Phrase on tub gets icy reaction
A PEMBROKESHIRE frozen food company has vowed to remove the phrase “little England beyond Wales” from its ice cream packaging after the description sparked a social media storm.
The backlash came after a Twitter user shared a picture of a tub of strawberry ice cream from the Pembroke Dockbased business Upton Farm. The tagline read: “Made for you in little England beyond Wales.”
In a tweet with more than 700 likes and retweets ElDafydd wrote: “Yes, hello, I would like to show the most disrespect to the local community I can with my ice cream... yes, that’s perfect’... I was never that fussed on #uptonfarm product, now I nor any of my family will be buying their products. Ach y fi.”
One Twitter user, WelshRepublic, commented: “Pembrokeshire is called ‘Little England beyond Wales’ by colonial incomers; it must give them a sense of security/comfort. The majority of the natives detest that phrase.”
An Upton Farm spokesman said: “Upton Farm is a proudly Welsh business which has been supplying customers across Wales with our farm produced ice cream and other frozen goods for more than 30 years. Being part of a community business we recognise the importance of understanding and listening to our customers and as our use of ‘Little England’ on the packaging of one of our ice creams has unwittingly caused offence to some we will be removing that reference from any future packaging.
“We believed that was a heritage phrase that helped us show pride in being from the heart of Pembrokeshire and our intent was to celebrate our geography and place in the world. That pride will of course remain but with messaging that more clearly celebrates our Welshness. We are sorry to those who took offence.”
The Little England beyond Wales moniker is rooted in the Norman conquerors who established an outpost of the English crown in Pembroke after defeating Rhys ap Tewdwr in 1093.
In 2004 American historian Thomas D Brown’s book How Wales Created England and The English Language, he suggested the links could be older. He argued the Normans could have been drawn to Pembrokeshire because English tribes had lived there for centuries.