The Little Book of Wales E-Book

Revd Mark Lawson-Jones

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 218

Leseprobe

First published 2013

Reprinted 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020

This paperback edition published 2022

The History Press

97 St George’s Place,

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Mark Lawson-Jones, 2013, 2022

The right of Mark Lawson-Jones to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7524 9297 1

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1.Croeso i Gymru – Welcome to Wales

2. The Land and the Language

3. When Did Wales Happen?

4. 100 Welsh Heroes

5. Visitors to Wales

6. Stop Press: The Welsh Discovered America!

7. Food, Rugby and Coal

8. Land of Writers and Poets

9. The Drovers in Wales

10. Welsh Music: From The Green, Green Grass to the Goldie Lookin’ Chain

11. The Welsh: Who Are They? All Things Welsh

12. Must See Places in Wales

13. Welsh Saints

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to several people: David Osmond and Richard Frame, who have explained to me how great Wales is; Clare Barrett who has given me a love of the Welsh language; my dad, Peter, who helped greatly with this book; and last but not least, my family, who put up with me and my ‘great’ ideas.

INTRODUCTION

How hard can it be? It’s a book about Wales! I said to myself as I put pen to paper to start writing The Little Book of Wales. After all, I’m Welsh, I live in Wales, and I love all things Welsh…

It wasn’t until I started to write this book that I realised how difficult it would be. My greatest fear would be that my Little Book would be nothing of the sort. Other books on Wales run to encyclopaedic lengths not to omit, misrepresent or offend. I would need to remember all the things I love about Wales and put them into some sort of order. So I sat and thought … and thought some more … and then some more. I would need to write about the diverse and wonderful landscape, the long and exhilarating history, the musicians, poets, writers and great thinkers of their age. I would need to write about Welsh links with the world and 100 other things. It would be quite a task!

A few years ago I started to visit museums, exhibitions and historic sites in Wales with two friends who have a love of history. It wasn’t too long before I was mesmerised by my own nation and culture, its history, treasures and language. I would regularly return home in the evening with a jumble of facts, figures and stories, trying to put them all in order and make sense of all this new information. It was as if I had been a stranger in my own land.

There was a reason for this. When I was a schoolboy in the Welsh Valleys, history lessons would consist of learning about the kings and queens of England, the Romans, Normans and Vikings, Shakespeare, Queen Victoria and a bit of the First World War if we were lucky. We never really learned about the great amount of history on our own doorstep.

A quarter of a century later I would learn that the window which I used to stare out of in history lessons overlooked the route of the Chartists, when they marched past on 4 November 1839, calling for votes for ordinary working people. I hadn’t been taught about them in school, and far from being an insignificant event in the life of my small nation, it was hugely significant. This last rising against authority to take place in Britain came to a gruesome end in Newport when they met the army.

I also didn’t realise that the landscape, with its scars of industry, the sites of long-gone iron works, pit heads and spoil heaps, had fuelled the Industrial Revolution throughout the world, and the now green hills were very different 200 years before.

My trips around Wales continue to give me a sense of belonging. I tried to explain this feeling of Welsh pride, and it wasn’t that easy. Luckily, the Welsh have a rather good word for it.

Hwyl (hu:il) is described in the Welsh University Dictionary Y Geriadur Prifusgol Cymru as: ‘A healthy physical or mental condition, good form, one’s right senses, temper, mood, frame of mind, nature, disposition.’ It goes on to say that the word means ‘a journey, progress or revolution.’ A task completed with ‘gusto, zest and fun.’

That was it! I had discovered something quite special.

1

CROESO i GYMRU – WELCOME TO WALES

So, what’s so special about Wales then?

Thanks for asking. There is no escaping the fact that Wales is an extraordinary place.

With around 3 million residents, this country with an area of just over 8,000 square miles might seem a rather small place. However, in the league tables of the nations Wales punches well above its weight in many ways. It can’t be denied that Wales and the Welsh have had an extraordinary effect on the world.

This astonishing land bordered by England, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean has produced artists and writers, academics, religious figures, adventurers and rogues to tell the story of Wales and the Welsh. The pages of history are full of their tales.

So, who are these famous Welsh people?

There are lots of them! They include: Richard Burton; Sir Anthony Hopkins; Sir Tom Jones; Catherine Zeta-Jones; Dame Shirley Bassey; Timothy Dalton; Charlotte Church; Roald Dahl; Tommy Cooper; and King Henry VII. Here are some others you might not have heard of:

Robert Recorde (1512-1558), the mathematician and physicist, born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, invented the ‘equals to’ sign and the ‘plus’ sign, which first appeared in the book The Whetstone of Witte, published in 1557. This wasn’t an end to the talents of Recorde though; in an extraordinary career, he was also appointed Physician to King Edward VI and Queen Mary, and Controller of the Royal Mint before being sued for defamation by a political enemy and dying in the King’s Bench Prison, Southwark in June of 1558.

A Welshman even invented tennis! At a meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Association, London, in August 1887, a Colonel Mainwaring made the following statement: ‘I should like it to be entered on record that the now popular game of lawn tennis was the old Welsh game of Cerrig y Drudion.’ The colonel’s remarks came at a time when lawn tennis was enjoying a tremendous amount of popularity both in Britain and in the United States.

If that wasn’t enough, Welshman Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones (1834-1920) from Newtown, Montgomeryshire, created the first mail order business in the world. Pryce-Jones hit upon a unique method of selling his wares. People would choose what they wanted from leaflets he sent out and the goods would then be dispatched by post and train. It was to change the nature of retailing throughout the world. Florence Nightingale, as well as Queen Victoria and royal households across Europe, bought from Pryce Pryce-Jones. At the height of his success he was selling to America and even Australia, and by 1880 he had more than 100,000 customers.

Mount Everest was named after Welsh surveyor and geographer Colonel Sir George Everest (1790-1866) from Gwernvale, Breconshire. Sir George was largely responsible for completing the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India, which ran from South India to Nepal. The Royal Geographical Society named Mount Everest after him in 1865, ignoring his objections that the name Everest could not be written in Hindi, nor pronounced by natives of India.

All very clever people! Is there anything the Welsh can’t do?

It’s worth mentioning the success Welsh people have had on the high seas too.

In 1170, it is said, Prince Madoc, with thirteen ships and 300 men, sailed from Llandrillo-yn-Rhos to America. The great explorer Columbus annotated his notes from the gulf of Sargasso with ‘these are Welsh waters’ on his return from America in 1492. There is believed to be linguistic and archaeological evidence to support an early Welsh colonisation of America… but more about him later!

A few centuries later a Welsh sailor diversified to a different type of seafaring…

Bartholomew ‘Black Bart’ Roberts (1682-1722) was probably the most successful pirate of all time; in the three years between 1719 and 1722, he captured and looted over 400 vessels, terrorising merchant shipping from Newfoundland to Brazil and the Caribbean and the African coast. No other pirate of his age comes close to that number of captured vessels. He was successful in part because he thought big, usually commanding a fleet of anywhere from two to four pirate ships which could surround and catch victims… and who thought all pirates needed a West Country accent? Arr, me hearty!

So much for the famous Welsh people! I thought Wales was only famous for difficult-to-pronounce place names?

Well, that’s true too. The wonderfully named, Llanfair-pwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a town in North Wales, which translates as ‘the church of St Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St Tysilio’s of the red cave’. It is believed to be the longest place name in the world.

Has Wales got any short place names?

Well yes, it’s a tie between the many places in Wales with three-letter names:

Cog, in the Vale of Glamorgan, is one of the places in Wales with the shortest name, and the close-by Ely in Cardiff. Further north Hem in Montgomeryshire, and the beautiful town of Usk in Gwent are all uncommonly short for Welsh place names. The most common short name in Wales is Cwm: the name appears everywhere. In Welsh, Cwm means valley, and there are lots of those.

Speaking of Welsh, you haven’t mentioned the language yet!

According to the 2020 Annual Population Survey, 28.5% of residents speak Welsh, this equates to 861,700 people. English is spoken in all areas, and the law requires both languages to be given equal treatment. The Welsh language is very old, probably spanning the last 1,500 years. This could make it the oldest language in Europe.

Tell me some astonishing facts!

Ok, how about this: in Wales, on 13 May 1897, Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) sent the first ever wireless communication over open sea. It traversed the water from Lavernock Point to Flat Holm Island, a distance of 3.7 miles (6km). The message read, ‘Are you ready?’

Wales is the only nation in the United Kingdom not to be represented on the Union Jack, and sheep outnumber humans 4 to 1.

There are more castles per square mile than any country in Western Europe.

Finally, the poet Brian Harris sums up the Welsh spirit, or Hwyl, in the first verse of his 1967 poem In Passing:

To be born in Wales,

Not with a silver spoon in your mouth,

But, with music in your blood

And with poetry in your soul,

Is a privilege indeed.

‘WELSHNESS’ AND THE WELSH

‘Welshness’ is a sort of indefinable quality that is something like a mixture of national pride and a sense of place. It is the

feeling that, however diverse we all become in Wales, we have something special that joins us. It may stem from the great sense of belonging and community the Welsh have. I’ve no idea how we can measure Welshness, but some people have tried, to no avail.

The 2011 census returned some interesting results for the people of Wales:

Two-thirds of people who live in Wales consider themselves to be Welsh, with the Valleys area of Rhondda Cynon Taf having the most people who say they are Welsh. In a nutshell, 75 per cent of residents were born in Wales, 20 per cent in England and 5 per cent somewhere else.

The most recent Annual Population Survey showed a small increase in Welsh speakers in Wales. The Welsh government have set a target of 1 million speakers by 2050. Although the traditional areas of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Gwynedd all report only a small reduction, the most anglicised areas, like Monmouth and the rest of south-east Wales, report a small increase in Welsh speakers.

A century ago, it was a different picture. Most people spoke Welsh, and English was not only rarely heard, a large amount of people couldn’t speak English at all.

Since 2001, the population of Wales has been slowly rising; there has been a 5 per cent increase to 3,100,000 people.

2

THE LAND AND THE LANGUAGE

SO WHAT DOES WALES LOOK LIKE?

Wales looks very good; it is bordered by England to the east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to the west. It has an area of 8,022 square miles (20,779 sq. km). The capital and largest city of Wales is Cardiff, with a population of 350,000.

Wales has at least fifty-three islands not far from the coast. The largest of these is Anglesey (Ynys Môn) in the Irish Sea, which has an area of 260 square miles; the smallest is the tiny Cardigan Island at 0.06 square miles.

Wales is mountainous with the highest peak, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), standing at 3,560ft (1,065m). There are three mountainous regions: Snowdonia, situated in the north-west; the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales; and the Brecon Beacons in the south. The mountains assumed their present shape during the last Ice Age, the Devensian glaciation.

CLIMATE

Wales has a temperate climate. This basically means that it never really gets very hot and never gets really cold. Winters are mild and summers are warm, and it seems to rain more than anywhere else! In north-west Wales, around 2m of rain falls each year. The sunniest month is May, averaging 188 hours of sunshine, and the warmest months are July and August.

Most travel guides tend to make a comment that reads something like: ‘waterproofing advised throughout the year.’

THE COASTLINE ANDTHE WALES COASTAL PATH

On 5 May 2012, the 870-mile (1,377km) coastal path around the whole of the Welsh coast was officially opened. The Wales Coast Path (Llwybr Arfordir Cymru) twists continuously from Chepstow in the south to near Queensferry in the north, following the dramatic scenery, cliffs, sandy bays and ancient castles.

This prompted the Lonely Planet guide to declare: ‘What a wonderful thing: to walk the entire length of a country’s coastline, to trace its every nook, cranny, cliff-face indent and estuary.’

They also put Coastal Wales at the top of their list of World Regions to visit.

The coastal path visits two national parks, eleven nature reserves and dozens of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

Starting in North Wales, the coastal path follows the Dee Estuary along the coast to the Isle of Anglesey. The beautiful scenery here gives way to the rugged views of Snowdonia. Ceredigion and the expansive Cardigan Bay, buffeted by the winds and the sea, is a great place to watch nature. Pembrokeshire’s beaches and the seaside towns of Tenby and Saundersfoot have been a centre for the great Welsh holiday for generations. Continuing around the coast, we arrive in Carmarthenshire with its proud and long history. The Gower peninsular was named as Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956, and from here the industrial heart of Wales starts with Swansea, Port Talbot, Cardiff and Newport. The coastal path ends in the border town of Chepstow.

OFFA’S DYKE (CLAWDD OFFA)AND THE OFFA’S DYKE PATH

If the coastal path wasn’t spectacular enough, Offa’s Dyke is a great frontier earthwork built by Offa, King of Mercia, from AD 757 to AD 796. It was built to form some type of boundary between the kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys. In places it is still up to 65ft wide and 8ft high. It runs almost the whole length of Wales.

Each year hundreds of walkers travel the length of the Offa’s Dyke path taking an average twelve days to complete the 177 miles (285km). They stay in pubs and bed and breakfast accommodation, or camp along the route. Traditionally, walkers start at the marker stone on the Dyke at Sedbury Cliff, 1 mile from Chepstow on the banks of the Severn Estuary, and complete the journey at the marker stone on the Prestatyn seafront, on the banks of the Irish Sea.

They witness the beauty of mountains, hill pasture, river valleys and lowland fields. Over 30 per cent of the journey is within three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and 9 per cent is within a national park. Two thirds of the trail is in Wales. It passes through no less than eight different counties and crosses the border between England and Wales twenty-seven times.

Although the Dyke was constructed over 1,200 years ago, the path was only officially opened on 10 July 1971, by Lord Hunt, leader of the 1953 Mount Everest expedition.

THE LANGUAGE AND THE PEOPLE

Many languages are spoken in Wales: English is the most common and Welsh (Cymraeg) is second, with almost a fifth of the population speaking the language. After decades of decline in the early twentieth century the Welsh language is slowly returning in many areas. The widespread provision of Welsh-medium education and a flourishing media and arts industry has certainly assisted this. S4C, the Welsh language television channel, and BBC Cymru, producing drama, news coverage, documentaries and current affairs and sports in Welsh, have recently renewed a strategic partnership to produce programmes for several more years.

Bilingual policies, adult education and legal rights for the language have all assisted with the expansion of Welsh in Wales.

Don’t worry though; you certainly don’t need to speak any Welsh to enjoy a holiday or a business trip to Wales. But just a little understanding of the language will bring your trip to Wales to life.

If you want to have a go at Welsh pronunciation, however, this next section might be for you.

Welsh is a great language to learn, because, with virtually no exceptions, it is pronounced as it is written. There are no tricky and fiddly heteronyms like in English – just think of buffet, colonel, abuse, rebel, use, all having different pronunciations and meanings, but the same spellings. In Welsh, if you see it – you say it!

HERE ARE SOME OF THEDIFFERENCES BETWEENTHE ENGLISH AND WELSH LANGUAGE

b, d, h, l, m, n, p, ph and t are all pronounced as in English.

c – pronounced as a k, as in English ‘cane’, but never as in ‘city’

ch – pronounced as in the Scottish ‘loch’, but never as in ‘chain’

dd – pronounced th, as in the English ‘the’

g – pronounced as a hard g, as in the English ‘grip’

ll – is pronounced a bit like th

f – is always pronounced as a v, as in the English ‘van’

ff – is pronounced as an f, as in ‘off’

r – don’t forget you need to roll your r’s in Welsh

rh – is aspirated in welsh as in ‘perhaps’

w – pronounced like oo, as in ‘spoon’

y – has a couple of sounds, but don’t worry they are easy to learn. The first is ‘ur’, when you use it as the definite article. y castell (ur casteth) is ‘the castle’. Secondly, Gwynt (gwint) means ‘wind’ and gives us a regular ‘i’ sound. The phrase y Cymro (er cum-ro), meaning ‘the Welsh’, has another sound, an ‘um’.

Welsh has no k, q, v, x or z.

Ok! We are nearly there. Just a few more rules:

I at the beginning of a syllable, like English y as in yes. Iorwerth (yore-worth)

A – short as in English cat (not as in cape), or long as in English bar. Dda (thar)

E – short as in English hen, or long as in English panel

I – short as in English pit (never as in like)

O – short as in English not (never as in book), or long as in English robe (Goch)

U – short, rather like the English I sound in pit (never as in hut), or long like a French u or as in English meet

Y – represents two distinct vowel sounds, ‘obscure’ and ‘clear’

Right! Got it? Here we go…

WELSH LANGUAGEIDIOMS AND PROVERBS

These little gems tell us a lot about the Welsh philosophy and culture. The knowledge and experience of the old, wise words in austere times, and the importance of chwarae teg (fair play), are all found here.

Idiom

Direct Translation (Meaning)

Nerth gwlad, ei gwybodaeth

The strength of a nation is its knowledge

Henaint ni ddaw ei hunan

Old age comes not on its own

I’r pant rhed y dwr

The water always runs into the valley (The rich tend to get richer)

Gŵr heb bwyll, llong heb angor

A man without a sound mind, a ship without an anchor

A’i waed yn berwi

His blood boils (He is angry)

A ddarleno ystyried

Let him who reads reflect

Mae e’n Gwybod Hyd ei Gyrn

He knows the length of his horns (He knows his weaknesses)

Gwna dda dros ddrwg, uffern ni’th ddwg.

Do good over evil and hell will not steal you

A ddialo air hagr, rhoed ated têg

To revenge a harsh word, give a gentle reply

Mae fe’n lladd gwair

He is cutting hay (He is killing time)

Pan fo llawer yn llywio fe sudda’r llong

When many steer the ship will sink

A ddwg angeu nid adfur

What death takes it will not restore

Canu cyn borefwyd, crio cyn swper

Sing before breakfast, weep before supper

Mae hi wedi llyncu pry

She has swallowed a fly (She is pregnant)

Mwyaf y brys, mwyaf y rhwystr

More the hurry, more the difficulties

N’ad fi’n angof

Forget me not

Llaeth I blentyn, cig i ŵr, cwrw i’r hen

Milk for a child, meat for a man, beer for the old

Hedyn pob drwg yw diogi

The root of all evil is laziness

A ddywedo pawb, gwir yw

What everyone says is true

Tri chysur henaint: tân, te a thybaco

Three comforts of old age: fire, tea and tobacco

Tri chynnig i Gymro

Three attempts for a Welshman

Mae hi’n siarad trwy hi het

She’s speaking through her hat (Talking rubbish)

A elwir yn gall a gais fod yn gall

He who is called wise will seek to be wise

Siared pymtheg y dwsin

Speaking fifteen to the dozen (To speak very quickly)

And one of my favourites…

Mae hi’n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn

It’s raining old ladies and sticks (Heavy rain)

THE WELSH ‘NOT’ –AN UNHAPPY HISTORY

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century in Wales, it was believed that Welsh was an unsuitable language to teach children, so in many schools it was actively discouraged.

If a child was heard speaking Welsh, they were required to wear a wooden plaque with the letters ‘WN’ (‘Welsh Not’) inscribed. If another child spoke Welsh, the plaque would pass to them. At the end of the day, or in some cases the end of the week, the child left wearing the plaque would be severely punished. It was believed that this would ensure children would only speak English in school.

The origins of the belief that Welsh was an unsuitable language probably dates back to the Blue Books published in 1847. This parliamentary report on the role of Welsh language included the paragraph: ‘The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to moral progress … it is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects … there is no Welsh literature worthy of the name.’

For correctness, it’s worth mentioning that the Blue Books state that the ‘Welsh Not’ was both arbitrary and cruel. Nevertheless, the practice flourished, and this symbol continues to be associated with cultural oppression by many in Wales.

3

WHEN DID WALES HAPPEN?

In his book the historian John Davies suggests that around AD 500 the people of Wales were organised into an ‘heroic’ society celebrated by the chroniclers and poets. When the Romans finally left Britain something of the Empire survived, and the people maintained the political structures they had inherited.

Around AD 425-450 Vortigern ruled over much of the former Roman province that stretched across the Midlands and Wales, and he enjoyed great success. He adopted a rather cunning plan to keep his kingdom safe: he allowed invaders to settle, as long as they promised to sort out his other enemies. So, the British tribes the Votadini and Gododdin people fought to stop the Irish invading, alongside Vortigern and his people. Even the feisty Saxons were allowed to settle, as long as they helped to stop the Picts invading.

The partnerships were very powerful, and stories of bravery and courage were passed down the generations. One of the oldest known pieces of British literature is a poem called Y Gododdin, written in Old Welsh, previously passed down via the oral traditions of the Brythonic-speaking Britons. This poem celebrates the bravery of the soldiers from what was later referred to by the Britons as Yr Hen Ogledd, the Old North.