Rhyl
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Rhyl (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, a large influx of people from Liverpool and Manchester after the Second World War had a huge impact on the Welsh language in the town and surrounding area.
This resort town has a population of about 27,000.
Rhyl Football Club is 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 for the FAW Premier Cup.
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Tourist Attractions
Rhyl's most famous monument was the Rhyl Pavilion - an elegant ornate building with five domes, which was destroyed in the 1970s. But Rhyl's current top attraction is the 80 metre high Sky Tower on Rhyl promenade, which opened in 1993. The promenade also features the hugely popular Rhyl Suncentre, an indoor leisure swimming pool, Rhyl Sea Life Centre aquarium, Rhyl Children's Village theme park and the Fairground.
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Marine Lake also used to be a popular tourist destination with fair ground rides and even a zoo many years ago. Now-a-days the Marine lake is home to the minature steam train that travels around the lake, a playground and numerous watersports clubs.
In a bid to boost the decline in tourism a million button badges were sent to Japan in May 2005, with the website address www.rhyl.com in an attempt to boost oversea tourism. There were many detractors to the idea who suggested that money spent trying to improve the decaying Victorian infrastructure would be a far better option.
Rhyl also contains many brass bands,which entertain the towns many tourists, including the Rhyl Silver band, The scout and guide band and the Salvation army band. The Rhyl Silver band was formed in 1878 by a local business man David Owen Jones and is still going strong, with family members having played throughout the bands history and currently still doing so. They have performed in such prestigious venues as The Royal Albert Hall and entertained Royalty in recent years.
Rhyl hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1892, 1904, 1953 and 1985, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1870.
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Sea and beach
Rhyl's seawater is usually brown in colour, perhaps due to the sediment from the River Clwyd mentioned above. The beach is quite popular in the summer months, with tourists coming primarily from the North West of England and using the other attractions along the seafront.
Famous people
Famous former inhabitants of Rhyl include The Alarm front man Mike Peters, number-cruncher and Countdown co-presenter Carol Vorderman, Hollywood director Sara Sugarman, former Steps singer Lisa Scott Lee and ex Sons of Selina frontman, now radio presenter and music guru Neil Crud.
External links
- BBC Rhyl page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/rhyl_town/)
- Rhyl-Prestatyn Tourist Info (http://www.rhyl-prestatyn.co.uk/) (official WWW site)
- Rhyl FC (http://www.rhylfc.com/) (official WWW site)
- Rhyl Journal Newspaper (http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/)cy:Y Rhyl