If you strolled around the produce market on Saturday, you’ll’ve noticed two Rhuthun ‘firsts’ in celebration of the Rhuthun heritage weekend. Well, almost firsts.
Part 1 – The Honey Bun
Part 2 of 2 – Ruthin Water
A clever link between Saturday’s produce market and the theme of the heritage weekend was water available free-of-charge drawn from the Cambrian bore. This was a true and tangible reminder of a now vanished industry, an industry that during the early 20th century was Rhuthun’s biggest employer.
To think many people in Rhuthun either do not know of our mineral water past or have forgotten it. Two firms drew water from beneath Rhuthun, Ellis’s on Mwrog Street, where Dragon Tyres are now located, and Cambrian Soda Water Co on and around the Richard Williams builders merchants site and Prior Street. As part of Greenhall Whitley, Cambrian Soda Water transformed into the Cambrian Soft Drinks, manufacturing soft drinks using the local water. It closed in about 1990. Cambrian Soft Drinks will also be remembered for their lorries heading east out of Rhuthun over the Bwlch at *very* slow speeds!
The Cambrian bore is still intact and it was this that the produce market used to draw natural spring water to the surface for consumption for the very first time in years. To think that Rhuthun water was once highly prized in the region and elsewhere.
Why so? Rainwater soaks through the local sandstone to an underground lake some 210-ft below the Vale and the Cambrian bore. The lake’s size is reputed to be 2 by 7 miles. The sandstone makes the water pure.
And, how did it taste? Well, like water! Not soapy, not hard, not fluorinated, not chlorinated, not cloudy, not tainted in any way. Pure, just as it should be.
There’s a small exhibition in Rhuthun Library called “Ruthin Pop”, for those interested in our watery past. There was a similar exhibition some five years ago.
Part 1 – The Honey Bun
Part 2 of 2 – Ruthin Water
A clever link between Saturday’s produce market and the theme of the heritage weekend was water available free-of-charge drawn from the Cambrian bore. This was a true and tangible reminder of a now vanished industry, an industry that during the early 20th century was Rhuthun’s biggest employer.To think many people in Rhuthun either do not know of our mineral water past or have forgotten it. Two firms drew water from beneath Rhuthun, Ellis’s on Mwrog Street, where Dragon Tyres are now located, and Cambrian Soda Water Co on and around the Richard Williams builders merchants site and Prior Street. As part of Greenhall Whitley, Cambrian Soda Water transformed into the Cambrian Soft Drinks, manufacturing soft drinks using the local water. It closed in about 1990. Cambrian Soft Drinks will also be remembered for their lorries heading east out of Rhuthun over the Bwlch at *very* slow speeds!
The Cambrian bore is still intact and it was this that the produce market used to draw natural spring water to the surface for consumption for the very first time in years. To think that Rhuthun water was once highly prized in the region and elsewhere.
Why so? Rainwater soaks through the local sandstone to an underground lake some 210-ft below the Vale and the Cambrian bore. The lake’s size is reputed to be 2 by 7 miles. The sandstone makes the water pure.
And, how did it taste? Well, like water! Not soapy, not hard, not fluorinated, not chlorinated, not cloudy, not tainted in any way. Pure, just as it should be.
There’s a small exhibition in Rhuthun Library called “Ruthin Pop”, for those interested in our watery past. There was a similar exhibition some five years ago.