Marford, an unassuming village in north Wales, is about to get a very famous new resident.
The news that Hollywood A-lister Ryan Reynolds has reportedly bought a £1.5million house in Marford has been met with excitement by the residents. Just a few years ago such a story would simply not be believable, but the people of the area are beginning to get used to the presence of celebrities.
Reynolds bought National League side Wrexham along with his friend and fellow actor Rob McElhenney in November 2020. Since then the duo have fallen in love with the club and the surrounding area and endeared themselves to the locals.
Wrexham’s dramatic 3-2 win over promotion rivals Notts County on Monday – billed as the biggest game in non-league history – saw the club take a huge step towards promotion to the Football League. And Reynolds appears completely committed to helping them on their journey.
The Sun reports that Reynolds has bought a house in Marford, a village of 2,500 people five miles to the north of Wrexham’s Racecourse ground.
The house is reported to be ‘the poshest on the road’, which is easy to believe considering properties in Marford had an overall average price of £479,600 over the last year, according to Rightmove.
The house will provide Reynolds and his family with a permanent place to stay when they visit for Wrexham games. Reynolds, 46, is married to actress Blake Lively, 35, and the couple have four children: James, 8, Inez, 6, and Betty, 3, and a baby who was born earlier this year. They currently live in a £4.3m mansion in New York and don’t have plans to relocate to north Wales.
The house might mean he sticks around for longer during visits, though. After the win over Notts County, Reynolds paid £100,000 to charter his own flight from Manchester to Teterboro in New Jersey.
The news of Reynolds’ purchase has caused a swell of excitement in Marford.
“It's caused a real buzz in the village, many of the locals are excited that such a huge star is going to be living here,” Maguz Malik, owner of The Red Lion pub, told MailOnline.
“Ryan seems like a real down to earth guy and I think he'll fit in around here. It's a friendly and welcoming place to live. I'm sure he'll love it as much as us. And he's more than welcome in the pub, we'll have a pint waiting for him.”
Seeing the news, one user on Facebook wrote: "It'll make the school run a bit more interesting, I guess!” Tracey Nevitt, who runs a playgroup at Marford Community Centre told the BBC : "People are trying to guess where, because there's only so many houses round here he could potentially buy.
"Yeah, I think it's a good feeling. He's not the first star here. We've got Dennis Taylor just down the road and Steve Cooper. So we're quite used to it."
As well as snooker legend Taylor and Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper, the area also used to be home to Tim Vincent from Blue Peter.
Marford is only a small place, with two pubs – The Red Lion and The Trevor Arms – and a Co-op to its name. The village used to be involved in mining, with a quarry set up in 1927 to excavate materials to build the Mersey Tunnel, but that was closed in 1971 and has since been turned into a nature reserve.
It is situated on the outskirts of Wrexham, just shy of the English border on the A483 road towards Chester, and is known for its Gothic-style architecture.
