I arrived in Wrexham/Wrecsam to find the locals shuffling down the High Street, still in a state of dejection after Danny Holland’s ill-deserved winner kept them in Non-league for a 43rd successive season. Though still a step higher than Chester.
It takes a special talent to do full justice to the Northampton of the North (Wales). Sadly, after due consideration, I have to conclude I am not that talent.
I was only in Wrexham a year ago, enjoying the fevered 11am atmosphere of the “other” Spoons. A quick reminder of the North & South Wales Bank.
So why wasn’t I tipped off then about the Fat Boar ?
A classy place with local beers and a strapline of “…move over coffee, this is a job for Prosecco“*, how could it fail to attract local CAMRA ?
Most of the lunchtime trade was ladies who lunch on Cocktails and sausages. I think I may have been the only bloke, and certainly the only ale drinker.
Full marks for the local beers.
And nearly top marks for a cool, rich Hafod (NBSS 3+) that was better than anything in the gastropubs just over the English border.
Slightly shaky lacings, mind.
Think of it as a Brunning & Price for the under-40s and you’ll be fine. If I find the Mold branch radically different you’ll be the first to know.
NB 20 years ago the only GBG entry was a Lees pub just south of town. What a great Beer & Pubs Forum Day Out it would have made.
*And 90p CAMRA discount off a pint, coincidentally
retiredmartin 
Stroopwafel!!! Getting withdrawal symptoms….
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Took me ages to realise that’s a beer and not a Welsh full back or font.
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Willem Van Der Stroopwafel, Wrexham right back who scored the decisive goal against Porto in 1984 with a deflected cross.
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I was there! No, seriously. Won 1-0, lost 4-3 at their place and went through on away goals.
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Remember it well on TV. In fact, have a story about Golden Nuggets and Accountancy exams. It can wait.
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The Mold branch is much the same.
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I can feel the sigh and shrug of the shoulders 😂
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At some point the Beer and Pubs Forum will have to start contemplating pub crawls in Mold and Kettering, you know. OK, perhaps not Kettering.
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I had a dream about a pub crawl of Mold or somewhere similar, which I think I mentioned on the forum. Runcorn must top the list of unlikely towns for a day out.
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How about Ellesmere Port 😉
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I’d prefer Dudley Port
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Mrs RM is working in Dudley Port today!
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That “nice tower” is the chimney of the now demolished Border brewery, bought and closed down by Marston’s in the 1980s. (Boo)
The Fat Boar at “Wrecsam” (as nobody from Wrexham calls it) used to be the Black Horse and a proper dive it was. The new incarnation looks like a definite improvement.
The Lees pub was the Albion Vaults, a half-decent place. It’s now the Soul Suite, a sort of club open two nights a week playing Northern Soul and similar delights.
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Ah yes, Albion Vaults. Thanks for that Bill. Think I walked past Soul Suite.
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Northern Soul enthusiasts will, I surmise, be satisfied to learn, that Geno Washington’s Ram Jam Band were named after the Ram Jam Inn on the A1.
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Unlike like the Ram Jam Inn, Geno is still going.
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We’ll have no dealings with funky butts, thank you.
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Isn’t the building over the road from the Nag’s Head actually the old Border Brewery building?
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Could be.
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Indeed it is:
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That was part of the old brewery but there was another part round the back on the other side, originally the Soames Brewery, which the chimney was built for. When Marston’s knocked most of the site down, the local MP bought the chimney as a monument.
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I only ever noticed the breweries, the Lager Brewery actually having quite and interesting history, but in the background of that photo is the tower of the parish church which I think is one of the Seven Wonders of Wales ;
Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,
Snowdon’s mountain without its people,
Overton yew trees, St Winefride wells,
Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.
I never thought much of Llangollen bridge, after which Robinson’s Bridge End pub is named, much preferring the spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct a few miles away.
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The Fat Boar sounds like a pub whose name was chosen mainly to allow visitors to make punning wisecracks. “Come on, it’ll be great. People will make jokes and they’ll think they’re being incredibly clever.” 😉
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Yes, we went through a phase 20 years ago of Purple Mooses and Flying Pigs, right after Firkins and Tap and Spiles.
It’s harder to name new pubs than you’d imagine, and we know how Si hates “No. 74 @ Josephs”
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That’s in honour of Alan Winfield’s most prolific lunchtime session.
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“Nice tower”
Now I know where the verb ‘tower’ comes from.
“Lovely church in hiding”
Is Hiding a suburb of Wrexham?
“Exciting events”
I see June 11th is Deep South Night. I just knew they got their pulled pork panini idea from South Carolina. 😉
“Most of the lunchtime trade was ladies who lunch on Cocktails and sausages”
This is me not making a rude double entendre. 🙂
“I think I may have been the only bloke, ”
Crikey! The ladies must have kept you busy then. (I couldn’t resist)
“Unpronounceable but good”
Just think of the last ‘e’ in Apache having an accent aigu and you can’t go wrong.
“*And 90p CAMRA discount off a pint, coincidentally”
For Prosecco? Blimey.
Cheers
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I really am looking forward to our trip to Wrexham in the Vauxhall Conference in three and a bit years time. There is no way they’ll have escaped by then.
Bill, are the Welsh and English spelt variants of the town’s name not pronounced in pretty much the same way? I’d love to learn the language.
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Tom,
Very few Wrexham residents can speak Welsh.
Maybe the border’s in the wrong place.
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According to the 2011 census, the average percentage of Welsh speakers (aged 3+) in the electoral divisions that make up the town of Wrexham was 11.01% compared to the Wales average of 19.0%. The average percentage of Welsh speakers for Wrexham County Borough Council was 12.9%, the highest proportion being in the rural Dyffryn Ceiriog division (31.2%) and the lowest in the urban Wynnstay division (7.7%).
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Tom, the English and Welsh versions are pronounced the same. It’s just that Wrexham is an Anglo-Saxon place name and “Wrecsam” is a fake Welshification of it, perpetrated by language fascists. As Stafford Mudgie says, virtually no-one in Wrexham speaks Welsh, although it’s still very Welsh in nature.
We may eventually extricate ourselves from the Conference to the broad sunlit uplands of the Football League, where we belong.
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You certainly deserve League status, Bill.
Look at Tranmere and Luton for examples of how fast things change.
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My favourite dual language sign is near Cardiff airport. The English says “Saint Athans” and the Welsh reads “Sain Tathans”. (Russ, Paul, I know. It’s not worth it)
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