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7th September
Born on this day 1920 in Swansea
Harri Webb - Poet, Welsh nationalist, journalist and librarian.
Few poets in recent times have achieved the popularity of Harri Webb. Shortly after the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966, Webb's "ode" to the new edifice was to be heard quoted widely throughout South Wales: Two lands at last connected Across the waters wide, And all the tolls collected On the English side.
Born into a working-class family, Webb was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, studying medieval and modern languages. He joined the Navy in 1941, where he served as an interpreter for the Free French in the Mediterranean. After the war, he became politically active and was a vivid platform speaker, he joined The Republicans, a small group who enlivened the Welsh political scene of the 1950s by the burning of Union Flags in the towns of South Wales. He later joined the Labour Party, but became disillusioned with its attitude towards self-government for Wales and joined Plaid Cymru, becoming editor of the party’s newspaper. Webb's poetry came to prominence during the 1960s, with the theme of the social condition of the industrial valleys of South Wales.
Laura Mountney Ashley (7 September 1925 – 17 September 1985) was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She started making furnishing materials in the 1950s and expanded into the manufacture and design of clothing in the 1960s.
Her Welsh parents were living in London, but her mother returned to her own home at, 31 Station Terrace, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil to allow Laura to be born Welsh. She remained in Merthyr until 1932, when she was sent to the Elmwood School, Croydon, but she was evacuated back to Wales during World War II, aged 13 and attended the Aberdare Girls School.
She left school at 16, to serve in the Women's Royal Naval Service and met her husband, engineer Bernard Ashley in Wallington at a youth club. After the war, she worked for the Women's Institutes in London. She then began designing napkins, table mats headscarves and tea-towels which Bernard manufactured.
Laura's breakthrough came when she looked for patches of Victorian design to make patchworks and failing to find any at a display of traditional handicrafts by the Women's Institute at the Victoria & Albert Museum, she decided to make her own, which she used for Victorian style headscarves. The scarves soon became popular with stores and high street chains such as John Lewis, which encouraged the couple to move back to Wales in 1961 and go into full-time production, with the opening of the first Laura Ashley shop in Machynlleth (35 Maengwyn Street)
Monument to Blanche Parry, kneeling alongside Elizbabeth I (born on 7th September 1533), in St. Faith's, Bacton, Hereford.
Blanche was lady in waiting and confidante to Queen Elizabeth 1st for most of her life. A theory suggests that Blanche, who was Welsh and Welsh speaking taught Queen Elizabeth I to speak Welsh. Blanche died in 1590.
Some other of Elizabeth I's connections with Wales;
* Her chief adviser Cecil Lord Burghley was descended from the Welsh Cecils or Sitsyllts ( the Welsh spelling of the anglicised Cecil) of Monmouthshire, twice being Secretary of State as well as Lord Treasurer and founder of a dynasty which produced many politicians including two Prime Ministers.
* In 1549 Edward VI passed the Act of Uniformity, which required all acts of public worship to be conducted in English instead of Latin, the act seemed to signal the end for the Welsh language, but, in 1563 Elizabeth I introduced legislation which required all churches in Wales by 1567 to have Welsh translations of the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible alongside the English versions. Welsh therefore became the first non-state language of Europe to be used to convey the word of God after the Reformation. This was seen as a move to get the Welsh on side at a time of increasing Catholic threat from Europe to the English throne.
* Elizabeth is said to have worn a leek on Saint David's Day
Today is the feast day of Saint Dunod
Saint Dunod - was a late 6th - early 7th century Abbot of Bangor on Dee, who attended the meeting of Welsh Bishops with Saint Augustine of Canterbury at 'Augustine's Oak' and is the only Welsh ecclesiastic mentioned by name by Bede.
Saint Augustine and the meeting at Augustine's Oak;
Before the withdrawal of the Roman legions Britannia had already converted to Christianity and had been in regular contact with Rome, however after the pagan Anglo Saxons invaded c449 and the subsequent expansion of their Kingdoms in England, Christianity was mainly restricted to Wales and Cornwall and the Christian church developed in relative isolation from Rome, it was centred on monasteries instead of bishoprics, it had a different calculation for the date of Easter and the style of the tonsure haircut that clerics wore was different. In 595 Pope St. Gregory the Great decided to send missionaries to Britain (known as the Gregorian mission), to try and bring the Christian Britains back into the fold and also to try and convert the pagan Anglo Saxons. He chose Augustine, a respected prior of a monastery in Rome, along with thirty monks to carry out his mission and in 597 Augustine arrived in Britain and held a meeting with the Anglo Saxon King Ethelbert, who although did not convert immediately, was impressed enough to let them continue to preach, however, Ethelbert did convert later that year along with thousands during a christmas day mass, Augustine was consecrated Bishop of Cantebury, he is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church. As Augustine mission continued successfully and more missionaries arrived from Rome, they consecrated pagan temples for Christian worship and turned pagan festivals into feast days of saints.
However Augustine failed to extend his authority to the Christians in Wales and Cornwall and as Pope Gregory had decreed that these Christians should also submit to Augustine, in 603, Augustine and Ethelberht summoned all the British bishops to a meeting, at Augustines's oak on the border between Somerset and Gloucestershire. These bishops retired early to confer with their people, who, according to Bede, advised them to judge Augustine based upon the respect he displayed at their next meeting. When Augustine failed to rise from his seat on the entrance of the British bishops, they refused to recognise him as archbishop and the old Church chose isolation over reconciliation. But perhaps the more significant factors preventing an agreement, were the deep differences between Augustine and the British church and the fact that Augustine's efforts were sponsored by an Anlgo Saxon king, whose Kingdoms were aggressively expanding to the west.
Sir John Powell (died 7th September 1696) from Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire and buried near Laugharne. was a judge who presided over the trial of the Seven Bishops in 1688.
The seven Church of England Bishops had been imprisoned for behaviour deemed to encourage insurrection in their opposition and refusal to read out James II's second Declaration of Indulgence. The Declaration had the intention of allowing freedom of religion and preventing enforced conformity to the Church of England in Britain. It granted toleration to both Catholic and Protestant but was greatly opposed by Anglicans who pointed to the fact that it also encouraged Islam, Judaism and paganism. The bishops were found not guilty.
Born on this day 1956 in Llanelli
Byron Stevenson - former Wales international soccer international who played for Leeds United, Birmingham City and Bristol Rovers. He was controversially sent off in Turkey in 1979 after he allegedly fractured opponent Buyak Mustafa's cheekbone. He was given a four-and-a-half year European ban, effectively ending his international career.
Following his retirement from football, Byron became the landlord of the New Inn public house on Elland Road, which also had been managed by another Leeds United and Wales international legend John Charles. Stevenson died of throat cancer in 2007.
