Strange tales: Brymbo apparitions, hauntings and traditions

In honour of the date, here’s something a bit less serious – if no less central to the history of the district.

Mr Asheton Smith’s mines

Thomas Assheton-Smith, industrialist and occasional resident of Brymbo

The gentleman on the right is Thomas Assheton-Smith, Esq (or “Asheton Smith” as it was often spelt at the time). Industrial archaeologists and historians will be familiar with him as the man who got the slate industry of Dinorwic underway, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. His connection with Brymbo is now almost forgotten, but as a young man he was once quite familiar with it. Indeed, he may have first started out along the path of industrial entrepreneurship there, some years before John Wilkinson‘s arrival.

Though often now associated with Wales, Assheton-Smith was as English as his name sounded. He was born in 1754 to a minor landowner of Ashley, Cheshire. Thomas Asheton’s father, also Thomas, had lucked out when his uncle William Smith bequeathed him a large chunk of Caernarvonshire along with an estate in Hampshire. As often happened at the time, Thomas Assheton – as he then was – adopted his uncle’s surname to seal the deal.

A new index

As this site gets gradually larger it’s becoming more difficult to find some of the earlier posts, so I have added a simple index to most of the content in the form of a timeline. This will at least take you to the post where a particular person, place or event is covered in detail (if not necessarily to the exact paragraph) and a permanent link sits towards the top of each page.

The timeline will be updated as new articles are added, so won’t include everything that’s ever happened in the area (yet).

Here’s to you, Colonel Robinson

Returning to the 17th century, the last of the landowners in Brymbo it remains to discuss were the Robinson family. In comparison to their obscure neighbours, the Griffiths and the Powells, a number of them are relatively well-recorded in historical sources.