Wales Feed

Iolo's top 10 must-see locations

2016-01-08T09:52:03+00:00

The Brecon Beacons is an area I know well, having walked virtually every square metre of its mountains, woodlands and rivers during my 15 years with the RSPB and 17 years working in the media, but it's a place that always holds a few surprises.

Most visitors will head for the major tourist attractions such as Pen-y-Fan or the town of Brecon, but the National Park has so much more to offer.

Here are my 10 must-see locations in the Beacons.

1. Llanthony Priory This partly ruined priory dates back to around 1100 and is situated in the stunning Vale of Ewyas on the eastern edge of the park. Having barely survived several attacks by Owain Glyndwr, it never recovered from Henry the Eighth's dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.

The ruins of Llanthony Priory

2. Capel-y-Ffin The beautiful little chapel that gives this hamlet its name is dedicated to St Mary and dates back to 1762. Lying on the banks of the River Honddu, it is surrounded by the high tops of the Black Mountains.

3. Brecon Mountain Railway This is one of Wales' ‘great little trains' and runs 5.5 miles from Pant Station near Merthyr, through Pontsticill and on to Torpantau on the old abandoned Brecon and Merthyr line. On a sunny summer's day, the views are outstanding!

4. Llangorse Lake This is the largest natural lake in Wales and is famous for its coarse fishing, water sports and crannog, an artificial island dating back to the 9th century that was used as a dwelling. The lake is also excellent for wildlife and supports healthy populations of water voles, reed warblers and hunting hobbies.

5. Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal This 35-mile canal runs along the Usk Valley for most of its length and although originally built to carry coal and iron, today its rural character and tranquility attracts thousands of tourists each year. It's also a great place to see the elusive otter.

The Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal

6. Mynydd Illtyd This area of common land is conveniently situated adjacent to the Brecon Beacons Mountain Centre near Libanus. It makes for excellent low-level walking with an abundance of wildlife, and excellent, home-made food at the Mountain Centre cafe makes for a perfect end to the day.

7. Llyn y Fan Fach A small dammed lake on the northern edge of the Black Mountain, Llyn y Fan Fach is surrounded by the high peaks of the Carmarthen Fans and is steeped in Welsh legends. The walk up to the lake along the River Sawdde and on to the high tops is one of the most picturesque walks in the whole of the Beacons.

Overlooking Llyn y Fan Fach

8. Sgwd Henrhyd Henrhyd waterfall near the village of Coelbren is the tallest waterfall in south Wales. A lovely walk leads from the car park above the falls down the wooded Nant Llech valley. Henrhyd is best viewed after heavy rainfall and is a photographer's dream.

9. Beacons Way This 95-mile walk follows most of the high ridges from the Skirrid in the east to the small village of Bethlehem in the west. A recently-devised linear walk, it has become very popular with walkers from all over the world.

10. Pen-y-Fan Okay, so this is probably the best-visited site in the whole of the Brecon Beacons, but 250,000 visitors a year can't be wrong. At 886 metres (2,907 feet) above sea level, it is the highest peak in southern Britain and the 360 degree panoramic view from the top is absolutely spectacular.

Inspired by Snowdonia

2015-06-11T13:30:52+00:00

As a writer and art historian, I spend much of my time in museums and galleries so the landscapes I see are usually on canvas. However, there is nothing better than experiencing the real thing. For that reason, I was delighted to don my walking boots and head for the mountains in search of some places in Snowdonia that have inspired artists for centuries.

The author examining a Snowdonia landscape in a gallery

Snowdonia has attracted painters and printmakers for more than 250 years. While working on this programme I was astounded by the sheer quantity of artists who have visited the area. Different generations have been drawn by different things. Some, like the pioneer Welsh landscape artist Richard Wilson, highlighted the majesty of its peaks and castles, imposing his own order onto the landscape. Others, like J.M.W. Turner, went in search of drama, relishing the stormy, changeable weather and the stunning light effects that this produced.

In situ with Richard Wilson's Llyn Nantlle painting

When we arrived with our camera, there wasn’t a cloud in sight, let alone a Turneresque storm. Standing on the edge of Llyn Nantlle, where Wilson viewed Snowdon in 1765, the sky couldn’t have been bluer. And this was exactly how Wilson liked his landscapes; he bathed Wales in the warm, glowing light that he had experienced while living in Rome.

A teenage Mari Griffith and family after crossing Crib Goch

What excited Turner was something many of us will have experienced in the mountains. I certainly did when my father led my teenage self across Snowdonia’s famously rocky ridges. Clinging on for dear life, I came to know that combination of terror and exhilaration often found in paintings, particularly Turner’s: the Sublime. It’s one thing to admire the immediacy of Turner’s sketches in an art gallery, but experiencing the actual views that inspired him brings a very different kind of insight and understanding.

Cwm Idwal

Surprisingly artists also came to Snowdonia for company rather than solitude. From the mid-nineteenth century, a vibrant artistic community established itself in Betws-y-Coed, meeting at the Royal Oak Hotel. Filming there, it was easy to imagine the convivial gatherings of visitors from all over Europe. But it’s the stay of a Welsh painter that stands out for me.

Mari with Arenig Fawr in the background

In the early twentieth century, J.D. Innes regularly visited the area between Ffestiniog and Bala. In this remote district, he and Augustus John applied the colourful language of modern European art to the Welsh landscape, to dazzling effect. Standing at the foot of the imposing mountain that inspired him, Arenig Fawr, was a highlight of the filming. Apart from the fact that two of my grandparents hailed from nearby, it’s always thrilling to stand on the spot where an artist has worked and see how their renditions compare with the view that inspired them.

And maybe that’s what makes these Snowdonia landscapes so compelling – for everyone. They present familiar and much-loved views at different moments in history and through very distinctive artistic filters, always casting the familiar in a new and revelatory light.

Inspired by Snowdonia is on BBC Two Wales, Saturday 13 June 2015 at 10pm

To find out more, and catch up with other programmes you may have missed, visit: bbc.co.uk/realnorthwales or join the conversation on social media #RealNorthWales.

Penry Williams

2015-04-01T15:59:00+00:00

In the early nineteenth century, the industrial town of Merthyr Tydfil was larger and more important than either Cardiff or Swansea. It was the iron capital of Wales, a role and a position that it did not relinquish for many years.

Even in the twentieth century this was the place that spawned not just highly sought after industrial products but also novelists like Glyn Jones and poets such as Leslie Norris. It was also the birthplace of one of the best-known artists of the nineteenth century, Penry Williams.

South Wales Industrial Landscape by Penry Williams c.1825. Photo credit: Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales.

Penry (or Penri) Williams was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1802. He was the son of a stone mason and house painter and from an early age showed remarkable skill as an artist. In this, the young Penry was encouraged by his school teacher, Taliesin Williams, the son of historian and folk tale collector Iolo Morganwg.

Taliesin must have had an eye for talented young artists as he also encouraged and helped the sculptors Joseph Edwards and William Davies. Clearly, despite all its many vices and problems, the seething melting pot that made up industrial Merthyr Tydfil was fostering artistic talent at a rapid rate of knots.

By 1816 the young Penry Williams was already producing remarkable pieces like “The Merthyr Riots” and it was not long before he came to the notice of iron masters and patrons of the arts like William Crawshay and John Guest. Recognising exceptional talent when they saw it, the two ironmasters paid for Williams to travel to London where he lived and studied at the schools attached to the Royal Academy.

At the Academy school, Williams was taken under the wing of the Italian painter and teacher Henry Fuseli. He was quick and adept and responded to the teaching in the most positive way, seizing his opportunity to develop his art.

In 1821, when he was just nineteen years old, Penry Williams was awarded the Silver Medal by the Society of Arts for “drawing from the antique” and from that year on he was a regular exhibitor of portraits and landscapes at the Royal Academy and at the Society of British Artists.

In 1827 Penry Williams moved to Rome where he was to live for the next fifty years. Before he left, however, he produced a series of magnificent watercolour views of south Wales and England.

His industrial landscapes – one in particular, showing an ironworks at night – were based on sights and scenes around the industrial valleys of Wales. They were atmospheric and realistic but, at the same time, they were imbued with an artistic excellence that showed his innate ability and the quality of the art education he had received.

In 1828 Williams was elected associate of the Society of Painters and Watercolours and exhibited with them each year until he resigned in 1833. His studio in Rome gradually became something of a pilgrimage site for all visitors to Italy – Welsh visitors being particularly welcome.

Penry Williams died on 27th July 1885. Since moving to Italy he had concentrated on producing Italian views and scenes of ancient Roman life. They were invariably finely judged and well produced but to the eyes of many they lack a little of the emotion that can be found in his early Welsh views.

“The Procession Returning from the Fiesta of the Madonna Del Marco” is considered his masterpiece. The painting is carefully constructed, the figures in the foreground contrasting beautifully with the sight of Vesuvius smoking away in the background.

This painting, along with several other remarkable works on an Italian theme – works such as “The Ferry on the River Ninfa” and “Girl with a Tambourine” - were later acquired by the National Gallery. They have since been passed on to the Tate.

These days Penry Williams work can be seen at the Museum and Gallery, Cyfarthfa Castle, and at the National Museum in Cardiff. He remains one of Wales’ greatest painters, a man who came from humble beginnings in one of the most robust and formative of all valley communities and went on to be hailed as one of the greatest painters of his age.

Do visit the BBC's Your Paintings website for a gallery of paintings by Penry Williams.

The Rhondda School

2015-03-25T12:33:35+00:00

Wales is fortunate in being able to boast a whole range of writers, musicians, singers and artists who have achieved international acclaim.

Artistic endeavour and excellence seem to go hand in hand with the Celtic spirit and nowhere is that statement more obvious than in the mining valleys of the country. In painting and in the visual arts the Rhondda, in particular, has had a lasting influence and effect.

Pembrokeshire might have spawned Gwen and Augustus John; north Wales might have sustained the talent of Kyffin Williams. But the Rhondda, with its interwoven webs of industrial architecture and social deprivation once produced a like-minded group of painters and sculptors that soon became known as 'The Rhondda School'.

The Family, a sculpture by Robert Thomas in Churchill Way, Cardiff

The Rhondda School of artists was never an actual school, in the formal sense, and was in no way an official grouping. The members produced no manifesto or statement about their aims – they were, simply, a group of students from the Rhondda who, in the early 1950s, travelled by train down the valley each day to study at Cardiff College of Art.

The legend about these six men states that they would spread their drawings and paintings across the seats of the railway carriage – thereby discouraging anyone else from entering the compartment – and discuss painting and art for the full length of the journey. For two hours, as the old steam train rattled down the valley, these eager and dedicated men would discuss art with all of the bravado and enthusiasm that go with youth, talent and emerging skill.

The men in question were Ernest Zobole, Charles Burton, Glyn Morgan, Nigel Flower, David Mainwaring and Robert Thomas. They came from different locations in the Rhondda and so boarded the train at different times and at different stations but their aim was the same – to discuss art and artists.

Zobole had been born in Ystrad, the son of Italian immigrants who arrived in Wales in 1910. He is perhaps the best known of the group, a man whose gradual move away from descriptive painting to more abstract work reflects the general trend within the Rhondda School.

Zobole, who died in 1999, might have been the best known but all of the group were influential in their effect on art within Wales.

Charles Burton, for example, became Head of Art at the Polytechnic of Wales while it was still based in Barry, dozens of students passing through his department each year. Once he had finished his course, Burton had moved from Cardiff College of Art to London, to study at the Royal College. With no grant to support him he had to sell paintings in order to live. It was a hard lesson to learn but one which the young man took to with gusto.

These days the sculptures of Robert Thomas can be seen at many locations, in particular in Queen Street, Cardiff. They are stunning representations of Welsh life but it is probably the tall and striking statue of Aneurin Bevan, just opposite Cardiff Castle, that people will know best.

The Miner, Mother and Son, and Aneurin Bevan by Robert Thomas, in Queen Street, Cardiff

All members of the Rhondda School were influenced by the industrial environment from which they came. It was impossible not to be affected by the winding gear of the collieries, the rows of terraced houses and the slag heaps that dominated the valley towns. Nor, for that matter, the broken old men who stood silently at almost every street corner – you would have had to be pretty unemotional not to be touched by all that. And the members of The Rhondda School were keen to reflect their communities and their way of life.

As such – at least to begin with – there was a distinct socialist edge to their work. That interest may have dissolved a little as abstract art began to make itself felt on the group’s work but it never totally died away.

The School – or group, call it what you will – broke up as the artists finished their studies at Cardiff Art College and moved away to different places and different jobs. Yet the influence of the School remained strong. It is another example of the vibrant and dynamic drive for expression that existed and still exists in the Welsh valleys.

Welsh place names

2015-03-04T13:00:00+00:00

Most people who visit Wales are intrigued by the names of our towns and villages. They may not be able to pronounce them – many of those who live in the country would be equally as hard put - but they are still fascinated by the look and by the sounds of those names. They are part of what makes Wales different but where did they come from and what is their origin?

At the risk of over-simplifying the matter, when the Romans invaded Britain in 43AD the vast majority of the native population was Celtic and most of them spoke one of two languages, Brythonic and Goidelic. They were derivations of Common Celtic (Brythonic) and Gaelic and Manx (Goidelic). Brythonic was not unlike the Welsh that is spoken today.

In the pre-Roman days there was little or no tradition of people banding together into communities so there was no need to give names to settlements – they simply did not exist. Instead, names were given to geographical structures such as hills, rivers or harbours. The civilising nature of the Roman occupation changed all that with small communities springing up in various parts of the country.

Aberystwyth - meaning 'mouth of the river Ystwyth'

The pre-Roman names for land features were quickly gathered up and used, now, as the names for settlements. As a result many of the towns in Wales begin with the prefix Aber which means “mouth of” – Aberystwyth meaning the mouth of the River Ystwyth, Abergele the mouth of the River Gele and so on. Places like Porthcawl have a rather special meaning – harbour with sea kale.

Despite the Roman occupation, Brythonic survived rather well in the 400 years after the Roman invasion. By the time the Legions left in 410AD Brythonic was beginning to absorb Latin words but the Saxon raids and conquests of the fifth and sixth centuries saw the Celtic peoples pushed further and further westwards. They went and they took their language with them.

It was not as simple as that, of course, and, inevitably, the old Welsh tongue was adulterated over the years as other languages also left their influence or their mark on the traditional Brythonic. These include Viking, Norman, Anglo-Saxon and even English.

The Anglo-Saxons were a Germanic people who spoke a language quite similar to Old Norse and in their eyes the Britons or Celts were foreigners. They gave these foreigners the name of “walas” and, almost by default, the name stuck to the land these people occupied in the west. The Brythonic name for the people who lived there was Cymry.

Llanfyllin - one of many places in Wales with the 'Llan' meaning 'Church or parish of' prefix

Even now the names of many places in Wales begin with Llan. It means “Church” – or, rather, the enclosed land around the church where Christian converts had settled – and, as far as town or church names are concerned, is often combined with the name of an individual. Saints, in particular, are often commemorated in this way. Llanbadrig, for example, is named after St Patrick, Llandudno after St Tudno and Llanelli after St Elli.

Eglwys, which also means church, is often also coupled with someone’s name so that Eglwys Brewis in the Vale of Glamorgan is named for someone called Brewis.

Just to confuse matters, there are also towns beginning with Llan that do not have church connections. Llandaff, on the fringes of Cardiff – despite housing the most magnificent cathedral - is named, not after a saint but after the River Taff while Llandrindod in Powys is called after the Trinity (y Drindod in Welsh).The industrial and oil producing centre of Llandarcy, situated between Port Talbot and Swansea, has a much more modern origin and is named after the industrialist William Knox D’Arcy.

Sometimes modern towns were named in the ultimate pragmatic fashion. So Doc Penfro, the Welsh for Pembroke Dock, got its name as the dock that was built in the shadow of Pembroke and its mighty castle – logical and simple.

Trees and plants also gave their name to Welsh towns and communities. Bedw – meaning birch trees or birch woods – is a common name in Wales while a place like Ysgawen derives its name from the elder tree.

The same can be said of animals. Pen means “head of” so the seaside town of Penarth means “Head of the Bear.” Ships captains beating up the Channel used to say that the headland and landmark on the coast before Cardiff was shaped like a bear. Consequently, when the town and its docks were formed in the mid nineteenth century Penarth was a logical name to call it. Other animal connections include Bryn Ceffyl, Ceffyl being the Welsh for horse, and Castell Moch which, in English is Castle or Fort of the Pigs.

Pant means valley or hollow, pont is bridge – you do not have to look far in Wales to find names beginning with both of those. Legends also give other names. Bryn is the Welsh word for hill so places like Bryn-yr-Ellyllon translates as “Hill of the Goblins” while Bryn yr Hen Bobl means Hill of the Ancient People.

There are so many fascinating names for Welsh towns. It would need four or five books to do the subject full justice. Suffice to say that you could spend a month logging and translating the Welsh place names of our country – there are worse ways to spend your time.

The hidden wildlife of Iolo's Great Welsh Parks

2015-01-14T15:08:41+00:00

Across Wales, we’re blessed with a huge range of parks which we use for walking, playing, running, relaxing and lots more. But did you know there’s a whole world of hidden wildlife in our parks waiting to be discovered?

In the first series of Iolo’s Great Welsh Parks we concentrated on larger, wilder parks - places like Dinefwr Park near Llandeilo and Stackpole in Pembrokeshire. This time, we’ve concentrated on four urban parks, Singleton Park in Swansea, Wepre Park on Deeside, Pontypool Park and Holyhead Country Park. Each park supports a wealth of wildlife and each one is unique. In this new series, I take a good look around them, to show viewers just how much there is to discover.

Singleton Park is set right in the heart of Swansea and despite being completely surrounded by roads and houses, wildlife thrives here. Several bird-loving locals visit the park daily to feed our feathered friends and this means that great tits, blue tits, robins and nuthatches now come to the hand in search of peanuts. There’s at least one family of foxes in Singleton Park, but the main attraction for most visitors is an exotic and rather noisy ring-necked parakeet that has taken up residence alongside the local jackdaws.

Iolo has a surprising find at Wepre Park; a population of stickleback fish in little more than a muddy puddle

Wepre Park near Connah's Quay in north-east Wales is a wonderful mix of ancient woodland, shallow ponds and grass meadows. In spring, the woods are full of birds with treecreepers, tawny owls, buzzards and great-spotted woodpeckers amongst them. The stream that bisects the park is home to sticklebacks and dippers and the meadows, on a sunny summer's day, are awash with common blue, meadow brown and large skipper butterflies. The real stars here though are the rare and protected great-crested newts that gather to breed in the ponds on spring nights, one of the reasons why a section of the park has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Iolo at Holyhead's Breakwater Park

Unlike all the other locations, Holyhead's Breakwater Park is situated on the coast and is therefore quite unique. The coastal heath is home to the scarce and beautiful silver-studded blue butterfly and a few colourful bee orchids as well as the very elusive adder. So elusive, in fact, that we didn’t actually manage to film a single one! (First prize to any viewer who sends us a picture of this mysterious native!) The pools support a variety of dragonflies and damselflies including one of our largest species, the emperor, and the large quarries provide nesting and perching sites for dozens of jackdaws and a pair of little owls. Offshore, harbour porpoises, dolphins and seals can all be regularly seen and encounters with choughs, the rarest of our crows, are a daily occurrence.

Enjoying a spot of impromptu fishing at Afon Lwyd in Pontypool Park

At Pontypool Park, we filmed several stunning species of moths and large cockchafer beetles that were caught in a light trap by the local moth group and we used a camera trap to film an otter on the Afon Lwyd. It was an unexpected bonus to find ashy mining bees nesting in holes in the ground near the druid's stones at the top of the park. Unlike most of our bees, these harmless bees are on the increase in Wales and as key pollinators of fruit trees, that's good news for everyone who likes apples! We were fortunate at Pontypool to film grass snakes and, the undoubted highlight for me, native freshwater crayfish at one of their few remaining strongholds in Wales.

Our urban parks are fantastic places which bring wildlife closer to people. So tune in to series 2 of Iolo's Great Welsh Parks for more tips on what you might find - then go out and enjoy them for yourselves.

Episode 2 Monday 19 January 7.30pm, BBC One Wales
Episode 3 Sunday Friday 25 January 5.30pm, BBC One Wales
Episode 4 Monday 26 January 7.30pm, BBC One Wales

The Story of Singleton Park, Swansea

2015-01-09T11:00:23+00:00

Situated on the edge of the suburb of Sketty, Singleton Park is the largest of all Swansea’s parks, covering over 200 acres.

It has been owned by the Swansea County Borough since 1919 when it was bought from the Vivian family with the express intention of providing leisure amenities for the people of what was, then, still a town – albeit one of the largest in Wales.

Presenter Iolo Williams at Singleton Park

The history of the park, however, goes back a lot further than that. In 1847 the industrialist John Henry Vivian bought Veranda House and the accompanying parkland for his son Henry and his wife Jessie. Just a year later Jessie died in childbirth, leaving Henry distraught. He vowed never to live in the house which was to have been such an important part of his life and the place quickly deteriorated into rack and ruin. By 1853 only the lodge remained, all traces of Veranda House having totally disappeared.

The Vivian family continued to use the parkland, however, and enjoy the revenue of the dozen or so farms that were around the estate. A kitchen and herb garden, created out of the original walled gardens of Veranda House, provided them with many of the luxuries in life. Jessie Vivian was not forgotten and St Paul’s Church – which still stands in the Park – was built as a memorial to her.

After the purchase of the estate by the council in 1919 it was decided to appoint a specialist to oversee the running of the new acquisition. Daniel Bliss was the man chosen to work as superintendent of the park. He was particularly well qualified, having been trained at Kew Gardens in London and it was his decision to create a botanical garden in the centre of the park.

Flowers at Botanical Gardens in Singleton Park. Photo: Gareth Lovering

Since their establishment nearly one hundred years ago Daniel Bliss’s botanical gardens have gone from strength to strength and have now grown to hold one of the largest plant collections in Wales.

The herbaceous borders of the botanical gardens come to full and majestic bloom in the summer months while in early spring the place is renowned for its rhododendrons. Even in the depths of winter there are upwards of 200 different plants in bloom. A rock garden, huge greenhouses and even a Japanese bridge add to the overall effect of the botanical gardens and Singleton Park in general.

One of the most famous buildings in the park is the alpine Swiss Cottage, designed by PF Robinson, the man who also designed nearby Sketty Hall for the Vivian family in the early part of the nineteenth century. It has always been a favourite of visitors, bringing a little of the Swiss alps to urban Swansea.

The alpine cottage was badly damaged in an arson attack in 2010 but has now been restored and renovated to its former glory. Financial problems have recently led the council to try to sell or lease out the cottage but, hopefully, the place will continue to function as a tea room and restaurant in the months and years ahead.

Iolo at the park's alpine Swiss Cottage

Singleton Park has been the venue for many music events over the years, notably Proms in the Park where artists such as Bryn Terfel have come to perform in a magical open-air concert.

There is a boating lake, complete with boats in the shape of swans – loved by children from all over the city - and a pub. The pub used to be called The Inn on the Lake but everyone who visited or passed by always referred to the place as The Pub on the Pond. As a consequence, the tavern has now changed its name to the less salubrious but more charming Pub on the Pond.

There are several other notable buildings in the Park which plays host to part of Swansea University campus and to Bishop Gore School. St Mary’s Church, Singleton Hospital and the Ty’r Blodau educational visitors centre are also important components of this little piece of quiet solemnity in the heart of a bustling and vibrant city.

Singleton Park might be the largest of the Swansea parks but it retains a personal and intimate feel. There are plenty of open spaces to run or walk your dog but there are also many hidden areas where people can shelter or bide a while, watching the squirrels or listening to the tiny waterfall, in perfect peace. The place has a communal feel to it, however you want to use it. That is its unique appeal.

If you’d like to find out more about Singleton Park, Iolo Williams explores the wilder side of this urban park in the first of a new series of Iolo’s Great Welsh Parks on Monday, 12 January at 7.30pm.

Dyffryn House and Gardens

2014-09-11T09:04:48+00:00

These days Dyffryn House and Gardens fall under the remit of the National Trust and thousands of visitors flock to the site every year. Being close to Cardiff but still nestling in the depths of quiet countryside, it is the ideal location for a day out. Yet it was not so long ago that the place was a private residence – albeit one with a long and fascinating history.

Dyffryn House. Photo: Gale Jolly in the BBC Wales Nature Flickr Group

Situated just outside St Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan, the Dyffryn Estate dates back to the seventh century when the Manor of Worleton, which then included St Nicholas, was granted to the Bishop of Llandaff. By the 16th century the manor lands were being rented by the Button family, a house of some sort possibly situated on the spot which the gardens now occupy.

The Buttons were well known in the Vale of Glamorgan, with several different residences in the area at different times. Their principal residency is now the site of Cottrell Park Golf Club. One of the family, Admiral Thomas Button, later became famous as a sailor and explorer, perhaps creating a fascination with distant lands that was to reverberate down through the years and influence the lives of several future owners of Dyffryn House.

The Manor of Worleton changed its name to the Manor of Dyffryn in the 18th century, at about the time that the land was sold to Thomas Pryce. He built the first Dyffryn House in 1749, a typical Georgian building but, despite creating a walled garden and a 'dipping' pool, he did little work on the grounds or gardens.

In due course Dyffryn passed into the hands of Henry Ellis Collins, a man who had made his fortune out of baking. In 1891 the estate was sold to John Cory, the shipping magnate and coal mine owner who had his base in Cardiff Docks. Cory was a self-made man, the family having originally come from the Bideford area of Devon to make their fortune in the booming industrial port of Cardiff and in the coal fields of the hinterland.

Dyffryn Gardens. Photo by Paula J James in the BBC Wales Nature Flickr Group

Cory began to build the present Dyffryn House in 1893, two years after his purchase. Designed by the architect EA Lansdowne of Newport, the house was largely completed by 1894 – one of the last traditional mansions to be erected in Wales.

It was – and still is – a long, rather narrow building with the main entrance on the north wall. The rooms are high and airy and the ornamental glass windows in the main hall show Queen Elizabeth addressing her troops at Tilbury during the Armada Campaign of 1588.

It was John Cory who laid down the original plans for the gardens. Work began under Thomas Hayton Mawson, first President of the Institute of Landscape Architecture, in 1894. The basic design and layout were largely completed by 1909, the year before Cory's death.

When John Cory died in 1910 the estate was inherited by Reginald, his third son. Reginald was a leading figure in the Royal Horticultural Society, a man who sponsored several plant hunting expeditions to various parts of the world to help develop his gardens at Dyffryn. The famous plant hunter Ernest Wilson brought many specimens to Dyffryn, including the Paper Bark Maple which he had found in China.

By 1912 the enthusiastic Reginald had managed to assemble the largest private bonsai collection in the country. Despite their origins in the Victorian period and development rooted in the first decade of the 20th century, the gardens had become one of the last truly Edwardian gardens in Wales. All manner of exotic plants and trees flourished in the gardens.

Daffodils at Dyffryn. Photo by welshlady in the BBC Wales Nature Flickr Group

Reginald Cory died in 1934 and the estate came briefly to his sister Florence. After her death in 1937, Dyffryn House and Gardens were bought by Cennydd Treharne but by the beginning of World War Two the place was on loan to Glamorgan County Council as a botanical garden.

In 1973 Dyffryn hosted a party to commemorate the dissolution of the old Glamorgan Council and after the death of Sir Cenydd in 1995 the estate was sold to the Vale of Glamorgan for £300,000.

Over the years the gardens fell into disrepair but the house was used, variously, as a conference centre and as a police training centre. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, it was clear that major refurbishment was required if both house and gardens were to survive.

The gardens were awarded a Grade 1 status by CADW and with the aid of an £8 million grant they were restored to the original design and conception of John Cory. In 2006 work also began on restoration of the house, listed as Grade 2, and in 2013 the whole property passed into the stewardship of the National Trust.

These days Dyffryn House and Gardens are one of the top tourist attractions in south-east Wales. It is a fitting tribute to the men and women who created the estate and proof of what can be achieved if the desire is great enough.

Browse a photo gallery of Dyffryn House and Gardens images on the BBC Cymru Wales Facebook page.

The changing names of Wales

2014-02-06T15:49:18+00:00

One of the consequences of the resurgence of the Welsh language has been the changing of some of the more anglicised town and village names in the country. Over the past few decades more authentic Welsh spellings - and, arguably, more authentic pronunciations - have re-emerged and have now become the accepted form.

Sometimes the changes have been as a result of local government or community council decisions, perhaps because of local usage. Sometimes there has been no change at all but debate still runs red hot, with fervent supporters all eagerly arguing their corners. The most obvious example of this is the town of Criccieth on the Llyn. Should there be two ‘c’s or one? There is no double c in Welsh, yet for the moment the spelling remains at Criccieth.

There are other debates in progress. Should Rhayader become Rhaeadr? Should Ruthin really be Rhuthun? There may not, yet, be answers to these questions but there undoubtedly will be in the future. Both sides of the debate, both sets of supporters, hold firm opinions.

Cadair Idris. Photo: Helen Hall

Whatever the cause or reason for alterations, change is undoubtedly slow. So while Cader Idris has, over the past few years, become Cadair Idris – even featuring as such on Ordnance Survey maps – some of the road signs in the area still call it Cader Idris. Perhaps when the road signage is due for renewal, then things might change.

There is no doubt that some change has occurred. Caernarvon, for example, is now Caernarfon and, perhaps most noticeably, Conway has disappeared for ever, replaced by the more accurate Conwy. The steel town of Llanelli has long dropped the anglicised y off the end of its name.

The root of the issue can be found in the Norman Conquest in the period following 1066. For the next 300 years, the language of the court – and therefore the language of all government dealings – was Norman-French. The language of the people of Britain, however, remained the Old English (Anglo-Saxon it might be called) and, in areas like Wales, the Brythonic tongue that eventually developed to become Welsh.

Conwy. Photo: Ian Owen

Even then the situation was unclear. Different parts of Wales used different stresses in the Brythonic language and, of course, court French and the language spoken by Normans going about their daily business were equally as different. In court the word or phrase Beau was pronounced ‘bo’ while out in the real world it was rendered as ‘bew.’

Inevitably, all of this led to different pronunciations and different versions of the same names. Standard alphabets are a modern phenomenon, and names of places and people were as changeable as the weather. Even as late as the 16th century William Shakespeare was spelling his name in several different ways.

Confusion was clearly the name of the game with local pronunciation, as much as the restrictions of the language, deciding on the exact rendering of the word. There are many examples.

In England, the Hampshire town of Beaulieu is pronounced ‘bew-lee’, not ‘bo-lee’ although quite why this should be remains something of a mystery.

In Wales the town and castle of Beaumaris on the shores of the Menai Straits might well be pronounced ‘bo-maris’, at least in the anglicised version of the name, but it has, in Welsh, the spelling Biwmaris and is pronounced ‘bewmaris.’ In west Wales the little village of Carew is still called Care-ee by many old Pembrokeshire people. And so it goes on.

Language and the pronunciation of words are changing all the time. They are, after all, what make the language and the history of our land so interesting. Whether the changes and differences are down to local pronunciation, to custom and practice, or to government legislation, the languages - both Welsh and English - remain vibrant and alive.

*Correction. The spelling of Rhuthun was originally incorrect. Thanks to feedback we have now amended it.

The fishing fleet of Tenby

2014-02-05T10:30:58+00:00

When you think of Welsh fishing ports your mind invariably travels no further than Milford Haven. Although its glory days have now long gone, by the end of the Victorian period the docks at Milford were full of trawlers and drifters. By the middle of the 20th century the west Wales town was playing host to the sixth largest fishing fleet in Britain.

Such was the majesty of Milford that we often don't realise that for many years there were numerous other ports and harbours along the Welsh coast - towns and communities where fishing was also the main industry. They were places that, for a while at least, were as significant as Milford was later to become. In particular there was Tenby.

Tenby Harbour. Photo: Maciej Martyka

These days we know Tenby as a tourist haven, but consider its Welsh name, Dinbych-y-Pysgod. Its meaning can be roughly translated as ‘place of the fish,’ a clear indicator of the importance of the fishing industry to the life of the town.

Tenby was one of the earliest Welsh fishing centres, a thriving town and port from before the middle ages. Its original pier was said to be the oldest in Wales, a structure that dates from the 14th century. Edward II gave the community the right to levy tolls in order to build the structure, a curved pier that gave the ships of the town protection from the north-easterly winds.

The chapel of St Julian was built at the pier head - it was demolished in 1842, the same year that the present stone pier replaced the original structure - and prayers for the fishermen and their boats were regularly said there. Maritime historian J Geraint Jenkins wrote:

“A tax of a halfpenny was paid to the officiating priest by each fisherman and a penny for each boat.”

In the 18th century those were not insignificant amounts. Clearly it paid to be a member of the clergy in a fishing community.

To begin with most of the fishing from Tenby was in-shore, the boats being too small and too insubstantial to face the gales of the Atlantic. Carmarthen Bay - perhaps reaching as far south and west as Lundy - was the area of operation for the Tenby fishermen. Herrings and oysters were the mainstay of the industry, being mainly caught in the stretch of sea between the Gower peninsula and Caldy Island.

By the 19th and 20th centuries the boats had become bigger and far more robust, and the town's fishermen began venturing further afield. Soon they were plying their trade off the southern coast of Ireland and out into the Western Approaches where the catches might be better but the dangers and the risks were far more considerable.

It was not just Tenby locals who used the port as their base. Many of the men who fished out of Tenby actually came from the Brixham area in Devon, sailors who were simply using Tenby as a centre for their summer activities and fishing cruises. Over the years many of these men did settle in Tenby so that instead of being just summer visitors they were now actually residents.

The coming of the railway in the 1860s provided the Tenby fishing fleet with a ready market for their catch. Now Tenby fish could be despatched each morning to the Welsh valley towns, even to London, and as a consequence the fleet grew quite rapidly.

By 1870 the port was the most significant fishing base in west Wales. Twenty years later there were 19 boats of over 50 tons based in Tenby, as well as many smaller, in-shore vessels.

While most of the bigger boats carried out beam trawling, the smaller craft - usually open-decked luggers - operated a system of line fishing. Their catch was usually cod although some oyster gathering also took place. At the beginning of the 20th century there were approximately fifty such luggers operating out of Tenby and the harbour was a teeming forest of masts and sails.

Tenby Harbour. Photo: Gale Jolly

Many of the boats were owner-operated, others working on a cooperative, shared basis between skipper and crew. In general, most of the larger boats were manned by a crew of three, plus a young boy who was there to do ‘the dirty work’ and learn his trade. The harbour in the town was thriving and as the 19th century came to a close it seemed that the future of the industry in Tenby was well assured.

However, by the beginning of the new century the fishing industry of Tenby was already starting to decline. The town's growing importance as a holiday resort - bank holidays having recently been introduced for all working people - was partly to blame.

Tourists did not want foul smelling boats pulled up on the sand, fish heads and scales beneath their feet, and as far as the fishermen were concerned, it was a lot easier to run pleasure boats around the bay or over to Caldy than it was to risk the rigours of a winter gale out in the Channel or Atlantic.

Milford Haven, of course, was now also engaged in its rapid expansion, and that was a real problem for the long-established but vulnerable fleet at Tenby. It was Milford's better access to the Atlantic and its docks where steam driven trawlers could come and go at any stage of the tide that finally spelled the end for Tenby's fishing fleet.

It was a gradual demise but it was a fatal one. The number of boats engaged in fishing began to decline and by 1914 only 7.9 tons of fish were landed at Tenby. In the early 1920s only a handful of in-shore fishing vessels were left. The fishing industry had moved, lock, stock and barrel, to Milford.

These days summer visitors stroll Tenby's pretty streets, gaze at the handful of boats moored in the harbour and move on to their next ice cream. Only very few of them realise that they are staring at the remnants of what was once the most significant fishing port in west Wales.

The Menai Suspension Bridge

2014-01-29T09:38:05+00:00

On 30 January 1826, as bands played and spectators waved flags, sang popular songs and cheered their hearts out, the Menai Suspension Bridge was formally opened. Ynys Môn - or Anglesey as it also known - was at last permanently connected to the mainland of Wales.

The Menai Suspension Bridge. Photo: Nev C

For thousands of years the only way to cross the Menai Strait had been to walk it at low tide - a perilous enterprise at the best of times - or to make the journey by ferry boat. That was equally dangerous, boats being regularly upset or wrecked. In 1785 one ferry became stranded on a sand bank in the strait and, after wind and tide had done their work, only one person out of 55 survived the experience.

The main industry of the island was farming, and the traditional way of getting cattle to market on the mainland was to swim them across the strait - something travellers did only at their dire peril. For the farmers it was just the way things were. None of the methods of crossing was particularly effective.

Inefficient as it may have been, nothing was done about improving communications with and in Wales until the Act of Union of 1800 turned the problem of developing more effective connections with Ireland into something of a pressing matter.

Holyhead on Ynys Môn was a port that had traded with Irish towns for many years. Now it was identified as one of the main terminals for the ferries running across the Irish Sea to Dublin. With the need to ensure that the Irish Mails were both secure and efficient, the government began to think about improving the road connections between London and the Welsh port.

The engineer Thomas Telford was given the task of improving the main London to Holyhead road, a route that in time became the A5. Insightful and skilled as he was, Telford quickly realised that the key to a fast, efficient connection between the country's capital and the north Wales coast, was bridging the Menai Strait.

Telford surveyed the area and soon identified the area around Bangor on the mainland side and a small village on Ynys Môn which later became the town of Menai Bridge. This would be the location for his bridge.

Sunset over Menai Strait. Photo: Eiona Roberts

There were difficulties. The strait was often used by the sailing ships of the time - warships and merchant vessels alike - and so there had to be at least 100 foot of clearance between the bridge and the water. Even during the building of the bridge, there was no scaffolding allowed as this would have interfered with the free passage of shipping.

Work began in 1819 with the building of the huge towers on either side of the strait. Made from limestone quarried at nearby Penmon - brought by barge to the site - the towers were of hollow construction, reinforced with metal girders and stanchions inside. The problem of spanning the strait, a distance of nearly 600 feet, was solved by creating 16 giant chain cables made from iron bars, each of them weighing 121 tons.

These cables, Telford decreed, would be strung from the towers across the water in huge loops that resembled the mooring ropes that kept the ferries at Holyhead tied to the quay. In order to stop them rusting, the cables were soaked in linseed oil and then painted.

The stone work on the towers was finished in 1824, just five years after it had begun. Stringing the giant cables took a further two years.

The opening of the bridge in January 1826 was a joyous occasion, both for the dignitaries and for the local people who could now make the crossing with ease and in relative comfort. For the travellers journeying between London and Holyhead, the bridge shaved nine hours off the trip. It might still have taken 27 hours - by rickety and draughty stage coaches - but it was a lot better than the previous time of a day and a half that had been standard for the journey.

The Menai Bridge was the first modern suspension bridge in the world and was one of the great industrial wonders of the age. However, almost from the beginning it was clear that, at some stage, improvements would have to be made.

Thomas Telford's bridge over the Menai Strait. Photo: Ian

The roadway was a mere 24 feet wide and the construction was such that there was a weight limit of 4.5 tons - not too much of a problem when most traffic was horse drawn but when motor vehicles became the norm serious improvements had to be made.

In 1938 the iron chains that had held the roadway in place for over 100 years were replaced by steel ones, thus strengthening the construction - and, interestingly, the bridge remained open throughout the modernisation process.

As if to prove that modern techniques are not always more efficient, the bridge was closed for a month in 1999 to allow the roadway to be re-surfaced and strengthened. Apart from that it has remained open and in service.

The Menai Bridge was, and is, a remarkable piece of engineering - a fact that was celebrated when the structure featured on the reverse side of a £1 coin issued in 2005.

The Menai Bridge remains the major route for people travelling by car to and from Holyhead, nearly 200 years after it was first opened - some achievement.

Cardiff docks, boom before bust

2014-01-23T13:01:42+00:00

Many people look back at the years immediately following the First World War and believe that they were a period of total depression, a betrayal of the promise made to the soldiers and sailors of a better world for everyone.

In fact it wasn't quite like that. To begin with, as the men who had valiantly served their country through four years of carnage began to be de-mobbed and returned to their homes, there was a boom, a huge upsurge of prosperity and hope for the future. New jobs, new companies and new markets for trade and business - in 1919 it was all there for the taking.

Of course it didn't last. Nowhere is that sad fact better illustrated than in the history of Cardiff Docks and, in particular, in the shipping industry of a port that in 1914 was considered one of the most successful and thriving in the world.

Cardiff docks

From the beginning of 1919 to the late summer of 1920 there was a sudden boom in industrial output and productivity all across Britain. In Cardiff docks that surge or increase was particularly well marked. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to start a shipping company. By the middle of 1920 there were over 100 shipping companies operating out of Cardiff, somewhere in the region of one 10th of all the trading ships - tramp steamers as they were called - in Britain.

The reasons for this sudden spurt are many and varied. In the early part of the war shipping companies had made immense profits as vital cargoes were exported and imported through Cardiff docks. As the editor of the Weekly Despatch later wrote:

“poor men became merchant princes and it seemed that every ship that put in at the docks had a cargo of gold.”

In an effort to stop what was, many thought, war profiteering the government introduced an excess profit duty, a huge tax that reduced the profits of the shipping companies. When peace returned and this duty was cut by half in the first budget of 1919 it stimulated an immediate interest in shipping and the shipping industry in the minds of those who had money to invest.

The war had seen the sinking of many merchant ships, particularly in 1917 and 1918 as the German U-boat threat mounted in intensity. One Cardiff ship owning firm, Evan Thomas, Radcliffe and Co, lost 20 of their vessels, some smaller firms like Gibbs and Co, lost all of them. The government paid compensation for lost ships and, now that peace had returned, the shipping firms were keen to replace their sunken vessels.

Along with the ending of government control of British shipping and the wiping out of the German merchant marine - always a major competitor in the years before 1914 - the situation was ripe for development. In Cardiff investors and entrepreneurs seized their chance.

Sometimes as many as five new shipping companies were founded each week at Cardiff in 1919 and 1920. Cardiff was, and had always been, a coal exporting port and when the price of good Welsh coal increased dramatically - up to nearly one pound a ton in the summer of 1920 - it seemed as if the happy times would never end.

The warnings were there, however, if the new shipping companies had chosen to see them. There had been little investment at Cardiff during the war years and as early as mid-1919, thanks to the huge increase in the number of ships operating out of the port, there was a distinct shortage of berths. Sometimes ships waited weeks to tie up alongside and it was not unusual to see upwards of 100 tramp steamers anchored off Cardiff, waiting to enter the port.

When the crash came it came suddenly. From May 1920, the price of Welsh coal began to fall, slowly at first, then dramatically, quickly reducing to such a low rate that many companies found it impossible to continue trading. Yet ship building across Britain continued and soon it was clear that there were more ships available than cargoes.

As if that wasn't enough, the cost of running the tramp steamers increased dramatically in the immediate post war years. Wages, insurance rates, charges for bunkering, they all had their part to play - difficult to cope with when the market was buoyant, virtually impossible to sustain when the price of Cardiff's main commodity was dropping.

Much of the problem came from the fact that many traditional markets for Welsh anthracite had been lost in the war; the USA for example, was now dominating the previously lucrative South American market. With the Royal Navy increasingly looking to oil firing for its ships, there was simply not the demand for the Rhondda's ‘black gold’.

Coal from the Saar and Rhineland areas of Germany had, by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, been given to France and, to a lesser extent, Italy as part of the enormous reparations demanded of the defeated country. Nobody at Versailles even considered the effect this would have on the Welsh coal industry.

Consequently, the industry began a long, slow decline. It was a situation that was not helped by a series of strikes and industrial action in the Welsh coalfield. All of which had a knock-on effect for the docks and shipping industry at Cardiff. One by one the Cardiff shipping companies were forced to close or were liquidated - many of the casualties had been operating for only a few short months.

By 1931 the number of ship-owning companies in Cardiff had dropped to just 77. Ten years earlier that figure had been 150. By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 the figure had dropped again, to 57. The 1950s and 60s saw a continued slump, some firms, like Tatems, managed to survive but they were few in number. And, of course, local businesses - ships chandlers, public houses, bakers and so on - suffered as part of the decline.

Cardiff docks these days are but a shadow of its former self. With the former docks area, Tiger Bay and the rest, reduced to recreational and shopping centres, it is hard not to ask what the ship owners and sailors from the past would have made of it all.

Nobody is denying the hardships of the sea faring life but it does seem as if a little of the glory of Cardiff and its famous docks has been lost.

Criccieth, influential beyond its size

2014-01-21T12:10:06+00:00

The tiny town of Criccieth sits on the northern coast of Cardigan Bay, mid-way between the holiday centres of Porthmadog and Pwllheli and some 17 miles south of Caernarfon.

It has a fascinating history but these days is perhaps best known for Cadwalader's ice cream.

View of Criccieth.

The spelling of the name Criccieth remains something of a moot point in Wales. Welsh language purists point out that the double c used in the name is unknown in the Welsh language and that it is really no more than an anglicised version of the true name which should have only one c.

The debate has raged for years, even leading to the vandalising of road signs bearing the town's name, and is as yet, no nearer to being resolved. Suffice to say that both parties have their fervent supporters.

The area around Criccieth, with its sheltered location and easy climate, has been inhabited since the bronze age and there are local examples of tombs from the time still in existence. Certainly Celtic settlers came to the area around the fourth century BC and there may have been some form of settlement on or around the site of the modern-day town.

However, it was during the reign of the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in the early 13th century that the area first came to real prominence.

Llywelyn transferred his centre of government to the rocky promontory on which the castle now stands - a superb defensive position - and started the building of the castle. The inner ward with its two D-shaped towers was in existence before he died in 1240.

Criccieth Castle in winter sun by Peter Williams.

One of Llywelyn's sons was imprisoned in the castle for a while, before being taken to London, which may have led to the town taking the name Criccieth - which can be translated as prisoner's rock. However the origins of the name remain unclear.

For a time during the medieval period the town was known as Treferthyr which means 'martyr's town', possibly a reference to St Catherine, after whom the parish church is named.

One thing is clear; Criccieth was one of the few genuinely Welsh castles - as opposed to the castles of conquest imposed upon the land by the victorious English crown. Having said that, by 1283 Criccieth Castle was in the possession of Edward I and he promptly made the developing town into an English borough. Criccieth duly became one of the ring of Edwardian castles that protected the king's conquered territory in Wales.

The castle was attacked - and probably captured, at least for a brief period - by Owain Glyndwr in 1404 and thereafter both castle and town lapsed into gradual decay. In 1807 the creation of a Turnpike Road between Tremadog and Porthdinllaen, supposedly to help make the area the centre of the new Irish trade, brought a degree of prosperity to Criccieth, although by the middle years of the 19th century the place was still little more than a hamlet.

It was the building of the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway in 1868 that turned Criccieth into a Victorian seaside resort. Every summer families would flock to the area from English towns like Liverpool and Manchester. The popularity of the town has scarcely diminished over the years and these days the town depends upon the tourist trade for its economic viability.

Perhaps the most famous son of Criccieth - even though he lived in nearby Llanystumdwy rather than Criccieth itself - was David Lloyd George. He had a law firm in the town and was MP for Caernarfon Boroughs (which included Criccieth) for over 50 years. Other famous residents included the writers William George and wing commander Leslie Bonnet.

These days the town is renowned for its arts festival, its ice cream and its two annual fairs when the stalls and attractions line the single main street. Part of the old medieval town common (Y Maes) is still in existence, helping to make Criccieth both a town with history and one with a future.

An unlikely siege: Dryslwyn castle

2012-03-19T16:10:52+00:00

One advantage of living in Carmarthenshire is that we're spoilt for choice when it comes to castles and on a sunny day, it makes for a cheap and easy day out with the children to combat the familiar cries of "we're bored!"

And it's an activity that doesn't involve sitting in front of a screen of any sort. So armed with plastic swords, we descended on Dryslwyn castle at the weekend.

Actually ascended is more like it, as it's a steep climb up to the castle itself from the car park next to the river Towy, but it's definitely worth it when you get there.The view is spectacular down across the Towy Valley.

Dryslwyn castle in the sun.

Cadw who maintain the castle, are carrying out work on one of the main walls, or what's left of it, so the structure is currently covered in scaffolding.

But when you think that the castle has been standing here for around 800 years, it's hardly surprising that it needs the occasional bit of renovation work.

The castle under scaffold.

Dryslwyn is one of the so-called 'native Welsh castles' built by Welsh princes and in Dryslwyn's case, along with its neighbouring castles of Dinefwr and Carreg Cennen, performed an important part in protecting the old kingdom of Deheubarth in South West Wales.

If you're watching the current BBC Wales series, The Story of Wales then you'll know all about this, but there's something about visiting a castle which brings the past to life, helped with diagrams along the route of the footpath, imagining what the castle might have originally looked like.

The castle at Dryslwyn was seized by Owain Glyndwr in 1403 before being finally occupied by the English king Edward 1.

At the end of our visit, the plastic swords didn't make much impact, so the castle is still standing on its magnificent hilltop location, keeping an eye out for other potential invaders.

For more information on visiting Dryslwyn castle, go to www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/dryslwyncastle

Newport City: 10 years on

2012-03-14T14:06:58+00:00

Ten years ago, in the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, Newport was awarded city status. The 2002 accolade proved third time lucky for the Gwent town after two unsuccessful bids in the 1990s.

By becoming a city Newport joined Bangor, Cardiff, Swansea and St Davids as Wales' cities; ticking the boxes marked 'regional or national significance', 'historical, including royal features' and a 'forward-looking attitude'. Outside of Wales, Preston, Stirling, Lisburn and Newry were also allocated city status that year.

Transporter Bridge in Newport. Photograph by Jonathan Crookes, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons

Newport's bid officially got under way on 25 July 2001 with Newport Council's head Sir Harry Jones kicking off a pitch which underlined the town as the gateway to Wales and drew upon a history that stretches back to pre-Roman times.

This BBC Wales News clip from the day Newport received the award looks at the reactions from people and politicians across Wales, and hints at the divisive issue of city status in Wales.

The granting of city status came at a time when Newport had suffered a series of economic and industrial problems, including a number of major factory closures and redundancies, capped off by steel makers Corus' decision to close the massive Llanwern steelworks in 2001.

Newport City Centre. Photograph by Paul Dyer, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons

Newport's Royal appointment caused some heated inter-Wales rivalry with a bid from Wrexham also being proposed that year. The decision not to award the north Wales town city status reinforced what many felt was a 'north-south divide. The fourth city in Wales, Bangor, remained the only one in the north of the country until today, when St Asaph in Denbighshire was also granted the title.

Speaking a decade ago, Wrexham MP Ian Lucas said: "I am angry about this. We now have three cities in Wales on the south coast and the opportunity to recognise the conurbation in the north east in an important part of Wales has been lost."

Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary at the time, defended the decision, drawing upon the economic strife encountered at the time. "The past 12 months have been truly traumatic for Newport and its people," he said. "First there was the agony of widespread steel job losses as Corus closed the heavy end at Llanwern; then there was the joy that the town's Celtic Resort had won the competition to host the 2010 Ryder Cup."

In the midst of the ongoing global economic strife, the cost and validity of gaining city status is increasingly brought under the microscope. Since 2002 Newport has experienced considerable regeneration, but has it proved a change for the better since being lofted to city status?

Is there a 'north-south divide' with Swansea, Cardiff, and now Newport in such close proximity, and Bangor, the sole city of the north until today's St Asaph announcement? Does it really matter? The beautiful city of St David's in Pembrokeshire has a population of around 2,000 whereas over the border in England, Milton Keynes as a population of around 200,000 and remains a town.