Rhyl circa 1960 - home movie

Silent home movie footage from late 1950s/early '60s showing Rhyl promenade and attractions. The material is of uncertain origin, possibly mixed authorship and all or part may be subject to copyright. Colin Jones writes: "The video commences with town centre scenes; 'The Unforgiven' at the Odeon would have been showing probably in 1960 or 1961. The shop named 'The Spot' was in Wellington Road next to the Catholic Church. At the Westminster Hotel local girls are preparing to take part in a promotional film/advert for Rhyl. There are many sequences on the promenade and frolics on the beach; the girl in the fleecy blue cardigan is named Penny. There are visits to Royal Floral Hall and Open Air Bathing Pool ('The Baths') where a beauty contest is going on - the Mayor handing over first prize is Jim Espley. In the brief Ritz Ballroom segment the singer is Ben Hagin. There is some footage of Botanical Gardens and Garden of Remembrance. The Rose Day street parade scenes may be from 1957. The video rounds off with glimpses of Marine Lake and Ocean Beach fun fairs."

[@rabele123]

Great memories. We had a family holiday there in 1960. I was about 9 years old. Rhyl was such a lovely place. I remember the Floral Hall with its wonderful mix of fragrances and colours. Recently, heading for Llandudno, I took a deliberate diversion to reminisce. What have they done to it? One end where the great little funfair was looked like a terrorist had detonated a truckload of explosives. The rest looked like a concrete jungle. I just carried on through, somewhat saddened.

[@systemanic]

What a great piece of film, a look back at what Rhyl used to be like in its heyday, like so many UK seaside places. Rhyl has sadly (probably for at least the past 20 or so years) become a rundown town with little or nothing left of what it once offered. For most of the working class, going on holiday here was the bees knees; that's all we could afford, but we were happy as the video shows. Too many people today are too bothered about going abroad for the sunny weather.