It's understandable that there are many more accoutrements in Rhuthun/Ruthin to celebrate the first Eisteddford yr Urdd since 2019, which happens to be in Dinbych, than this weekend's platinum jubilee. But there's also a little competition from royalists.
Here is the queen waiting outside St Peter's Church, as the Red Queen from Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass. Note the mop of auburn hair to match the Red Queen's personality. Is this a parody of the current English queen: formal, strict, pedantic?
Accompanying is a helium gas-filled corgi held down by rubber bands attached to a grey house brick.
The book of remembrance or whatever the town council is calling it has not proven to be especially popular. Plenty of blank pages, it seems.
Other than Ruthin Hospital, care and nursing homes, St Peter's Church was probably the only institution taking the jubilee at all seriously. To start next Tuesday is Colin Edward's photographic tribute. The Friday picnic moved to the church, owing to inclement weather. Its Sunday cymanfa ganu also moved into the church, for the same reason. There was a very respectable one-knave-worth of congregants enjoying their community hymn signing and this included the mayor who sang in the alto part quite perfectly.
The church painted silver and then deposited 70 pebbles around Rhuthun/Ruthin, inviting people to reunite them at St Peter's. By the end of Sunday, 29 had arrived back. It was somewhat ironic, given that the English prime minister using the platinum weekend to favour a reintroduction of imperial measurements that on each of the pebbles the church had used a continental 7 (i.e. 7 not 7).
Perhaps it was care homes that made the most fuss about the jubilee. This is understandable, given the age of those within, some of whom will be able to remember king George VI. Abbeyfield, Trem y Foel and Llys Erw all did something. Trosnant was adorned with both Welsh flags and union jacks, together with this model of the queen.
The Menlli ward at Rhuthun hospital held two 'parties' for its patients. These, of course, were all of the older generation and if well enough would've appreciated the staff's efforts. Sherry was available on both occasions so who knows what antics the residents got up to.
Few businesses bothered to celebrate the platinum jubilee. One of the best was the recently arrived antique shop in the former Beresford Adams premises, Well Street, with a display of previous commemorative pottery paraphernalia and pictures in the form of '70' of each of the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish First Ministers and the English prime ministers throughout the queen's reign, going back to Winston Churchill. Best of all was this montage of some of the significant events over the previous 70 years, above. It's a reminder that, just like us, the queen has actually basically been an onlooker as society has reworked itself in ways we could not have believed 70 years previously.
Friday's board-games-with-live-band on the Square was abandoned, owing to the prospect of inclement weather (that actually did not materialise). Instead, the board game element was hosted instead on Saturday afternoon. The Square wasn't busy but at least the few additional tables tended to be full. Rather than live, there was recorded music from the Coffee Cabin at reasonably acceptable volumes.
A small number of members of the public joined in with royal 'scarecrows', such as this one at Haulfryn, showing the queen in tweeds as you might see her at Balmoral. Notice the papier-mâché corgi accompanying.
Flying at Denbighshire county council's county hall was this collage of the queen. I confess I have no idea how it came to be but it looks like a well executed school project or perhaps winner of a competition. It displaced the Ukrainian flag.
The font at St Peter's
If anyone is to undertake a Sunday street party in Rhuthun then it will be Record Street, for itself and for its neighbours on Castle Street. This shot was taken during the set up. From the speakers was the song from 'Funny Girl', 'Don't Rain on my Parade'. It was a bit late: heavy drizzle was in the air. Notice the coats and hoods.
Other than a flag at county hall, there as little official evidence of the jubilee at Denbighshire's buildings, save the archive office in the Old Gaol. It appeared that the queen was about to leap off the first floor. Or was a convict pushing her?
Meanwhile, that shipping container temporarily lodged by Dyffryn Services had already found its way back to I T Williams's yard, at the conclusion yesterday of the eisteddfod.
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