It is close to the villages of Legacy, Pentre Bychan, and Johnstown and is overlooked by Ruabon Mountain.

[1] The Welsh word ponc, plural ponciau, means "bank" or "hillock", and the village probably takes its name from the large number of spoil tips which formerly covered the area.

A coal pit was recorded here in 1757, with a lease on land being taken out by the great industrialist John Wilkinson, while the Ponciau ironworks is thought to have been started in 1807 by Thomas Jones of Gardden.

These workings were opened particularly during the miners' strike in 1921 and the 1926 lockout, when as many as 50 such pits were operating, to the concern of local union officials.

[7] These pits were later capped by the National Coal Board to leave 16 acres (65,000 m2) of land being sold in 1932 for the sum of £500 to be re-developed as a park.

Edward, Prince of Wales paid a visit to the Ponciau Banks in May 1934 to view the progress.

The Ponciau Banks Park was refurbished by Wrexham County Borough Council in 2009 using National Lottery funding.

[8] [9] In 1861 the Great Western Railway constructed an industrial branch line from Garden Lodge Junction, north of Ruabon, to the furnaces at Ponciau and Aberderfyn, which was later extended to Legacy.