corrupted into the anglicised name 'Ponkey' which is no longer used, except occasionally by locals.The village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
of Ponciau grew up around opencast mining
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
and houses were built, with little regard for planning, to house the workers. At Brynydd, close to the Royal Oak public house, was the former site of typical very basic, one room, terraced, workers' houses. Tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
baths were kept to the rear of the houses for bathing.
Iron was also worked, with large furnaces in use at Furnace Bank.
Ponciau and Rhosllannerchrugog previously had over 150 public houses, although the majority of them have closed. The Colliers Arms, Horse & Jockey and Royal Oak (Built in 1853 by John and Mary Boyer) still remain. There was a school (Ysgol y Ponciau on School Lane) until July 2008 when it merged with two other schools to become Ysgol Maes Y Mynydd. The buildings on School Lane have now been demolished. The Post Office as seen in the picture of Bank Street closed down in 2008 and the Chip Shop
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
(The Trawler Fish Bar on North Road) is also now closed. One of the main streets in Ponciau is Chapel Street which once contained a large number of nonconformist chapels, reflecting the importance of religion in the village in former times. Several chapels, such as Bethel Calvinistic
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
Chapel still exist, but like the public houses, the majority have now closed.
Many of the old buildings in the village are made from distinctive red bricks, from the Ruabon Brick and Terracotta Company.
The junction where Fennant Road meets the Ruabon Road marks the end of Pentre Bychan, the beginning of Johnstown and the lower boundary line of Ponciau village. Fennant Road is one of the main roads to Ponciau, and leads to a farm originally known as Fynnant. Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke is a massive linear earthwork, roughly followed by some of the current border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to wide and high. In the 8th century it formed some kind of delineation between the Anglian kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys...
runs across Fennant Road closely to a line of electric pylons
Transmission tower
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...
which lead off around Johnstown. A footpath also follows Offa's Dyke in the direction of Pentre Bychan towards the Crematorium and Dovecote. The higher boundary of the village is at the top of Bank Street. The Coach & Horses and Grango school on High Street are in Rhosllannerchrugog not Ponciau. The turning after Fennant Road off the Ruabon Road is Aberderfyn Road. The line of this road marks the lower left corner of Ponciau, leading up towards Clarke Street, Baptist Street and Pearson Street.
Office of Public Sector Information
The Office of Public Sector Information is the body responsible for the operation of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and of other public information services of the United Kingdom...
document Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 3142. 29% of households do not own a car. A section of the ward boundary follows the path of the River Clywedog
River Clywedog
The River Clywedog in the county borough of Wrexham, Wales has always been the lifeblood of the area, watering crops and livestock since early times, powering corn mills and driving industrial machinery...
.
Most map sites such as Multimap do not show the village of Ponciau, however they do generally show Rhosllannerchrugog.
Ponciau had two shops, Ponciau fish 'n' chips bar and the post office but early 2009 they closed down. The owners turned them into houses. They were the last two shops in Ponciau and now Ponciau is a housing estate.
The Ponciau Banks
In the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the area was used by the local miners who sank pits to extract coal. This 'coal getting' was done extensively during the miners' strike in 1921. These pits were later capped by the National Coal BoardNational Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
to leave 16 acres (64,749.8 m²) of land being sold in 1932 for the sum of £500 to be re-developed as a park. Much of the landscaping of the park to the form that can be seen today was organised by the Miner's Institute Committee, the first sod being cut in June 1932 and the work being carried out by 50 local volunteers along with International Students. HRH Edward, Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
paid a visit to the Ponciau Banks in May 1934 to view the progress. In 1935 the laying of the football pitch was completed and the local team, Rhos Aelwyd, have used this pitch for a number of years.
The Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
temporarily halted the reclamation works but in 1950 the works re-commenced.
The park has been the site of many village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
events and includes the Gorsedd
Gorsedd
A gorsedd plural gorseddau, is a community or coming together of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is occasionally spelled gorsedh , or goursez in Brittany....
stone circle from the 1961 National Eisteddfod
National Eisteddfod of Wales
The National Eisteddfod of Wales is the most important of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales.- Organisation :...
which took place in Rhosllannerchrugog.
The Ponciau Banks park, is due to be developed extensively by Wrexham County Borough Council
Wrexham (county borough)
Wrexham is a county borough centred on the town of Wrexham in north-east Wales. The county borough has a population of 130,200 inhabitants. Just under half of the population live either within the town of Wrexham or its surrounding conurbation of urban villages. The remainder living to the south...
using National Lottery
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
funding. The development will see a User Centre and recreational & sports facilities including tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, bowls
Bowls
Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...
, skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
, a BMX
BMX
Bicycle motocross or BMX refers to the sport in which the main goal is extreme racing on bicycles in motocross style on tracks with inline start and expressive obstacles, and it is also the term that refers to the bicycle itself that is designed for dirt and motocross cycling.- History :BMX started...
cycle track and a Children's Play Area. Ponciau Park
Transport
In 1861 the Great Western RailwayGreat Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
constructed an industrial branch line from Gardden Lodge Junction, north of Ruabon, to the furnaces at Ponciau and Aberderfyn, which was later extended to Legacy. By 1901 this branch had been connected to the newly extended branch line from Pontcysyllte via Acrefair
Acrefair
Acrefair is a village in the county borough of Wrexham, Wales. It was formerly part of the ancient parish of Ruabon, and is located between the towns of Wrexham and Llangollen. It is close to the villages of Trefor, Cefn Mawr, Ruabon and Plas Madoc...
, Plasbennion, Wynn Hall
Wynn Hall
Wynn Hall is a 17th century house in the old hamlet of Bodylltyn in Ruabon, Wrexham, Wales standing at the junction of the Penycae Road and Plas Bennion Road. It was built in about 1649 by William Wynn. During the English Civil War he served on the Parliamentarian side and was imprisoned at Denbigh...
and Rhosllannerchrugog to Legacy. The Ponkey Branch, as it was then known, had a short lived passenger service between 1905 and 1915 with halts at Fennant Road, Aberderfyn and Ponkey Crossing. Since the closure of passenger services on this lines the village has relied on road transport.