Rhyl

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Rhyl Y Rhyl


Population	24,889 (2001 census)
OS grid reference	SJ015815
Principal area	Denbighshire
Ceremonial county	Clwyd
Constituent country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RHYL
Postcode district	LL18
Dial code	01745
Police	North Wales
Fire	North Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
UK Parliament	Vale of Clwyd
European Parliament	Wales
List of places: UK • Wales • Denbighshire

Rhyl (IPA: [(ə) r̥ɨl] Welsh: Y Rhyl) is a seaside town located on the Irish Sea, in the administrative county of Denbighshire and the traditional county of Flintshire, North Wales, United Kingdom, at the mouth of the River Clwyd (Welsh: Yr Afon Clwyd). Once an elegant Victorian resort, there was a large influx of people from Liverpool and Manchester after World War II. This had a huge impact on the town and surrounding area, affecting local culture and diminishing the prevalence of the Welsh language.

Rhyl railway station has through trains to and from London, Crewe, Cardiff and Manchester.

Rhyl Football Club are currently one of the most successful teams in the Welsh football pyramid -- in the 2003-04 season they won the Welsh Premiership Championship, the Welsh Cup and the Welsh League Cup, and were losing finalists in the FAW Premier Cup. Rhyl FC are known as having the best away fan support in the Welsh Premier League, beating rival team fans like Bangor, TNS and Llanelli.

It was in Rhyl that the infamous egg-throwing attack on John Prescott occurred, during campaigning for the 2001 General Election.

1 Tourist attractions
2 Regeneration project
3 Bad press
4 Fighting crime
5 Rhyl's future
6 Famous people
7 Infamous people
8 External links

[edit] Tourist attractions

Rhyl's most famous monument was the original Pavilion, an elegant ornate building with five domes, which was demolished in the 1970s. Rhyl's current top attractions on the West Parade are the 250 foot high Sky Tower, which opened in 1986; Rhyl Children's Village theme park; and the fairground. There was once a Laser Quest and bowling establishment, but this has since burnt down.

On the East Parade, can be found the SeaQuarium and the popular Rhyl Suncentre - an indoor leisure swimming pool featuring an indoor monorail, as well as Europe's first indoor surfing pool. Next door stands the New Pavilion Theatre, opened in 1991. A small run of shops runs along side the beach front selling everything you would want for a day at the beach . It is not very far from Snowdon (yr wyddfa).

The Marine Lake used to be a popular tourist destination, with fairground rides and even, many years ago, a zoo. Nowadays, it is home to a miniature steam train that travels around the lake, a playground and numerous watersports clubs.

[edit] Regeneration project

In an effort to regenerate and boost declining tourism, a number of projects are currently underway or being proposed. These include the Drift Park development on the promenade, as well as a new leisure complex to be built on what is now the site of the Ocean Beach Fun Fair. Although once popular, it is no longer as successful, and will be replaced by shops, restaurants and luxury flats, with a new Asda supermarket as a centrepiece.

Rhyl, especially the West End, is currently undergoing a lot of rebuilding with fresh investment from large bodies. The main investment worth mentioning is that of Rhyl College. Rhyl College is a sub branch of the larger site in Rhos-on-Sea that is known as Llandrillo College. Llandrillo is graded as the best college within Wales along with their slogan "Learning Excellence In Wales" which also ranks extremely high with other top colleges in the UK.

The investment is approximately of £4,000,000, 2.7 of which is coming from the Welsh Assembly government to provide the youth of the area with an opportunity on its doorstep while taking into account the high population and small graphical area. Another factor that the college is doing well and growing, is the recent upgrade of their network link from Rhos which is now 100Mbs instead of the previous 2 meg, additional Llandrillo sub branches in Abergele and Denbigh are still using a 2Mb interlink.

[edit] Bad press

Rhyl is at times unfairly criticized for the problems caused by people living within the West End area, as Rhyl having been identified as a poverty stuck area, the Denbighshire County Council has introduced a lot of new measures while also contributing slowly to the re-development of the town (Re-Generation Project) paying close attention to the West End area. Rhyl has had a problem with drugs which unfortuately has left a scar on the town's reputation. This was caused by many ex offenders who would leave prison from Liverpool or Manchester for example, and live in the private rented flats within the West End area, this is fortunately slowing down due to these private bad standard living blocks being brought out, knocked down and freshly built by responsible landlords or firms for example like Clwyd & Allan.

[edit] Fighting crime

The community of Rhyl, again looking mostly at the West End, has in recent years come together. Rhyl is now a lot safer place to live in than it once was and is also now engaged in the 'Alley Gates' scheme that has been rolled out all around Wales. This is an attempt to cut down on crime by restricting access to strangers via the alley-ways that run in between the many west end streets.

Due to the work of authorities, Denbighshire Council and the local community, many of Rhyl's alley-ways and side streets are now clear from the domestic dumping that was taking place.

[edit] Rhyl's future

Rhyl is slowly but surely gaining some respect in terms of its scarred image from bad press and misfortune, due to the local community coming together, the projects of cleaning up Rhyl have proved a great success. With many new investments coming into Rhyl, the future surely looks a positive one and it will be interesting to see Rhyl grow and move forward.

There is still a lot of work to be done to maintain Rhyl's improvement as a town, but as many suggest, the hardest step was the beginning and Rhyl is already past that stage of redevelopment.

[edit] Famous people

Famous former inhabitants of Rhyl include Hollywood director Sara Sugarman, and Nerys Hughes, television actress.
Lee Trundle, Swansea City Football Club's striker, and Bayern Munich midfielder, Owen Hargreaves, both have strong family ties with Rhyl, as does comedian Lee Evans.
Carol Vorderman, although born in Prestatyn, attended Blessed Edward Jones RC High School and later went on to earn a third class degree at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before becoming a popular TV presenter on the Channel Four show, Countdown.

[edit] Infamous people

Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain (1955), was born in the town in 1927.
The "A6 murderer" James Hanratty, claimed he was in Rhyl at the time of his supposed crime, staying at a guest-house in Kinmel Street. Despite offering a credible description of the area and summoning witnesses claiming to have seen him in the town, he was disbelieved and found guilty of the murder. He was executed in 1962, although many believed him innocent of murder. DNA tests on his exhumed corpse in 2002 established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.