Wrexham County Borough 31 - The old War Memorial Hospital , the Burma Bell , the Royal Welsh Fusileers memorial and the dogs of Acton Hall


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April 24th 2021
Published: April 24th 2021
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Whenever I end up in Wrexham I find myself using the word old . I guess that is because all my memories of the town are old ones. Ones that developed as a child and a schoolgirl . It was Day 407 of lockdown if you start to count from where I started counting . The spring weather was lovely. The trip into town was pleasant . I was in search of other parts of the town that I had missed on previous visits . Car parking was still free after 11am but cost £1 for an hour before 11. The town was deserted as it had been virtually every time I drove in and walked around. It takes about an hour to walk round the town and most of the walk is on the flat with just a couple of streets that are slightly hilly. It does depend though on how many times you stop to take photographs and find yourself thinking about past visits and memories .

First stop the War Memorial Hospital . Its full title is the Wrexham and East Denbighshire War Memorial Hospital . The people of Wrexham decided in 1918 to mark the sacrifice of local servicemen who had been killed during the First World War. Some towns built just war memorials but Wrexham went further and decided to build a new hospital . Everyone contributed to the cause: the William and John Jones Trust (set up by the former owners of Island Green Brewery) gave £50,000 to kick start the appeal and the Walter Roberts Pantomime Company raised enough money each year to staff a ward. I remember the ward that was called Pantomine ward. I tried hard to try to remember other names of wards but none came to mind . The Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone on November 2nd 1923. The hospital opened in 1926 and served the local community for sixty years. There was a chapel of rest, the wards on the front of the building all had balconies with metal a metal roof and beds were wheeled onto the balcony for the patient to experience fresh air . The Accident and Emergency Department was situated in the War M as we called it before it moved to the new Maelor Hospital the other side of town . Now Cambria College used it for classrooms . It has been linked with the old Grove Park Boys Grammar School and forms a much bigger college complex. . Luckily the facade has been protected and the hospital looks exactly the same as it did in the 1950's , 60's and 70's.

From here I walked up King Street and came out on Regent Street by the old Police Station . The Old Police station now the towns museum is called the County Buildings . Sadly closed I had to pencil it in for a visit once we were released from our lockdown and the museum opened again . The militia was housed once in this building . At one point service in the militia had been compulsory but by the mid 19th century it became a job with wages and cash incentives were paid . The militia became a part time army. The story goes that there was a great deal of unrest in the town due to the Chartists demanding One Man One Vote . Industrial unrest troubled the town with colliery owners locking the miners out and miners strikes were regular occurances . The town was considered unsafe, insecure and unfit for the safe custody of arms . The County Buildings were built at this time with militia stores , orderly and guard rooms , a magazine and room for the muster of men. The building is pleasing with four towers on each corner . Designed to impress at the time it stills manages to impress . The building was not really needed in the end and the story goes that the town turned out to welcome the delivery of a russian cannon captured from the Crimea . This was paraded through the town . The cannon has long gone probably melted down at some point for the war effort . The militia moved out to the nearby barracks and the building took on another use .Hardly twenty years old and the Militia building was redundant. Luckily, Wrexham needed a new Magistrates' Court as things were getting cramped in the old Town Hall and the Police also needed a base in the town. In 1879 the builders moved in and converted the Militia HQ into a Police Station and Court house. The new building was named County Buildings and the name is still there in the stonework above the entrance to the Museum. If you are of a certain age then you remember the police being based in the building . In the 60's the front was lined with mini vans and mini mokes the favoured cars of the local police force . The vans had long gone and were now replaced with a copy of the Dogs that adorn the top of the gateway that once led to Acton Park . But thats another story .

The next stop was the War memorial and the Burma Bell . The story of the bell began in the late 19th century when the 1st Battalion of the Royal Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusilleers returned from the Burma War. They brought back two magnificent brass bells from the Incomparable Pagoda in Mandalay . In 1885 730 men and 17 officers of the regiment left Calcutta, two years later 309 men and 6 officers reached Lucknow. 87 of them had died of disease and a further 341 had been invalided. Only 4 had been killed . Queen Victoria had authorised the title Burma 1885 - 1887 to be added to the regiments colours and the bells were both hung outside the Barracks for years . The other bell has been lost over time . I remember the bell outside the Guildhall but at some later it was relocated closer to the War Memorial on Bodhyfryd . Standing in front of the bell it made me think of dad fighting in Burma . I wondered what he thought of this bell .

The area is landscaped and is dominated by the war memorial . The monument was erected in 1924 . It is quite different to many of the memorials in that it has a central large pedestal surmounted with two figures . One wearing the more modern uniform of the Fusileers from the First World war and the other a figure of a much older fusileer from the previous century Walls to the side are adorned with low reliefs . A couple of benches have been installed where you can sit and just watch the world go by . Behind the memorial is a memorial garden . Part dedicated to the war in Burma with replica tracks of the infamous raliways of Burma, A memorial to the dead from the more modern conflicts . I have stood in front of many war memorials and most are crosses or a single soldier . Wrexhams monument is of two soldiers and unusual in design .

My final walk back to the car took me past the old Boys grammar school . It did look in parts exactly the same as it did when I walked past it in the 60's. The old girls school sadly had not fared so well. The gardens once well kept were unkempt. The grass had grown long. The trees and shrubs overgrown . The huge door which led into the entrance hall longed ago locked and the windows boarded over . The town really had a lot of history but sadly much more was being lost with the passing years .

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