You can’t blame Rhuthun town council for criticising as inappropriate Taylor Woodrow Bryant Homes for naming its 178-house Glasdir development Parc Rhuthun. It’s the word ‘parc’ to which the council objects. Said one councillor, “We have already got Y Parc and Parc y Dre”. We’d add Parc Brynhyfryd, Park Road and Parc y Castell.
Do we need another ‘parc’?
Well, it’s probably all down to language construction. Wrong-way-round English tends to hide the issue by placing ‘park’ at the end of a street name or development, whereas in Welsh the adjectival descriptor follows, and ‘parc’, ‘ffordd’, etc comes to the front. Thus it is Welsh towns tend to have lots of roads starting with ffordd (road/way), heol (road), bryn (hill), and parc (park), etc. This accentuates the issue in a way you won’t find in English.
Therefore in Rhuthun, we have lots of:
It’s therefore a difficult issue, something the developer may chose to address when the development is complete. Changing horses midway through would be a marketing disaster, although this is actually what Bryant Homes has done. We all need to be thankful that the development’s no longer called the awkward-sounding ‘Rhuthun Parc’. This was changed recently to Parc Rhuthun, though there’s still some early printed material available showing ‘Rhuthun Parc’. For those who need to know, ‘Rhuthun Parc’ sounds as clumsy in Welsh as ‘Park Regents’, Park Hyde’ or ‘Park Macarthur’ does in English.
Do we need another ‘parc’?
Well, it’s probably all down to language construction. Wrong-way-round English tends to hide the issue by placing ‘park’ at the end of a street name or development, whereas in Welsh the adjectival descriptor follows, and ‘parc’, ‘ffordd’, etc comes to the front. Thus it is Welsh towns tend to have lots of roads starting with ffordd (road/way), heol (road), bryn (hill), and parc (park), etc. This accentuates the issue in a way you won’t find in English.
Therefore in Rhuthun, we have lots of:
- Ffyrdd (Ffordd Cunedda, Edern, Gwynach, Plas Newydd, Rhufon)
- Lonydd (Lôn Fawr, Parcŵr, Speiriol-Isaf, Speiriol-Uchaf plus Hen Lôn Parcŵr)
- Meysydd (Maes Cantaba, Dolwen, Ffynnon, Hafod, Menlli, Meugan)
- Bryniau (Bryn Deg, Coch, Eryl, Glas, Goodman, Rhydd)
- Caeau (Cae Ddol, Seren)
It’s therefore a difficult issue, something the developer may chose to address when the development is complete. Changing horses midway through would be a marketing disaster, although this is actually what Bryant Homes has done. We all need to be thankful that the development’s no longer called the awkward-sounding ‘Rhuthun Parc’. This was changed recently to Parc Rhuthun, though there’s still some early printed material available showing ‘Rhuthun Parc’. For those who need to know, ‘Rhuthun Parc’ sounds as clumsy in Welsh as ‘Park Regents’, Park Hyde’ or ‘Park Macarthur’ does in English.
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Glasdir