How Hightown Barracks in Wrexham were shaped

Hightown Barracks, Wrexham.

The Hightown Barracks, located within the town of Wrexham, was built in 1877 and cost £30,000.

The buildings were opted to be built in the Fortress Gothic Revival style, which was a popular look at the time.

The barracks became the depot for the two battalions of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers (R.W.F). Following the Childers Reforms, the regiment evolved to become the Royal Welch Fusiliers, with its depot in the barracks in 1881.

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The Hightown Barracks in the years of the First and Second World Wars was the place where new recruits for the regiments would conduct their basic training before being deployed to fight. The barracks were also used by a Special Commando unit during the Second World War.

In recent times the Royal Welch Fusiliers amalgamated with the Royal Regiment of Wales to form the Royal Welsh in 2004 and troops from the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Welsh left the barracks for the last time in November 2013. The barracks are still used today by 101 Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and a company of the Wales Universities Officer Training Corps is also based at the barracks.

Hightown Barracks, Wrexham.

Noteable facts:

• Royal Welch Fusiliers Regiment was formed by Henry Herbert, 4th Baron Herbert of Chirbury at Ludlow in March 1689 to oppose James II and to take part in the imminent war with France.

• The regiment was first called 23rd Regiment of Foot, though it was one of the first regiments to be granted the honour of a fusilier title and so was known as the Welch Regiment of Fusiliers from 1702. The 'Royal' accolade was earned fighting in the war of the Spanish Succession in 1713.

Henry Herbert, 4th Baron Herbert of Chirbury at Ludlow, who formed the Royal Welch Fusiliers Regiment.

Noteable engagements:

• Williamite War in Ireland

• Nine Years' War

• War of the Spanish Succession

• War of the Austrian Succession

• Seven Years' War

• American War of Independence

• French Revolutionary wars

• Napoleonic wars

• Crimean War

• Second China War

• Indian Mutiny

• Third Anglo-Burmese War

• Second Boer War

• First World War

• Second World War

• The Troubles in Ireland

• Yugoslav wars

Hightown Barracks, Wrexham.

The regiment was awarded the following battle honours:

• Namur 1695, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Dettingen, Minden, Egypt

• Peninsular War: Corunna, Martinique 1809, Albuhera, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, Toulouse, Peninsula

• Napoleonic War: Waterloo

• Crimean War: Alma, Inkerman, Sevastopol

• Lucknow, Ashantee 1873-74, Burma 1885-87, Relief of Ladysmith, South Africa 1899-1902, Pekin 1900

• First World War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914 '18, La Bassée 1914, Messines 1914 '17 '18, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1914 '17 '18, Langemarck 1914 '17, Gheluvelt, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916 '18, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Guillemont, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916 '18, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Arleux, Bullecourt, Pilckem, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Lys, Bailleul, Kemmel, Scherpenberg, Hindenburg Line, Havrincourt, Épéhy, St. Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Selle, Valenciennes, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Piave, Vittorio Veneto, Italy 1917-18, Doiran 1917 '18, Macedonia 1915-18, Suvla, Sari Bair, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915-16, Rumani, Egypt 1915-17, Gaza, El Mughar, Jerusalem, Jericho, Tell 'Asur, Megiddo, Nablus, Palestine 1917-18, Tigris 1916, Kut al Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1916-18

• Second World War: Dyle, Defence of Escaut, St. Omer-La Bassée, Caen, Esquay, Falaise, Nederrijn, Lower Maas, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, Rhineland, Reichswald, Goch, Weeze, Rhine, Ibbenburen, Aller, North-West Europe 1940 '44-45, Madagascar, Middle East 1942, Donbaik, North Arakan, Kohima, Mandalay, Ava, Burma 1943-45