Denbighshire 20 - Ruthin - the Craft centre and the crane /Plumb Loco with Dr Beeching

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Tuesday - another day and another house. Another town too. Wrexham . What would I if I were a visitor think of Wrexham? As we drove through I thought it shabby, unloved with many empty shops. Devoid of any character . It was not the town I remembered fondly of as a child. Then it was an hive of activity with bustling shops, markets and people . So many people coming in to do their weekly shop. We passed the Lemon Tree Restaurant . That used to be the Denbighshire Education Committee offices . Sandwiched in between 60's monstrosities and Victorian handsome villas .

We wondered if today was going to be "our" house . Not too finished . Not too perfect . Somewhere we could leave our mark on . How hard was it turning out to be ! We slept another peaceful night overlooking the Vale and work to a perfect morning . The sun rising low in the sky . Insipid in colour . That low light of Autumn. The days are getting shorter and the nights longer . We put the lights on earlier . They come on in the morning as does the central heating . Six months ago I looked forward to Spring , to Spring flowers , to Summer and now Autumn is just around the corner. The leaves are beginning to turn.

We found ourselves sitting outside the Craft Centre in Ruthin on an empty car park. It filled up over time as small coaches turned up and parked . The craft centre had been built some years ago to house small art exhibitions around a coffee shop. Coffee shop closed and it looked as if the centre had been closed some while.

Sion our travelling companion got excited . He could see a crane . "Yes cranes no those are interesting things . Just like manholes and latrines and the Roman Hadrian". Before I had chance to say Jack Robinson we were out of the van and Sion was heading over to the crane . I had walked many miles around Ruthin when we lived here but I had never noticed the crane . Parking on the nearby Tesco supermarket across the way I had never spotted it . I knew that the railway had once run this way but ................"but " said my little friend " but I know all about Dr Beeching and locos . Look just up the road there is house called Beechings . That is where the railway once went . All the way to Corwen and to Denbigh ." As I looked I could indeed see the house and wondered if the owner was being sarcastic about Dr Beeching. How many kids would know who the infamous Dr Beeching was ? " Not many " piped up Sion . He carried on " The railway crossing used to be there . A man would come out and shut the gates to the crossing when the steam train came puffing in." "And that is Railway Terrace "


To be fair I had walked down the cutting many times in front of Railway Terrace . When the trains ran it would be dirty and smoke covered. Now a row of desireable residences . How times have changed ? " The station was over there were the roundabout is now and where the supermarket car park stands " Did Dr Beeching get it right ?" No Sion was adamant that even if Dr B thought that cars were the way forward he was an idiot and should have been sacked for closing lines, pulling down stations and selling off land . Both Sion and I were hopping mad at the thought of such sacriledge.

We stood in front of the crane . Not a massive one . Quite small but well looked after . It once had graced the station yard and would have been put to use . Now it stood there all on its own quite out of place . We stood for a while looking at it . Looking at the town with its modern town hall attached to an earlier sandstone frontage . We could see the church . We felt a bit homesick .

What would we make of the next property? It had been empty for almost a year . It was in a poor state . We gave it a coat of looking over . On to the next . A bungalow at Bangor on Dee . On the river . Could we forget the problem flooding might cause ? We could if we liked it . Like it we did . Sion got excited "We can squeeze Gabby on . I like the hall , I liked the front room . Lots of room to swing cats " Sion liked everywhere . There were high conifers in the back garden but they could come down . We were falling in love with it . A small pond with 100 frogs last Spring . A woodpecker . We put an offer in there and then . It was accepted . Were things going right for us finally?

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