| Cefn Mawr | |
The former chemical works at Cefn Mawr, with the village on the hillside above |
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Cefn Mawr
Cefn Mawr shown within Wrexham |
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| OS grid reference | SJ2783142285 |
|---|---|
| Community | Cefn |
| Principal area | Wrexham |
| Ceremonial county | Clwyd |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WREXHAM |
| Postcode district | LL14 |
| Dialling code | 01978 |
| Police | North Wales |
| Fire | North Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | Clwyd South |
| Welsh Assembly | Wrexham |
| List of places: UK • Wales • Wrexham | |
Cefn Mawr is a large village in the community of Cefn within the County Borough of Wrexham, Wales. Its name translates as "great ridge".
The community of Cefn comprises the villages of Cefn Mawr, Cefn-bychan ("little ridge"), Acrefair, Penybryn, Newbridge, Plasmadoc and Rhosymedre and is situated on the northern slopes of the Dee Valley.
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Cefn Mawr was part of the ancient parish of Ruabon and the area was known as Cristionydd Cynrig (or Cristionydd Kenrick in English). In 1844, most of Cristionydd Cynrig, together with the neighbouring township of Coed Cristionydd became part of the new parish of Rhosymedre.[1]
Cefn railway station served the village from 1848 to 1960.
Cefn Mawr was formerly heavily industrialised, with large deposits of iron and coal and sandstone, and heavy industry dominated the area in the 18th and 19th centuries. Iron was worked at several blast furnaces and forges throughout the area and coal was dug at pits in Cefn, Plas Kynaston and Dolydd. Stone was cut at quarries above Cefn Mawr. Much of the mineral wealth of the area was exported by canal over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Shropshire Union Canal, until the railway reached Ruabon in 1855.
In 1867 Robert Ferdinand Graesser, an industrial chemist from Obermosel in Saxony, Germany established a chemical works at Plas Kynaston to extract paraffin oil and wax from the local shale. The company later expanded into the production of coal tar, carbolic acid and phenol. The site soon became the world's leading phenol producer. In 1919 the US chemical company Monsanto Company entered into a partnership with Graesser's chemical works to produce vanillin, salicylic acid, aspirin and later rubber processing chemicals. The site was later operated by Flexsys, a subsidiary of Solutia, but production ceased in 2010. With the closure of the nearby Air Products site at Acrefair, the manufacturing side of the village has almost disappeared. There is still a supermarket in the village although it has changed hands from Kwik Save to Somerfield to the Co-Op. Construction has also begun on a large Tesco store in the village, which is due to open early 2012.
Tŷ Mawr Country Park is located in the area, and features the Cefn Viaduct, built by Thomas Brassey in 1848 to carry the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway across the valley of the River Dee. The village itself includes two primary schools an English, Cefn Mawr County Primary School, and a Welsh Ysgol Min Y Ddol and also a public library.
The community is home to football club Cefn Druids A.F.C. of the Cymru Alliance.
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