Margaret Thatcher – Visits Wrexham In 1984 (Video)

Below is footage that we believe has not been seen in public for around two decades and has never appeared online of a visit to Wrexham by then Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher.

Thatcher, who died today, was visiting the Whitegate ITEC in 1984 as Prime Minister.

As the video shows, Thatcher’s visit required large numbers of police to escort her in and out to protect her from protesters who held banners saying such things as “Coal Not Dole”.

Today local MP Ian Lucas (Labour) retweeted his party leader Ed Milliband’s tweet saying “I send my deep condolences to Lady Thatcher’s family, in particular Mark and Carol Thatcher”.

Welsh Conservatives have issued a statement offering tributes saying “She was a towering political figure and will be greatly missed by her many admirers in Wales.”

Readers may have seen our ‘Welcome To Wrexham’ video, in conjunction with Rich Knew from local company Knew Productions. Rich has kindly found time again from his video production company to recover historic video tapes from Wrexham’s past with this one on Margaret Thatcher being another.

Richard, who has used his skills to recover these old videos and helped us to get them online, does want to stress that they are very old – some older than the author of this article! As such do not take these as examples of current work (Knew Productions have a fancy showreel here to compare!)

We have started this thread in our Wrexham Forums for feedback on this video, and for sharing views on Thatcher and her legacy – click here to take part.