Tag: Welsh history
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The Uncrowned Kings: How the Preacher Ruled Victorian Wales
Imagine a Sunday evening in November 1880. Outside, the valley is pitch black, hammered by rain sweeping down from the mountains. But inside the gas-lit chapel, the air is thick with damp wool, peppermint, and anticipation. Five hundred people sit shoulder to shoulder in a silence so taut it hums. They are not waiting for…
antonydaviesfrsa
19th-century-wales, Blue Books, Chapel Revival, Christmas Evans, Coalfield History Wales, Cymraeg, Hwyl, Liberal Wales, Methodist History, Nonconformist Wales, Rural Wales, Slate Quarrying Wales, victorian-wales, Wales Social Change, Welsh Chapels, Welsh Communities, Welsh culture, Welsh heritage, Welsh history, Welsh identity, Welsh Language History, Welsh Literacy, Welsh Nonconformity, Welsh politics, Welsh Preachers, Welsh Pulpit Tradition, Welsh Radicalism, Welsh Religion, Welsh Revivalism, Welsh Social History, Welsh Theology -
Why the English and the Welsh Keep Misunderstanding Each Other — And Why It Still Shapes Modern Britain
We talk endlessly about the politics of the Union, the economics of devolution, and the future of the UK. But beneath all of that lies a quieter, deeper truth: The English and the Welsh speak the same language, but not the same culture.And because no one acknowledges this, we constantly misread each other. These aren’t…
antonydaviesfrsa
behavioural culture, bilingualism, British culture, British identity, communication styles, cross-border relations, cultural differences, cultural literacy, cultural misunderstanding, Devolution, england, English culture, English history, English identity, English values, history, identity politics, inter-cultural communication, language, National identity, national stereotypes, Offa’s Dyke, Politics, social psychology, soft power, UK nations, Wales, Welsh culture, Welsh diaspora, Welsh history, Welsh identity, Welsh values, Welsh vs English, workplace culture, writing -
Teenage Years on the Doldowlod Hall Estate
The mid-1990s were years of transition in rural Wales. Farming incomes were under strain, country houses were redefining their purpose, and politics in Britain seemed poised between the certainties of Thatcherism and the coming landslide of New Labour. For me, those years were marked most vividly by the Doldowlod Hall estate on the upper reaches…
antonydaviesfrsa
1990s-wales, books, british-politics, conservative-party-history, country-estate-life, country-house-history, doldowlod-hall, family history, fiction, forestry-and-woodland-management, garden, gardening, gibson-watt-family, historical-memoir, lady-diana-gibson-watt, Local history, lord-david-gibson-watt, Mid Wales, personal-history, Powys, rhayader, river-wye, rural-heritage, sir-philip-magnus-allcroft, Social history, teenage-memories, Welsh history, welsh-country-houses, writing -
When Firelight Forged a Nation: A Machynlleth Tribute to Owain Glyndŵr
On a Dark Winter’s Afternoon, Everything Changed On a wind-lashed winter’s afternoon, my Uncle Glyn beckoned me closer to the hearth. His eyes glowed like ember as he whispered, “Owain Glyndŵr was born from these hills—and he swore to shield every farmer, every family.” In that flickering glow, I felt my heartbeat echo Machynlleth’s ancient…
antonydaviesfrsa
Cambrian Mountains, Cymru heritage, england, fireside stories, Glyndwr Day, Machynlleth, Medieval Wales, Nation Cymru, Owain Glyndŵr, travel, uk, Wales, Wales culture, Welsh ancestry, Welsh community, Welsh folklore, Welsh heritage events, Welsh heroes, Welsh history, Welsh identity, Welsh independence, Welsh language, Welsh legends, Welsh nationalism, Welsh parliament, Welsh pride, Welsh storytelling, Welsh tourism, Welsh writers -
Tea and Waterfalls: John and Jane Waters of the Llyfnant Valley
By Antony David Davies FRSA John and Jane Waters, my grandmother’s aunt and uncle, stand with their daughter at the doorway of Tymawr in the Llyfnant Valley — welcoming Edwardian visitors to their farmhouse tea room, nestled in the peaceful hills near Machynlleth. In the remote folds of the Llyfnant Valley in north-west Montgomeryshire—where waterfalls…
antonydaviesfrsa
19th-century-wales, 20th-century-wales, ancestry, cwmrhaiadr, edwardian-wales, family history, farmhouse-tea-rooms, Genealogy, history, ireland, john-waters, llyfnant-valley, local-heritage, Machynlleth, Rural Wales, Social history, tea-rooms-of-wales, travel, tymawr, victorian-wales, waters-family, Welsh history, welsh-tourism-history -
When the Last Prince Hid in Our Hills: A Family Legend That Still Haunts Wales
By Antony David Davies FRSA High in the forgotten uplands of Montgomeryshire, where bracken folds over ancient sheep paths and the hills roll unbroken into silence, there stands a farmhouse my family still speaks of in reverent tones. Its name is Esgair Llywelyn — Llywelyn’s Ridge. Even now, the place endures. Weathered, empty, but defiantly…
antonydaviesfrsa
Aberedw, Antony David Davies, Builth, Cilmeri 1282, Cultural survival, Dulas Valley, Dyfi Valley, Edward I, Elinor Bennett, Esgair Llywelyn, family history, Family legend, Forgotten voices, FRSA, Heritage preservation, Hidden history, Historical memory, Historical storytelling, Identity and place, Legacy of the past, Llanwrin, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Lost Wales, Machynlleth, Medieval Wales, Mid Wales, Montgomeryshire, National memory, Nonconformist Wales, Owain Glyndŵr, Powys heritage, Prince of Wales, Resistance and survival, Rural Wales, Welsh ancestry, Welsh culture, Welsh diaspora, Welsh history, Welsh identity, Welsh legends, Welsh nationalism, Welsh rebellion, Welsh storytelling -
Saving the soul of Wales: why we must act now to preserve our family and chapel records
By Antony David Davies FRSA It is hard to overstate just how close we are to losing the living memory of rural Wales. Across our hills and valleys — from the sheep farms of Montgomeryshire to the slate towns of Gwynedd and the quiet chapels of Ceredigion — traces of family and community life are…
antonydaviesfrsa
Archive crisis, Call to action, Ceredigion, Chapel registers, Community history, Community memory, Cultural policy, Digitisation, Family archives, Family photographs, Farming families, Genealogy, Gwynedd, Heritage preservation, Historical advocacy, Historical memory, Historical records, Industrial heritage, Local history, Montgomeryshire, National memory, Nonconformist chapels, Oral history, Oral traditions, People’s Collection Wales, Public history, Rural Wales, Senedd, Slate industry history, Social history, Upland voices, Welsh archives, Welsh culture, Welsh Government, Welsh heritage, Welsh history, Welsh identity, Welsh Nonconformity, Welsh storytelling
Antony David Davies FRSA FRAS AFRHistS MCMI MIoL 