Date: 21.07.2018

Ground: 38

Match: 4 (61)

Venue: The Crick ( Pitch 2 )

Teams: Brymbo FC V Vauxhall Motors Reserves FC

Competition: Pre-Season Friendly

Admission: Free Entry

Final Score: 2-1 ( H/T 1-0 )

Referee: Not Known

Attendance: 30 ( Head Count )

Mileage to venue and return: 105 Miles

Programme: NA

Key Ring: £2

Village of Brymbo

Brymbo, possibly from the Welsh ‘Bryn Baw’ ( Mud Hill or Dirt Hill ) is a local government community, part of Wrexham County Borough in North Wales. The population of the community including Brymbo Village and the villages of, Tanyfron and Bwlchgwyn plus several rural Hamlets is, 4836.

Brymbo first makes an appearance in written documents as early as 1339, although the area was clearly occupied long before (read on for the discovery of ‘The Brymbo Man’) at this stage the area was a township. In 1410, The Burgesses of the nearby settlement of, Holt were given the rights to dig for Coal in the areas of, Harwd and Coedpoeth. Harwd, was an early name used for what is now Brymbo – this was derived from the English name, Harwood (Harewood) and referred to a common in one part of the township.

During the 15th Century, Landowner, Edward ap Morgan ap Madoc constructed what was later to become Brymbo Hall and subsequently the home of his decendents, The Griffith Family.

Following the rights given to the area for coal mining in 1410, the industry continued on a small scale. This was until an expansion in activity during the late 18th Century. The industrialist,

John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson purchased Brymbo Hall and developed the estate, the development meant that mining for Coal and Ironstone could begin. “Iron Mad” also built an Ironworks, later to become The Brymo Steelworks. The Brymbo Steelworks were active from 1794 to 1990/1991 and was an extremely prominent industry for Brymbo and the surrounding areas.

During the 19th Century, the vast majority of Brymbo Village was developed and used as accommodation for both miners and ironworkers. The village was constructed on and around Brymbo Hill. The Steelworks expanded in 1956 but sadly closed following years of uncertainty, the closure was done in stages between 1990 and 1991, this had a severe economic impact on the area.

Norman Roberts ( President of Brymbo FC and of whom more, later) was telling me on Saturday that during a period in the decade of the 1980’s, the Crankshaft on every Ford car being used in the USA was made form steel that was cast at the Brymbo Steelworks. I think that this information alone illustrates what an impact the industry had, not only for Brymbo and the surrounding area but also globally too.

I took the opportunity on Saturday to visit the remains of the former steelworks and took the following pictures:

The first Church in Brymbo was, St. John’s and was constructed in 1838, the Church was forced to close 31 years later in 1869 due to subsidence following works carried out on The Wrexham and Minera Railway. In 1892, a second Anglican Church was constructed on the original site and was used by Welsh Speakers. Due to more subsidence this Church was demolished during the 1970’s. The site is now the home of the village War Memorial, shown below:

St. Mary’s Church was built in 1872 to the designs of, Thomas Henry Wyatt and stands to this day. I took the opportunity to visit St. Marys Church and took the following pictures:

In 1958 a major archaeological find in Brymbo was discovered by workmen who were digging a pipe trench at Cheshire View. The find was a burial site that contained the remains of what is now commonly known as ‘The Brymbo Man’. Experts dated ‘The Brymbo Man’ all the way back to The Early Bronze Age around the year of 1600 BC. ‘The Brymbo Man’ was transferred to The Welsh National Museum in the capital city of Cardiff where it remained until 1998 before being returned to Wrexham.

Another archaeological find was discovered in 2006 – workers who were redeveloping the site of the former steelworks found what was later to be determined by experts as a fossilised forest. The fossilised forest of the petrified wood of over 20 trees was dated back to the Carboniferous period, 358.9 – 298.9 million years ago. Back to more present times, land on the Brownfield Site left by the closure of the steelworks was developed by the building firm, Taylor Wimpey. The result was an entirely new housing estate, completed in 2007 and become known as, Mountain View.

As recently as 2017, a road that directly connects the housing estate to the village was opened and was named, Heritage Way.

Earlier this year the remaining land of the former steelworks was put up for sale, the hopes are that a buyer will be found in the not too distant future.

The Brymbo Heritage Trust has also received £1.1 million to renovate the old steelworks building.

Brymbo FC

Although football has been played since the 1920’s with the name Brymbo being used for clubs such as, Brymbo Green and Brymbo Institute amongst others (origins coming from the steelworks) the club as it is today was founded in 1943.

The Club is based in the village of Tanyfron at the Brymbo Sports and Social Complex about one mile from the village of Brymbo itself, their home ground is known as ‘The Crick’

Brymbo FC has a reputation as being one of the top amateur football clubs in the whole of Wales. During their proud history, Brymbo FC have won the Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) on many occasions and have also had several cup successes. One Of these was their triumph in The Welsh Amateur Cup of 1967. Another of note was their victory in 2007, when they won the Welsh FA Trophy.

The club will compete in The Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division, the third tier of Welsh football, for the 2018/2019 season having gained promotion from Division One last season.

The Crick

As previously mentioned, ‘The Crick’ is the home ground of Brymbo FC and is based at The Brymbo Sports and Social Compexl, the visitor to this fine complex is greeted by the sign below:

As well as it being the home of Brymbo FC, the complex is also home to the village cricket club. The Cricket Club is situated at a lovely ground on your right as you enter the complex, I took the opportunity to take a picture upon my arrival:

The Brymbo Sports and Social Complex also caters for Tennis and lawn Bowls as shown below:

The site of ‘The Crick’ is home to two football pitches, on the day I visited Brymbo FC, the game against Vauxhall Motors Reserves was to be played on the second pitch. The main one was being prepared for the forthcoming season, not that I minded at all as this gives me the perfect opportunity to visit the club again in the future and tick the main pitch off.

The second pitch is also used by Brymbo Victoria FC who I believe play in the North East Wales League.

Access to ‘The Crick’s’ pitches is obtained by parking your car in the huge car park besides the social club and walking up a railed concrete staircase. The first thing that you see from walking up to the ground via the steps is the wooden hut which is used as the gate for the ground. It was a free entry on Saturday, so the hut was not in use, here it is below:

As you can see from the above picture, directly behind the hut is a large building, the snack bar is situated at the front of the building with the changing rooms at the rear. Above the snack bar is a nice sign saying – ‘Welcome to Brymbo FC’. Please see the following pictures:

The Crick (Pitch 2) is railed off behind the goal closest to the main pitch and also railed off on the right-hand side of the pitch which is also where the dugout is situated. On the opposite side of the pitch there is a small raised grassy bank with some trees. Pictures of the pitch are shown as follows:

Goal nearest to main pitch

Railed off side of pitch with dugout

Grass Bank side of the pitch

Match Statistics

Brymbo FC: Vauxhall Motors Reserves:

Attempts at Goal: 16 Attempts at Goal: 18

On Target: 9 On Target: 7

Corners: 3 Corners: 7

Offside: 2 Offside: 1

Yellow Cards: 0 Yellow Cards: 0

Red Cards: 0 Red Cards: 0

Goal Log: Goal Log:

No. 9 – 38 Minutes No. 14 – 64 Minutes

No. 11 – 67 Minutes

Match Report:

As the statistics suggest this was a very even game – it was also a game that was very pleasing on the eye. Two good teams who both played good football, this pre-season friendly was also played at a very fast pace for most of the game, with a good competitive edge throughout.

The home side opened the scoring on 38 minutes, The Steelmen’s No.9 was played through on goal, there was no catching the front man as he bore down on goal and finished with a low shot under the goalkeeper.

Brymbo’s visitors from The West Cheshire league equalized on 64 minutes. A long throw from the Vauxhall Motors Right was flung into the penalty area, their No.14 jumped highest and looped a header over the Brymbo goalkeeper to level the game.

The home side regained the lead only three minutes later – a great passing move resulted in their No.11 scoring his sides winning goal.

Brymbo held onto their lead to claim the victory, I think that a draw would have probably been a fairer result, but I am sure that both teams were pleased to get a good 90 minutes of football under their belts.

Further Information

During my visit to Brymbo FC I was privileged to meet and talk to two really nice club officials, namely Norman Roberts (Club President ) and Max Parry ( Club Secretary )

I really enjoyed listening to them telling me about their own football careers, I will share the information that I was given below:

Norman Roberts

Norman has been involved with Brymbo FC in many capacities for 50 years and is now the club president. As a player he had a very distinguished career, as well as playing for Brymbo FC, Norman told me that he also played for the following clubs: Wrexham (Youth and Reserve Team)

Colwyn Bay

Holywell

Barmouth

As well as his club career Norman also won one cap for the Wales Amateur International Team. He was a member of the team that beat Northern Ireland Amateur’s 1-0 at Portadown during the 1967/1968 season. He also played in a Welsh Youth Cup Final for Wrexham against Cardiff City in the 1961/1962 season. In what must have been a very proud moment of his career, Norman was the captain of Brymbo FC when The Steelmen won the 1966/1967 Welsh Amateur Cup.

One piece of information that I really enjoyed listening too was when Norman told me about the time he was playing for Brymbo FC against Chester City in 1967/1968 season. The home game for Brymbo (different venue to The Crick) saw them defeated 8-1 but the game was witnessed by a crowd of around an amazing 3,000 people which saw the club take gate receipts of £500.

Max Parry

Club secretary and Everton supporter, Max Parry also played for Brymbo FC during his playing Career. As well as Brymbo, Max told me that he played for the following clubs:

Wrexham (Youth Team)

Winsford United

Blaenau Ffestiniog

Tanyfron

One piece of information that Max gave to me was that he made his senior debut for Tanyfron in a game played in The Welsh National League at the amazingly young age of 13!

Surely this be a record that stands to this day.

Summary

I really enjoyed by time at The Crick and in Brymbo itself, I will be sure to visit again in the near future so that I can tick the main pitch off.

Brymbo FC are an extremely friendly club, a warm welcome will await any groundhopper wanting to visit.