Acton Park

If you come into Wrexham via the Chester Road, you will see an unusual gateway with 4 dogs on top of pillars.
This was the entrance to Acton Hall, the home of the infamous Judge Jeffreys, better known as the “Hanging Judge”. He gained the nickname from the severe punishments he handed down at the trials of the supporters of the Duke of Monmouth during King James II’s reign.
He rose to become Lord Chancellor and Chief Justice, but when William III gained power he was arrested; by then he had condemned over 200 people to death. He was locked in the Tower of London for his own protection, and spent the last year of his life in solitary confinement there.
The former grounds of Acton Hall are now a public park, with a modern stone circle. Near this is another stone, thought to be where Judge Jeffrey’s beloved horse was buried.
If you stand on the centre stone of the druid circle and repeat “Judge Jeffreys” three times whilst turning around he will arise from the ground on his horse. Would you dare to do this in the middle of the night when it’s pitch black and the shadows of the trees are dancing round like imps of the night?
In 1917 the Acton Hall estate was bought by the diamond merchant and philanthropist Bernard Oppenheimer. He set up a trust to employ disabled soldiers and sailors, and opened a “Diamond Works” where, after training, the ex-servicemen cut and polished rough diamonds. The business, however, did not do well and survived just six years.