Acrefair (; ) is a village in

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough, with city status in the United Kingdom, city status, in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It borders the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire and Shropshire to ...

, north-east Wales, in the community of Cefn. It was formerly part of the ancient parish of Ruabon, and is located between

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

and

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community (Wales), community, situated on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Val ...

. It is close to the villages of Trevor, Cefn Mawr, Ruabon and Plas Madoc. The name ''Acrefair'' originates from the Welsh word for acres—, or acre in the local Welsh dialect—and , the Welsh name for Mary. The English meaning of ''Acrefair'' is Mary's Acres. Parts of Acrefair have views across the River Dee and the Dee Valley. Acrefair has a chemist, kebab shop and two Chinese take-aways and once had a petrol station and newsagents / post office. It boasts many buildings built from " Ruabon Red brick", including several chapels which are now closed and converted. Edward Lloyd Rowland established an

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

in Acrefair in 1817. Following his bankruptcy in 1825, the works were bought by the British Iron Company. The company was re-formed in 1843 as the New British Iron Company and they continued to operate the works until its closure in 1887. The site was subsequently occupied by a succession of businesses, latterly Air Products, which produced air separation and cryogenic storage equipment. The site ceased commercial operations in late 2009. Acrefair and Cefn Mawr were also home to the

Monsanto Company The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...

chemical works, which had produced chemicals since before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The site was the American company's first venture in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Monsanto later operated the site as FlexSys, one of their subsidiaries, but production on this site ceased in 2010. Coal, clay and iron were also worked in the area during its industrial period. Acrefair railway station was formerly a station on the Ruabon–Barmouth line, it closed to passengers on 18 January 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe. The Ruabon Brook Tramway passed through the village at street level, serving the Monsanto works and other local industry.

References

Villages in Wrexham County Borough {{Wrexham-geo-stub