Natasha Borton: Wrecsam Ffair, Wrexham Underdogs and One Very Good Hometown

There are people who come to an event and do one thing.

And then there is Natasha Borton.

At Wrecsam Ffair, Natasha managed to combine creative writing, spoken word, the National Library of Wales, craft activities, archival films and a rather emphatic “Wrexham Underdog” T-shirt.

We thought we’d better investigate.

The artist

Natasha joined the Wrecsam Ffair programme through her links with Voicebox and Llangollen Spoken Word, taking part in the Creative Writing Workshop before performing at our Spoken Word event.

It was exactly the sort of creative contribution we wanted Wrecsam Ffair to provide: an opportunity for people to write, perform, listen and share their own voices.

But Natasha had another role at the Ffair.

The other head

Like many artists, Natasha has another professional life alongside her creative work.

She works for the National Library of Wales, and brought that side of her work to Wrecsam Ffair too, hosting National Library of Wales craft activities and short archival films at Hope Cafe.

So we had Natasha the writer and spoken-word artist.

Natasha from the National Library of Wales.

And, apparently, Natasha the wearer of extremely specific Wrexham T-shirts.

Then we found the song

The Wrexham Underdog T-shirt might have been dismissed as a bit of local pride.

Except we then discovered that Natasha had written and recorded a song called “Hometown”.

Released in 2023, the song is unmistakably about Wrexham.

It takes a musical trip around the city and its surroundings, touching on familiar landmarks, places, people, football, local history and some of the things that make Wrexham distinctive.

It also captures something much closer to the spirit of our Belonging in Our Community campaign.

At its heart, Hometown isn’t about pretending that Wrexham is perfect.

It’s about recognising that this is our place – with its history, its quirks, its problems, its possibilities and, most importantly, its people.

“We only get one hometown”

We’re not going to reproduce the lyrics here. Instead, we’re going to let Natasha do the talking – or, more accurately, the singing.

Listen to Natasha Borton’s “Hometown” here:

There is something particularly fitting about discovering this song after Natasha’s involvement in Wrecsam Ffair.

Because a large part of Belonging in Our Community is about how we see the places we live.

Who belongs?

Who gets to contribute?

Whose stories do we hear?

And what happens when we stop concentrating on the things that divide us and start noticing the people, places, memories, humour, creativity and shared experiences that connect us?

Natasha’s Hometown is a rather good example.

One hometown. Lots of stories.

Wrecsam Ffair was deliberately designed to bring lots of different parts of the community together – artists, community groups, young people, families, organisations and people who simply came along to see what was happening.

Natasha somehow managed to represent several of those worlds at once.

Creative writing.

Spoken word.

Archives.

Craft.

Music.

And a healthy amount of Wrexham pride.

So perhaps that Wrexham Underdog T-shirt wasn’t such a surprise after all.

We only get one hometown. This one is ours.

And that’s a pretty good place to start when we’re talking about belonging.