A series of 10 spy holes is giving people a fascinating peep into Ruthin’s historic past.
They are part of the new Ruthin Art Trail that was launched today (Monday, February 24) as a way of enticing more tourists to the town.
The Trail starts at Ruthin Craft Centre – on the site of the old railway station – which already attracts 90,000 visitors every year and the aim is encourage them to venture into the town centre.
Walkers can follow red waymarkers on the pavements and there are new oak benches and newly-planted trees along the route which also has 22 small metal figures on the roofs and fascias of buildings along the way.
The Trail, for which an audio guide has been developed, leads up Market Street and around the town on a journey to find the 10 spy holes which illustrate aspects of Ruthin’s history and folklore.
They include depictions of its old livestock market and a tribute to those commemorated at the town’s cenotaph to its bloodier history and legends such as the execution of a Catholic priest on the square in Tudor times and the myth of a wild dog.
It will be supported by a new square across from the Craft Centre entrance with an information panel, and two other information panels in the Market Street car park and St Peter’s square while a trompe l’oeil in the Castle Hotel car park blends the modern line of the Clwydian Hills with that when the Moel Famau Monument, built for George III’s Golden Jubilee was at its full height.
The £250,000 Trail has been largely paid for through the Arts Council of Wales and European funding, arranged by rural regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd through the European Regional Development Fund.
They have worked in partnership with Denbighshire County Council, Ruthin Town Council to fund the project with major backing from Gold Sponsors the Patchwork Traditional Food Company, Richards Moorehead and Laing Ltd and Manorhaus, as well as support from other local businesses and individuals, Gareth Thomas, Trefor Jones and Bathing Beauty.
It is all the work of artists Fred Baier and Lucy Strachan who consulted former secondary school head teacher and local historian Roger Edwards about the town’s heritage and legends.
The idea for the Trail came from Michael Nixon, of MN Arts Associates, who has worked on the Trail on behalf of the Art Trail Working Party, which is made up of representatives of Cadwyn Clwyd, Denbighshire County Council, Ruthin Town Council and Bro Rhuthun.
He said: “Hopefully it will encourage people to look and through looking discover the beauty and mysteries of the town.
“You can discover the 10 spy holes set into the town walls and spot the 22 figures hidden amongst the facades and roofs around the town.
“While searching for these figures there is every chance that you will notice, and for locals to be reminded, how beautiful the town is, and how the architecture from many centuries sits harmoniously together.
“The intention of the Art Trail is that visitors will be rewarded by chance sightings of the acrobatic figures and appreciate the allusions to myths memories and historic moments captured in the spy hole tableaux.”
The Trail has been enhanced by restoring some of the avenue of trees in Market Street, along with their distinctive tree guards and places to stop with a new shelter in Market Street, with a new hornbeam hedge behind it and six benches along the route.
Artist Lucy Strachan, from Pewsey, in Wiltshire, and her husband, Fred Baier, won the contract to design the trail and came up with the concept which will lead visitors up Market Street, across St Peter’s Square, taking in the wonderful wrought iron gates to the church, illuminated by a light artwork by local artist Jessica Lloyd Jones, down Clwyd Street to the Old Gaol, back up Upper Clwyd Street, along Castle Street, Record Street and Wynnstay Road to Market Street.
She said: “The Trail was devised to be about looking at and discovering the town because Ruthin is so lovely and has so many treasures in it.
“The 22 small metal figures have been devised so that you really have to look for them and they’re up where the roofs join the buildings because that’s where much of the more decorative architecture is.
“We wanted something that all ages could enjoy and so it’s a bit like Where’s Wally but it has a quiet impact on the town where a lot of public art is more in your face.
“We had a lot of help from Roger Edwards and he actually features in one of the spyholes as a little boy because he told me the story of how as a child he remembers the street there being full of sheep on market day.
“He was fantastic and had such a fascinating insight into the town and walked round it with us.
“We hope everyone gets something from it and that it does what it was meant to do and brings town and Craft Centre closer together.”
Helen Roberts, Cadwyn Clwyd Community Development Officer, said: “We have been pleased to help set up this fabulous At Trail which will be a real amenity, uniting the town and the centre.
“It’s been so brilliantly well done and offers a fascinating series of snapshots of Ruthin’s history and folklore and gives you an ideal reason for wandering around what is one of Wales’s loveliest towns.”
The Trail has also been welcomed by Philip Hughes, Director of Ruthin Craft Centre, who said: “Ruthin is an historic town with some wonderful buildings and fantastic things to see and the Trail is about encouraging people to do that and find out something along the way.
“The Trail is the next stage in the development of the Craft Centre and it actually began with the restoration of the gates to St Peter’s Church, a stunning piece of craftsmanship by the Davies brothers of Bersham in the 18th century, now properly gilded and illuminated by solar power.
“The aim is to create two-way traffic between the town and the Craft Centre and on a nice day Ruthin is such a lovely place to just wander around and discover.”
For more on Ruthin Art Trail go to the website www.ruthinarttrail.co.uk
