Wrexham History

The following was submitted by Steven Thornton-Jones. Loughborough, Leicestershire. I am interested to read your history of Crane & Sons , Regent Street, Wrexham. You mention that R Thornton Jones was the manager of the shop by the end of August 1893 and that the last mention you can find of him is April 1897. You may be interested to see the attached copy of an envelope addressed to Thornton Jones at Crane & Sons , postmarked 1894. The address on the envelope reads as follows: “Please postman take this letter to a thriving town in Wales ‘Tis Wrexham that I mean my man – noted for Fairs & Tales And there in Regent Street you’ll find Pianos by the score At Crane & Sons the well-known shop – I think it’s number four You cannot fail to find the place – there is not such another The manager is Thornton Jones – this letter’s for his mother” The manager’s first name was Robert and he is my great grandfather. He was born in 1866, the oldest child of Henr...

THIS week’s jottings have jumped the queue, but who can resist such a splendid piece of nostalgia as the postcard of the long defunct Glynn Cinema, passed to me by the Down Memory Lane editor. I was there, second house, balcony, for Hercules Unchained, the night it closed. For someone who has thrived on a diet of B-movie Westerns and horror films at the old Empire the last hours of the Glynn had been an almost spiritual experience. There was a capacity audience, despite Guy Fawkes celebrations going on everywhere. As the 650-crowd streamed out of the gates for the last time their voices were hushes, like leaving a funeral service at Pentrebychan. Muttered “Goodnights” to Kate Nutter, manageress for the last five years, the odd sniffle, and a half-stifled sob, a last look at the black and white front and suddenly the flood-light over the projection box went out, leaving stragglers to find their way through the shrubbery and the big gates onto Queen’s Square in semi-darkne...