Blogs
I've just uploaded some photos, for the first time, of the recent snow we had here at Blaenfforest in the deepest west of Wales and of our Christmas!
Best wishes to all
Sally
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Blodwen's Werin Furniture Range Hits Liberty's Of London.
Both qualities apply to Blodwen's range of traditional farmhouse furniture, which is now also available at Liberty's of London as well as on a bespoke basis.
...and my website is out of date, for which apologies, but I'll get to it soon, I promise!
I think I knew I wanted to write about Owain from around the time I knew I wanted to write. I went to an ordinary Cardiff primary school in the 50s, and it was there that my beloved Miss Thomas told me that, one day, if I worked hard, I would be a writer. Well, Miss Thomas, cariad, if you were alive today, you'd know that your prediction came true. I'm the author of around 30 children's novels and poetry collections, plus contributions to various short story and poetry anthologies.
When I was around 13 I read a newspaper article about Owain Glyndwr. And fell in love. But, being a child of a pair of Victorian parents who didn't believe in educating girls because they only went and got married, my "career", post-high school, was mapped out for me. I left at 15 before taking my GCEs, and my Mum found me a job as a shop assistant in Woolworth's. If not for my brother paying for me to take a secretarial course, that would have been it. But one thing hurt: whenever I filled in an application form for a job I had to write, under "Qualifications" ~ none.
I was lucky enough to marry a kind, supportive man whose motto is "don't die wishing you'd done something". I wanted and wanted to get some qualifications, and eventually signed up for the OU ~ only to find myself expecting my third child. I'm not someone who can breastfeed a child and simultaneously care fortwo others and study for a degree as wellso that went by the board after the first year. And then, miraculously, I was sent an application form ~ right out of the blue, apparently ~ for the first ever MA in creative writing at Cardiff. Which I managed to achieve. I jokingly said to my tutor, who had become a friend, "PhD next, then!". He gazed at me thoughtfully, and then said, "Nah. You wouldn't get it."
I bloody would! I thought, and without thinking too much more, applied for, and was accepted, again at Cardiff, for a PhD, with a proposal to write a novel about Owain Glyndwr. Talk about biting off more than I could chew! I couldn't even close my mouth! But I got my head down, hit the libraries both academic and public, and did two years' research before I wrote a word. And eventually I finished the book, and the thesis, and got the PhD. I did another two years' work on the book before I thought" Silver Fox ~ It begins" was ready for publication ~ but could I get a Welsh publisher to look at it? Dream on. So I tried an English agent, who loved it, wanted to try to sell it for me, but would like her colleague to read it first. Colleague's opinion was, "great book, but nobody's interested in Welsh history, so take out as much of that as you can, and put in more sex". So that was that.
To cut a long story short, I self-published, which is something I said I'd never do. But the story wasn't finished yet. So I wrote "Silver Fox ~ The Paths Diverge" and self-published that, too. Thank you, Amazon! Sales are going slowly, but well, and reviews are pretty good. I still feel sad that I couldn't interest a Welsh publisher in publishing it, but nearly 9 years' work was too much to just put in the pending tray and forget about.
And now I keep getting emails from people who have read the first two books... And I'm about to embark on research for part three.
Right now, I'm living in France, but at the beginning of March I'm going Home for two weeks to visit schools and facilitate workshops to try to enthuse as many children with the joys of writing, and the wonder of Welsh history. I've been doing that for around 25 years, now, and still get a hell of a kick out of it.
Thanks, Miss Thomas!
HI Am currently doing some research on Welsh bagpipes and bagpipe music. it may be that emigrees from Wales took their pipes with them. I am asking therefore that if you know of a WElsh piper or Welsh bagpipes being mentioned in your area could you contact me.
THanks for the help
Keith
Born this day 1457 in Pembroke Castle
King Henry VII (Henry Tudor) - Welsh-born King of England,
Henry's father Edmund was a descendant of the royal house of Gwynedd and had died shortly before Henry's birth. Henry's tenuous claim to the English crown was through his mother Margaret Beaufort, who was the great, great granddaughter of Edward III. During Henry's early years, Edward IV, a Yorkist, became King of England in 1461 and Henry although only four years old was seen as a rival claimant from the House of Lancaster and therefore in danger of his life. He was carried for safety from one castle to another until his uncle Jasper Tudor took him to Brittany to seek refuge and where he remained safe.
Meanwhile back in England the tyrannical reign of the then King Richard III had driven more Lancastrian Englishmen to champion Henry's claim to the throne and an in 1485 an expedition consisting of mainly French mercenaries and Lancastrian exiles was raised. They landed at Dale in Pembrokeshire where Henry made capital of his Welsh ancestry by marching under the Red Dragon banner of Cadwaladr. He attracted military support and safe passage for his army's march through Wales on its way to the Battle of Bosworth, at which on August 22nd 1485, Henry defeated Richard and was crowned King of England. He later married Elizabeth of York, thus ending the divisive war and thereby securing the Tudor succession.
Welsh people hoped that Henry's reign would put an end to the subjugation that Wales and its people had suffered for centuries, but historians are divided on the actual impact his reign on Wales and he is not reported to have set foot in Wales after his coronation.
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
Henry Morton Stanley was born John Rowlands on 28th January 1841 in Denbigh.
He is known as a journalist and explorer, famous for his search for David Livingstone and his part in the European colonisation of Africa.
His parents were not married, and he was brought up in a workhouse, so in 1859, he left for America as a worker on a ship, which he jumped in New Orleans and there decided to change his name. He fought on both sides in the American Civil War, before becoming a journalist with the New York Herald, persuading the paper's editor to commission him to go to Africa to find David Livingstone, who he located on Lake Tanganyika on Nov. 10, 1871 and it was his reports on this expedition that made him famous.
He then went on to explore vast areas of central Africa, followIng the Congo River from its source to the sea and with the support of King Leopold II of Belgium, he returned with plans to develop the region and worked to open the lower Congo to commerce by the construction of roads, although his methods of using forced labour during this time have stained his reputation in recent histories. On his return to Europe in 1890, he began a worldwide lecture tour. He became the member of parliament for Lambeth and was knighted in 1899, he died in London on 10 May 1904.
Born this day 1929 in Cardiff
Clem Thomas - former Welsh rugby captain and Lions international. After his retirement from playing, Thomas became a much-respected writer on the game.
Born on this day 1948 in Leeds
Paul Ringer, former rugby union and rugby league international. He was an uncompromising forward, most remembered for his controversial sending off in a match against England in 1980 for a challenge on John Horton.
On 28th January 1316 - Llywelyn Bren led a revolt against the Anglo-Norman persecution of the people of Glamorgan by attacking Caerphilly Castle
In 1267 Llywelyn's father, Gruffudd ap Rhys, Lord of Senghenydd was dispossessed of his lordship by Gilbert de Clare, a powerful Anglo-Norman lord who had been given the castles of Abergavenny and Brecon as a reward for supporting Prince Edward (the future Edward I) and had built the castle at Caerphilly in 1268
The death of Gilbert's son at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 left a power vacuum in the region, so Edward II appointed a new administrator, Payn de Turberville of Coty who proceeded to persecute the people of Glamorgan. In defence of his people, Llywelyn appealed to Edward, but was ordered to appear before Parliament to face the charge of treason and if found guilty, he would be hanged. Llywelyn therefore, fled and prepared for war.,
On 28th January 1316, Llywelyn laid siege to Caerphilly Castle, capturing the Constable and burning the town. The revolt then quickly spread, Kenfig and Llantrisant castles were sacked and those at St Georges-super-Ely, Llangibby and Dinefwr were attacked.
Edward ordered Humphrey de Bohun, Lord of Brecon to crush the revolt and he gathered forces from Cheshire, North Wales and West Wales and advanced from Cardiff. The forces met at Castell Mor Graig and Llywelyn was obliged to retreat up to the north Glamorgan plateau where the Earl of Hereford's forces were also headed to intercept him.
Realising the fight was hopeless, Llywelyn surrendered at Ystradfellte but pleaded that his followers should be spared. However in 1318, Hugh Despenser , reputedly King Edward's lover, who had become Lord of Glamorgan, had Llywelyn executed without trial at Cardiff Castle and had the parts of his body exhibited in various part of the county, before burial in the Grey Friars at Cardiff.
Dissatisfaction with Despenser led to a revolt by an alliance of local Welsh and Marcher Lords which would eventually lead to the overthrow and death of Edward II and the execution of Despenser. The estates in Senghenydd were restored to Llywelyn Bren's sons — Gruffydd, John, Meurig, Roger, William ad Llywelyn in 1327.
On 28th January 1543, Bishop Rowland Lee died. He was Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches and Henry VIII's enforcer of the Acts of Union between England and Wales. He was also described as a "great despiser of Welshmen"
With the implementation of The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, the legal system and administration of England were applied in Wales and English became the official language. The act also divided Wales into 13 counties each governed by a Justice of the Peace appointed by Henry. These were the existing counties of the principality and included Marcher Lordships being converted into the new counties of Monmouthshire, Brecknockshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, Denbighshire.
Henry figured that bringing the Welsh into the Union would require strong measures and appointed the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Rowland Lee as Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches, tasked with bringing law and order to the Welsh regions.
What ensued was a reign of terror. Lee, who believed the Welsh could not be trusted boasted of hanging 5000 Welshmen during his five years in charge, which resulted in him being referred to as the "hanging Bishop". According to one account, his fervor for hanging was so great that he even hanged a the body of a dead man, because of his disappointment at missing an opportunity to do so when he was alive.
On 28th January 1896 an underground explosion at Tylorstown Colliery in the Rhondda Valley killed 57 miners.
The subsequent inquest found the cause to be the firing of an explosion shot into air that was full of gas and that it was accelerated by coal dust. Also, as the explosion occurred between shifts the death toll of 57 would have been much higher had it occurred during a full shift of over 300 men.
The local paper, the Rhondda Chronicle told of how thousands of people had gathered at the pit-head and also reported on the massive local funerals and how the bodies of those who were from outside the area were transported for burial in Welshpool, Cheltenham, St Clears and Aberystwyth.
Tylorstown is named after Alfred Tylor who sunk the village's first colliery in 1872 and like many other Rhondda villages was initially overcrowded with the influx of workers leading to them being initially housed in poorly built wooden huts. However, following the success of the mine, the village became a thriving town, with thirteen places of worship.
How the Tylorstown mining disaster on 28th January 1896 was the inspiration for using canaries to detect dangerous gases underground.
Previously, it was believed that miners killed in explosions had died from the force of the blast itself. However Scottish Professor John Scott Haldane stood virtually alone in his belief that suffocation was a far greater killer and following the Tylorstown disaster, he insisted on going underground to see the victims before they were moved. He saw that there was hardly a mark on them and following post-mortems discovered that the pink tinge which was thought to be bruises or burns were in fact caused by the blood's haemoglobin combining with the poisonous carbon monoxide.
Over the next few months Haldane, tested the effects of carbon monoxide on himself and a series of smaller animals and concluded that canaries were 20 times more susceptible to the gas than humans. The use of canaries in coal mines became redundant in 1986 when they were phased out in favour of electronic carbon monoxide detectors.
On 28th January 1963 Castell Coch, situated above the village of Tongwynlais, near Caerphilly, became a Grade I listed building.
A history of Castell Coch;
Castell Coch is 19th-century Gothic Revival castle constructed on the remains of an earth and timber motte castle, built at the end of the 11th century, during the initial Norman expansion into Wales and refortified in stone by Gilbert de Clare between 1267 and 1277.
The de Clare dynasty had originated with Gilbert, Count of Brionne in Normandy a guardian of the young William the Conqueror. Gilbert's son Richard fought with William in 1066 and after the conquest of England received huge estates including Clare in Suffolk, hence the name of de Clare. Over successive generations, the family had been rewarded with lands in Wales and in 1217 the Lordship of Glamorgan passed to them. Gilbert de Clare, therefore, inherited the Lordship of Glamorgan in 1263.
At this time, much of upland Wales was still under the control of the native Welsh and neighbouring Gilberts' lordship, was the powerful native Welsh Lordship of Senghenydd, under the rule of Gruffydd ap Rhys. In 1267, Gilbert launched an attack on Senghenydd and captured Gruffydd ap Rhys. To secure the area Gilbert then embarked on building a series of large fortresses including the rebuilding in stone of Castell Coch, because of its strategic importance, commanding both the plains area and the entrance to the Taff valley.
This brought Gilbert into direct conflict with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Welsh Prince of Wales, who saw the attack on Senghenydd as a direct challenge to his rule and seized Senghenydd in September 1268. This, which was the start of a feud between the two men, which lasted until Llywelyn's death in 1282, when Gilbert was finally able to occupy and fortify the area.
Sometime in the 15th century, Castell Coch was ravaged by fire and undermining and rendered derelict. Then in 1871, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, ordered its full reconstruction. In 1950, the 5th Marquess of Bute gave the castle to the Ministry of Works and it is now administered by Ca dw.
"March 2013 will mark the birth of an exciting new development for Welsh writers everywhere. Eto is the realization of a vision to provide a global showcase for the many gifted Welsh writers whose chosen medium is English. Authors with established reputations such as Lloyd Jones, Chris Keil, Mike Jenkins, Paul Steffan Jones, Jude Johnson and John Good have already voiced their support and will also contribute to either the first or future issues of Eto.
But Eto is not just about those already established and respected authors. Eto seeks to encourage and stimulate new talent. To this end we will feature at least two submissions from new writers each issue. This is a unique opportunity for aspiring Welsh authors everywhere. Eto can help become a catalyst for the emergence of exciting new talent possessing a distinct voice and a new perspective.
Authors, contributing or otherwise, have the opportunity to promote their books in a magazine that seeks to enhance the reputation of Welsh authors and Welsh writers internationally. Please do not hesitate to provide us with submissions. It may take time but we will give careful consideration to each one."
If you wish to support or contribute to the current or future editions of eto please visit our website at ETO Magazine . There is a contact form on every page of the site and we would urge you to help us spread the word by using the various 'social' buttons in the right hand column.
The Editors
Ceri Shaw/Philip Rowlands/Gaabriel Becket
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Born this day 1829, in Groes, Denbighshire,
Isaac Roberts, who was best known for his work as an astronomer and has t he Roberts crater on the moon is named after him.
Roberts also helped make considerable advancements in the field of astrophotography and invented a machine called the Stellar Pantograver that could engrave stellar positions on copper plates. Although spending most of his adult life in England, he remained a patriotic Welshman.
Born this day 1790, in St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire,
William Davies Evans - inventor and originator of a world famous chess opening gambit, known as 'The Evans Gambit'. His most famous invention was the tri-coloured lighting on naval vessels designed to prevent collisions at night.
Born on this day 1972 in Carmarthen.
Wynne Evans, who is a tenor, is best known for the "Go compare" television adverts. He also famously responded to the All Blacks "Haka" in the Wales versus New Zealand rugby international of 2004, by singing Cwm Rhondda. He has subsequently gone on to sing at over 30 Welsh International matches.
On 27th January 1883, in the same ferocious storm, the vessel James Gray was wrecked on the Tusker Rocks off Porthcawl and the ship The Agnes Jack off Port Eynon. The Mumbles lifeboat put out, and 5 of its crew were drowned in the rescue attempt.
On 27th January 1884, 18 men were killed in a gas explosion at the Naval Collieries, Penygraig in the Rhondda Valley. It was reported that a white column shot up from the pit's mouth followed by clouds of sparks and showers of fiery dust.
Ironically, the explosion occurred during a safety inspection and those who lost their lives were company officials, firemen and the attendants of the pit horses.
On 27th January 1940, Wales was engulfed by a freak ice storm
It had been an extremely cold January in Wales, with a temperature of -23 being recorded in Rhayader a few days earlier. The precipitation of 27th January was of the supercooled nature, so when the rain hit the surface it would freeze instantly. This is a rare event in the UK and the 1940 ice storm is reckoned to be the severest that has struck the UK in recorded history.
The storm lasted for 48 hours in places, causing telegraph poles and wires to snapped, unable to cope with the weight of the ice. Tree branches were snapped off and birds were grounded. Travel was nearly impossible as roads iced over and inclines were impossible to climb.
Printable Entry Form Here
The 7th international Welsh Poetry Competition, 2013, was launched this week in Pontypridd, South Wales.
This annual competition has gone from strength to strength each year and is an essential part of the literary calendar.
Writer and competition organizer Dave Lewis said: The continued success of the competition shows there is a great hunger for honest appreciation of the spoken word. Many feel the competition is unique because it is truly independent, we do not use filter judges and all our entries are judged anonymously. So, whether you are an established writer or a complete beginner, everyone has the same chance of winning. This is vitally important because it allows exciting new talent to emerge.
This year the competition will be judged by Welsh writer and poet, Eloise Williams.
We are delighted that Eloise has agreed to judge this years competition. She is a fantastic writer of poetry, fiction and plays. She has been widely published and won several awards for her work. Born in Cardiff, Eloise grew up in Llantrisant and now lives in beautiful Tenby.
The competition has had six great years already and we have also published an anthology containing all the winning poems from the first five years so if anyone wants to see the standard of work before they enter they can buy a copy from the competition web site.
As always, we hope to discover previously unpublished voices alongside the more familiar literary names. We believe good poetry should be raw, passionate, and honest. Have you got what it takes?
Prizes are: 1st Prize - 400, 2nd Prize - 200 and 3rd Prize - 100, plus 17 runners-up will be published on our web site.
To enter you just need to compose a poem, in English, of less than 50 lines and send to the competition organizers. Entry forms are available by post, can be downloaded from the web site or picked up from local libraries. It is just 4 to enter and the closing date is Sunday 26th May 2013.
Competition Website - www.welshpoetry.co.uk
Competition Judge www.eloisewilliams.com
Contact Tel: Dave Lewis - 07890 888585
