Wrexham: The twists and turns of 2022

The past year has been full of stomach-churning twists and heart-wrenching near misses for Wrexham.

On the pitch, the football club fell just short of promotion.

But this was also the year the town was awarded city status.

And while Wrexham County Borough was shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2025, that award eventually went to Bradford.

Yet, for some, this has been the year that the town, now a city, "started to wake up".

Perhaps unsurprisingly for Wrexham, this story starts with football.

The 2021-22 season was the first full campaign since stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny bought Wrexham AFC.

That autumn also saw the release of their documentary series Welcome to Wrexham.

For many, this Hollywood takeover has triggered other improvements in the city.

"In my opinion, everything started with the attention the football club has attracted," said Iwan, a sixth-form student at Ysgol Morgan Llwyd.

He recently returned from watching Wales at the World Cup in Qatar, where he realised his hometown had achieved global recognition.

"The only thing people wanted to know about was Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, more than the football itself," he laughed.

Fellow student Poppy said the last year has been "very odd" because of the attention Wrexham has attracted.

"We’ve been in the news all over the world," she said.

"I think Rob and Ryan have done a lot of work to promote the Welsh language, too, which is a good thing."

The flute and drums of the marching Cambria Band will be a familiar sound to those who attend the big Wrexham games.

The leader of the band, Adam Phillips, is a long-time fan whose claim to fame is taking his newborn daughter, now seven, straight from the hospital to sit in the stands at the Racecourse. She was six hours old.

"I’m glad the town’s getting attention, and the club also," he said.

His 14-year-old son Sam is also a big fan and has been spending time in the Racecourse press box learning how to do football commentary.

"All my mates are talking about Wrexham now, when they never would have before," he said.

Lindsey Garner, Sam’s mum and Adam’s partner, says people "have always been proud about Wrexham" but they’re expressing it in a different way these days.

"There’s definitely that feeling of 'now everybody knows how good we are' - it’s that kind of feeling," she explained.

The end of Wrexham's football season was an extraordinary match against Grimsby in the Vanarama National League play-off semi final on 28 May, which Grimsby won 5-4.

Three days after defeat, people who work in the arts gathered to see whether the area would become the UK City of Culture 2025.

Again, Wrexham fell agonisingly short, and Bradford took the title. But just being shortlisted had prompted a flurry of cultural activity.

Sion Edwards, who works at Venture, an integrated children’s centre in Caia Park, an area of "deep rooted deprivation", according to Welsh government research., external

Alongside local artists, the Venture team organised an event called Word Play.

This provided "open access playwork provision alongside art opportunities" and took place on an empty plot of land where the Hippodrome Theatre once stood.

"I don’t think we’d have ever endeavoured [to hold] an event on such a scale if we hadn’t had the backing of the council, and also they did invest quite a lot in the City of Culture bid so we could pay for additional staff and expertise where we needed," Mr Edwards explained.

Many of the events organised around the bid took place at Ty Pawb, the recently redeveloped arts and markets centre, which was itself shortlisted for the Arts Fund Museum of the Year award.

"It’s been exciting to see the place so lively during this year, for different reasons," said Siwan Jones, who sells crafts and books from her unit at Ty Pawb.

The fan zones set up for people to watch Wales' World Cup matches together on big screens was one highlight, she recalled.

A few steps away at his stall in the Ty Pawb food court, Phil Jones is meticulously filling pies with gooey filling.

"It’s high demand at the minute with my pies, especially the steak and ale - I sell out every day," he said.

He thinks the events around the City of Culture bid "brought Wrexham together".

"Many years ago, it was a proper, proper market town," he said.

"And up until recently it’s never recovered, really, but now the town’s bouncing back. I’m really chuffed with it."

Many people prefer to call Wrexham a town, but this year the council succeeded in its city status bid.

Having failed in three previous attempts, it was finally given the title as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

There were mixed feelings about bidding again, with protests held in opposition to the move.

"The city status means nothing to me, it’s always been a town and it will always be a town," said Adam Phillips.

He believes the designation will only benefit property developers and their profit margins.

But others, like Sion Edwards at Venture, thinks "it allows the people of Wrexham to be ambitious".

"I think it’s really given us a confidence boost that I personally always recognised was there. I think it’s been transformational and we’ll look back at 2022 as the year the dragon of this city started to wake up."

As for the other city status - that of UK City of Culture - Wrexham intends stage a bid for the 2029 edition.

On the Racecourse turf, it's the same goal - promotion from the National League.

2023 could be the year - but be ready for plenty of twists and turns.