Bruce Barkley, in Light and Shade

Romany Rose

One of the exhibitions in the Fron Community Centre on 23rd November will be of the late Bruce Barkley’s prints, some of which were featured in his ‘in Light and Shade’ publication. Bruce was an artist-in-residence with the Wrexham Leader Newspaper and local celebrity well known for his beautiful drawings of local landmarks, villages, towns and scenes of the waterways. Bruce and his family were from Froncysyllte, with a family tree dating back to the 1700s. The prints are courtesy of June Smith, Angela Lawrenson and Hilary Edwards, Bruce’s daughters and niece. Also on display will be a huge range of postcards that have been collected over decades by a local family, the Alcocks. This collection, which is mounted on boards, has previously been shown in Fron Community Centre. We are very excited that they will be exhibited as part of the event to give us an insight into Fron through the eras. Cakes & Co, Froncysyllte’s own community café, will be there on 23rd November doing an extra Saturday especially for the event! Cakes & Co was established in 2007 as a meeting place for locals and visitors to the beautiful valley. It is staffed by volunteers and takes place on the first Saturday of every month. Some of the organisations who benefit from the café’s fundraising are the village school, the Church, the Chapel and the Darby and Joan Club as it is important to have the continued support of locals and visitors. Their freshly made sandwiches and home-made cakes are very reasonably priced and you can still get a cup of tea or coffee for 50p. As well as visitors from all over the UK, their visitors’ book shows entries from people from as far away as Vancouver, Canada; Bondi, Australia; Wanganui, New Zealand; Florida, USA; Milan, Italy; Tokyo, Japan and Shanghai, China, all of whom have enjoyed the café’s hospitality.