FASCINATING THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT WALES
Mormons, slavery, protests against the Irish and a huge number of pubs – the Welsh history you never hear about
YOU won’t find anything about Owain Glyndwr here. Nothing, either, about Aneurin Bevan, Dylan Thomas, Patagonia or rugby. Instead, you’ll learn how Wales was once home to thousands of Mormons, how the drinking culture was greater than anything we know now and how the people who lived here were once sold as slaves.
The vast majority of information comes from eminent Welsh historian John Davies’ epic work, A History of Wales.
The banks of the Taff once had forts to guard against attacks by the Irish The Irish were a menacing threat to Roman Britain and forts were built along what is now the Taff to guard against their attacks. Colonies of Irish existed in Wales long after the Romans. Names such as Llyn and Dinllaen are of Irish origin, as was the kingdom of Dyfed, where there are 20 stones inscribed with letters in ogham, from Ireland.
Vikings sold the people as slaves The Vikings repeatedly attacked Wales in the 10th century. It’s probably in this time that Scandinavian names, later adopted in English, were given to places like Swansea, Bardsey, Anglesey and Fishguard. There is evidence that the Northmen established small trading stations in Cardiff and there was an extensive stronghold in Anglesey, where, in 987, 2,000 men of the island were captured and sold.
The word ‘Sais’ was first given to a Welshman who knew how to speak English “Sais” is still used today to describe someone English, sometimes in a derogatory context. However, it was first used in the 15th century to describe a Welshman who knew how to speak English.
A martyr was burnt at the stake for heresy in Cardiff in 1542 Thomas Capper was a Protestant and the first religious martyr in Wales since Roman times, he fell foul of the authorities for his pursuit of what continued to be regarded as heretical ideas – it is thoughtg he was arrested for not t believing that the host used in mass became the actual body of Christ.
These were once e the ‘four capitals’ of Wales The “four centres of thehe Great Sessions” were Carmarthen, arthen, Caernarfon, Denbigh and Brecon – “the capitals, so to speak, of the fourr corners of Wales”, says John Davies. . Carmarthen was thehe biggest town in Waless in the 16th century, with around 2,000 people. The other three had around 1,000.0. Swansea, Tenby, Monmouthuth and Pembroke also had aroundund 1,000 people and there were probably slightly more in Cardiff. By 1700, Wrexham was the largest town in Wales but Carmarthen had re-established its lead by 1770.
There could have been a ‘New Wales’ on the east coast of North America There’s a New England in the USA and a Nova Scotia in Canada. And there might also have been a “New Wales”. Between 1616 and 1632, William Vaughan of Llangyndeyrn, Carmarthenshire, soughtg to establish a Welsh colony in Newfoundland. H His efforts were in vain.
When Welsh was first written down The first surviving w words in Welsh are those inscribed around 700 on a stone in a church in Tywyn. This is particularly impressive as Latin was the only written medium throughout Europe until after 1000.
Here’s when ‘the first Welshman’ lived Human teeth have been fo found in Wales belonging to a hum human who lived 225,000 years ago. Even though these have bee been described as belonging to “th “the first Welshman”, their ow owner was unlikely to be so and was probably part of a Neandert anderthal tribe roaming between Wales andan the Netherlands.
There were still places where no one could speak English in the 20th century As late as 1921, 56% of the population of the parish of Llanddeiniolen, near Caernarfon, had no knowledge of English and there was one parish on the Llyn peninsula (Bodferin) where everyone was monoglot Welsh.
There were protests against the Irish In 1851, there were 20,000 people in Wales who had been born in Ireland. They were in desperate circumstances and prepared to work for lower wages. As a result there were “bitter protests” against them. These happened in Swansea in 1828, in the Rhymney Valley in 1825 and elsewhere.
There were at least 5,000 Mormons in Wales around 1850 Daniel Jones had emigrated to America in 1840 where he became a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. He came back to Wales in 1845 and set up in Merthyr Tydfil, where he converted at least 5,000 people. The religious census of 1851 records 28 Mormon congregations in Wales. In 1849, 326 Welsh Mormons emigrated to Salt Lake City, now the world capital of Mormonism.
A place in England is to thank for our national anthem Hen Wlad fy Nhadau was composed in 1856 by Evan and James James of Pontypridd. But it was thanks to the National Eisteddfod in Chester in 1866 that it became the national anthem. It was sung with such passion it was immediately adopted as the anthem.
In Blackwood in 1842, there was one pub for every five people Following the Beer Act of 1830, there was a huge increase in the number of places people could go to drink. As well as that startling figure on the number of places to drink in Blackwood, there were also 200 taverns around the Dowlais Ironworks alone.
Cardiff was the 25th biggest town in Wales in 1801 Fifty years later, it was the fourth biggest, smaller only than Swansea, Merthyr and Newport. And by 1881 it was the biggest in Wales. It was also the first town in Wales to get electricity – in 1885.
The extinction of the Welsh language was predicted in 1682 William Richards prophesised the imminent death of the Welsh language (“Englished out of Wales” was the phrase he used). Bardic schools were failing, parents no longer gave their children Welsh names and many customs were seen as meaningless. At the same time, Thomas Jones went further, predicting that Welsh people would be “expunged from history”. The anglicisation of the Welsh gentry was among the root causes. But within 100 years, literacy in the Welsh language was spreading rapidly, as the result of the work of Griffith Jones, who set up schools devoted to teaching Welsh. By the second half of the 18th century, Wales was one of the few countries with a literate majority.
People in Haverfordwest were the last to suffer from the plague This was recorded in 1652. And later, around 1700, the death rate was three times its normal level, though this was due to a critical food shortage.
There were once way more women than men in the countryside By 1880, and for 50 years after that, between a quarter and a third of the male workforce worked in the coal industry. But the pits offered virtually no jobs for women.
So in the Rhondda in 1891 there were 1,314 men for 1,000000 women. But the situation was reversedversed in the countryside – in Cardiganshire there were 776 men for every 1,000 women.
The Law of Wales was way ahead of its time It dates to the 10th h century but the Law of Wales took k women and children into accountnt in ways that weren’t ren’t seen in English law aw until recently. The earliest est surviving manuscript is in Latin but there are several l copies, including those written tten in Welsh.
There were aroundround 18 schools in Wales in 1603 Grammar schools s for the less wealthy were re established in Welsh market arket towns (though you couldd find Welsh pupils at Eton and Westminster). They were established to teach the basics of Latin. Welsh was not tolerated in the schools
Sex outside marriage was a major issue before the courts Between 1633 and 1637, a third of the punishments meted out by the Council of Wales related to these offences, which were considered as serious as violence and subversion.
Every bank in Pembrokeshire failed in 1825 In 1825 a bankingba crisis permanently closed many Welsh banks that had been established in Welsh marketm towns from around 1770. These includedin all the banks in Pembrokeshire.keshi It led to many farmers losing all theirth savings. The conditions at the time (which also included low wages, poor working conditions, a fall in the price of meat and dairy products) led to riotsriot in the countryside.
A chapel was built every eight d days for 50 years BetweenB 1801 and 1851, it is estimated that a chapel was completed every eight days. There were enough chapels in the 19th century to seat half the country’s population.
Better food was served in pri prisons than in workhouses for the poor The years 1834-45 were “among the most troubled in the history of Wales”, says John Davies. There was social unrest and extreme poverty and each of Wales’ 48 “unions” (parishes were grouped into unions) was obliged to build a workhouse.
The law said no one could be helped at home – so they had to move to a workhouse to get help.
Married couples were not allowed together – so families were split up. It was claimed in Carmarthenshire that “people preferred to die than enter it”.
The Romans found it difficult to subdue the people of Wales There were at least 13 campaigns between AD 48 and 79 and the Romans weren’t used to the guerrilla fighters of the Welsh mountains.
But they did manage to form a network of forts, with corners at Carmarthen, Caernarfon, Caerleon and Chester.
The first railway line in Wales went from Llanelli to Pontarddulais It was opened in 1839 to serve the iron industry. Between 1840 and 1870, 2,300km of railway were built across the country.
Jewish shops were attacked in Tredegar in 1911 These attacks also spread to places including Bargoed and Brynmawr. This was at the same time as anti-Semitism in Russia, but there are doubts as to whether the attacks in Wales were specifically directed at Jewish people.
The wider context was the “Great Unrest” which saw strikes around working and pay, and riots at Tonypandy and Llanelli, where two people were shot dead on August 19.