Wrexham is the largest town in North Wales, enjoying a privileged location between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley by the border with Shropshire. Chester is only a 15-minute drive away and the cities of Manchester and Liverpool are under an hour’s distance by car.
Once a thriving mining town, the last pit shut in 1986. Today, visitors can enjoy many attractions from taking a canal boat along the 200-year-old Pontcysyllte Aqueduct; visiting the 13th century Valley Crucis Abbey or the spectacular National Trust Erddig Hall; going to the Bangor-on-Dee Racecourse or immersing themselves in some retail therapy in the town’s shopping centre – which retains its ‘olde-worlde’ charm.
Independent practice Francis Opticians – the second oldest business in Wrexham after Gerards the bakery – opened in 1889 alongside a pharmacy. Optometrists and co-directors Stuart and Barbara Wilson run the practice today with the help of a third optometrist, who speaks Welsh, and two dispensing opticians. ‘We have a long continuity of staff,’ says Barbara. ‘Stuart has practised as an optometrist for 40 years. We are a very friendly and approachable team.’
The practice (pictured), which has just launched a new website, offers a wide range of brands including Dunelm, William Morris, Esprit, Elle and Bauhaus. Retinal imaging is incorporated as standard in eye examinations and the practice also offers OCT, assessments in low vision, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy as well as home visits. ‘We have a loyal and longstanding customer base including whole families from all areas of the local community,’ adds Wilson.
Vision Express opened in Wrexham town centre in 2007. Practice manager Sadie Rodenhurst, who has worked at the multiple for nine years, says: ‘We are passionate about eye care and pride ourselves on delivering exemplary customer services to our customers.’
The multiple’s Exclusive Brands collection, priced from £39, is ‘particularly popular’ and is positioned alongside brands like Ted Baker. Rodenhurst says the customers, who are ‘mainly of the older generation and families’, like that they can get frames for any member of the family ‘all under one roof’.
She describes Wrexham as a quiet town with a strong sense of community, which has enabled the team to forge some great relationships with the customers. ‘As there are lots of families living here we have seen children grow and have their first eye tests with us,’ she says. ‘I enjoy being part of a warm community – our customers sometimes even bring us in cakes.’
Who’s in town
Total: 10
Independents: 3
Multiples: 7
Average costs
Prices of an eye examination range from £10 to £58. The average cost is £29.80
Population - see pie chart
Wrexham population: 61,603 (ONS, 2011)
Community eye care
Eye care services in Wrexham are provided by Wecs (Wales Eye Care Services) in urgent eye problems, low vision, low vision domiciliary services and social services.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Wrexham is £170,067 (Rightmove, 2016) compared with a UK average of £223,257 (Land Registry, 2017)
- NHS expenditure on vision problems in Wrexham per person is £91, compared with a UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- 910 patients live in Wrexham with late stage wet AMD and 440 with dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are about 1,420 people living in Wrexham who have cataract, 1,240 with glaucoma and 8,960 with diabetes.
- Some 2,770 patients have diabetic retinopathy, according to RNIB figures.
Fun facts
Britain’s oldest lager brew, Wrexham Lager, dates back to 1882 when German immigrants founded a brewery in West Wrexham to recreate the lager taste they missed from home. It was popular on British ships, including the Titanic, as it kept its taste and quality during transit.
Wrexham was a stop on the world’s first scheduled passenger helicopter service in 1950, with a return fare from Liverpool to Cardiff via Wrexham costing just £1. One of the aircraft is now based at Cosford Aerospace Museum.
Yale University in America is named after Elihu Yale, pictured, who was born in Boston, moved to Britain and lived in India, building his fortune trading in diamonds, spices and other commodities. He retired to the family estate, Plas Grono, in Wrexham and was buried at St Giles’ Church in 1721.