ISSUE 69 August 2020
Editorial Introducing The Forum BRECKNOCK MUSEUM Contact: Nigel Blackmore, Senior Curator Tel. 01874 624121
BRECKNOCK SOCIETY AND MUSEUM FRIENDS Contact: Elaine Starling Tel. 01874 711484 email: [email protected]
BRECON LIBRARY I hope that you have all been keeping Tel. 01874 62334 safe during the past few months. At last the Coronavirus lockdown is BRECONSHIRE LOCAL & FAMILY easing and we may be able to get out HISTORY SOCIETY and about in the sunshine to visit our Contact: Alison Noble – Secretary wonderful landscape, museums and Email: [email protected] archives, and of course, our loved ones. The articles in this issue will BUILTH WELLS & DISTRICT HERITAGE give lots to think about and may SOCIETY inspire your journeys and researches. Contact: Anna Page Tel. 01982 553376 Mal Morrison [email protected] Hanes is published every 3 months. The next edition is to be published CHRIST COLLEGE ARCHIVE st November 1 2020. Please email any Contact: Felicity Kilpatrick articles or information about events Tel. 01874 615440 etc. with the heading "HANES" to [email protected] st by October 31 2020 CRICKHOWELL DISTRICT ARCHIVE LLANTHONY HISTORY GROUP CENTRE Contact: Oliver Fairclough Secretary: Wendy Parker. Tel. 01873 890 540 Contact: email: [email protected] [email protected] LLANWRTYD & DISTRICT HERITAGE CRICKHOWELL & DISTRICT HISTORY & ARTS CENTRE SOCIETY Contact: Rob Thomas Contact: Clive Ralph Tel. 01591 610661 Tel. 01873 810262 email: [email protected] www.llanwrtydhistorygroup.com CUSOP HISTORY GROUP http://cusophistory.wix.com/cusop LLYN SYFADDAN HISTORY GROUP Contact: Roger Reese HAY HISTORY GROUP email: [email protected] Contact: Peter Ford Tel. 01497820676 POWYS COUNTY ARCHIVE OFFICE email: [email protected] email: [email protected] www.Hayhistorygroup.co.uk www.powys.gov.uk/archives www.haytours.co.uk Tel. 01597 826088
HEREFORDSHIRE FHS and POWYS REGIMENTAL MUSEUM OF THE FHS ROYAL WELSH email: [email protected] Contact: Richard Davies / Celia Green 3, Cagebrook Avenue, Hunderton, Tel. 01874 613310 Hereford. HR2 7AS Tel. 01432 355723 TALGARTH AND DISTRICT LLANGAMMARCH WELLS LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY HISTORY SOCIETY Contact: Sheila Lovell Tel. 01874 Contact: Sue Lilly 711096 Tel. 01591 610792 Email: Email: [email protected] [email protected] YSTRADGYNLAIS DISTRICT HISTORY LLANGYNIDR LOCAL HISTORY AND LANGUAGE SOCIETY SOCIETY Contact: John Owens Contact: Ann Jessopp Tel. 01874 [email protected] 730431 email: [email protected]
News AND EVENTS produce a series of e-papers at 3-4 week intervals. These are posted on our website at Brecknock Society and https://brecknocksociety.co.uk/breck nock-log-brecknock-society-and- Museum Friends museum-friends-occasional-papers/.
The BS&MF programme for the year The first two papers describe exhibits beginning April 2020 onwards was to relating to Sarah Siddons in the have included a series of sessions in Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery. The the Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery, third covers the link between the (open to all and probably on a original Brecon Theatre and charitable monthly basis on a Saturday morning), causes, while the fourth focuses on at which different exhibits/ displays Llanhamlach Church, a significant would have been brought into focus. landmark in the Breconshire This would link in with the countryside. Interpretation Project being run by the Society following a successful application to the Garfield Weston Foundation, which provides information on 46 digital touch-screen terminals distributed through the galleries. For details see https://brecknocksociety.co.uk/our- work/brecknock- museum/interpretation-project/
Thus a morning on the exhibits of the Roman period was planned for a Saturday in May with a possible The church of SS Peter and Illtyd in afternoon visit to the Roman y Gaer Llanhamlach: more than meets the camp outside Brecon. Another session eye! would have focused on the Courtroom etc. Possibilities for the Re-opening of The Museum & Art Gallery Inevitably all these plans had to be put on hold but as a boost to morale The Society, as a local funding partner, and to draw on some of the has been seeking the latest fascinating information that members information on this from Powys of the Interpretation project team County Council. It is significant that have unearthed, we decided, as the Welsh Government’s recent reported in the last issue of Hanes, to announcement that museums can reopen was coupled with a statement on the importance of such a move for Crickhowell & District the economy. History Society
Peter Starling Crickhowell Agricultural Show 1912
Many members of the Brecknock The show took place on fields History Forum will already have heard bordering the River Usk between the the news of the death of Elaine current Elvicta Estate and Crickhowell Starling’s husband Peter In Hereford town. The poster advertising the show th Hospital on July 12 . organised by the Crickhowell Throughout his life, Peter was very Agricultural Association notes that the much involved in community 28th Annual Show was to be held on activities, as well as providing valuable Monday 26 August. Entry cost one support to Elaine, most recently in her shilling and prize money of £200 was roles with Brecon U3A and the available. The President was Sir A B Brecknock Society, and as the Tulloch KCB, CMG of Glaslyn Court ‘informal Secretary’ of the Brecknock and Vice Presidents included The History Forum. By profession a Duke of Beaufort, Lord Glanusk, Lieut- geography teacher, he taught first in Col Sandeman and Colonel Parkinson. London and then, for many years, at The Great Western Railway Company Moorside School in Salford. He had a provided a motor car between special interest in the field studies of Brecon, Crickhowell and Abergavenny upland areas, in conservation projects and the London and North Western and in the Duke of Edinburgh award Railway offered cheap tickets to scheme. The latter part of his career Gilwern. was spent as an Offsted inspector, after having been invited to apply for The Brecon and Radnor County selection. Express (B&R) notes that the summer He gave much service as a school had been very poor one with much of governor and after he and Elaine the hay harvest around Crickhowell moved to Elaine’s family home in being ruined. The show, although Talgarth, he became a governor, later receiving record entries for the Chair of governors at Gwernyfed High classes, was plagued by bad weather. School. Peter had a great (and The B & R notes that ‘the deluge eclectic) love for music and was a which never ceased for a moment’ strong – and practical – supporter of turned the showground into ‘a Brecknock Synfonia. veritable quagmire’ and ‘spectators squelched through water and mud.’ I am sure that you will all join me in sending our sympathy to Elaine at this Attendances had been falling for very sad time. some years. The Society’s President understanding that the town and and its new Secretary, Mr W V Jones district must do something’. of Clarence Villa, made great efforts to turn matters around but to no The meeting agreed that a carnival avail. The B&R notes that in should be held to replenish the Crickhowell ‘The flags and bunting Society’s funds. This was to be on were there, on Monday only to flap Friday 27 September and consisted of listlessly over rain swept streets but a parade around Crickhowell and no happy crowds.’ Llangattock led by the Abergavenny Borough Band and the Llangattock The Committee pressed on with a Scout Band. The procession public luncheon in a marquee on the numbered over one hundred hundred grounds although speeches were people and a large crowd lined the dispensed with. The Blaenavon route. Participants adopted a variety Templar Prize Silver Band, under its of costumes including Napoleon, conductor Mr J Bond was reduced to Tommy Atkins and Henry V. The playing its music selections in a tent. collection taken during the parade amounted to £8. It is not clear from The conditions meant that the stock the press reports whether the was not seen at its best but the Committee was successful in clearing number and quality of entries showed the deficit. an improvement over recent years. Judges for the classes came from as far afield as Knighton and Leominster. Hay History Group The prize-winners featured many well known local farming families and the In the last article I gave an overview of local gentry including Lord Glanusk, several websites that enable a Mr Pirie Gordon from Gwernvale and considerable amount of research to Miss Solly Flood from Porthmawr. be undertaken from home. If you
The show was not a financial success. followed the advice you should have a Gate receipts were only £20 and a loss document in chronological order of £120 was incurred. This followed which gives an outline picture of the on from a deficit from the show in history of a parish or lordship. You 1911 and put the future of the show should also have a good indication of in doubt. A public meeting, chaired by who the lords of the parish were, and Mr Evans of Ivy Towers was held in the Town Hall to consider how to the owners of the farms, major make good the loss. The Secretary, properties and lands. Often the lords Mr V W Jones and Mr Harry Beckwith are national figures and they draw JP, had given a donation of £70 income from vast estates across the towards the loss on ‘the distinct country. The records of their For a large estate each IPM is involvement in your chosen parish separated into counties and much may be mixed up with their estate detail can be found in them. There are records associated with their main many IPM's for even small residence, in private muniment landholders. collections or in public archives where their records have been deposited. I One of the problems of constructing find that the best way to research family trees is that earlier historians these national figures is to first look have often compiled incorrect online at Wikipedia.com or the pedigrees, so always go back to Dictionary of National Biography, then original sources, wills, deeds, etc. to hunt down the original references and check each relationship. documents given for particular facts. Other places to look for gentry is in Most entries in these biographies only the Alumni books for Universities. give an outline of the individual and Oxford alumni from the earliest times the real treasure is in the notes to the 17th century were recorded by attached to each article. For each Anthony Wood and are found in his parish family I construct a pedigree "Alumni Oxoniensis" and Cambridge and follow the parish properties down University are found in "Alumni through generations of the family Cantabrigienses" both on until they are sold. Many interesting https://archive.org. Records of the facts will emerge during this process Inns of Court in London also have lots and the temptation to be sidetracked of information. is inevitable and fun. I could continue for a long time about resources but I think the above should In the period before about 1650 give you a very good grounding. Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPM)were Obviously the online catalogues for undertaken on most estates where various Archives and Libraries will the deceased had land in more than give many interesting leads to one parish. These IPM's are held at manuscripts and records. My best the National Archives at Kew but advice is to not take anyone's word many are also transcribed online at but to look at the original documents - https://www.british- especially crucial ones. And above all history.ac.uk/search/series/inquis-post- enjoy your research. mortem They can also be found as Alan Nicholls calendars on https://archive.org .
Tragic Fair Rosamund
Rosamund's Tower at Clifford Castle
Peter Ford, a member of the Hay There are a few verifiable details History Group, has recently published about Rosamund’s life, she was King the latest of his Tragic Lives local Henry’s mistress and lived at his history trilogy. To add to Tragic palace at Woodstock, but like Matilda Matilda: Lady of Hay. The Life of de Braose there are a clutch of Matilda de Braose, and Tragic Mary legends and stories about her. She Morgan: A victim of social injustice? is was named after a rose, she had two Tragic ‘Fair Rosamund’: Mistress of children, she lived in a maze, the only King Henry II. way in was with a silken cord, she was poisoned by the evil Queen Eleanor, While Rosamund lived at Clifford in or was it stabbed? Herefordshire the Clifford family had Is there any truth in them? How did Breconshire connections. Rosamund’s they come about? Why is Rosamund father Walter Clifford was lord of the mistress so idolised, but Eleanor Bronllys and held land at Glasbury the wronged wife so demonised. This acquired from the monks at the book explores the truth behind the Abbey of Llanthony Secundus. stories, and the myriad of books, Rosamund’s grandfather Richard poems, plays and pictures that have fitzPons was with Bernard de grown up around this ephemeral Neumarche when he invaded the Wye heroine. Valley capturing Hay, Glasbury, Bronllys and Brecon, and helped to Paperback available at Amazon.co.uk subdue King Brechan. Price £6.99
the driver as he passed us hoping that Llyn Safadden History he would wait for us at the station Group and if we ran fast enough we would be in luck.” As we are moving gradually out of lock down our group is looking From Sheep to Sugar - Welsh Wool forward to supporting a Llangors and Slavery Article by Liz Millman, community based initiative drawing Director: Learning Links International together many of the examples of for “Hanes” www.welshplains.cymru projects completed by community members of all ages during this time. Well, it would have been good to It is hoped that the projects will cover meet up with members to give a talk a wide range of outcomes such as; about this fascinating project but personal diaries, art and craft work, Covid put paid to that! But it’s good poetry, scrapbooks, family research to reflect on the research activities we and other outcomes. More undertook during the glorious information on this will be shared in summer of 2019, when travel was future Hanes editions. easy, meeting folks for coffee was Our Memory Bench and diary at the great and libraries and museums were former Talyllyn phone kiosk, which is open. Gosh those were the days! now a small railway museum and heritage centre, has encouraged Learning Links International community members to record their successfully applied to the National memories of growing up in the local Lottery Heritage Fund to enable our area. small team of enthusiasts to engage The following extract was written by with Community Research Volunteers Mary Kneath. “ From four and a half to find out more about the history of years old I walked the tram road, the early woollen industry in Mid (Brecon to Hay) and Ash path to catch Wales and the links that Wales had the train at Talyllyn with my sister Sue around the Atlantic. We knew that and friends to Brecon where we went cloth was woven in Mid Wales to school. There were lots of children specifically for slave traders for use to taking the same journey, some purchase enslaved people from in sticking their heads out of the `leather West Africa and also to sell on for belted dropped down` windows, some clothing for the enslaved workforces rocking on the concertina joints in the Caribbean and North America. between the coaches and some However, few people knew about this swinging upside down on the ledge of hidden history and we wanted to the luggage racks after the guard had understand more about the gone past. We weren`t always on practicalities of the production of this time for the train and often waived at woollen fabric, which became well
known as ‘Welsh Plains’ and was records of their ownership of slaves? valued for its hard- wearing qualities in countries around the Atlantic. All this is hard to come to terms with, as is the knowledge that custom built It's 2020 now, and if we are to have slave ships were produced in Welsh any understanding of the current shipyards, for example J. Geraint ‘Black Lives Matter’ challenges, then Jenkins, in one of his many to have an understanding of our books ‘Welsh Ship and Sailing Men’ Welsh / English / Colonial history is records that in Pwllheli 'A visitor in key to this. To see Edward Colston’s 1801 observed: "This little town statue toppled is one thing, but to seems in flourishing condition. I saw a understand how our Welsh ancestors large Guineaman on the stocks, fitted living in the rural valleys of Mid Wales for 600 slaves”.’ were also implicated in the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade takes more And as yet, we haven’t even spoken of research. the well-known Welsh plantation owners and small scale slave owners Understanding our shared history has who received compensation for never been more important and we losing their enslaved workforces or need to put our research alongside the income from the few slaves they the other threads: had ‘shares’ in. The database created by the University College of How much do we know about the London, ‘Legacies of British Slave activists and the poets in Wales the Ownership' www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs is 1700’s who decried slavery in the New fascinating and an ongoing World. development. Just search for ‘Wales’ under ‘addresses’ or check Do we have an understanding of the out ‘Montgomeryshire’. role that Welsh pirates and privateers played in both disrupting and …. but back to the community protecting the trade triangle between research project. The ‘From Sheep to European ports and West Africa, Sugar’ project successfully engaged which was going out and coming back over 50 Community Research from North and South America and Volunteers. We were fortunate to the many Caribbean islands colonised have a great deal of support from Prof by the European superpowers of the Chris Evans from the University of time? South Wales. His book ’Slave Wales: The Welsh and Slavery’, is a What do we think about the Welsh most informative and easy to read who left their homeland to cross the publication, and we were delighted Atlantic to find a better life living in that other advisors and academics someone else’s country and then find from around the world and across the
UK took an active interest. which creates a large demand”. Thomas Pennant, who was a We found that the late J. Geraint knowledgeable local commentator, Jenkins, had told the story so clearly in reported the use of this cloth for his out of print book ’The Welsh “covering the poor negroes in the Woollen Industry’ (there are still a few West Indies”, hence the other, more cheap copies going on Amazon! ) He pointed name: “Negro Cloth”. tells us that ‘Brecknocks’ devised their name from the county where they Our research found that the trade in were produced in the sixteenth Welsh woollen cloth was Wales main century … "and great fortunes export in the 1700’s. Jenkins clearly were acquired in Brecon and the identifies the areas where Welsh vicinity by the manufacture of woollen Plains was specifically produced and cloth - page 112”. Mention is made told us how important the trade later that this rough unprocessed through Shrewsbury became. Then "cloth intended for export was later in the 1700’s Jenkins and others usually taken for dyeing by craftsmen reported how ‘factors’ came to buy employed by the Shrewsbury Drapers’ cloth directly from weavers to supply Company before taken to London or the increasing demand of the Bristol”. So clearly in the 1500’s there Liverpool slave traders. was already evidence of a massive cottage industry with wool being We needed to understand this wider brought into Wales, so great became background, to set our focus into the demand for this rough cloth that context and we engaged people with made Wales well known to the rest of an interest in the crafts of spinning the world as producers of 'Welsh and weaving to explore just how this Plains’. cloth would have been produced, then we linked up with people in local J Geraint Jenkins quotes travel writers areas who had an interest in finding in the 18th Century, who witnessed out why there were so many places the massive cottage industry which called ‘pandy’ or evidence of these was then located further north in fulling mills in certain locations, and Merioneth, Montgomeryshire and why small villages have industrial Denbighshire. Arthur Aikin reports in scale buildings with large windows, his "Journal of a Tour through North many of these now converted ,but still Wales and Part of Shropshire with known as the local ‘factori’. Observations in Mineralogy and Other Branches of Natural History (London, We extended an invitation at the 1797) that the “ purposes to which ‘Wonderwool’ show in April and we webs are applied abroad are various; soon realised that this was a little including the clothing of the slaves in known story that fascinated people. the West Indies and South America The project websites are still ‘work in progress’ and although the NLHF need to understand the way trade timeframe has ended and Covid 19 worked at that time, and we would means that the free and easy days of love to find out more about the last summer are but a memory, there process of fulling and the lives of the are still ways that local people can do fullers. We also need to know more local research into the little known about what the impact of the ending history of the massive, complex and of the slave trade meant for the fascinating cottage industry, which weavers and their families. clothed, family, friends and neighbours, but that also enabled the I’m sorry that I couldn’t join you to tell Plantation owners to fulfil their legal this story, to answer questions or requirement to clothe their enslaved discuss this fascinating history, but we workers. would be delighted to hear from you via the website Spinning and weaving were literally www.welshplains.cymru email cottage industries that engaged me: [email protected] Stay everyone in the community and safe! flourished up to the advent of the mechanised looms and the spinning This article was written by Liz Millman, jenny that created the fabulous and Director of ‘Learning Links famous Welsh cloth of later years. International CIC’. Liz is a shared This is a national industry that we history researcher with a community need to understand better, and to education background. Liz has family help our children understand the roots in Anglesey and is a craft worker. importance of some of the old She has also worked on community buildings found locally, that are often projects in Jamaica many times over taken for granted. the past 20 years and has set up the Jamaica Wales Alliance. Liz was able to So, even if you only have your laptop lead the project along with fellow LLI to use for research at present, there is Director, Caroline Sansom. so much information on the internet, check Google, Wikipedia “Welsh Llangynidr Local History Woollen Industry” and our bilingual websites have the film, the Society PowerPoint story and lots of links: www.welshplains.cymru and if you Like most societies our spring and feel your findings will help us get a summer planned activities have had better, bigger picture, then please to be cancelled, we had a walk around share your findings with us. We need Beaufort in Ebbw Vale, with one of to know more about the use of our local historians, and a lovely day packhorses for transport, as well as planned at Sudeley Castle, both of the community use of the cloth. We these we hope to be able to Powys Family History rearrange very soon. Sadly we have Society also had to postpone our trip to the D Day beaches and the Normandy Powys Family History Society memorial, this will be rearranged for Spring 2021. The Powys FHS has since the last So with all our spare time we have edition of Hanes been invited and embarked on a census project, we participated in an On-Line Family have taken a snapshot of the village History Fair organised by the Genfair from each census year, collating the organisation, which was different ages, birthplaces, occupations, and from a normal fair, but well worth the numbers within households. This has time spent engaging with the general been a fascinating project and public. Due to the travel restrictions in throughout a number of families have Wales we have only in the last couple caught our interest and further of weeks been able to re-start the research has ensued. Myself, I have recording on Monumental delved into the Buckle and Sinnett Inscriptions, currently working on families, where I have found stories as Builth and Talgarth churchyards. diverse as the workhouse and Oxford University, I am now waiting for We are now, following successful various archive centres and churches Zoom meetings for committee and to reopen to tie up a number of loose general communications starting to ends, so watch out on our website for look for speakers who can give the the completed family histories. We society Zoom presentations until we have also managed to complete the are able to re-start our face-to-Face transcription of our churchyard burial public meetings again. If you are a records which will now be easily speaker on local or family history and searchable for research enquiries. A would be willing to give Powys FHS a program I have thoroughly enjoyed is talk, contact [email protected] 'A house through time', as an avid family history researcher it has The Cronicl was published in the enthralled me, the amount and depth normal hard copy, as there was some of research that has gone into this doubt in May if this would be possible, programme is just incredible and I still with life in general getting back to haven't worked out which comes first, normal, we hope this will continue. finding the house or starting with a family?
Thank you all again for your support Y Gaer and we look forward to seeing you
again soon Following approval from Cabinet on
28 July 2020, Powys County Council Best wishes will be re-opening its Archives and Cath Museum Services, and extending library services. The County Archives will open for booked appointments from the week beginning 3rd August. Radnorshire Museum and y Gaer Museum will re-open from Friday 31st July, and Y Lanfa / The Wharf: Powysland Museum will be open from Saturday 1st August 2020.
To summarise y Gaer Museum we will be open as from tomorrow to visitors for limited hours only. These hours will be - Fridays and Saturdays 10.00-13.00 13.30-16.00 This is for visits to the Museum and bookable slots for the Library Public PC.
We are currently opening with staff only but we will have more details soon about the involvement of volunteers. Please let me know of your availability to volunteer should we be given the go ahead for your invaluable help. Safety of everyone using our cultural services remains paramount, and plans to proceed cautiously are made with the knowledge that it may be necessary to take a step back at any point, should cases of covid-19 increase.