Its April and I find myself looking back at last years blogs . I was asking myself then if Covid would be around for two years. I was describing Wingerworth to you. I was exploring its nooks and crannies and I should have been heading for Scandanavia . What has a year brought me to ? I woke up with the word old running round and round my head. Like an earworm it seemed to pop up everytime I opened my mouth . I was reading old last years weather with what we were experiencing now. We should have been heading down to Canterbury for an overnight stop before heading to France for a well deserved holiday . Somehow this April seemed exactly the same as last April . The only difference this was 2021 and not 2020. The weather was the same . The lack of a holiday the same . I was working from home .
I had pencilled in a trip to Wrexham today . I needed to go to the bank and wanted to visit before non essential shops opened . I drove past the first old hotel of the day . The Cross
Lanes Hotel . I remembered going there for meals in the 70s and 80s. It had closed some while ago and was now an adventure centre . I thought you cannot get a meal at an adventure centre . Pubs are shutting fast either because the big chains bully them out of the way or Covid has killed their trade. Cross Lanes was originally built as a private house during the reign of Queen Victoria and was converted to a hotel in 1959. I remember the Victorian features and homely feeling that had been carefully preserved with oak panelling in the front hall which had been rescued from Emral Hall. The Emral Hall where our Girl Gabby lives. The second big old house I passed along the way was Bryn y Grog Hall . Built in the 18th century and purchased by Philip Yorke it fell into disrepair . I remember its windows being glassless . Now it has been turned into an antiques emporium seen on TV on an antiques show.
I arrived at my favourite car park Llwyn Isaf and parked Ziggy up. I was awoken from my thoughts by a lady passing by who told me
parking was free. I explained it was free but not until after 11 to deter the workers from parking up all day for nothing . I put my £1 in the machine and headed off across the park into town . Originally there was a house on this site known as Ysbyty Ucha (Upper Hospital) - a name hinting at perhaps a past connected to friars or monks. In the 19th Century the house was called Llwyn Isaf and became home to the vicars of Wrexham. I never remember it as it had been knocked down and was replaced by the town council office The Guildhall. The 1912 National Eisteddfod was proclaimed here and David Lloyd George got a rough reception from the Suffragettes. They were angry at the then Liberal Governments opposition to votes for women.
From here I walked up to King Street . The old (again that word crept in ) bus station had been demolished and replaced by a new building . The old stands numbers 1 to 12 used to be open to the elements . We waited at stand 9 for our bus home from school . There was a cafe , a
canteen for the bus drivers, a jewellers and the toilets . Now the bus station was inside and the home of rough sleepers and drug addicts. Life had changed very much for the old and new bus stations. Across the road a row of 1960s shops that replaced the old row of middle class housing . Fayreways - a cafe where the Rockers and the local motorbikers met up. Wedding receptions had been held there . Further up the street a TV shop where in the days before the overran the market sold TVs, radios and all manner of electrical goods . The Coffee Bar up a dark alley . The Mods met there . They left their Lambretta scooters outside lined up along the pavement .
My task for the day was to call in the bank . I stood outside with my mask ready. I was let in . The lady on the counter took my money but refused to take cash I wanted to deposit in the drivers account . Money laundering she said . My look must have been capable of sinking a ship .
