Rhuthun/Ruthin managed to escape Denbighshire council’s official top 20 eyesores. The nearest we got was the overgrown frontage of 4 Dyffryn, an appendage to the Tan y Bryn infill estate, Pwllglas. Here, upon the death of her husband about eight years ago, a widow basically abandoned the property, whereafter it has declined.
That's not to say Rhuthun has no issues. I wonder where these local problems appear further down the countdown.
10. Station Road. Spoiling the ship for a ha'peth of tar? The superb refurbishment of Ruthin Décor is not matched by the ugly barriers along its and Richard Moorhead & Laing's car parks. Looks like unfinished business or part of a building site.
9. Station Road again, I'm afraid. The B & M Bargains building continues to look uncared for and is deteriorating. The rear loading area isn't anything to write home about, either.
8. Sundry advertising boards around the place, from Clwyd Street to the industrial estate.
7. Telephone exchange, Park Road. Looking its age, little used, over-sized for modern telephony and now in poor condition. Mercifully not particularly in the line of sight from the busy Park Road along which Mold to Bala traffic travels.
6. Entrance to Parc Brynhyfryd. The low wall has been in various states of disrepair for some time. Vegetation leaves something to be desired. Gateway from Rhuthun and gateway to its premier housing estate.
5. Land between Automark & Redstone Cars, Lôn Parcwr. No one expects an industrial estate to look anything other than functional but this vacant land appears derelict on what is the main approach from Dinbych.
4. Rear of the Walled City of Glasdir. Not visible to many, Taylor Wimpey gave up building at Glasdir the day of the flood. They've not been seen since (well, they did finish off a couple of properties, selling one). They could so easily have begun on the site again several months before the the summer's recent flood defence works started, in readiness to sell… but they didn't.
3. Chatwin's. Sympathy following the fire that gutted Chatwin's has now left a bitter taste as no one knows what's going on with the building. There's nothing on it to suggest any action being is or will be taken (although word-of-mouth suggests work is said to be imminent).
2. View from the Nantclwyd garden gazebo. A pleasant outlook marred by an untidy, unkempt, weed-infested back yard, adjacent former bowling green now tufted and coarse and semi-derelict The Bungalow. Right on the doorstep of the town's major attraction.
1. Vacant land at Wynnstay Road. Long-standing plot of land that changes hands but never seems to have gotten anywhere. Thousands of pedestrians pass this every week. Has been in this state for over a quarter of a century, now.
Some recent escapes: The Anchor, The Castle Hotel, Slater's, building between The Manor House and Williams Estates (currently &Vintage), former small shop once part of Majestic Travel (now Tasker's), houses at Lôn Fawr, The Myddleton.
Future eyesore? Stryd y Wennol, Glasdir: the entrance to the estate, especially on the right hand (west) side, sees front gardens strewn with children's toys. With this become the sink estate of the future?
