The Croft Peace Garden is a small parcel of land in Holt Street, Wrexham. It is built on ground that was formerly a burial site for members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1963 the site was gifted to the local authority in exchange a piece land nearby in Holt Road where a new Friends’ meeting house was built.
A Friends congregation was first established in Wrexham in 1661 and meetings were held in a house they hired. In 1708 they purchased premises in Holt Street to be used as a meeting house and burial ground. The Friends ceased meeting in Holt Street in the mid-eighteenth century and by 1800 the old meeting house had been demolished. The burial ground, however, remained in use.
Today the Peace Garden is a small, green oasis of trees, shrubs and grass in the centre of town. Up until 2002 it was a regular haunt for the town’s outdoor drinkers, but that year the garden became part of the town centre alcohol exclusion zone and the drinkers had to move elsewhere.
When I visited the garden on a dry, bright January morning the place was completely deserted. Perhaps the lack of any seats or benches makes taking time-out in the Peace Garden a difficult proposition. A sleeping bag and bivi behind one the trees was evidence of some poor soul sleeping rough the previous evening on one of the coldest nights of the winter. In Britain, in 2019.
The Croft Peace Garden is still occasionally used for peace-related events such as this one in 2007.
