Wales is a small Hampden County town of about 1,800 in the southeast corner of the Pioneer Valley, tucked into the uplands along the Connecticut state line between Monson on the west and the Connecticut towns of Stafford and Union on the south. The town’s northern boundary runs along Brimfield, of which Wales was originally part. Route 19 runs north–south through the village center, the main road through town.
From South Brimfield to Wales
Wales was first settled by Europeans in 1726 and was set off from Brimfield as a separate town on August 23, 1775 (the same act of the General Court that incorporated Monson on the same day), under the name South Brimfield. In 1783 the eastern half of South Brimfield was itself set off as the new town of Holland, leaving the western half as the smaller South Brimfield that we now know as Wales. The town was renamed Wales on February 20, 1828, in honor of James Lawrence Wales, a local benefactor who had left the town a $1,000 bequest.
A quiet town
Wales is one of the smaller towns in the Pioneer Valley by both population and area. The 2020 U.S. Census counted 1,838 residents spread over about 15.9 square miles of largely forested hill country. The village center along Route 19 holds the town hall, the public library, the post office, the Wales Baptist Church, and a cluster of older buildings around them; the hero image shows the Meeting House Quilt Shop, set in the former St. Monica’s Roman Catholic Church, a small late-Victorian Gothic building on Main Street.
Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary
Most of the Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary (an 8,000-acre private wildlife refuge founded in 1939 by Arthur Norcross of the Norcross greeting-card family) lies just over the line in Monson, but the sanctuary’s holdings extend into Wales as well, and it is the largest single block of protected land in this corner of the valley. The visitor center and the public trails (about 2.5 miles) are on the Monson side; the Wales-side parcels are mostly undeveloped backcountry held for habitat.
Sources
- Town of Wales
- Wales, Massachusetts — Wikipedia (2020 U.S. Census population: 1,838; renamed from South Brimfield, February 20, 1828)
- Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary — Wikipedia