Rossett Conservation Area Assessment and Management Plan

Rossett Conservation Area Assessment and Management Plan Adopted October 2011 Contact For more information or advice contact: Head of Community Wellbeing and Development Planning Service Wrexham County Borough Council 16 Lord Street, Wrexham, LL11 1LG email: [email protected] www.wrexham.gov.uk/planning This document is available in welsh and in alternative formats on request. It is also available on the Council’s website contents Part I - Character Assessment 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 History and Development 3 3.0 Summary of Special Character 9 4.0 Character in Detail 12 5.0 Summary of Negative Features 29 Part II - Management Plan 6.0 Enhancement Plan 32 7.0 Design Guidance 35 8.0 Conservation Area Controls 38 9.0 Sources of Funding 41 Appendix 1 Lise t d Buildings 43 Appendix 2 Consera v tion Policy Guidance 44 Appendix 3 Glossary of Terms 45 Appendix 4 References - useful contacts 47 Figures Figure 1 - Rossett Conservation Area Figure 2 - Rossett Historic Map 1899 7 Figure 3 - Rossett Historic Map 1911 8 Figure 4 - Chester Road Character Map 14 Figure 5 - Gun Street Character Map 21 Figure 6 - Station Road and Station Lane Character Map 24 # Ordnance Survey (mapping) © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. 100023429. 2012 Ariel View Rossett Conservation Area 2006 p art 1 - character assessment Part 1 Character Assessment p art 1 - character assessment # Ordnance Survey (mapping) © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. 100023429. 2010 Figure 1: Rossett Conservation Area introduction 1 introduction Conservation Area Designation development. This document is concerned with the 1.1 Section 69 of the Planning (Listed Buildings reasons for designation, defining the qualities that and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires Local make up its special architectural and historic Authorities to identify "areas of special architectural interest, character and appearance. The omission of or historic interest the character or appearance of any reference to a particular building, feature or which it is desirable to preserve or enhance" for space should not be taken to imply that it is of no designation as conservation areas. interest. Planning Context Purpose 1.4 This Statement should be read in conjunction 1.2 The purpose of the Conservation Area with the Wrexham Unitary Development Plan Character Assessment and Management Plan is: (adopted 2005) and the emerging policies within G Provide a clear definition of the area's the Local Development Plan, and national planning special architectural or historic interest policy guidance, in particular Welsh Office Circular G To identify ways in which their unique 61/96: Planning and the Historic Environment: characteristics can be preserved and Historic Buildings and Conservation Areas. enhanced through the Enhancement Plan Location G To strengthen the justification for 1.5 Rossett is a large village located approximately designation 6.5 miles to the north of Wrexham and close to the G To create a clear context for future Cheshire and English border. The village is bounded development in accordance with to the west by the A483 dual carriageway and the conservation area policies in the Wrexham to Chester railway line. To the south flows development plan the River Alyn which loops round to the north east G To provide a vehicle for engagement and where it joins the River Dee, its meandering course awareness raising demarcating the English and Welsh border. The surrounding countryside is typically flat and Rossett Conservation Area intensively farmed with an abundance of hedges 1.3 This Assessment and Management Plan aims and hedge row trees. Long views across the flat to promote and support developments that are in open farmland are achievable to the north and east keeping with, or enhance, the character of the where gaps in development and lower hedge rows Rossett Conservation Area. It is not an attempt to permit. To the south and west the landscape is stifle change. The aim is to strike a balance so that more dramatic against the backdrop of the Welsh the interests of conservation are given their full Hills. weight against the needs for change and 1 introduction Geology to the north east of the village. The Rossett Hoard 1.6 The geology of the area has been formed is perhaps the best known and is on display in from fluvioglacial drift deposits consisting of till Wrexham County Museum. There are also records and alluvial deposits. The principal building of a lost chapel dedicated to St Peter which was material within the Conservation Area is red brick documented in the mid 17th Century and although yellow sandstone can be seen in some demolished in the late 18th Century. The position building facades on Station Road and most of the chapel is believed to be to the north of prevalently within the construction of Christ Rossett Green. The 'Holy' well associated with the Church and its boundary walls. Sandstone is also chapel is recorded around 400 metres north-west evident as decoration to later properties in the of Rossett Green. Any future works within this form of window sills and heads and in some area may allow for further interpretation of the boundary walls. The later 19th and early 20th village's history. Century buildings display a smoother red brick Consultation produced from fire clay and terracotta marls 1.8 Rossett Community Council, County Borough perhaps from the nearby Ruabon and Cefn Mawr Council members and a range of organisations areas. and groups with an interest in the historic Archaeology environment and the local area were consulted on 1.7 There is no evidence of early settlement this document. Statutory bodies such as Cadw within the village itself however there have been a were also consulted. Public consultation was number of prehistoric and Roman treasure finds undertaken during July and August 2011. 2 hist ory and dev elopment 2 History and Development 3 hist ory and dev elopment 2 History and Development Early Rossett mill was built on a site directly opposite. This mill is 2.1 The name Rossett appears to be a corruption the famous 'Upper' Rossett Mill. The grade II* listed of Yr Orsedd which translates to mound or hillock building displays a date of 1661 on its façade and it and could possibly refer to an ancient hill fort or is understood that this date represents the year meeting place on the nearby Marford Hill. It is when the mill building was extended and altered. believed that from Saxon times, meetings and 2.3 The description of the mills as being either gatherings were held in the area to manage the Marford or Rossett Mill relates to their location land and the people. This tradition continued into within different townships. It is likely that after the the 13th Century when the area was under the rule construction of the upper mill in the 16th Century of the Marcher Lords. both mills would have been known as the Marford Medieval Rossett Mills as the settlement of Rossett at this time would likely have comprised little more than a few 2.2 Settlement in the Rossett area can be traced small cottages or farmsteads. The lower mill fell back to the 11th Century when the Domesday Book within the geographical boundary of the Marford of 1086 and Hosely township whilst the upper mill was records a located in the township of Burton and it is from this mill on the separation that the names appear to have been site now formed. occupied by the 'Lower' 16th to 18th Century Marford 2.4 The 16th Century saw the erection of the Mill. The grade II* listed Trevalyn Hall by John Trevor. The current property is building an excellent dates from example of the late 18th Century and was constructed after a Elizabethan fire destroyed its predecessor. Marford Mill was architecture originally the Crown Mill which meant that all and although 'unfree' tenants of the land had to send their corn located in there to be milled. The obligations of the mill were the historic unpopular with the people and so in 1544 a private township of 4 hist ory and dev elopment Marford, the building has become an important notably along Station Road, which was absent of landmark feature signifying the approach to Rossett development as late as 1843. The station at Rossett, village. The construction and presence of the hall designed by Thomas. M Penson, made the village a would likely have generated employment very desirable place to live with relatively easy opportunities in the area but there is no evidence commuting of smaller domestic properties of this time found to Chester, within the settlement. It is believed that a bridge Wrexham, over the River Alyn existed around this time; John Birkenhead Trevor bequeathing a sum of money in his will of and 1589 for the repair of Pont Melin or Mill Bridge. Liverpool. The next 20 2.5 Little development appears to have been years or so recorded during the 17th Century, however at this saw the time the upper mill was extended and altered erection of suggesting that there was increasing demand for large detached and semi-detached Victorian villas corn to be milled to feed a growing population. and mansions along Station Road, Station Lane and There is also reference to a knight called Richard out towards Burton and Croeshowell with the new Trevor having a chapel at Yr Orsedd Goch in wealthy business class needing staff for their Allington in 1620 known as the chapel of St Peter. It properties and gardens and thus stimulating further is believed this chapel was demolished in the 18th employment in the village. Century. 2.9 In 1859 the population of the village was such 2.6 Rossett Hall, known historically as The Rossett, that a new school for the village children was and Trevalyn House, located to the south of the erected along Station Road.

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