Southsea ( cy, Glanrafon) is a formerly industrial village on the

River Gwenfro The River Gwenfro ( cy, Afon Gwenfro) is a small river in Wrexham County Borough, north Wales. It is a tributary of the Clywedog.''Rand McNally encyclopedia of world rivers'', 1980, p.167 The name Gwenfro is possibly derived from the Welsh lang ...

in Broughton

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the nort ...

, Wales. The village came into being at the site of the Broughton Hall Brickworks and Plas Power Colliery. Its

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

placename Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

(meaning "the bank of the river", ''glan yr afon'') derives from that of a farm. Its exotic-sounding English name, however, comes from the ''South Sea Inn'' which used to stand over the road from the

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

, and in a room of which the brickworks pay was distributed. The Wrexham historian

Alfred Neobard Palmer Alfred Neobard Palmer (10 July 1847 – 7 March 1915) was a chemist and local historian. He published several books concerning the local history of Wrexham and north Wales. Biography Alfred Neobard Palmer was born in Thetford, Norfolk, Englan ...

noted that the name Southsea first appeared on the rate books as early as 1786, though also commenting that this was "an absurd name which should never have been adopted, especially as there was an appropriate name ready to hand".Southsea, All Saints

GENUKI GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

. See Palmer, ''History of the Thirteen Country Townships of Wrexham'', 1903 Southsea's church, All Saints, was formerly its church hall. The previous church, built in 1921 after the original building became unsafe due to mining subsidence, itself became unsafe and was demolished in 1984.Southsea, All Saints
, Clwyd FHS

References

External links

www.geograph.co.uk: photographs of Southsea and surrounding area
Villages in Wrexham County Borough {{Wrexham-geo-stub