WREXHAM, Wales | 4K Narrated Walking Tour | Let’s Walk 2023

Join me for a walk around the Welsh city of Wrexham – home of one of the world’s oldest football clubs, one of the seven wonders of Wales, an array of beautiful historic buildings and captivating tales behind them – and so much more!

On our walk around Wrexham, we pass a number of interesting landmarks, including St. Giles’ Church, Church Street, Wrexham Butcher’s Market, The Midland Bank Building, The Wynnstay Arms Hotel, The Nag’s Head Pub & Brewery Chimney, Overton Arcade, The Feathers Hotel, Wrexham General Market, Bank Street, Hope Street, The Talbot, Old Carnegie Library, Argyle Arch, The Horse & Jockey Pub, The Elihu Yale Pub, Wrexham County Borough Museum, St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Racecourse Ground (Wrexham AFC) and The Turf Hotel.

Thank you so much to the following sites for their help in my research of Wrexham:

https://wrexham.ac.uk/blog/posts/7-fascinating-facts-about-wrexham/

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/mapsmall.html

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/trail1.html

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/museum.html

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/nags_head.html

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/nags_head.html

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/parish_church.html

https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/425504#?xywh=0%2C-5%2C799%2C592

https://web.archive.org/web/20041128122853/http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/wrexham_town_walk/butchers_market.htm

https://www.discountfootballkits.com/blog/10-oldest-football-clubs/

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/33102/

https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/place-2/wales-2/wrexham_circuit

High Street

https://archives.history.ac.uk/gazetteer/wales.html

https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-04/wrexham-town-centre-cons-area-assessment.pdf

https://johnmills.wales/gallery/bank-street/3/

https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/29016#?xywh=0%2C-1448%2C8000%2C5928

https://reesjeweller.co.uk/heritage/argyle_arch.html

https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=horse-and-jockey-pub-wrexham

https://chris-myers.co.uk/history-of-wrexham.html

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44613526

The Elihu Yale

https://saybrook.yalecollege.yale.edu/about-saybrook/courtyards

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-14682577

Brymbo Man Rocks!

0:00 St. Giles’ Church
0:09 Things to see in Wrexham
0:54 St. Giles’ Church
3:03 Church Street
3:43 High Street
4:09 Wrexham Butcher’s Market
4:57 Midland Bank Building
5:31 The Wynnstay Arms Hotel
6:24 Yorke Street
6:41 The Fat Boar Pub
7:25 Yorke Street
7:41 The Nag’s Head Pub & Brewery Chimney
8:54 Yorke Street
9:34 Temple Row
10:10 Overton Arcade
10:56 Wrexham Butcher’s Market
11:13 High Street
11:58 The Feathers Hotel
12:13 Chester Street
12:50 Henblas Street
13:01 Wrexham General Market
13:38 Wrexham Butcher’s Market (Rear Entrance)
13:55 Bank Street
14:55 Hope Street
15:46 The Talbot
16:48 Queen Street
17:16 Old Carnegie Library
17:52 Queen’s Square
18:47 Argyle Street
19:10 Argyle Arch
20:00 Hope Street
20:14 The Horse & Jockey Pub
20:52 Hope Street
21:40 Regent Street
22:42 The Elihu Yale
23:00 Regent Street
23:21 Wrexham County Borough Museum
25:20 St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral
26:18 The Racecourse Ground (Wrexham AFC)
27:37 The Turf Hotel
28:40 Thank you for watching!

Croeso, and welcome to Wrexham, a captivating 
Welsh city close to the border with England that’s filled with history – home to everything from the 
world’s third-oldest professional football club, to an array of gorgeous, centuries-old 
pubs, and one of the Seven Wonders of Wales, and as we wander around the heart of 
Wrexham on a glorious summer’s day, we’ll discover the many captivating stories that 
this city has to offer, from its unlikely links with Yale University in the United States, to the 
hotel where the history of Welsh football began, and of course the tales of how this city has 
changed over the course of roughly 1,300 years of history, from a proud medieval market town 
into a major industrial centre of northeast Wales. All of that is to come over the next half hour 
or so as we take a walk around the streets of Wrexham, but we begin our walk in one of the 
city’s most tranquil, and most storied spots. Here, we’re standing in the 
churchyard of St. Giles, which is perhaps Wrexham’s 
most famous landmark of all. The largest and oldest 
church building in the city, St. Giles’ is thought to have begun 
its story as many as 800 years ago, when a place of worship was founded here as the 
medieval town of Wrexham began to grow in size. Now the church as we see it today isn’t quite that 
old, in fact this is likely the third church to have stood on this site, rebuilt into its current 
form around 500 years ago in the 16th century. And ever since its reconstruction, St. Giles’ 
in Wrexham has garnered quite the reputation as one of Wales’ most magnificent churches – 
well-known for its beautifully-preserved late medieval architecture, especially its mighty 
church tower, a soaring landmark which rises more than 130ft into the sky, and can be 
seen for miles around the city of Wrexham. In fact, St. Giles’ here is such a 
prominent landmark that it’s even come to be considered as one of the ‘Seven 
Wonders of Wales’, a prestigious list that was compiled back in the late 18th or early 
19th century by an English visitor to Wales, also including the likes of Snowdon, 
the nation’s highest mountain, and the historic Well of St. Winefride, a 
medieval pilgrimage site in nearby Flintshire. But St. Giles’ Church, with its soaring tower 
and gorgeously intricate architecture, is a true wonder of the city of Wrexham, its churchyard 
separated from the city streets by these beautiful ornamental gates, themselves a landmark, having 
been placed here more than 300 years ago in 1720. There are even more stories to be told about 
the captivating history of St. Giles’ here, but we’ll pick them up a little later on, because 
just outside the church gates, there stands the sensibly-named Church Street, which may be the 
home of the city’s oldest buildings of all. Just here, we can see a row 
of timber-framed houses, which are thought to have been built back 
in the medieval era as a large hall house, although they later went into use as a row 
of shops, and today a busy cocktail bar. As for exactly when the houses were 
built, we can’t be too sure – some say that it was likely around the same time 
as the rebuilt church in the 16th century, but it’s even been suggested that these 
buildings could be more than 100 years older than the modern St. Giles’, 
possibly dating from as long ago as the 14th century – which would make them the 
oldest standing buildings in Wrexham today. However old they truly are, the buildings of 
Church Street serve as a valuable reminder of Wrexham’s proud medieval heritage, particularly 
because the majority of the city streets are lined with much more recent architecture, stretching 
between the present day and the Victorian era. And just across the street here, we can see one of Wrexham’s proudest Victorian 
landmarks – the beautiful Butcher’s Market. The older of two indoor market 
halls which you’ll find in the city, the Butcher’s Market opened 
its doors back in 1848. Unsurprisingly given its name, this was the 
main venue for Wrexham’s butchers to sell their produce, but initially, it wasn’t all 
that popular among local meat merchants – who had traditionally traded outside on the streets, 
and felt that an indoor market would never work. The story goes that, on the day the 
Butcher’s Market opened, it was so popular with locals that it took just half an 
hour for Wrexham’s butchers to be proved wrong, and so they all moved inside this 
beautiful market hall for good. A couple of doors along, meanwhile, we 
find the former Midland Bank Chambers, a huge landmark of the High Street 
here, which was built back in 1912, and served as Wrexham’s largest bank 
building all the way until 1999. It was then converted into a pub, 
known as The North & South Wales Bank, although in 2023 – after this video was filmed – 
its ownership changed, and so did its name, the pub is now known as The Midland, in recognition of 
the bank which existed inside for so many years. But just a few steps away, at 
the foot of the High Street, there stands perhaps Wrexham’s most famous 
inn of all, the historic Wynnstay Arms Hotel. It was built in the early 18th 
century as a coaching inn, providing lodging for people travelling 
through Wrexham on long-distance journeys. However, more than a century later, in 1876, this 
hotel came to national prominence when it hosted the very first meeting of the Football Association 
of Wales, where preparations were made for the very first international fixture of the Welsh 
football team, to be played against Scotland. We’ll gloss over the result of that first 
match – a 4-0 loss for Wales – because the team which was effectively founded 
right here in Wrexham has since gone on to punch well above its weight on the 
international stage, reaching two World Cups and two European Championships, including 
a breathtaking run to the semi-final in 2016. Indeed, as we pass by the delightful 
Fat Boar pub on Yorke Street here, there are few places in Wales with a greater 
footballing heritage than the city of Wrexham. Not only was it at the Wynnstay Arms 
that the country’s national football association was founded, but Wrexham 
is also famously home to Wrexham AFC, the local football club which was 
founded all the way back in 1864 – making it the oldest football club in all 
of Wales, and remarkably, the third-oldest professional football club in the whole world 
– behind only Notts County and Stoke City. A mural here dedicated to some of the Welsh 
national football team’s star players only speaks further to the sporting fervour which runs through 
the streets of Wrexham – and so at the end of our walk, we’ll not forget to make a brief visit to 
The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham AFC’s stadium, which also lays claim to the title of the oldest 
international football stadium on the planet. So, that’s something to look 
forward to at the end of this video, but let’s shift our focus away from football 
and back to the many more stories to be found on the city streets – because just 
here we find an intriguing pair of buildings – the tall chimney of a former 
brewery, and the historic Nag’s Head pub. The two are of course linked, the Nag’s Head 
was the name of the local brewery which began operations back in 1834. Deceivingly, the rather 
old-world appearance of the pub was actually a design choice by the brewery owners, who remodeled 
it to look like this when it opened in the 1830s. For 150 years, this quaint corner of Wrexham 
remained a busy hub of beer production, until it was eventually closed down in 1984. But thankfully, the chimney still 
remains standing – it was actually saved from demolition when the local 
MP John Marek bought the structure, to help preserve the heritage of Wrexham 
brewing, and today many of the old brewery buildings also still stand, now home to 
a complex of modern apartments inside. The Church of St. Giles’ is tucked away 
just beside the old brewery buildings, its expansive churchyard occupying 
an entire block of central Wrexham – around which the settlement 
has grown from a town into a city. As we mentioned at the start of our walk, 
Wrexham boasts roughly 1,300 years of recorded history – the place that we know today 
likely founded back in the 8th century AD, during a time when this region of 
Wales was hotly contested territory. Taking a look at a map, we can see 
exactly where Wrexham is located, in the north east of Wales just 5 
miles from the border with England, on the other side of which you’ll 
find the county of Cheshire. Though always a Welsh settlement through 
and through, Wrexham has inevitably been influenced by English activities across 
the border over its history – the city’s name for instance is derived from 
Wryghtelsham, an Old English name referring to the river meadows on which 
this place was founded way back when. As we make our way onto Temple Row, which 
runs down beside the parish churchyard, in the Welsh language, this place was 
historically known by a completely different name – Caer Fantell – the mantle 
fortress, a reference to the fortified defenses which historically stood in this 
area in the medieval era, as Welsh, Roman, Danish, Anglo-Saxon and Norman armies 
all fought for control over the region. But as we can see, things are vastly different 
more than 1,000 years later, because Wrexham is home to delightful gems like the Overton 
Arcade that we’re walking through here. A beautiful covered shopping street 
that was opened back in 1869, the arcade today plays host to a pleasant 
array of independent and locally-owned shops, which stand either side of a handy shortcut 
between the churchyard and the High Street. Once again, we find ourselves standing 
across from the grand old Butcher’s Market, a building which – when it first opened at least – 
was a major step forward for the town of Wrexham. The High Street here has for centuries been 
one of the main routes for people travelling through Wrexham, and as such it was once home 
to grand landmarks like the historic Ty Mawr, a 17th-century townhouse which stood 
on this street for more than 100 years, and dominated this part of the town. But above all, this was the heart 
of commerce and business in Wrexham, where traders sold their goods out on the 
streets to people who had come from miles around, to what was one of the premier 
economic hubs of this region of Britain. Having begun life in the throes of war 
between a host of early medieval armies, it was in the 14th century, after 
Wales had been conquered by England, that Wrexham established its status as 
one of the nation’s leading market towns. The presence of markets and so much 
business drew in crowds of people from far and wide – one of the reasons that 
we find so many old inns and hotels, including the historic Feathers Hotel to our 
right here on Chester Street, which may have begun life as long ago as the early 17th century 
– hosting people in this busy part of Wrexham, close to the site of the old Beast Market, where 
livestock was sold out on the town’s streets. Indeed, for centuries under English rule, 
Wrexham was the only market town in this region of North Wales, and as it grew in 
size, the town’s streets became ever busier with market stalls selling all kinds of goods, 
with meat, livestock, grains, dairy produce, textiles and everything in between developing in 
their own bustling segment of the town centre, packed between the houses of some 
rather narrow historic streets. Here, we’ve just turned onto the 
slightly narrower Henblas Street, where you’ll find the newer of Wrexham’s indoor 
marketplaces, the brick-built General Market. Following on from the success of 
the Butcher’s Market in the 1840s, two more indoor marketplaces were built 
in Wrexham during the 19th century. The first was the now-redeveloped People’s 
Market on the other side of Chester Street, and then this building – which was 
originally named the Butter Market, as a venue for the sale of dairy goods 
– although after the Second World War, it developed into a general-purpose 
market place for all sorts of produce. Located just beside the rear entrance of the 
older Butcher’s Market, this spot in Wrexham had a long history of market trading – it was 
once an open square known as Manchester Square, as it was the place in town 
where many out-of-town traders, especially from Manchester, came to 
sell textiles to the people of Wales. Yet the once wide-open space of Manchester 
Square fed directly into what remains one of Wrexham’s narrowest and most 
peculiar streets of all, Bank Street. It has the profile of a narrow medieval alleyway, but the truth is that Bank Street is only 
around 200 years old, laid out back in 1818 by a man named James Kendrick, a local 
bank owner who built it as a private street. Kendrick owned all of the properties on 
Bank Street, and once even used a chain at the street’s entrance to deny entry to whoever he 
wanted, but after his bank eventually closed down, this became a public thoroughfare with a 
surprisingly cosmopolitan profile – many people from overseas who moved to Wrexham set 
up businesses on Bank Street, a trend which led the street to being nicknamed ‘Little Soho’, 
after the diverse area of the West End in London. But emerging from Bank Street, we now find 
ourselves on the spacious pavement of Hope Street. Pedestrianised and lined with shops, Hope 
Street today functions much like Wrexham’s main street – running right through the heart of the 
city centre, past a number of local landmarks, and on towards Church Street and St. Giles’ 
Church, where we of course began our walk. Looking back towards St. Giles’, we can 
get an excellent view of the church tower between the buildings – a reminder of 
one of the seven wonders of Wales to be found in the centre of Wrexham – but if we 
spin back around to look down Hope Street, we can’t help but notice a large 
black-and-white building in the middle of the road – another of Wrexham’s 
many instantly-recognisable landmarks. Starring on plenty of postcards, and often said to 
be one of the city’s most photographed buildings, this is The Talbot, once upon a 
time a local pub which was built back in 1905. Designed in the style of 
a much older timber-framed Tudor house, the Talbot was for decades one of Wrexham’s 
most famous pubs, but it closed down all the way back in 1966 – and ever since the 
ground floor space has been used for shops. Fortunately, the building’s famous 
black-and-white exterior has been preserved, and it remains a wonderful landmark which 
stands proudly right in the heart of Wrexham, watching over the ever-changing streetscape 
which has seen this place go from town to city. As we know, Wrexham emerged as a major market 
town in the 14th century under English rule, and by the 17th century it remarkably grew to 
become the largest settlement in all of Wales, home to more people than the 
likes of Swansea or even Cardiff. However, during the Industrial Revolution, 
South Wales’s fortunes accelerated with the development of mines in the Valleys and the ports 
on the coast – but Wrexham remained in play too, this town was known in particular 
as a major centre of leather making, iron production, and indeed coal 
mining in the surrounding countryside. This plethora of industries led to thousands 
of people moving into the area for work, and so Wrexham grew dramatically throughout 
the 19th and early 20th centuries, with grand new buildings like the 
Old Carnegie Library of 1907 here constructed to cater to the needs 
of the fast-ballooning population. As we’ve seen, banks, market halls and 
plenty more were also established as the town’s population reached more than 
15,000 at the turn of the 20th century. However, in the aftermath of the First 
World War, Wrexham’s booming heavy industry began to enter a long period 
of decline, as historic iron foundries, breweries, tanneries and indeed coal 
mines were successively closed down. By the end of the 1980s, much of 
Wrexham’s historic heavy industry had gone, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Here on the leafy streets of the modern city, we can see how Wrexham has 
redeveloped itself in recent decades. The city centre, with its wide variety 
of shops – is one of the largest retail hubs in this region of Britain – 
meanwhile on the outskirts of Wrexham, you’ll find the huge Wrexham Industrial 
Estate, one of the largest industrial estates in Europe today, which plays host to as 
many as 300 businesses in a wide range of fields, less so in heavy industry, but many 
in modern technology and engineering. It’s with this blossoming economic profile in mind 
that Wrexham, for so many centuries a market town, was granted the status of a city just 
recently in 2022 by Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the seventh, and newest city in Wales. Now home to some 45,000 people, Wrexham is a city with plenty to brag about – its proud history 
on display wherever you look on its streets. Just here, we’re wandering through a 
major archway known as the Argyle Arch, a Victorian-era construction which once 
played host to a few shops sheltered from the elements – in fact the bricked-up 
shopfronts are still clearly visible today. It was built in 1876 to celebrate a 
prestigious industrial exhibition held here in Wrexham – demonstrating industrial innovation 
in North Wales – and the archway was thought to serve as an appropriately grand entrance to what 
was a rather grand event for the town at the time. Once again, though, it leads 
us back out onto Hope Street, just around the corner from The Talbot 
where we were a few minutes ago. But at this part of the street, 
we find another of Wrexham’s many historic taverns – this one among the 
oldest buildings in the whole city. It’s the Horse & Jockey, and it’s thought to have 
been built back in the 16th century as a medieval hall house – similar to the one we saw just 
outside the church gates at the start of our walk. Complete with a fetching thatched roof, the 
building was for many years a private house, but became a pub in 1868 – and it’s 
named in honour of one Fred Archer, a Victorian-era jockey who is often 
touted as one of the best of all time, having won more than two and a half thousand 
races and thirteen championships during an unfortunately short career in the 
second half of the 19th century. Archer rode and won many a race at nearby 
courses including Chester, Bangor-on-Dee, and indeed Wrexham Racecourse, the local horse 
racing venue which later went onto become The Racecourse Ground, the local football ground 
– which we’ll visit in a few minutes’ time. But before we head over there, we’ve still got a 
few more things to see in the centre of Wrexham, so just here we’re walking up to the top of 
the pedestrianised Hope Street, where it meets the busy road of Regent Street, which stretches 
westwards towards the edge of the city centre. Home to a collection of rather more recent 
shops, Regent Street is home to a few historic gems too – including the local museum and a 
Catholic cathedral, the latter an unlikely landmark in a town which was once upon a time a 
major centre of the Protestant faith in Wales. In the 17th century, Wrexham found itself 
caught up in the civil wars fought between the Royalist armies of King Charles I, and 
the Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell. Despite having backed the Royalists at 
the start of the conflict, Wrexham was violently occupied by the Parliamentarians – who 
burned as many as one quarter of local houses to the ground, and used this town as a military 
headquarters where soldiers would be housed. In the decades following the Civil War, which 
was won by the Puritan-led Parliamentarians, Wrexham here evolved as a centre of Puritanical 
Christianity – the local vicar was a man named Morgan Llwyd, a famous Puritan preacher who 
played a role in turning this town into a so-called ‘Puritan Metropolis’ during 
the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Around the same time, there lived a man named 
Elihu Yale, who lends his name to the pub across the street here. He was born across the pond 
in the city of Boston in Maassachusetts, but spent most of his life in Britain, in particular 
Wrexham here – he donated large sums of money to the parish church and the town’s poor, and he’s 
even buried in the churchyard of St. Giles’. Why was he so notable, though? Well, 
his surname might be a bit of a clue, Elihu Yale was the main benefactor 
of none other than Yale University, the prestigious educational institution 
in the United States of America. On the Yale University campus, they even have 
a Wrexham Tower, a famous university landmark loosely styled on the famous tower of St. Giles’, 
which we saw at the start of our walk – and that’s one of countless surprising stories which you 
can learn about here at Wrexham’s local museum. The museum opened its doors back in 
1996, and it covers all manner of subjects relating to the city’s illustrious 
history – just outside in the courtyard here we find a sculpture depicting one 
of the famous Acton Dogs, ceremonial greyhound sculptures which once stood atop the 
Acton Gateway, a 19th-century monument which became a famous Wrexham landmark, in the area of 
Acton just to the north of the city centre here. The museum itself is housed inside a 
gorgeous building which dates from 1857, and started out life as a military barracks. Today, though, locals enjoy history 
and coffee on sunny days like today, beside intriguing sculptures like the Brymbo Man 
just here, a stone carving of one of Wrexham’s oldest local ancestors – a Bronze Age skeleton 
who was found in the village of Brymbo just to the northwest of here, and whose remains 
are now on display inside the museum here. There’s plenty more to see inside 
Wrexham’s captivating local museum, from the town’s industrial heritage to the 
Welsh Football Collection, in fact it’s even been suggested that the museum could soon be 
neighboured by a dedicated Welsh Football Museum. Of course, there are few places better than 
Wrexham to establish a monument to Welsh football, and we of course are still yet to 
visit the local football stadium, the oldest international 
football stadium in the world. But before we get there, just beside 
the local museum we find one last major city centre landmark – the beautiful 
Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary. Originally built in 1857, this historic Catholic 
church was upgraded to the status of cathedral in 1898, today serving as the mother church of 
the wider Diocese of Wrexham, a district which covers almost all of North Wales, and is one 
of just three Roman Catholic dioceses in Wales. Now it’s here before St. Mary’s Cathedral that 
we’ve reached the end of our walk in the centre of Wrexham, but about a ten minute walk further 
out of town, you’ll find The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham’s famous football stadium, 
so let’s head over there now. This is The Racecourse Ground, the home of Wrexham AFC ever since 
the club was established back in 1864. As we’ve mentioned a number of time already, Wrexham are the world’s third-oldest 
professional football club, and their stadium here is the oldest 
international football stadium on the planet. Of course, it hasn’t always looked 
like this – the stadium began life as a horse racing venue and a cricket ground. Horse racing lent the stadium its name, but cricket lent it its club. Wrexham’s 
football club actually began life when the local cricket team were looking for 
a sport to play during the winter months. They decided on association 
football, and formed Wrexham AFC, Wrexham Association Football Club, who played 
their very first game here in October 1864. 160 years later, the club is still 
running – during their peak in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, they played in 
the second division of the Football League, and nowadays, they’re famous all around the world. Down beside the stadium, we can see The Turf 
Hotel, a famous pub which was actually built as part of the Racecourse Ground, and is today 
the oldest pub at any stadium in the world. You may even recognize the Turf Hotel if you’ve 
ever watched the TV series ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, a hit show following the fortunes 
of the city’s football club since it was bought by celebrity owners 
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who’ve not only turned this North Wales football 
club into surprising international stars, but have also overseen a turnaround in sporting 
fortunes, as Wrexham have risen from non-league football to the third division in just a 
couple of years at the beginning of the 2020s. It’s a remarkable story that only adds to the 
many we’ve discovered on our walk around this riveting city – but sadly it’s here that our 
walk in Wrexham has finally reached its end. Thank you so much for watching, I really 
hope you enjoyed this video – and I hope you’re looking forward to making your 
own trip to Wrexham sometime soon!