An historic symbol of Wrexham is to be reduced to rubble next week. Demolition work is planned at Hafod Tileries, a key player in the building of Victorian Britain.
As the area’s leading brick and tile works, the 160-year-old Dennis Ruabon complex helped spawn Wrexham’s nickname Terracottapolis.
Local products were used to build houses, schools, universities and hospitals across the UK, Cardiff’s Pier Head, Liverpool’s Victoria Building and London Natural History Museum.
Wrexham’s bricks could be found in naval bases in Singapore and its tiles in Indian maharaja palaces and great ocean liners like the Titanic.
Many of the area’s brickworks are have long since been torn down and now the most famous of the lot is set to meet a similar fate. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
Demolition of Hafod Tileries has been in the wind for some time but an announced start date of Wednesday, April 15, has caused anger and dismay. Online, the decision was labelled “crazy” and “absolutely appalling.
Elaine Thomas said: “The brickworks was at least as important in terms of local and national industrial history as the steelworks, the mines, and the breweries.” Russ Simon added: “Another part of history that will be lost, just like every thing else in the area, shame.”
Red tile coat of arms at the brick and tile works -Credit:Eirian Evans/Wiki
Steve Smith said the destruction of the large complex of factory buildings would be a “momentous” loss, adding: “In Manchester there are so many Ruabon brick structures.”
Agreeing, Jack Welshman said: “Given it’s heritage I’m surprised it’s not listed. It was a hugely busy place in it’s heyday. The tiles were used on some very well known places, Grand Central Station New York as an example.”
At one time there were more than 100 brickworks in the area, from small-scale suppliers to much bigger operators like Dennis Ruabon and JC Edwards in Acrefair which employed well over 1,000 people at their height.
They took advantage of the region’s Etruria Marl clay, which was not found elsewhere. Its high iron content gave bricks and tiles their distinctive rich red colour, neither did they shrink or crack like other clay products.
Birmingham’s Victoria Law Courts -Credit:Oosoom/Wiki
Such was the popularity of Dennis Ruabon products, which also included ridge tiles and chimney pots, the site became known as the “Red Works”.
By the late 1970s it was mostly producing quarry tiles rather than bricks, and when the site closed in 2008 it was the last brick and tile works in North Wales.
A new company called Ruabon Sales was formed on the site and the name lives on in the tiles its produces.
In 2013, an outline planning application was approved on appeal to build 300 homes, shop, play areas and several industrial units.
However, the site has remained derelict since and the buildings are considered dangerous, their interiors strewn with debris and industrial artefacts.
On April 1, Birkenhead-based ST Demolition and Groundwork sought consent from Wrexham Council for the method of demolition and the site’s proposed restoration.
Dennis Ruabon’s Terracotta Works -Credit:Google
Johnstown councillor David A Bithell told the Wrexham Leader a reserved application for housing on the site has not been approved. He said that future plans for the site should “consider the history and heritage of the surrounding area”.
Entire families once worked at Dennis Ruabon and the factory is remembered fondly. Despite their utilitarian appearance, some buildings have astonishingly detailed terracotta murals.
On social media, James Harrison said: “It could have been creatively, sensitively, and sensibly converted into mews-like properties, therefore keeping as many points of interest as possible.”
A Llangollen man said the site would attract interest from the US and Canadian visitors – the thinking behind designs for Wrexham AFC’s new Kop stand which make an obvious nod to the area’s Terracottapolis reputation.
“Should be a focus on preserving it and investing,” he said. “Would make an amazing museum/heritage park like Ironbridge or something similar. Outdated thinking on display.”