Wrexham County Borough 120 - Welcome to Wrexham/spot the seats/the art deco lighting /Manchester Hall/Yorkshire Hall/Back Chamber Street and a meal at the Bowling Green

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Home and Away - it seems the theme for blogs is definately more home than away. If we are lucky we feel like travelling a little further afield . However trips out seem to have fallen into some kind of black hole .

So yet again we found ourselves on another tour of our home town. I tell myself there is always something to learn about your surroundings. You may have been born there or grew up there . You might have attended a local school and have childhood or teenage memories . You might never have moved more than three or so miles from where you came from . But there is always something you don't know about your home town.

We were invited on a walk around the town . A small group taken around Wrexham Regis (the market part of the town rather than Wrexham Abbot the eccliastical part ) with a knowledgeable guide who was happy to stand and talk . Happy to point out features and the places that no longer existed . Complementing the walk with old photographs so that we were able to see what was once in the street but had long gone .

We met at Queens Square and stood in front of the Carnegie Library known to us locals as the Old Library as opposed to the New Library which was built to replace this lovely old building . Built of local Ruabon Red bricks with facings of mellow Cefn Stone. It had stood the test of time with the stone not weathered and the brickwork putting newer buildings to shame . I remembered the Library with its spiral staircase . The Junior Library to one side and the Senior across the hall . I remember the quietness and the smell of old books . Rows and rows of bookshelves . The wooden floors and the librarians saying ssssssshhhhhhhh all the time . Wrexham like many towns and cities had asked for money from Carnegie to build a new lending library and they were lucky to receive enough to build this lovely building .

Behind had once stood Llwyn Isaf the home of the Rector of the town . A high wall had been built to run all along Rhosddu Road, Grove Road and back up Chester Street keeping the public out and the Rector in . The old firestation once stood there , the Glynne cinema and underground toilets. All long gone . I remembered the Glynne with its outside staircase and the underground toilets . I recalled the old black and white shops which once ran on both sides of the street Home Aids selling electrical goods , the back entrance to the General Market . Now replaced with a bland backwall to the new shops and an extension to the Guildhall . . The statue of Victoria was moved to Belle Vue Park. The vicarage had long gone too. Its high wall either demolished or cut down to size . If you look down Rhosddu Road then a low wall is still there . You have to imagine it when it was high . Even at this early point of the walk it was clear to see how shortsighted the town council and planners were when they demolished all that was old and replaced it with bland 1960's progressive architecture .

The old shops which lined the streets along with Jones Auction House had disappeared . Replaced with modern 1960's shops most of which were now empty . I learned a new fact - those shops including the Talbot Inn on the other corner were all owned by the Grosvenor Estates . I swear they were letting the Talbot fall down rather than refurbish it . A tree was growing out of the chimney stack which was in danger of falling into the street . The Talbot once had shops on street level , a cafe and a nightclub bar in the cellars . The old black and white buildings which once enhanced the street had gone too. The General Market gone . A place where you could buy anything from wool to carpets and from records to sweets . A grand flight of stairs led down into the market hall . I remember Busfield Carpets with all the rolls leaning against the steps . Pagetts record shop in the corner . Listening booths lined a wall . Many a Saturday afternoon was spent there in one of the booths listening to the latest 45's with no intention of buying anything . Children were encouraged on these tours of the town to find certain things as they wandered the streets . The first the Prince of Wales feathers on the Old Library. The second the word Wrexham . This was worked into the arms of the metal seats scattered around Queens Square .

Manchester Hall built by workers from Manchester who came to know the town as home . Yorkshire Hall built and maintained by the workers from Yorkshire who arrived in Wrexham. Not a brick was left . Henblas Street - the Hippodrome Cinema once a music hall gone . A fire had ravaged what was left of it . The old snooker hall now gone. What was there now? A green and sandy gap . The old doors to the stairs that led to the balcony of the cinema are still there . Wrexham had done it again . Arson seemed to be the order of the day when it came to some old buildings . Burn it down , collect the insurance and rebuild something hideous and useless in its space . Or leave the space empty . Across the way the Butter Market - now closed for refurbishment . Another wonderful Victorian market where we bought clothes from the many stalls inside .

The Meat Market currently closed too for refurbishment . There used to be a three entrances at least to this market . A tripe stall on the side of one entrance and small shops full of butchers . Only one was left now . Shopping habits had changed dramatically over the years and the High Street had declined in every town and city.

Chester Street - the main route of the stage coach . Apparently this was the slowest route in the whole of the country . Blamed not on the poor roads, the potholes but on the many pubs that lined the route . Again many had gone over the years. There were far fewer pubs in the town which once depended on brewing and where was produced Wrexham Lager drunk on the Titanic and taken to India . The Germans came into town and introduced lager to us . Now sadly the brewery had long gone along with Border Breweries down Mount Street . I remembered them all fondly . We veered off track a little from time to time with stories of the old breweries , the smell of hops and leather tanning on Mondays and the massive cattle markets that brought traders and their wives into town.

The High Street still shows signs of its grandeur . The Old Town Hall knocked down as it got in the way of cars . In the days of pedestrianisation it would have survived but in the 1940's Town Hill had become a bottleneck . One way systems had not been "invented " and the old building had to go . The Wynnstay Arms survived at the opposite end . The rear demolished but the frontage kept . Probably much to the disgust of its new owners who would have preferred to knock it down. The Welsh Football Association was formed there and until fairly recently the home of the Welsh FA had been the town until some bright spark had the idea to move it to South Wales . An area more in love with rugby than football. The old banks still stood . National Provincial , Martins Bank, Barclays , the Commercial Bank of Wales . Some no longer in existence . Others moved to smaller premises . The old buildings as lovely as they are have been converted to pubs and restaurants . We stood outside the Golden Lion pub . Did we know that there are supposedly tunnels beneath the High Street ? Some linking the church with the pubs making easy access for the priests . Others running beneath the old markets . Some filled in but a history down there not being exploited . We walked down Overton Arcade . A narrow arcade where some drinkers stood and sat outside the pub. Onto Temple Row . A quick mention of some of the older buildings that I had never spotted before . And then the drunk came out . Was he drunk or high on drugs ? It reminded me of the words from "It's always sunny in Wrexham " song by the local band the Declan Swans which is played at the football match before the players come out.

Along Chester Street . Even without our guide who mentioned Saith Seren the welsh language hub in the town and explained that this was the coaching route and all the pubs were well frequented there was much to remember . The Feathers pub now no longer a pub , the Wynnstay Arms the home of the Welsh FA which was founded in the town. Stories of Stephanie Booth the owner (look her up for more information - it makes for interesting reading ) and stories of the journey along this coaching route taking longer than it should . The reason too many pubs along the route and in the town . .Into Ty Pawb to look up and see the art deco lighting possibly removed illegally from the old Hippodrome Cinema and sold on EBay. Luckily recognised by a local it was purchased and now graces the entrance to the Market and Museum spaces .How many people actually look up and spot it ? I certainly had missed it .

Into the High Street with its impressive buildings . The wonderful Town Hall had long gone as it got in the way of cars in the late 40's but many of the banking buildings survived . Oddly though none were now banks . The Commercial Bank of Wales , Barclays , National Provincial all gone . Now turned into gastro pubs . Even the Wetherspoons named aptly as the Bank was closed . There was talk of the tunnels beneath the town that supposedly ran under the Golden Lion Pub and beneath the Overton Arcade . Out into the evening sunshine and down Town Hill . Back Chamber Street was pointed out to me . Or at least what was left . A few steps running alongside the road . The alleyway used to run somewhere near the old Co-operative building where in the 1960's families would visit taking with them their dividend stamps which they had collected from shopping at the local Co-operative stores . Did we exchange them for money? Or was it just a credit for more food ? I just cannot remember . All I remember is the doorway and the narrow steps to upstairs where the divi stamps were cashed in.

The bells of St Giles had started to ring reminding me of France on a summer evening . We listened to them as we walked up Pen Y Bryn and found ourselves in the Bowling Green Public House where we had reserved meals . To finish off the night - a chicken for Glenn and a fish and chips for me . Followed up by a shared Bailey Cream Cheesecake . A fitting end to a walk around the town .

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