Wrexham Heritage

Update – March 2024

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Have your say in shaping the new Football Museum for Wales and the new Wrexham Museum! Participate by filling in our survey below. Your opinions and ideas are valuable to us, and we’re excited to hear what you have to say.

The new museum is set to open in 2026

Update – February 2023

Wrexham Museum is now closed for redevelopment.

Wrexham Museum and Football Museum Wales have opened up a ‘pop-up museum’ in the market hall at Wrexham’s multi-award winning arts, markets and community venue, Tŷ Pawb.

The museum’s Courtyard Cafe has also relocated to Tŷ Pawb. You can now find them in the food court, just around the corner from the pop-up museum.

The Archives service will be relocating to a brand new permanent home at Wrexham Library – further details TBC.

The project to redevelop Wrexham Museum into a major new national attraction has reached a significant milestone.

Wrexham Museum and Courtyard Cafe will close to the public after Saturday 4th November 2023.

Archives will close a day earlier. Friday 3rd November will be the final day they are open to the public.

This so work can begin to prepare the building for redeveloping into the ‘Museum of Two Halves’ – a new football museum for Wales, alongside a fully refurbished Wrexham Museum.

The new football museum will celebrate Welsh football, past and present, in all its diversity, from grassroots clubs to the national teams, as well as highlighting Wrexham’s historic achievements in the sport and celebrating the rich football heritage of the County Borough.

New galleries will be created to display the Wrexham Museum collections, which means an enhanced experience for visitors and a first-class, modern venue for discovering the fascinating and eventful story of our region of North East Wales.

The redevelopment work is due to be completed in 2026.

Although the museum building on Regent Street will be closed while the refurbishments are carried out, we are taking steps to ensure you’ll still be able to access many of our museum services at alternative temporary locations in the city centre.

We’ll be announcing further details on this over the coming weeks. See the Find out more section further down in this article to stay updated.

In the meantime, here’s what we can share with you so far about our plans…

Wrexham Museum/Football Museum Wales

Our museum team will be moving to a temporary base in the city centre whilst redevelopment work is being carried out.

As well as housing our staff, we also hope to be able to open this space to the public in future. Visitors will be able to come and discover more about the project and take part in workshops, family activities and more.

Archives

Wrexham Archives will be relocating to a brand new permanent home at Wrexham Library.

The opening of the new search room will be announced shortly along with opening times and how to access the records.

We envisage a short break as we move material across from County Buildings but once open all of the information available for local studies and family history will be available unchanged.

Our Archives team are very much looking forward to the move and working with our Library partners!

Courtyard Cafe

We’re very pleased to announce that our much-loved courtyard cafe will also have a new temporary home while the museum is closed – at Tŷ Pawb’s Food Court!

The cafe’s offer at Tŷ Pawb will include a huge range of delicious home-made light meals, quality coffees, freshly-made sandwiches, popular soups and irresistible cakes.

We be announcing the opening date very soon.

We be announcing the opening date very soon. Join our mailing list to get updates on this straight to your inbox – details below.

Find out more

You can keep up to date with all the latest project news by subscribing to the Wrexham Museum and/or Football Museum Wales mailing lists.

Football Museum Wales mailing list

Wrexham Museum mailing list

You can also follow both halves of the museum on social media:

Wrexham Museum

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Football Museum Wales

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Cllr Paul Roberts, Lead Member for Community Safety & Partnerships, added: “Following two years of planning, consultation and design work, we have now reached a significant stage in the creation of this exciting and ambitious new ‘Museum of Two Halves.’ Closing the museum building will allow us to focus our efforts on preparing the building for redevelopment work to commence in 2024.

“I’d like to thank the project team and funding partners for the incredible work they’ve carried out to help us reach this important milestone. I’d also like to thank the team for ensuring that people will still be have access to museum services – including the popular Courtyard Café – at temporary locations in the city centre whilst the redevelopment work to the building on Regent Street is being carried out.”

The Museum is being developed by Wrexham Council’s museum team in association with museum designers, Haley Sharpe Design and architects, Purcell. The project is being supported with funding from Wrexham Council and Welsh Government, with additional support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Museum of Two Halves project has received £1.3m from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”

Find out more about the Museum of Two Halves project

The buzz surrounding Wrexham and football has reached around the world. 

From Australia to Argentina, Canada to Cardiff and Fishguard to Finland, people know about the Hollywood takeover at Wrexham FC in the city that is the birthplace of Welsh Football.

At the heart of that city is Wrexham Museum, home to the Welsh Football Collection since 2000. While Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds were scouting for a football club to buy and familiarizing themselves with the laws of the game, the team at Wrexham Museum were working on the plans and designs for a national football museum for Wales and a new museum for Wrexham – a museum of two halves.

Work has continued apace following the recruitment of a Football Museum Officer in spring 2021 and then the appointment of Haley Sharpe Design and Purcell as the designers and architects for the project during the summer of that year.

Local and national success for Welsh football

The buzz grew louder when the Wales men’s team qualified for the World Cup in Qatar and the women’s team made the play-offs for the first time in their World Cup.

Locally the excitement reached fever pitch when earlier this year Wrexham won the National League securing a return the Football League at the end of last season.

The men’s and women’s team parade passed by the museum twice on its journey through a sea of emotional and overjoyed fans; all documented by camera crews from international TV stations and the makers of ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, a fly on the wall docu-series and tourism promotion team’s dream about the club and the city.

A major new national attraction for Wales’ newest city

The Museum of Two Halves project envisages the transformation of the current museum building through bold architectural interventions that preserve and even enhance the historic character of this 19^th century landmark building.

The contractor who secures the construction work for this new visitor attraction will enjoy the challenge of delivering an ambitious scheme, sure in the expectation of massive public interest, a high profile for their completed works and a visible testament to their abilities in Wales’s newest city.

The plans to create a new Football Museum for Wales and a new museum for Wrexham at the current Wrexham Museum on Regent Street, just a few minutes’ walk from the world-famous Racecourse ground, are taking another step forward this month.

Ambitious construction firms wanted!

On September 22^nd, the project management team are providing/provided an official ‘heads-up’ for construction firms with the necessary skills and experience to work on large projects, particularly those with experience of working on historic and heritage buildings, since the museum is in a grade 2 listed building.

The notice explains what will be involved construction wise in creating the new nationally styled museum in Wrexham city centre and provides details of when to visit the sell2wales website for more news for construction companies about this nationally important project.

Councillor Paul Roberts, Lead Member for Community Safety & Partnerships, added: “Our plans to create the new Football Museum and the new Wrexham Museum involve the transformation of the current museum building, while still respecting its historic architecture and character. Such work requires the involvement of a highly skilled and experienced construction company. This prior information notice is designed to ensure the construction world know that this project is coming soon and to be ready to compete for what will be a very newsworthy contract.”

Wrexham County Borough Council would like to acknowledge the support of the Welsh Government, the UK Government (UK Shared Prosperity Fund) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Interested suppliers are requested to return to Sell2Wales in early October when the PQQ notice is programmed to be uploaded.

Find out more about the Museum of Two Halves project

There’s been plenty of focus on the plans for the Football Museum for Wales, but what about the other half in the ‘museum of two halves’ project: a new museum for Wrexham?

We’ve put together this whistle-stop tour of the designs for the new galleries and spaces, plus some of the ideas for the themes and content you’ll discover during your visit to the new museum.

The development of the plans for the football museum galleries is part of the Museum of Two Halves project which will create a Football Museum for Wales and a new museum for Wrexham. This development work has been funded by Welsh Government and Wrexham County Borough Council.

All images courtesy of Hayley Sharpe Design.

For a start it will be all change on the ground floor of the current museum building: a new learning suite for schools and community events; a gallery dedicated to the history of the building, an expanded temporary exhibition space and a bigger souvenir shop.

The historic courtyard at the centre of the museum building (now the location of the main gallery) will be re-instated; creating Wrexham’s own version of the ‘Great Court’ at the British Museum.

Objects and LED displays will introduce the themes of the two museums: football heritage and Wrexham’s heritage.

This artist’s impression (see above) shows the introductory atrium as viewed from the bottom of the new central stairwell looking towards the doors into the learning suite.

The Football Museum and the Wrexham Museum galleries will all be on the first floor of the building; mostly in spaces currently not open to the public.

The Wrexham Museum galleries will be located on the eastern side of the building. Currently this wing is at two different levels and much work will be necessary to convert a series of rooms into workable gallery spaces.

One of the many improvements that would happen as part of the ‘museum of two halves’ project would be permanent galleries dedicated to specific aspects of Wrexham’s past.

Up to now we have had to cram everything into one gallery. With a fair wind and the necessary funding, Wrexham Museum can finally have the gallery space our heritage and our local communities deserve.

Visitors will enter the Wrexham Museum galleries through an introductory zone: This is Wrexham!

This will be a mix of sound, film and images introducing the history of Wrexham and the variety of the county borough, and referencing the themes of the galleries to come. The immersive experience will highlight our heritage right up to the present day.

The first gallery, Beginnings, will be devoted to archaeology and prehistory, including Brymbo Man, Bronze Age treasures such as the Rossett Hoard, and a display case featuring changing archaeological displays of local material. There will be activities to entertain and educate younger visitors too.

There is the potential here to display temporary loans from Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) such as the Acton Hoard and the Burton Hoard (Bronze Age), the Esclusham Hoard (Roman period) and the Wrexham Hoard (the Middle Ages).

Previously we used to focus the industrial heritage displays at Bersham Heritage Centre, but since its closure the museum service has only been able to tell Wrexham’s industrial story through temporary exhibition.

All would change as part of the ‘museum of two halves’ project as Court No.2 (the current Education Room) would become the permanent gallery devoted to Wrexham’s industrial and agricultural history, the world of work and Wrexham’s origins as a market town.

There will be space to showcase some great objects from the collection; while projected at each end of the gallery would be the people and places connected to our industrial and commercial past.

There will be loads of opportunities for all ages in the planned ‘Trade and Industry’ gallery: shopping in old Wrexham, a market activity for children, a chance to find out about the different jobs that used to exist, a place to share memories of your first/worst/best job, and for the outgoing – a chance to dress up in some historic workers’ costume.

There will be displays about Wrexham’s breweries and old pubs. The ‘pub crawl’ may be alcohol-free, because you will need your wits about you to do the ultimate Wrexham pub quiz.

The story of the Gresford Colliery Disaster is such an important part of Wrexham’s modern history that there will be a section in the Conflict and Struggle gallery dedicated to the disaster and its repercussions.

The Miners’ Rights section will explore the turbulent history of the Denbighshire coalfield from the first rumblings in the 1830s through to the 1984/85 strike.

The other side of the Conflict & Struggle gallery will concentrate on Wrexham’s experience of the two World Wars with a case display, oral testimony and a giant map illustrating the area’s home front history.

Wrexham’s munitionettes, war veterans and those who served on the Home Front will be commemorated. Finally the one and only Powell Motorbike will go on permanent display.

The next gallery, Communities, will lighten the mood as the displays celebrate the social and cultural side of local life in modern times. There will be a section on making a life in Wrexham, and display cases illustrating sport in Wrexham and how our predecessors spent their free time.

We will be introducing a changing selection of characters from Wrexham’s past: the controversial, the comic, the notorious and the news worthy.

We will be working with the local community to populate these displays and there will be a call out for suggestions and contributions via social media.

We said the mood would be different in the ‘Communities’ gallery; it’s going to be colourful, lively and hopefully refreshing. However, the plan is to be able to dim the lights and turn down the volume for ‘quiet times’ when visitors don’t want to be overwhelmed.

The final gallery in the planned Wrexham Museum would focus on ‘Daily Life’. One display case will showcase objects connected to the key stages in everyone’s life from childhood to old age; while a second case will be about life in the home and how it has changed.

Once again we will be involving local people in choosing the objects and the stories they would like to see in this gallery.

At the very end there will be an area for children – a chance to explore the history ‘home’ and a cast of special puppets for children create their own dramas about Wrexham long ago.

Hopefully that brief tour of the plans for the new Wrexham Museum galleries provides plenty of reasons for you to visit and even get involved.

It is forty years since Wrexham Maelor Borough Council first appointed a Museum Research Officer in 1982. The museum’s potential is there to be realized in these new spaces when all the funding has been secured. Fingers crossed and with the right backing, Wrexham will have a museum fit for the newest city in Wales.