A Secret History

Something that Rhuthun/Ruthin’s got that Tesco will never have – and that’s the architectural interest and history associated with a medieval town, once the county town of old Denbighshire, a shire county whose borders once extended extensively in a ring from Bae Colwyn Bay to Wrecsam.

Today is Saturday and, for once, those in the town centre far outnumbered shoppers in Tesco. Tesco customers may have been oblivious to the activities in the town, but many others enjoyed the ancient buildings – and their histories – open to the public in a rare display of Rhuthun/Ruthin’s heritage. Not only that, it proved a major fillip for the town’s traders. Rhuthun/Ruthin was buzzing in the warm, autumnal sunshine.

We none of us should forget that the fabric of Rhuthun/Ruthin owes as much to the town centre traders of the past as it does to its establishment as a borough in the 13th century, the forethought in establishing the Great and Quarter Sessions at the building now housing our library, and the subsequent development of a county administration.

Should the worst happen and Tesco fundamentally alter (or even destroy) the economy of the town centre, we will have lost something of our continuing heritage, for town centres need traders just like the countryside needs farmers.