Remember the Welsh story?

As part of AudlemOnline's 10th Birthday celebrations, we are looking back at some of the most memorable stories we have published.

One that went viral around the world was, in reality, a bit of April 1st nonsense. In April 2008, we published a story saying Audlem was going to apply to join Wales. It attracted some initial attention and so we launched an electronic poll to see what our readers thought of the idea.

Over one thousand voted and more than 60% were in favour. TV presenters and reporters, national newspapers and radio stations (and not just British) descended on the village. 'The One Show's' Gyles Brandreth said it was the perfect story: it was credible, amusing and had a serious political point behind it.

On one occasion, dozens of 5As theatre group members were all over the village in Welsh outfits filming for Dom Littlewood's TV programme, 'Dom's on the Case' which culminated with an Audlem Welsh-speaking choir singing the Welsh anthem on TV to be judged (very positively) by a Welsh National Assembly member.

This was the story that announced the electronic poll in 2008:

AudlemOnline is starting a new Vote Poll today asking 'Would you like Audlem to apply to be part of Wales?'

Regular readers will recall one of our April Fool stories was on this very theme. As we said in a light-hearted piece, becoming part of Wales would bring major benefits – free prescriptions; free parking at NHS hospitals, and a Grand Slam winning rugby team.

The major Parish Plan project to build a sports centre in Audlem would also be realised almost immediately as every Welsh village with more than ten dwellings has a large Sports Centre.

By an amazing coincidence, the Government announced on the very same day that prescription charges would be raised in England – they were reduced in Scotland by £2 that same day and it was confirmed they would remain free in Wales. Also on the same day, Leighton Hospital doubled some of its parking charges – it now costs £3 to park for more than 20 minutes and £10 overnight. Parking remains free at all Welsh hospitals.

The poll will be seen, we hope, as a humorous way to make a very serious point. Nobody in England, we suspect, wants to take away the many benefits the Welsh, and even more the Scots, enjoy. We'd just like the same benefits – as all three countries pay the same level of tax.

A 'Yes' vote in the Audlem Poll may attract widespread publicity and send out a serious message to the Government.

One Audlem resident did suggest we applied be an 'on-shore' island of Scotland. Then we would also get free university education; free care for the elderly and road tolls would be slashed – many bridge tolls have been abolished in Scotland in recent years. In contrast, our nearest toll on the M6 at Cannock has been more than doubled from £2 to £4.50 since the road opened in late 2003.

It's a long way to Scotland however, and we think the Welsh proposal is more practical. After all, the border is a mere nine miles away and the Government has shown how easy it is to change, or create new borders with the controversial decision to split Cheshire in two.

We do have to confess that our April 1st suggestion that Audlem's Welsh name of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilioshroppieflygogogoch was only a joke, as was our translation as "The church of St James by the hawthorn lined canal and the Shroppie Fly with the narrow road used by juggernauts from all over the world."

Mind you, keep reading AudlemOnline – we are announcing some important news about the A525 shortly which, we hope, will bring as big a smile to Audlem as our new Vote Poll.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.