BROUGHTON, a township, joint with Brymbo, in that part of the parish of WREXHAM which is in the hundred of BROMFIELD,
county of DENBIGH, NORTH WALES, containing 1266 inhabitants. This township and its vicinity abound with rich and extensive
mines of coal, lead and iron ore, &c., and various establishments, on a very large scale, have for a considerable number
of years been employed in working them. Those which belonged to the late John Wilkinson, Esq., a man of great enterprise,
skill, and industry, occupy a spacious plot of ground, and comprise forges, and slitting, rolling, and stamping mills,
together with a complete cannon and mortar foundry, from which not only the English government, but those of several of
the continental states, were at one time supplied. But this branch of manufacture having declined, they have since been
principally employed in casting wheels, bars for rail-roads, cylinders, rollers, and pipes of different dimensions for
conduits, pumps, &c., and in manufacturing and rolling sheet iron, and converting the plates into furnaces, boilers for
steam-engines, &c. The iron-ore is chiefly procured in the adjacent hills, and conveyed to the foundries erected near the
coal-works, where, by the aid of a steam-engine, and the double blast furnace, first used here, it is quickly converted
into pigs. The coal-pits vary in depth from one to two hundred yards, and the coal is raised by steam-engines, of which
there are several in the vicinity, besides additional over-shot wheels, employed in the various works. The Brymbo iron and
coal works were for several years discontinued, having been the subject of a suit in Chancery; but they have recently re-
commenced operation on an extensive scale. Thomas Earl of Arundel, by charter granted in 1410, gave the inhabitants of
Holt permission to dig for coal and turf in this place. That remarkable monument of Saxon industry, Clawdd Offa, or Offa's
Dyke, passes through this township, crossing near Brymbo Hall, where it has been levelled for the formation of rail-roads
in connexion with .the collieries and iron-works: in levelling a portion of it, a great quantity of the bones of horses,
in a state of excellent preservation, and horse-shoes of rude workmanship, were found. This place supports its own poor
pursuant to an arrangement made in 1830.