Historic Landscape Characterisation

Maelor Saesneg: Eglwys Cross
Bronington, Hanmer, Maelor South and Willington Worthenbury communities, Wrexham County Borough (HLCA 1125)

Landscape dominated by irregular field patterns and scattered farms, with early nucleated church settlement at Hanmer and a handful of later 'green' and roadside settlements.

Historic background

Key historic landscape characteristics

Fieldscapes are dominated by large and small fields with irregular boundaries which have probably resulted from piecemeal encroachment and enclosure, though there are some smaller areas of strip fields such as those to the north of Fenn's Old Hall, to the north-east of Hanmer, west of Peartree Farm and to the north of Eglwys Cross which appear to owe their origin to former areas of medieval open field, some of which are associated with remnant areas of ridge and furrow cultivation. Former arable is also represented by field lynchets in some areas. Wetter, low-lying areas to the east of Eglwys Cross were drained and improved, probably in the post-medieval period, and there is a widespread distribution of marl pits, most of which survive as water-filled ponds and hollows. Modern land use is predominantly pasture though there is some arable, mostly for the cultivation of fodder crops. Field boundaries are mostly marked by mixed-species hedges, with scattered mature oak trees.

Physical evidence of early settlement is provided by the motte known as Mount Cop at Eglwys Cross and by the unusual possible circular moated site just to the east of Hanmer, both of which are lacking certain historical associations. The small nucleated settlement at Hanmer is possibly of Anglo-Saxon or Norman origins, though there is there are evidently few other medieval manorial centres or nucleated settlements in the character area, suggesting that settlement during this period was predominantly based upon scattered farmsteads. A high proportion of modern farms have English names, such as Yew Tree Farm, The Fingers, Broad Oak, and Cranberry Farm, though historical evidence for farm and field names suggests that there had been a significant Welsh cultural element in the later Middle Ages. Several 'green' settlements, such as those at Horseman's Green, Little Green, and Painters Green, probably represent post-medieval enclosure of former areas of common grazing, the linear settlements at Broughton, The Chequer, Whitewell and Little Arowry probably having largely emerged as a consequence of the improvements to the turnpike roads in the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries. Elsewhere there are ancient winding lanes, sometimes set within hollow-ways.

An earlier horizon of houses in the character area is represented by relatively rare appearance of late medieval and early post-medieval half-timbering at the thatched Magpie Cottage, Hanmer, Peartree Farm, and at The Cumbers, the latter a late 19th-century brick-built house with half-timbered gables. A high status late medieval manorial centre is indicated by the late 15th-century timber-framed aisled hall at Horseman's Green, also later encased in brick. Many of the surviving higher status houses are 18th-century brick-built structures in a Georgian vernacular style, such as the early 18th-century vicarage at Hanmer, Croxton (1793), Hanmer Hall (1756)

Sources