Who says the Wrexham has no culture ? Well a lot of the townsfolk who really dont understand the City of Culture 2025 bid or dont see culture anywhere . We have a lot of spare time on a Saturday before we go to the football match . We need to get parked up early otherwise we struggle to find somewhere close to the ground to park . Going early means a lot of time on our hands to kill . Over the last few months we have walked up into town . Visited the museum a couple of times . Walked round the temporary exhibits - Hidden Holt and Lego buildings. We have drunk coffee in the museum cafe . Called in at the Portuguese cafe .
What we have never done is called in at Ty Pawb / Everyones house . A utilitarian building erected many years ago to replace one of the old town Markets. Down came the mock Tudor frontage and a new market hall was proposed in another part of the town . Why call it Ty Pawb ? It had connotations , Russia and China . A house everyone could enjoy. At
least that was the thought of the townsfolk when it opened and they boycotted it . Saying quite rightly it had no character . It lacked the character of the old market . I had never been in but wanted to give it a chance and see what it had to offer.
The inside certainly did not inspire confidence . It was very wooden and did not have the charm of the old market. I remembered the wool shop , the carpet shop along the steps down to the market hall. Pagets record shop where we used to visit on a Saturday and listened to records in the old fashioned accoustic booths . We had heard the songs on Radio Luxemburg and we had no money to buy them as we were still at school. Listening to them in the booths on a Saturday was the next best thing .
The character of the shops are different but some of the same shops remain . The wool shop was my link with the past . Music came from the middle of the building . A young musician played his guitar and sang . Tables were spread around the
central area . We sat and ordered coffee from the Flatulent Frog . Yes you heard it right the Flatulent Frog . A vegan cafe with a lovely choice of food and a picture of a frog passing wind . There were other cafes . One served desserts and milk shakes . The other curry to go. The place was bustling helped by the Artisan Market in Queens Square .
Sitting over our coffee gave us chance to catch our breath , look forward to the match against Dover and contemplate our holiday . Dover bottom of the league . Only won one game all season and going down . It would be a walk in the park - wouldnt it ? The Bay de Somme aire is closed for refurbishment . We need to review our first night stop . We will travel as far as Neufchatel , call in to the local Le Clerc supermarket , top up on food and top up on fuel . The thought of buying those Flan Naturelle and fresh croissants was playing on our minds . We also have decided to travel down a day earlier . Not to sightsee but
just to break up the journey . A stop sorted near to Banbury near a falconry centre. It will mean we wont have to traverse Birmingham on a Monday and hopefully will get round London more easily.
After pondering the holiday we finished our coffees and headed for the gallery within Ty Pawb . I had noticed an exhibition aptly named Terracottapolis and it made sense to visit and see what was on offer. What a mouthful - Terracottapolis was . So what was on offer ? The gallery within Ty Pawb was small . It was hosting an exhibition of terracotta products . All produced in the Dennis Ruabon factory . Just up the road from the town it became a hive of activity with the discovery of vast quantities of high quality Etruria Marl clay in the Ruabon area in the 19th Century . This heralded the beginning of tile and terracotta production on a vast scale. By the turn of the 20th Century there were several factories in and around the area employing roughly 2,000 people. Workers produced massive amounts of terracotta and bricks .
