Gresford

Gresford is a village and a local government community, the lowest tier of local government, part of Wrexham County Borough in Wales.According to the 2001 Census, the population of the community, which also includes the village of Marford, was 5,334, reducing to 5,010 at the 2011 census.The former Gresford Colliery was the site of the Gresford disaster, one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters, when 266 men died in an underground explosion on 22 September 1934.HistoryLocated close to the England–Wales border, the settlement existed at the time of the compilation of the Domesday book, when it was recorded as "Gretford" within the Cheshire Hundred of Duddestan. The name, having an English origin, was later recorded as "Gresworth", "Cresford" and "Grefford", but documentary evidence shows that the place was clearly locally referred to as "Gresford" throughout its history, even under Welsh administration, and the other names merely represent alternative spellings. The Welsh form "Gresffordd", from y groesffordd ("the crossroads"), seems to have been the creation of imaginative Welsh genealogists of the 15th century and later, naturally giving the village a name in the native language of their country. The Welsh name has been in common use since at least the 19th century. "Gresffordd" is the recognised standard name in Welsh. Although largely unused by the mainly non-Welsh speakers of the village itself, "Gresffordd" is widely used amongst Welsh speakers and by Welsh press, media and authorities.