Whitewell is a dispersed rural settlement, and surrounding ecclesiastical parish, in the east of Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The Welsh language name of the parish, and of the area's former civil parish, is Iscoed, historically spelled as Iscoyd. The name can be translated as "below wood" or "underwood". History Recorded as early as 1570, the chapel at Whitewell was originally a chapel of ease to Malpas in Cheshire, although geographically it lay in the detached portion of Flintshire known as the Maelor Saesneg. A 1657 visitation referred to it as the "Chappell of Whitewell" and suggested it be made a separate parish church, given its distance from Malpas and two fords across the "river of Elfe [and] another dangerous brooke". At this time the township of Malpas parish in which the chapel lay was usually known as Iscoyd. Whitewell was finally made a parish in its own right in 1885, at which time its parishioners elected to stay part of the Diocese of Chester. The boundaries of the new parish of Whitewell were identical to those of Iscoyd township. While the parish remained part of the Church of England, for civil administration purposes the area (known as the civil parish of Iscoyd) remained in Wales as part of the Maelor Rural District of Flintshire, although an 1887 Boundary Commission review found that a majority of the local population favoured becoming part of Shropshire. In 1974, under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, it was merged into the community of Bronington as part of the new county of Clwyd. It subsequently became part of Wrexham County Borough. There were once two saline springs at the hamlet of Lower Wych in the parish, with a further three springs nearby at Higher Wych on the English side of the border. These natural springs or 'brine pits' were used to extract water for salt production by evaporation in 'wych-houses'. Salt was recorded as being produced here from the 14th century up until as late as 1845. One brine pit, measuring about 7 metres across, shown on early Ordnance Survey maps as a 'salt spring', still exists on the southern bank of the Wych Brook at Lower Wych immediately after the Shothill Brook joins it. The presence of the salt springs has led to Iscoyd township, along with neighbouring township of Tybroughton, being identified with the lost Domesday Book manor of Burwardeston, which