Parish Hall
Park Road,
Coedpoeth,
LL11 3TD
Park Road,
Coedpoeth,
LL11 3TD
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When I visited the village of Coedpoeth, a few miles to the west of Wrexham, in July 2010, I photographed this building believing it had once been home to the Regent Cinema.
The building was originally the Parish Hall, built in 1896, and following its use as the Regent Cinema returned to being the Parish Hall again.
The town was not listed in the 1914 Kinematograph Year Book (KYB), but a “Cinema” was listed, under Wrexham, with the only address as “Coedpoeth”, in the 1931 edition. That also specified that it was equipped with Western Electric(WE) sound. The owner was Cambria and Border Cinemas Ltd. of Wrexham.
Presumably it closed during the mid/late-1930’s, as it was not listed in the 1940 (or 1953) editions.
In ‘Cinemas of North Wales’, Brian Hornsey quotes from a 1970’s newspaper article that said that films were transferred to Coedpoeth after they had been shown in “Rhos”. Presumably he means the nearby town of Rhosllanerchrugog, where the Pavilion Cinema and the Public Hall Picturedrome were both listed (under Wrexham) in the 1931 KYB (though neither was owned by Cambria and Border Cinemas).
The Parish Hall, constructed from local sandstone quarried at Penygelli quarries, continues to be a focal point for community life in the village.
Contributed by
David Simpson
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
In the Overview I expressed the hope that another contributor would be able to confirm that the Parish Hall had, indeed, been home to the Regent cinema - and Darron Keeling has now done so! He has very kindly drawn my attention to chestercinemas.co.uk, which confirms that the Parish Hall operated as the Regent cinema during the 1930s and 1940s (so later than I thought) and includes a poster, from July 1945, that lists Mrs Grainger as the manager. At that time, three shows a week were being presented: on Monday + Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday + Saturday (with no shows on Wednesday or Sunday). My grateful thanks to Darron.