Category: Journalism

How to spend a weekend in football-loving Wrexham like a true A-list Hollywood star

Image: Telegraph Travel

Amazing scenes in Wrexham this week.

They inspired this feature about the Hollywood glamour of the formerly workaday town in Northeast Wales for Telegraph Travel.

Here’s a taster of the article.

The streets of the former industrial town in Northeast Wales were packed last night with fans from across the world cheering on the open-top bus parade from the Racecourse ground, home of Wrexham AFC.

It marked the Wrexham team securing promotion back to the English Football League after 15 years and consisted of three buses, featuring the men’s side and women’s side, which also clinched promotion.

The club’s Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney [pictured above] completed the line-up, having bought the club in 2020 and transformed its fortunes.

It’s a story worthy of a Hollywood epic for the third oldest professional football club in the world, dating from 1864, and compensates for Wrexham narrowly losing out to Bradford to host the UK City of Culture 2025 last year.

Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism, says:

“You can’t put a value on the recent exposure. Wrexham is the gateway to North Wales and the whole world now wants to know the story of Wrexham and the region.”

Read the full feature via Telegraph Travel  The A-lister guide to Wrexham

Why Shropshire is the place to be this spring for foodies and poetry lovers

A recent trip to Shropshire for Telegraph Travel reminded me how this lesser-visited region is a little gem for country walks and fine food.

Read my guide to the region taking in Ludlow [pictured above, right] for its slow-food producers and Bishop Castle for a consultation at the Poetry Pharmacy [pictured above, left].

Here’s a taster of my feature:

Pub snacks are not the typical culinary delight in Ludlow.

This is, after all, the Michelin-starred Mecca that once boasted the most stars per capita, including one for Shaun Hill, now of Abergavenny’s Walnut Tree.

But while the Shropshire market town remains known for its food and drink, it’s the artisan independents who now grab the spotlight at the annual autumn food festival and a new spring festival from May 12-14 this year.

Tish Dockerty, co-chair of the Ludlow Marches Slow Food group, says:

“Ludlow was the original food festival — even before Abergavenny. The Michelin chefs have gone but the new focus has shifted towards local provenance and slow-food events.”

Read the feature via Telegraph Travel  Is Shropshire the proudest county in England?

How to spend St Davids Day in St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Britain’s smallest city

Something is stirring in Britain’s smallest city.

Green stemmed and canary-yellow-hued, the daffodils are emerging in the grounds of St Davids Cathedral, the holy site founded by St David [see images above], known locally as Dewi Sant, as a sixth-century monastery.

The daffodils herald the arrival of spring, releasing the close-knit Pembrokeshire community from its winter slumbers.

They also signpost St David’s Day today, celebrating the hairshirt-sporting Welsh patron saint, who is embraced by Wales but with revered with prodigal pride in St Davids.

What’s more, this year’s celebrations mark a significant anniversary: 900 years since 12th century Pope Callixtus II decreed that two pilgrimages to St Davids were equivalent to one to Rome.

I was in Pembrokeshire last week to preview events for St Davids Day, chatting with the locals for a feature with Telegraph Travel. The story was published on March 1st.

“Dewi was known as the water man,” says The Very Revd Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids Cathedral. “To this day, he embodies the idea that, if you live a disciplined life, then you will enjoy the riches money can’t buy.”

Diminutive St Davids had its city status reaffirmed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 in recognition of its early Christian heritage.

The westerly peninsula is bordered by the Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail and a bracing stroll from the cathedral leads to the ruins of St Non’s Chapel, where folk legend says Dewi was born around 500AD.

The waters of the nearby holy well, which gurgled up from the earth at Dewi’s birth, are said to possess curative powers, while the view stretches over St Brides Bay to the RSPB bird reserve of Ramsey Island.

Read the full feature via Telegraph Travel  Welcome to St Davids, Britain’s smallest city.

Why the Chester Mystery Plays should be on your cultural radar this summer

Players, makers and stitchers of the 2023 Chester Mystery Plays Company (image: Chester Mystery Plays).

The Chester Mystery Plays return to Chester Cathedral this summer, the season coinciding with the Chester Heritage Festival.

The production comprises a huge cast of professional and non-professional performers (pictured above), many volunteering for roles on stage, in the choir, or behind the scenes.

I wrote a preview of the production, based around an interview with the actor Nick Fry, who shares the role of God with a female actor this summer.

The 24 plays, based on Bible stories, form an overarching narrative from The Creation to The Last Judgement, and are performed on a five-year cycle in Chester.

They originated in the city in 1300s, with small-scale church productions and a script in Latin. By the 1400s, the plays had been adopted by the Crafts Guilds, bodies of local tradesmen like a modern-day trade union, to be staged and performed in Middle English.

The plays formed part of the three-day Feast of Corpus Christi Fair with the players performing on pageant carts and the audience standing at fixed points around the city, such as The Cross and Abbey Gateway — locations still there today.

The Plays became associated with bawdy crowd behaviour and were banned after the Reformation, with last performance in Chester in 1578; making Chester home to the longest-running cycle in medieval times.

But the plays returned to the city as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain, and have been performed at Chester Cathedral since 2013.

Nick Fry, says:

“The Chester Mystery Plays reflect the history of both the cathedral and the city. And it’s a living history. The plays are steeped in history, yet remain of the community and for the community.”

Read the full article via The Church Times, The play that unites the city of Chester.

More info and booking: Chester Mystery Plays.