Sesswick is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

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 ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It lies south-east of

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 ...

near

Marchwiel Marchwiel (; standardised: ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is about 2 miles south-east of Wrexham city on the A525 road towards Bangor-on-Dee. The community has an area of 1,488 hectares and a population of ...

. The population of the community at the 2011 Census was 609. The area was historically part of

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

, where it was one of the

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of the parish of Bangor Monachorum (

Bangor-on-Dee Bangor-on-Dee ( or Welsh Language Commissioner, standardised ) is a village and Community (Wales), community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, on the banks of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee. Until 1974 it was in the exclave of Flintshire (histo ...

). The neighbouring township of Royton was incorporated in it in 1935. The name Sesswick, recorded as ''Sesewyke'' in 1286, is one of the names indicating an early English presence in this part of north-east Wales; it is possibly derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

personal name "Seassa", along with ''-wic'', meaning "settlement".Charles, B. G. ''Non-Celtic place-names in Wales'', University College London, 1938, p.206 However, the Wrexham historian

Alfred Neobard Palmer Alfred Neobard Palmer (10 July 1847 – 7 March 1915) was a chemist and local historian. He published several books concerning the local history of Wrexham and north Wales. Biography Alfred Neobard Palmer was born in Thetford, Norfolk, England ...

, noting that the name was recorded as ''Chespric'' (actually ''Chespuic'') in the

Domesday Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of Cheshire, speculated that it may have come from "Chadswick" in reference to land in the township being owned by St. Chad, the first bishop of

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

.Palmer, A. N. ''A history of ancient tenures of land in North Wales'', 1910, p.241 The community's only village is Cross Lanes: it also includes several small hamlets (though no settlement itself having the name of Sesswick). In the 2001 census Sesswick had a total population of 591 in 236 households.Sesswick Community
Office for National Statistics The area gave its name to a rural station, Sesswick Halt railway station, on the former

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of Railway track, track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with c ...

Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway The Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway was a railway line that ran from Wrexham in North Wales, to Ellesmere, Shropshire, Ellesmere in Shropshire, England. The line opened in 1895 and closed in 1962, except for a residual goods service which itself clos ...

; the line and station closed in 1962.

References

{{coord, 53.02165, N, 2.92056, W, type:adm3rd_region:GB_dim:500, display=title Communities in Wrexham County Borough