In 1670 a property called ‘Plas Coch’ meaning Red Hall appeared in the Hearth Tax Returns, it was an early brick gentry house that may have been built by Sir William Meredith of Stansty in about 1580/90. It was located almost exactly on the site of the present-day Plas Coch Public House. It was later used as a farm (Plas Coch Farm)
The world’s first scheduled helicopter was inaugurated by British European Airways between Liverpool-Wrexham-Cardiff on June 2nd, 1950, from Plas Coch.
Flights operated from a concrete pad on the site of the present-day Homebase store. The company used a Westland Sikorsky S.51 Dragonfly helicopter. The only structure on the site was a prefabricated glass fronted cabin which served as a waiting room and seats could be booked through Denbighshire Travel.
Return flights to Cardiff cost £5 and Liverpool £1. The helicopters carried a maximum of three passengers, each carrying 33lbs of luggage and not surprisingly British European Airways did not find the service economically viable, and the service was discontinued on March 31st 1951 by which time a total of 219 passengers had been carried.
In later years, Plas Coch formed part of the Clwyd County Council sports grounds on which were held various youth sports events including county athletics meetings and cricket matches. It was also used to hold the Wrexham Lager Festivals.
During the 1980’s, Clwyd County Council sold the Plas Coch Fields and farmhouse for development as a retail park, despite local opposition the house was demolished to make way for the public house which bears its name.
It is alleged that during the construction of the retail development in 1991, a hoard of Roman currency coins was discovered by workmen, however all of the coins disappeared. In 1995 further construction work on the site revealed traces of Roman field boundaries, hearths and a corn drying kiln. It is thought that these are the remains of a farmstead.
