Last night I went to the Trelawnyd and Gwaenysgor Community Council meeting and in passing had chance to read a photocopy of the Prestatyn Weekly Newspaper dated the 23rd of October 1909.
In it was an article discussing an initiative by Mr Michael Antonio Ralli,who was the Greek Consul in Liverpool, to build our village Hall as a way of giving jobs and motivation to the local unemployed.
Ralli was a somewhat colourful character to be found in a predominantly Welsh village. He was a Greek from Odessa who made a small fortune importing cotton from Russia when American could not export it's own during the American Civil War and I find it fascinating that after a period living in London and Liverpool
he and his wife Polynmia, would end up dominating an insular and quiet backwater village.
A Ukrainian Greek as Lord of the Manor
How Exotic!
Trelawnyd ( or Newmarket as it was formally known) was Ralli's dream, he clearly wanted it to develop in status when he gifted the Memorial Hall to the village
The newspaper cutting eluded to that fact when it stated that Ralli's wish was to make Newmarket a "Garden City", a rather grand dream for a village of 600 simple souls, but a rather sweet one nevertheless.
I wonder what Ralli would have made of the fact the Newmarket title was renamed Trelawnyd in 1954...
The "new" name was in keeping , I suppose, for it has a name that Ralli might of liked
.....Trelawnyd literally means " a town full of wheat"
He looks like a handsome chap.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post about Ralli and his gift of the Hall to Newmarket was amazing. Nice that the information and photo are available to current residents of Trelawnyd and around the world.
ReplyDeleteI love the glorious red of the new curtains!!
Hugs!
A real entrepeneur and benefactor, as well as being very handsome.
ReplyDeleteThe stage looks all set for some spectacular performances now. I can just imagine the swish of those beautiful new curtains. What a fascinating and philanthropic man Mr Ralli was. It's great that the TCA is keeping his dream alive. xx
ReplyDeleteit's always so interesting to learn back stories. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteI looked up Mr Ralli and found this https://www.christopherlong.co.uk/gen/relationsgen/fg03/fg03_300.html He was quite the lad. At his death he was worth 33 million in today's money.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting too . Quite a character!
DeleteMr. Ralli would be proud to know the people of your community are devoted to the Hall and have made it an integral part of the village.
ReplyDeleteThe red stage curtains are looking brilliant.
Thank you for the response! It's so interesting how he came to be in the village and how he cared about its future and employment for the people. It's even more unexpected than I had imagined. Also explains how he could afford to finance the project. Trelawnyd may not have become a garden city quite as he had hoped, but it certainly has a magic of its own!
ReplyDeleteA fascinating origin story.
ReplyDelete