Sex Shops in Wrexham

A company wants to open a sex shop in a Wrexham town centre property famous for being the birthplace of the oldest surviving member of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Edwin Hughes - who became known as Balaclava Ned after riding with the 13th Light Dragoons in the suicidal charge during the Crimean War - was born at number 2 Mount Street in 1830.

In 1992 local businessman Bob Gray paid for a commemorative plaque to be fixed to the side of the building, which is now unoccupied.

The National Chairman of the Crimean War Research Society Col Peter Knox who lives in the Mold area said: I'm horrified, but what can one do, all our members will be horrified too. We will certainly be lodging a complaint with the planning authority in Wrexham. The idea of opening a sex shop in such a significant birthplace is a slur on the memory of the man and the campaign. Balaclava Ned would be spinning in his grave, It's totally unacceptable.

Fantasy House is applying to Wrexham Council for a licence to turn the premises into a shop selling adult clothing. The application is due to come before the environmental licensing committee on July 27.

When the scheme was considered by the town centre's Offa Community Council recently, councillors raised objections to the possibility of a second adult shop being sited so close to an Private Shop just further along Yorke Street. Some nutters thought such premises should not be sited so close to the Wrexham Parish Church.

Plans to turn the birthplace of the longest surviving member of the Charge of the Light Brigade into a sex shop have been approved.

Edwin Hughes, otherwise known as 'Balaclava Ned', was born in Wrexham and died in Blackpool in 1927 aged 96.

I think it's a pity that the premises where his plaque stands could become a sex shop
Colonel Peter Knox, Crimean War Research Society

It is thought he was born at number 2 Mount Street, where a plaque was unveiled in his honour nearly 20 years ago.

Shropshire-based company, The Fantasy House, now plans to run a sex shop from the premises, a few doors down from an existing adult shop.

The Environmental Licensing Committee granted permission on the condition none of the licensed material is positioned near the front of the shop. The committee was told there had been no objections to the application.

However earlier, Colonel Peter Knox, chairman of the Crimean War Research Society, said: I think old Ned would be spinning in his grave.