Memories/changes in Wrex
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Posts
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Hi all,
New to the forum, I was born and grew up in Wrexham and moved away when I went to uni, now will back here more cause of change in jobs. Discovered the wrexham.com site this week – brilliant, great to to see an independant site about Wrexham which is full of good stuff and local in focus. Am mildly addicted to the twitter stream!
Thought I would kick off a thread with some memories/changes that I had been thinking about when out and about around town this week. Any thoughts on the below?
1.) When the town used to smell of hops all the time from the Wrexham lager brewery
2.) Industry in Wrexham – Bersham colliery still working and lorry loads of steel coming up the high street in town from Brymbo
3.) Wrexham lager festivals – first on plas coch (used to be open ground pre sainsbury’s!) and then in bellvue
4.) Double decker bus services all run by green/white “Crosville Cymru” buses
5.) Old central station and the old railway bridge over town hill
6.) Fun fair which used to come to beast market/asda car park
7.) On “monday market” day when there was still an animal market (where mecca bingo is now!)
8.) “talking litter bin” which was installed outside the old location of WH Smiths
9.) Johm Menzies cafe – a weird mix of students, punks and pensioners having coffee, cakes and a fag
10.) When Bellvue park had an old steam roller as part of the playground!
Thanks for posting this, I remember some of the things you mentioned especially the old bridges over Town Hill. The talking litter bin sounds crazy! It tells you how poor I am at driving too if I tell you that when I started the Asda flyover at Eagles Meadow was still up and I passed last year.
One memory I always have is when there were kids parties upstairs in Burger King (now closed down) and back then all the parents would be smoking up there. Times have changed slightly.
I remember when that shop became a burger king and was seen as “really cool” – it was a wimpy before that. Hopefully the shop will be open as something else soon, anything is better than empty.
There was a big fuss about the bin at the time, well at least in the evening leader! All it did was say a “don’t litter” message every so often, the first weekend I remember quite a few people hanging around it waiting. It was solar powered too.
Was also thinking today about how the centre of town could have been very different, for years and years various schemes failed and developers went bust to build a indoor precinct where BHS/TJ Hughes is now – the Lord centre was a proposed name and it would have had a bridge link to the people’s market. An unknown point but would this scheme have kept the town more “together” than the eagle’s meadow development This precinct would also have incorporated the old veg market frontage – was criminally knocked down after years of waiting/delays (http://static0.casgliad.sequence.co.uk/Cluster/Media/Items/000/000/028/624/Thumbnails/Thumb635x353.jpg?v=0)
@wrexview 1056 wrote:
I remember Stevens Cafe , a lovely black and white building , that was demolished over one weekend!
Yes, before my time, but I think the listed building status was due to come in on a Monday and the developers demolished on the weekend.
I would love to see T J Hughes opened up and used as a market or special shopping area. Its a white elephant as it is now and less people are going through to the Peoples Market because they can no longer go through T J Hughes. Eagles Meadow is the worst complex ever built in Wrexham and has ruined the town centre. I think that Boots and Marks and Spencers must be regretting their moves to Eagles Meadow. Have been there a couple of times and there is not really anything at Eagles Meadow that I want.
I remember the town smelling of hops. Used to love that, and smelling Kellogs on the industrial estate, not to mention chocolate in Chirk.
I also remember the Lager Days on Plas Coch when it was fields. I remember being in my nans and seeing the helicopter giving rides.
I also remember I guess the end of the “beast market”. I remember going around the market, coming up the hill with people selling videos on the pavement and then I used to love going into the old “cant think of word but you know what I mean” and seeing the animals. Was only a little kid then though.
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