Brewers & Boozers Tour

Vicarage Hill

The Church in its many forms has had an ambivalent relationship with the grape and the grain.

One puritan preacher, Walter Craddock, was run out of town for damning drink. While Rev. David Howell of Wrexham went before a House of Lords Select Committee on Sunday Opening and condemned the town's drinkers "Wrexham has gained more notoriety, for being fond of drink, than any other town around.". Police said the town had the most drunks in all Wales, with Wrexham almost doubling the national conviction rate for drunkenness. There were more licensed places in Wrexham than your average town and with the Non-Conformist vote to win perhaps more effort was made to make an example of those who had overindulged. One wag said the local beer was made of mashed sheet music and boxing gloves as every night ended with a singsong or a fight. There was perhaps more than a hint of High Victorian hypocrisy here as the Church was the recipient of the brewers' generosity, while a third of Wrexham's mayors in the early years were in the brewing trade.

Attempts were made to wean people off drinking. The British Workman's Public House Co. opened a Cocoa Room on Henblas Street with canteen, library with free newspapers and a piano room. It was probably well intentioned but doomed to failure.

It was not just the Church that was on the drinkers' case: an 1849 Board of Health report stated that 7000 people, 60 pubs, 5 beershops, 4 spirit vaults, 20 off-licenses was just TOO MUCH!!!

By now you should have reached the junction with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings (where Brook Street, Bridge Street, Town Hill and St Giles Way meet)

This is the site of the Albion Brewery. The Albion was the first commercial brewery in the town and its entrance was right where the crossroads are with the brewery standing below the Church.

Up Bridge Street were at least three more breweries: Burton's Brewery, the Bridge Street Brewery and the Eagle Brewery. Bridge Street is one of the historic entrances into Wrexham. The Horns Inn that used to be on the corner was a long favoured drinking hole of the drovers and of farmers bringing stock to market. This was one of the medieval ways into the town.

Cross Town Hill at the pedestrian crossing and then turn right before the public toilets and cross St Giles Way. Continue along on the right hand side of St Giles Way. Enjoy the view of St Giles' Church. The development site on your right is the site of the former Cambrian Brewery, the historic Horns Inn, and of a tannery, an important trade in Wrexham until the mid 20th Century.

Proceed to Cambrian Brewery >>

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