The Nag’s Head, Wrexham
The Nag’s Head, Mount Street
A pub has stood on this site for many centuries, and parts of the building we see today could date back to the 17th or 18th century. In 1789 the licensee was a Mr Edisbury. The pub’s frontage was remodelled in Victorian times.
Like many taverns, The Nag’s Head brewed its own beer. From 1834 to 1874 the brewers were William and Thomas Rowlands. In 1847 a newspaper advert announced that “Rowland of the Nag’s Head” had erected a “monster wooden pavilion” for the forthcoming race days where he would sell his “usual splendid glass of Ale, the pure extract of Malt and Hops” along with wines and spirits.
In 1879 the small brewery was acquired by the Soames family, who expanded it into a major industry. The tall brick chimney behind the pub is a relic of that expansion. Later Border Breweries was based here until it was bought in 1984 by Marston’s, which still owns the Nag’s Head.
Inquests were sometimes held at the inn. In January 1873 the coroner examined the death of shoemaker’s daughter Jane Jones of Pentrefelin. She was three years old, and had been sitting by the fender when the kettle slipped from its position above the fire. She eventually died from the scalding injuries. In 1887 a verdict of death by natural causes was returned on Thomas Evans, 26, of Rhosrobin who had suffered a heart attacked while dancing at the Nag’s Head.
A newspaper noted that an inquest was luckily avoided in 1884 after a fishing party was chased down by a bull. The anglers had taken a few refreshments at the Nag’s Head before walking to the river Dee at Ridley Wood. The bull leapt over a stile in "steeplechase fashion”. The more agile anglers fled, leaving “a rather stout gentleman” – a former Conservative election candidate – in peril. He was about to run into the river in desperation when the bull gave up the chase, for no apparent reason. The fishing party returned to the Nag’s Head to celebrate their escape “in the usual fashion”.
Postcode: LL13 8DW View Location Map