Borras ( cy, Borras / Bwras) is a hamlet in Wrexham County Borough, Wales to the north-east of the city of Wrexham. It is part of the community of

Holt Holt or holte may refer to: Natural world *Holt (den), an otter den * Holt, an area of woodland Places Australia * Holt, Australian Capital Territory * Division of Holt, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives in Vic ...

. The nearby residential area of

Borras Park Borras Park ( cy, Parc Borras) is a suburb and electoral ward in the community of Acton, Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The name is derived from the nearby hamlet of Borras. At the time of the 2001 Census, the population was 2,517 ...

is named after Borras; and is colloquially shortened to just "Borras", but is part of the community of

Acton, Wrexham Acton ( cy, Gwaunyterfyn) is a suburb and community in Wrexham, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It spans the north-eastern part of Wrexham. The area is largely residential and at its centre, lies Acton Park ( cy, Parc Gwaunyterfyn / Parc Acton), ...

, in the city of Wrexham.

Early history

Although no human occupation sites have been found, the area of Borras has revealed some of the earliest traces of habitation in the area. A number of

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

flint tools have been found adjacent to Borras Farm. A Neolithic Axe head was also found near Bryn-Gryfydd and a hoard of Bronze Age metalwork. During the Middle Ages, according to the Wrexham historian Alfred N. Palmer, Borras (then called Borrasham) formed two townships of the mesne manor of Isycoed, itself one of the manors of the marcher lordship of Bromfield; the townships were known as Borrasham Hwfa and Borrasham Riffri.Palmer, A. N. ''A History of Ancient Tenures of Land in North Wales and the Marches'', 1910, p.233 It is known that an extensive farmed

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

was in existence in the area at the time. Palmer noted that the name Borrasham was also written Burras or Borras (possibly from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''beorgas'', "burial-mounds"), and that the latter forms came to be used for the township in order to avoid confusion with Bersham.Palmer, 240 Borras Hall is an early 17th-century former manor house. It is believed that it replaced an early 13th-century house on the same site. In 1988 Madoc's lead seal was discovered at Burras Hall that dated to the 13th century and is believed to be the seal of the lords of Borras and Erlas who built ''Plas ym Mwras'' in about 1200. The seal was sent to Cardiff for verification and has never been seen since, on inquiring as to the whereabouts of the seal Cardiff stated that they only have a copy of the seal. The Hall was owned by the Brereton Family until 1789, when it was sold to a Mr Twigg for £40,000.00 and then later sold to

Baron Kenyon Baron Kenyon, of Gredington, in the County of Flint, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1788 for the lawyer and judge Sir Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baronet. He served as Master of the Rolls and as Lord Chief Justice of England ...

for £24,000.00. Nearby Borras Head House also dates to the 17th century and was also purchased by Lord Kenyon in 1803.

Airfield

During the period 1917 - 1920 fields at Borras Lodge were used by Nos. 4 and 51 Training Squadrons/Schools of the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

/ Royal Air Force based at Shotwick (later RAF Sealand) and

Hooton Park Royal Air Force Hooton Park or more simply RAF Hooton Park, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, is a former Royal Air Force station originally built for the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 as a training aerodrome for pilots in the First World War. D ...

. In the 1940s the area was again pressed into World War II service for training flights. Three grass runways of approximately 550-660 yards existed. The main period of construction at the site took place between December 1940 and June 1941. The airfield was closed after World War II and on 22 October 1959 was sold to United Gravel Company a subsidiary of Alfred McAlpine. In the 1970s quarrying operations commenced in the area.

Bunker

Between 1962 and 1992 there was a hardened

nuclear bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...

, built at Borras for No 17 Group Royal Observer Corps North Wales, who provided the field force in Western Area of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and would have sounded the

four-minute warning The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile a ...

alarm in the event of

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...

and warned the population of Wrexham in the event of approaching radioactive fallout. The building was manned by up to 120 volunteers who trained on a weekly basis and wore a Royal Air Force style uniform. After the breakup of the communist bloc in 1989, the Royal Observer Corps was disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995. However, the nuclear bunker remained and was purchased by R Jones ( K-Klass) of Tyn-Twll Farm in the early 1990s and converted to a

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

. Between the ROC vacating the premises in September 1991 and its new use as a recording studio, the building was under preparation for use as the Home Office North Wales Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ) although it is unlikely it was ever actually activated as such, given the short timescale.

References

External links

photos of Borras and surrounding area on geograph
{{authority control Villages in Wrexham County Borough The Lordship of Bromfield and Yale