Sir,

After reading your article The De Rutzen Arms, Narberth, on Friday, October 4, I found a few inaccuracies in the article and an omission of interest or two, the first being:

It is said that a regular visitor to the Rutzen at this time was a Champagne company representative from Germany by the name of Manfred Von Richthofen. As the Red Baron, he was to become the most feared German air ace of World War I.

Manfred Von Richthofen was born in 1892 and got killed in action in 1918; he was born into a prominent Prussian family, he attended a military school at 11, and after completing cadet training in 1911 he joined the cavalry, seeing service on the Western fronts during WWI, before joining the flying service, and as they say the rest is history. Therefore it is highly unlikely that the Red Baron was the Champagne salesman that visited the De Rutzen.

It is more likely, Von Ribbentrop, who became Hitler's Foreign Minister in 1938, was the salesman; Von Ribbentrop married the daughter of a wealthy Wiesbaden wine-producer in 1920, and travelled Europe as a wine salesman, visiting James Williams, of Narberth, and giving a talk and presentation at the De Rutzen Hotel where he also stayed.

The Victoria Hall, which had long been rented by the borough council for the use of the town, was put up for sale in 1947. It was half-expected that the council would purchase the hall, but when no bids were forthcoming by 1950, James Williams turned it into a bottling plant and bottle store. The council realised too late that the town's only public hall had been taken away and the Queen's Hall had to be built to replace it.

The fact of the matter was that the cost of running and maintaining the Victoria Hall was too high, plus paying rent for the use of. During 1947, a hall committee was formed by local town councillors (Charles Salmon, Hugh Morgan, J. H. G. James, Hywel Davies, S. I. P. Williams) to build a new hall in a more prominent position with adjacent car parking to serve the town. They were eligible for a village hall grant, so began raising money for the now Queen's Hall. I, therefore, do not believe that the town council were too late realising their folly, but very much ahead of the game.

While the Victoria Hall bottle works - the old market - was demolished in the 1970s.

The Victoria Hall and old market was demolished in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

One of the Victoria Hall's greatest claims to fame was that it had a sprung dance floor which was the one of the few dance hall's in Wales to have such a unique facility.

Henry Langen,

Narberth.