Blacksmiths and wire workers; braziers and tin plate workers; tanners and skinners; curriers and leather sellers - all had workshops in Wrexham where they were close to their supplies and their markets. During the 19th century the successful workshops became great factories. Powell Bros & Whitaker's Cambrian Iron Works near the railway station produced farm machinery and engines, munitions during the First World War, and later motorbikes. The Cambrian Leather Works, off Salop Road, and Hugh Price & Co's Leather Works, off Bridge Street, and later Pentrefelin, continued the tanneries' link to the River Gwenfro.

Other cottage industries fared worse. The textile workers left behind only the name Tenters Square, off Pen y Bryn, near Tenters Field where once they stretched their woollen and linen cloths.

Wrexham valued its industries. The 1876 Wrexham Art & Industry Exhibition held on land between Hope Street and Rhosddu Road revealed the town's ambition to be one of the great industrial centres of the British Empire. The conversion after the Second World War of the Royal Ordnance Factory at Marchwiel into Wrexham Industrial Estate has ensured that Wrexham remains a trading and industrial centre up to the present day.

Part 4