Welsh history and its sources
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Welsh history and its sources
Introduction
This course is a teaching and learning resource for anyone interested in Welsh history. It contains study materials, links to some of the most important institutions that contribute to our understanding of the history of Wales, and a pool of resources that can help you understand Welsh history and the way it is studied.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A182 Small country, big history: themes in the history of Wales.
Learning outcomes
After studying this course you should be able to:
understand some of the basic themes and issues that have been the focus for historians of Wales
become aware of a variety of approaches employed by historians in interpreting and constructing history generally and Welsh history specifically
understand issues that contribute to the cultural identity of Wales.
1 Overview
1.1 How the course works and what it contains
This unit has been designed to help anyone with an interest in the history of Wales to find key information and to begin understanding the way that historians of Wales do their work. It is aimed both at those who are generally interested in the subject and may have a good knowledge of Welsh history already, and at those who are relatively new to the subject. So, while some of the material (such as the taster material from the OU course Small country, big history: themes in the history of Wales) provides a short programme of study devoted to a very specific topic, much of the material included in the unit as a whole can be used and studied in a variety of ways.
1.1.1 Background
The unit title, Welsh history and its sources, was the generic title for a series of books that was prepared at The Open University in Wales between 1988 and 1995, and edited by Trevor Herbert and Gareth Elwyn Jones. The seven volumes in the series were made possible by a Welsh Office grant and brought together the work of more than forty historians of Wales.
The series was important because it did not just provide a rich array of materials about Welsh history; it also explained the way that historians of Wales work by showing the relationship between their writings about Welsh history and the evidence or sources upon which those writings are based. The variety of material contained in this unit not only continues the legacy of the original Welsh history and its sources project, it also extends it and makes it suitable for an online environment.
1.1.2 Sources and resources
This unit contains a wide range of materials presented in different media formats that are freely available for you to use. It contains a substantial number of essays and source materials from the original Welsh history and its sources series of books, as well as maps, pictures and sound clips. If you wish to use the videos offline, we recommend that you download the higher resolution version.
1.1.3 Weblinks
The weblinks section of this course guides you to some of the best online resources for the study of Welsh history. We have looked at all the sites we give links to, and we are sure that they will be helpful to you. Some, such as the enormously impressive online resources of the National Library of Wales, provide a vast array of online sources.
1.1.4 History tools
This course contains very basic devices that will enable you to make a start in your exploration of Welsh history.
There are three primary tools for you to explore:
The Welsh history timeline provides a basic overview of the more important events in the history of Wales.
The glossary of Welsh history is a searchable database of words and phrases that figure prominently in writings about the history of Wales.
A bibliography of Welsh history.
The glossary of Welsh history is also accessible by selecting the link provided in the text. It will be presented to you as a navigable set of glossary pages in alphabetical order.
The bibliography of Welsh history allows you both to pursue your own interests by discovering further reading and to gain an overview of the scope of Welsh historical scholarship.
2 Welsh history: text resources
2.1 Introduction
Each of the selections in this section is taken from one of the volumes in the Welsh history and its sources series. Each book contained an introductory overview followed by a series of essays. Each one of these essays was linked and cross-referenced to documentary source material that the author had investigated when writing her/his essay.
The introductory essays from each of the seven volumes are included here, along with one essay from each volume and the source materials that are related to it. Each essay can be accessed by selecting the view document option. The essay will then be presented as a PDF document in a separate window.
Throughout the essays, you will see words in italics. Some of the authors use italics for the Welsh language, but italics also indicate entries in the glossary in Section 9. If you look up these words in the glossary, you will find some more information about them.
2.1.1 Edward I and Wales
This is the introductory essay to the volume Edward I and Wales. It was written by Professor R.R. Davies, at that time Professor of History at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Click below to open ‘Edward I and Wales’ (8 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.2 The Edwardian Conquest and its Military Consolidation
This chapter from Edward I and Wales is by Dr Ifor Rowlands. Dr Rowlands uses a range of thirteenth-century documentary texts, maps and statistical tables to support his essay.
Click below to open ‘The Edwardian Conquest and its Military Consolidation’ (26 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.3 Tudor Wales
This is the introductory essay to the volume Tudor Wales. It was written by Professor Gareth Elwyn Jones, one of the co-editors of the Welsh History and its Sources series.
Click below to open ‘Tudor Wales’ (7 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.4 The Lower Orders
This chapter from Tudor Wales is by Brian Howells of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Brian Howells' contribution is impressive because of the range of sources he has marshalled about ordinary people whose activities are usually less well documented than their social superiors.
Click below to open ‘The Lower Orders’ (21 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.5 The Remaking of Wales in the Eighteenth Century
This is the introductory essay to the volume The Remaking of Wales in the Eighteenth Century. It was written by Peter D.G. Thomas, Professor of History at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Click below to open ‘The Remaking of Wales in the Eighteenth Century’ (5 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.6 Beginnings of Radicalism
This chapter from The Remaking of Wales in the Eighteenth Century was written by Professor Gwyn Alf Williams of Cardiff University. In his chapter Professor Williams traces the origins of the radicalism that was to surface in its fullest form in Wales in the nineteenth century.
Click below to open ‘Beginnings of Radicalism’ (28 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.7 People and Protest: Wales 1815–1880
This is the introductory essay to the volume People and Protest: Wales 1815–1880. It was written by Professor Ieuan G. Jones of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Click below to open ‘People and Protest Wales 1815–1880’ (5 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.8 Parliament and People in Mid-Nineteenth Century Wales
Like the previous essay, this chapter from People and Protest: Wales 1815–1880 is also by Ieuan G. Jones, who was a pioneering historian of politics and nonconformity in nineteenth-century Wales.
Click below to open ‘Parliament and People in Mid-Nineteenth Century Wales’ (25 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.9 Wales 1880–1914
This is the introductory essay to the volume Wales 1880–1914. It is by Professor Gareth Elwyn Jones, one of the co-editors of the Welsh History and its Sources series.
Click below to open ‘Wales 1880–1914’ (7 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.10 From Riots to Revolt: Tonypandy and The Miners' Next Step
This chapter from Wales 1880–1914 is by Professor David (Dai) Smith. Professor Smith made a famous study of the Tonypandy riots of 1910 and many of his sources are reprinted here.
Click below to open ‘From Riots to Revolt: Tonypandy and The Miners’ Next Step’ (23 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.11 Wales between the Wars
This is the introductory essay to the volume Wales between the Wars. Like the chapter ‘From Riots to Revolt’ from the previous volume, it is by Professor David (Dai) Smith.
Click below to open ‘Wales Between the Wars’ (9 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.12 Social Reactions to Economic Change
This chapter from Wales between the Wars is by Deian Hopkin, then of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Dr Hopkin draws on a wide range of sources from different parts of Wales to support his arguments.
Click below to open ‘Social Reactions to Economic Change’ (41 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.13 Post-War Wales
This is the introductory essay to the volume Post-War Wales. It was written by Professor Gareth Elwyn Jones, one of the co-editors of the Welsh History and its Sources series.
Click below to open ‘Post-War Wales’ (7 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
2.1.14 Wales and the Wider World
This chapter from Post-War Wales is by Christopher Harvie of the University of Tübingen, Germany. Unlike the other volumes, the chapters in Post-War Wales did not include ‘Discussion’ or ‘Debating the Evidence’ sections, so the chapter consists of Christopher Harvie's essay and sources.
Click below to open ‘Wales and the Wider World’ (17 pages). Make sure to open the link in a new tab/window so you can easily return here.
3 Welsh history: audio resources
3.1 Introduction
The following audio resource files are extracts from a series of seventeen BBC Radio Wales programmes first broadcast in 1999. They include discussion by eminent Welsh historians, many of whom have contributed to the essays presented in the previous text resources section.
It is important to point out that these are extracts from longer and more detailed discourses about the history of Wales, but they each contain important views and information that illustrate the nature of historical investigations into Welsh topics. The Welsh history and its sources site contains additional information about most of the periods and in some cases the topics that are the subjects of discussion. In addition the glossary and timelines will help you to contextualise the material.
To get the most out of this material it is worth listening to each audio clip more than once. In between each listening you should ask yourself what the key issues are about the subject that the speaker is addressing.
3.2 The Normans in Wales
3.2.1 The Welsh experience of the Norman conquest
Huw Pryce discusses the Welsh experience of the Norman Conquest. The contemporary poem Rhigyfarch's Lament describes the conquest of Dyfed.
This extract is from Programme 1, The Normans in Wales, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.3 Crown, conquest and communities
3.3.1 The ‘warlike Welsh’
Huw Pryce discusses the militarism of the Welsh in the twelfth century.
This extract is from Programme 2, Crown, conquest and communities, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.3.2 Llywelyn ap Gruffydd
A.D. Carr discusses the career of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, ‘the Last Prince of Wales’, and in particular Llywelyn’s final uprising against Edward I, and the deaths of Llywelyn and his brother Dafydd.
This extract is from Programme 2, Crown, conquest and communities, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.3.3 The conquest of Wales
A.D. Carr discusses the impact of the ‘conquest’ of Wales, and Edward I's programme of castle-building. Nancy Edwards describes the planning of Edward's new towns.
This extract is from Programme 2, Crown, conquest and communities, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.4 Tudor Wales
3.4.1 The aftermath of the Glyndwr rebellion
A.D. Carr and Matthew Griffiths describe the aftermath of Owain Glyndwr's rebellion.
This extract is from Programme 3, Tudor Wales, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.4.2 The Tudors
Gareth Elwyn Jones examines the significance of the Tudors and the Acts of Union, and in particular the language clause of the 1536 Act of Union.
This extract is from Programme 3, Tudor Wales, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.5 People and belief
3.5.1 The Welsh New Testament
A discussion of the translation of the New Testament into Welsh, and of the state of Welsh spiritual life at the time of the Reformation.
This extract is from Programme 4, People and Belief, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.5.2 Welsh religious life before the Reformation
Glanmor Williams discusses pre-Reformation piety in Wales.
This extract is from Programme 4, People and Belief, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.5.3 The Reformation in Wales
Glanmor Williams examines the changes under Henry VIII and Edward VI including the use of the Prayer Book. He describes the removal of images of the saints. Gareth Elwyn Jones discusses the translation of the Prayer Book and Bible into Welsh.
This extract is from Programme 4, People and Belief, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.6 Love and learning
3.6.1 Eighteenth-century tourism of Wales
Philip Jenkins discusses changes in English attitudes to the landscape of Wales in the 1760s with the development of the Romantic movement.
This extract is from Programme 6, Love and learning, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.7 Crisis
3.7.1 Welsh nonconformity
Neil Evans discusses Nonconformist religion in nineteenth-century Wales.
This extract is from Programme 8, Crisis, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.8 From blue books to white gloves
3.8.1 Public houses
Neil Evans describes the function of pubs in Wales in the nineteenth century.
This extract is from Programme 9, From blue books to white gloves, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.8.2 Social unrest
Neil Evans discusses the response of the state to rebellions in Wales in the nineteenth century.
This extract is from Programme 9, From blue books to white gloves, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.8.3 Iolo Morganwg
Philip Jenkins examines the influence of Iolo Morganwg in Wales.
This extract is from Programme 9, From blue books to white gloves, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.9 Work and play
3.9.1 Mealtimes
Elin Jones discusses the impact of industrialisation and shift work on mealtimes in nineteenth-century Wales.
This extract is from Programme 10, Work and play, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.9.2 The chapel
Russell Davies examines the role of chapels in Wales.
This extract is from Programme 10, Work and play, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.9.3 The Sunday Closing Act
Russell Davies discusses the impact and consequences of the Sunday closing of public houses in Wales.
This extract is from Programme 10, Work and play, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.9.4 Welsh rugby
Gareth Williams describes some of the characteristics of Welsh rugby.
This extract is from Programme 10, Work and play, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.10 Secret sins
3.10.1 Rural Wales
Bill Jones discusses conditions in nineteenth-century rural Wales, and the attractions of urban areas.
This extract is from Programme 11, Secret sins, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.11 Triumph and tragedy
3.11.1 Colliery disasters
Bill Jones examines the impact of colliery disasters on communities in Wales.
This extract is from Programme 12, Triumph and tragedy, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.12 To hell and back
3.12.1 The impact of World War I
Keith Strange describes the impact of the Great War on the political, economic and cultural life of Wales.
This extract is from Programme 13, To hell and back, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.12.2 Welsh women in World War I
Bob Morris, Keith Strange and Deirdre Beddoe focus on the role of Welsh women during the First World War, in particular on their new independence and munitions work.
This extract is from Programme 13, To hell and back, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.12.3 Coal cutting
Brian Davies describes the process of coal cutting and the conditions in which miners worked.
This extract is from Programme 13, To hell and back, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.12.4 The coalfield community
Brian Davies talks about life in the community of the South Wales coalfield in the 1920s and 1930s.
This extract is from Programme 13, To hell and back, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.13 The Great Depression
3.13.1 Women's lives in the Great Depression
Ioan Matthews, Deirdre Beddoe and Sian Rhiannon Williams discuss the experience of women in Wales during the depression of the 1930s.
This extract is from Programme 14, The Great Depression, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.14 A new Jerusalem
3.14.1 Wales in the 1950s and 1960s
Christine Stephens discusses the effect of increasing affluence and the influence of the USA. Rock’n’roll arrives in Wales.
This extract is from Programme 16, A new Jerusalem, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.15 On a border in history
3.15.1 The Welsh language movement
Chris Williams discusses the impact of Saunders Lewis's 1962 radio broadcast Tynged yr Iaith (The Fate of the Language).
This extract is from Programme 17, On a border in history, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.15.2 A golden age of Welsh rugby
Chris Williams discusses Welsh rugby in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and Welsh rugby supporters' shared sense of unity and identity.
This extract is from Programme 17, On a border in history, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
3.15.3 Welsh identity
Chris Williams discusses the emergence of a new understanding of Welsh identity in the 1970s and 1980s.
This extract is from Programme 17, On a border in history, of the BBC Radio Wales Millennium History series, The People of Wales (1999).
4 Welsh history: video resources
In this section two video resources, describing different aspects of Welsh history, are presented. These complement the materials presented in the previous text and audio sections. They also offer you a visual context for some important aspects of Welsh history.
4.1 Introduction
The first video resource is a set of short extracts from the first three BBC/Open University television series Coast, originally broadcast between 2005 and 2007. They explore some of the historical stories that make up the unique character of the Welsh coastline.
The second video resource is taken from Open University course AA302 From composition to performance: musicians at work, and shows how the musical and cultural identity of a Welsh Victorian brass band was reconstructed from a range of sources.
4.2 Coast video extracts
Extract 1
The development of the port of Cardiff and the community of Tiger Bay (Coast, Series 1, Programme 3, 2005).
Extract 2
Conquering the Menai Straits: Edward I tried to dominate the Menai Straits by building Caernarfon Castle; the engineers Thomas Telford and Robert Stephenson did it by constructing the world's first suspension and box-girder bridges (Coast, Series 1, Programme 4, 2005).
Extract 3
The story of the Anglesey bonesetters and the birth of modern orthopaedics (Coast, Series 2, Programme 2, 2006).
Extract 4
‘Copperopolis’: Swansea's rise and decline as the centre of the world's copper industry. (Coast, Series 3, Programme 4, 2007).
4.3 The celebrated Cyfarthfa band
In the middle of the nineteenth century, Merthyr Tydfil was the world's greatest supplier of iron and the largest town in Wales. It was dominated by Cyfarthfa Castle, the huge and ostentatious home of the greatest of the iron barons, Robert Thompson Crawshay.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Crawshay established a band: a brass band that was to become one of the greatest musical ensembles of the Victorian period.
This programme, from the Open University course AA302 From composition to performance: musicians at work, shows how the musical and cultural identity of this band was reconstructed from a range of sources.
Professor Trevor Herbert, who first identified the sources for this story, was interested in addressing three key questions:
When did this band come into being and how was it run?
What did the band sound like?
Why was such a band formed in a place like Merthyr Tydfil?
Transcript: Video 5 The celebrated Cyfarthfa band (duration 23:45)
5 Welsh history: case study of David Lloyd George
5.1 Overview
This section contains a short ‘taster’ from The Open University's fifteen-week course A182 Small country, big history: themes in the history of Wales. The sample material presented in this section looks at the life of David Lloyd George.
5.2 Introduction
This extract of material is taken from the opening section of the final case study in A182 Small country, big history: themes in the history of Wales. In it Professor Chris Williams discusses the extent to which the Welshness of David Lloyd George, the only Welshman ever to have become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was seen as important either by Lloyd George himself or by others.
Though it is not evident from this sample, the course focuses on the way that this theme is developed by Kenneth O. Morgan, one of the greatest historians of the period. Students are invited to read Morgan's essay ‘David Lloyd George and Wales’ and many of the sources that were used in writing it, and to answer key questions about the function of historical biography and the way that individual lives are treated by historians.
5.3 ‘The Greatest Welshman Yet Born’? David Lloyd George and Wales
‘Lloyd George Knew My Father, Father Knew Lloyd George’
My first ever acquaintance with the name of David Lloyd George came through hearing my paternal grandmother sing the line ‘Lloyd George Knew My Father, Father Knew Lloyd George’, over and over again, to the tune of ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. This music-hall ditty originated as a satirical comment on the controversy that surrounded the ‘honours scandal’ of 1922, when the Lloyd George government was accused of trading honours such as OBEs (Order of the British Empire), knighthoods, baronetcies and peerages in return for financial donations.
A much more profound and educational engagement with the life and times of Lloyd George came in 1981, when the BBC screened an impressive nine-part drama. It is an interesting exercise to reflect on how our historical knowledge of individuals or events is constructed through layers of cultural memory.
Activity
What do you know already about the life of Lloyd George? Without referring to any additional materials, jot down as many facts about him as you can think of.
Discussion
There is no ‘right’ answer for this activity: everyone is likely to have a different range of ideas and knowledge about Lloyd George's life. Of course, some of those ideas might be ‘wrong’, but let's not worry about that at the moment. I tried to come up with facts about Lloyd George that might fit the bill of ‘strange, but true’; here are three.
Although we see Lloyd George quite clearly as a Welshman and a fluent speaker of the Welsh language, he was actually born in 1863 at 5 New York Place, Chorlton upon Medlock, Manchester.
Lloyd George is one of relatively few Welsh politicians to have a mountain named after him: Mount Lloyd George, 2,938 metres high, in northern British Columbia, Canada.
Who do you think Lloyd George termed ‘the George Washington of Germany’ after taking tea with him in 1936? I'm afraid that it was Adolf Hitler. It is only fair to note that Lloyd George revised his opinion by the end of the decade.
5.4 Lloyd George, Wales and the world
What I hope the activity in Section 5.3 reveals is that a full appreciation of David Lloyd George's political career would take us well beyond the confines of Wales and the Welsh nation. As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1916–22) he presided over the expansion of the British Empire to its maximum extent, while at the same time negotiating the settlement of the ‘Irish Question’ and the recasting of the UK as that of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Along with President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America and Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France, he played a critical role in the peace settlements that followed the First World War, and which not only redrew the map of Europe but also those of the Middle and Far East. Later, while in opposition, Lloyd George was instrumental in introducing the ultimately highly influential economic initiatives of John Maynard Keynes to a wider audience. To study Lloyd George's life in the round, therefore, would be a fascinating and highly worthwhile exercise, and I recommend strongly that if you have time you should read at least one of the shorter biographical studies, such as those by Pugh (1988) or Wrigley (1992) listed in Section 5.6.
Our focus in this section, however, is on Lloyd George's relationship with Wales, and what a study of Lloyd George can tell us about the emergence of a modern sense of Welsh nationality. Contemporaries were very confident that Lloyd George's political ascent held a significance wider than that of the man himself. One of Lloyd George's earliest biographers, J. Hugh Edwards, went so far as to produce a multi-volume work entitled The Life of David Lloyd George, with a Short History of the Welsh People, which started with ‘the origins of the Cymric race’ (Edwards, 1913–24, vol. I, p. 1) and ended with Lloyd George's premiership! The justification for such an arrangement was the claim that Lloyd George was ‘the product of Welsh nationality – the resultant [sic] of those forces which have kept alive the language and tradition of Wales through long centuries of oppression and scorn’ (Edwards 1913–24, vol. I, p. xxiii). It was just such a mood that allowed the liberal-nationalist monthly the Welsh Outlook to proclaim Lloyd George ‘the greatest Welshman yet born’ in 1919 (cited in Morgan, Modern Wales, p. 361).
Modern historians tend to be rather more restrained in their evaluations. I once took part in a radio programme which debated whether Lloyd George was ‘hero or villain’. Each side was represented by a professional historian and a Member of Parliament (one Liberal Democrat, one Labour). The judge was historian and broadcaster Peter Stead, and when the fury of the debate had subsided his decision was that Lloyd George was a villain! Yet in the online poll conducted in 2003–04 by Culturenet Cymru to identify ‘100 Welsh heroes’, Lloyd George came in a very respectable eighth place.
Between 8 September 2003 and 23 February 2004, Culturenet Cymru received over 80,000 nominations for ‘Welsh heroes’.
When the polls closed the top ten places were as follows:
Aneurin Bevan (2426 votes)
Owain Glyndŵr (2309)
Tom Jones (2072)
Gwynfor Evans (1928)
Richard Burton (1755)
Gareth Edwards (1685)
Dylan Thomas (1630)
David Lloyd George (1627)
Robert Owen (1621)
Saunders Lewis (1601)
It is interesting that a more recent (but less extensive) poll produced a slightly different set of results. Who would be your top ten Welsh heroes? Would the list include any women?
5.5 The individual in history
Judging any politician as either ‘hero’ or ‘villain’ is inevitably a subjective exercise, conditioned by our own ideological preferences. It is also a highly artificial device, as few individuals are so good or so bad as to fit neatly into either category. As historians, therefore, we need to aim for a more balanced assessment, which takes into account not just the actions or beliefs of the individual in question, but also the contexts and environments in which they operated.
This brings me onto another key theme in this section: the importance of the individual historical actor. The Victorian writer Thomas Carlyle suggested that ‘the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of Great Men who have worked here’ (1907, p. 1). In the nineteenth century every great man had to have at least one biography, usually a multi-volumed work written by an admirer, associate or relative, replete with extensive quotations from letters and speeches. Such works tended to be largely uncritical and enthusiastic endorsements of the importance of their subject, verging on hagiography. Today such volumes appear quaint: dusty tomes with thick, often uneven pages, overwhelmingly interested in the public life of the individual, occasionally concerned to whitewash dubious or controversial dimensions of their stories. They sat uneasily alongside the increasing professionalisation of history with a capital ‘H’, history as a discipline, ostensibly objective, evidence-based, and concerned with wider trends and grander themes than individual lives.
Karl Marx, a very different kind of Victorian, famously wrote that ‘Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.’ (1954, p. 10). The role of individual action was thus tightly circumscribed: the Napoleons of history were understood as part of broader trends, as representative of particular moments. Individuals played key roles in history, but their specific identity was almost irrelevant – if it had not been a Napoleon it would have been another French general, so the argument ran.
Yet can such a perspective ever be fully satisfactory? As Richard Evans has pointed out, ‘To reduce every human being to a statistic, a social type, or the mouthpiece of a collective discourse is to do violence to the complexity of human nature, social circumstance and cultural life’ (1997, p. 189).
Historical biography is vital because it places people at the centre of the processes by which we understand the past. Of course biography cannot be severed from its broader historical moorings. No life can be understood apart from the society in which it was lived. Yet we can also agree that the individual life may reveal much about the moment in which it was lived. One of Marx's more rarely quoted aphorisms appears relevant here: ‘Every social epoch needs its great men and if it does not find them it invents them’ (1979, p. 92).
5.6 References and further reading
Carlyle, T. ([1841] 1907) On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History, London, Chapman and Hall.
Edwards, J.H. (1913–24) The Life of David Lloyd George, with a Short History of the Welsh People, London, Waverley Book Company.
Evans, R.J. (1997) In Defence of History, London, Granta.
Marx, K. ([1850] 1979) The Class Struggles in France 1848 to 1850, Moscow, Progress.
Marx, K. ([1852] 1954) The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Moscow, Progress.
Morgan, K.O. (1995) Modern Wales: Politics, Places and People, Cardiff, University of Wales Press.
Pugh, M.D. (1988) Lloyd George, London, Longman.
Wrigley, C.J. (1992) Lloyd George, Oxford, Blackwell.
6 Welsh history: map and diagram resources
6.1 Introduction
The following map and diagram resources are taken from the seven Welsh History and its Sources books mentioned in Section 1.1. They were specially drawn for the Welsh History and its Sources volumes. Some appear in the essays presented in Section 2. They cover many aspects of Welsh history, as well as presenting a geographical and statistical context for the various historical events.
6.2 Edward I and Wales
Resource 1: Principal physical features of Wales
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 2: Wales in 1267
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 3: Wales in 1277
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 4: Wales in 1284
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 5: Edward I's Campaign 1276–77
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 6: Edward I's Campaign 1282–83
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 7: Edwardian castles in Wales
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 8: Plan of Conwy Castle
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 9: Caernarfon Castle and town
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 10: The impressment of men for the King's works in Wales, 1282–3 (see also Resource 11)
From: Edward I and Wales
Resource 11: The impressment of men for the King's works in Wales, 1282–3 (see also Resource 10)
From: Edward I and Wales
Use the link below to download all the maps and diagrams from Edward I and Wales as a collection.
From: Edward I and Wales
6.3 Tudor Wales
Resource 1: Main physical features of Wales
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 2: Humphrey Lhuyd’s map of Wales 1573. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 3: Map of Pembrokeshire by George Owen of Henllys. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 4: Purchasing power of wages 1450–1499
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 5: John Speed’s map of Caernarfon, 1611. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 6: Index of Prices of Basket of Consumables 1400–1700
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 7: Baptisms and Burials in Conway, 1541–1640
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 8: Density of population in Wales c.1550
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 9: Map of Barry Manor in 1622 by Evans Mouse, based on original in Glamorgan Record Office. (Source: H.J. Evans.)
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 10: New Radnor in the early seventeenth century; map published in John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, 1611
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 11: Main Welsh towns, c.1550
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 12: Welsh Monastic houses
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 13: Independent Wales in the early thirteenth century
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 14: Wales in the reign of Henry VII
From: Tudor Wales
Resource 15: The Shires of Wales after the Acts of Union
From: Tudor Wales
Use the link below to download all the maps and diagrams from Tudor Wales as a collection.
From: Tudor Wales
6.4 The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Resource 1: Place-name map of Wales
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Resource 2: Food riots in Wales, 1793–1801
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Resource 3: Resistance to enclosures
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Resource 4: Disaffection during the Napoleonic Wars
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Use the link below to download all the maps and diagrams from The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century as a collection.
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
6.5 People and protest
Resource 1: Country populations in Wales as shown by census returns
From: People and protest
Resource 2: Wales, showing the pre-1974 county boundaries
From: People and protest
Resource 3: Chapel building of Protestant denominations 1801–1850 (Public Record Office, Census of Religious Worship 1851. Enumerators’ Returns for Wales, HO 129/29/576–623.)
From: People and protest
Resource 4: Growth Rates in Wales — (4 Main Denominations)
From: People and protest
Resource 5: The North Wales slate mining district
From: People and protest
Use the link below to download all the maps and diagrams from People and protest as a collection.
From: People and protest
6.6 Wales 1880–1914
Resource 1: Place-name map of Wales
From: Wales 1880–1914
Resource 2: Total population 1881
From: Wales 1880–1914
Resource 3: Total population 1911
From: Wales 1880–1914
Resource 4: Welsh speaking population, 1911
From: Wales 1880–1914
Resource 5: Linguistic areas in the central borderland counties of Wales during the mid-nineteenth century according to the language used at Sunday Schools. (Source: G. J. Lewis and National Library of Wales. Reproduced from NLW Journal XXI.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Resource 6: General Election Result, 1910 (based on Madgwick and Balsom, National Atlas of Wales.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Use the link below to download all the maps and diagrams from Wales 1880–1914 as a collection.
From: Wales 1880–1914
6.7 Wales between the Wars
Resource 1: Map of Welsh counties
From: Wales between the Wars
Resource 2: South Wales: the shaded area shows the coalfield
From: Wales between the Wars
Resource 3: Output of coal from the south Wales coalfield, 1923–1948, showing (above) levels of unemployment during the same period
From: Wales between the Wars,
Resource 4: County populations, Wales 1911–51
From: Wales between the Wars,
Use the link below to download all the maps and diagrams from Wales between the Wars as a collection.
From: Wales between the Wars
6.8 Post-War Wales
Resource 1: The main administrative units of Wales, showing the ‘old’ (pre-1974) and ‘new’ (1974–1996) county boundaries. (Source: D. Huw Owen (ed.), Settlement and Society in Wales, Cardiff, 1989.)
From: Post-War Wales
Resource 2: Number of Welsh speakers, 1991. (Source: Aitchison and H. Carter, A Geography of the Welsh Language 1969–1991, 1994.)
From: Post-War Wales
Resource 3: Percentage of the population able to speak Welsh, 1991. (Source: Aitchison and H. Carter, A Geography of the Welsh Language 1969–1991, 1994.)
From: Post-War Wales
Use the link below to download all the maps from Post-War Wales as a collection.
From: Post-War Wales
7 Welsh history: image resources
7.1 Introduction
The following image resources are taken from the seven Welsh History and its sources books mentioned in Section 1.1. Some appear in the essays presented in Section 2. They cover many aspects of Welsh history, as well as presenting a visual context for various people, places and events of Wales through time.
7.2 Edward I and Wales
Image 1: Idealized sculpture of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in Cardiff City Hall. (Source: Cardiff City Council.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 2: Littere Wallie. (Source: Public Record Office.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 3: Caernarfon Castle. (Source: Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments. Crown Copyright.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 4: The Theodosian Wall of Constantinople. (Source Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments. Crown Copyright.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 5: Payments to building workers at Caernarfon Castle, 1316–17. (Source: Public Record Office.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 6: Thirteenth-century sculpture believed to be the head of the youthful Edward I. (Source: Dean and Chapter of Westminster.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 7: Rhuddlan Castle. (Source: Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments. Crown Copyright.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 8: An early twentieth-century representation of Gerald of Wales. (Source: Cardiff City Council.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 9: Bangor Cathedral. (Source: National Monuments Record for Wales.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 10: Valle Crucis. (Source: National Monuments Record for Wales.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 11: Brut y Tywysogyon or The Chronicle of the Princes. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 12: Illustration from the Anian Pontifical, Bangor. (Source: Dean and Chapter of Bangor Cathedral.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Image 13: Harlech Castle. (Source: Welsh Historic Monuments Crown Copyright.)
From: Edward I and Wales
Use the link below to download all the images from Edward I and Wales as a collection.
From: Edward I and Wales
7.3 Tudor Wales
Image 1: Katheryn of Berain – the Llewesog Portrait. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 2: Tombs of the gentry family of the Mansels of Margam, in Margam Abbey Church. (Source: Glamorgan Archive Serviced)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 3: Sir John Wynn of Gwydir. (Engraving by Robert Vaughan.) (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 4: Beaupré Castle, home of the Basset family of Beaupré (or Bewper). (Source: National Monuments Record for Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 5: The type of house favoured by south Wales yeomen during the ‘great rebuilding’. (Source: Cambridge University Press.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 6: The type of house commonly favoured in the Severn valley during the ‘great rebuilding’. (Source: Cambridge University Press.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 7: Reaping scene from Holinshed’s Chronicles, 1577. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 8: Aerial photograph New Radnor, 1967. (Source: University of Cambridge, Committee for Aerial Photography.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 9: The title page of Yny Lhyvyr Hwnn (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 10: Bishop William Morgan. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 11: The title page of the Bible, 1588. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 12: Sir Henry Sidney in 1573. (Artist unknown.) (Source: National Portrait Gallery.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 13: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, c.1575. (Artist unknown). (Source: National Portrait Gallery.)
From: Tudor Wales
Image 14: Henry Herbert, second Earl of Pembroke (c. 1534–1601). (Artist unknown). (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: Tudor Wales
Use the link below to download all the images from Tudor Wales as a collection.
From: Tudor Wales
7.4 The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 1: Sir Watkin Williams Wynn: a portrait by Thomas Hudson, 1740. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 2: Pembroke town and castle, painted by Richard Wilson. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 3: Mid-eighteenth-century wine glasses engraved with Jacobite insignia and mottoes. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 4: Richard Jones Gwynne of Taliaris, Sea Serjeant. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 5: The Calvinistic Methodist Fathers. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 6: The Welch Curate. (Source: British Museum.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 7: The Welch Parson. (Source: British Museum.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 8: Lewis Morris. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 9: Howel Harris’s map of his travels. (Source: National Library of Wales and the Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 10: Title page of John Evans’s Some Account of the Welch Charity Schools. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 11: Griffith Jones’s tables of schools and scholars in Welch Piety, 1759. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 12: A cartoon of 1763 portraying preachers as greedy men and their congregations as lewd and disorderly. (Source: British Museum.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 13: The First Methodist Association (Sasiwn) in 1743. (Source: National library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 14: Engraving showing an iron forge between Dolgellau and Barmouth, 1776. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 15: Coal staithe and a copper works at Landore, near Swansea, 1792, a watercolour by J.C. Ibbetson. (Source: The Wernber Collection, Luton.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 16: Token coin of the ironworks of Carmarthen and Cwmdwyfran in the late eighteenth century, showing the tapping of the furnace and the forging into bar iron. (Source: Carmarthen Museum.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 17: The Parys Copper Mine, Anglesey, c. 1785, a watercolour by J.C. Ibbetson. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 18: Penrhyn Slate Quarry in 1808. (Source: Gwynedd Archives Service.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 19: The Darren Lead Mine, Cardiganshire, c.1670. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 20: Copper works in the Greenfield Valley, near Holywell, Flintshire, 1792. (Source: Clwyd Record Office.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 21: The White Rock Copper and Brass Works, near Swansea, in 1744
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 22: Title page of Cylchgrawn Cymraeg (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 23: Title page of Seren tan Gwmmwl (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 24: Title page of Toriad y Dydd (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 25: A memento of Fishguard in 1797
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 26: Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg). (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 27: Portrait of Lady Llanover (1802–96) painted by Mornewicke in 1862. (Source: National Museum of Wales.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 28: An Arch Druid in His judicial Habit, a coloured aquatint from S.R. Meyrick and C.H. Smith, The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815. (Source: BBC Button Picture Library.)
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 29: The druidic priest as portrayed by the Revd Henry Rowlands in his Mona Antiqua Restaurata, 1723
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 30: The Bard by Philippe J. de Loutherbourg, published in 1784 as the frontispiece to Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards by Edward Jones.
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Image 31: Druidical Remains in Anglesey, an engraving by J.Smith in William Sotheby’s A Tour Through Parts of Wales, 1794
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
Use the link below to download all the images from The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century as a collection.
From: The remaking of Wales in the eighteenth century
7.5 People and protest
Image 1: Newtown, Montgomeryshire, c. 1900. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: People and protest
Image 2: Swansea in the 1850s
From: People and protest
Image 3: Thomas Gee. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: People and protest
Image 4: Henry Richard. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: People and protest
Image 5: Henry Austin Bruce. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: People and protest
Image 6: Capel Newydd Nanhoron, Llŷn. Built in 1770. (Source: National Monuments Record for Wales.)
From: People and protest
Image 7: Kindred spirits? Aberdare. (Source: Cynon Valley Libraries.)
From: People and protest
Image 8: Temperance quiver
From: People and protest
Image 9: Revd Christmas Evans, aged 59, in 1835. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: People and protest
Image 10: Capel Pembroke Terrace, Calvinistic Methodist church, Cardiff. Built in 1877
From: People and protest
Image 11: 1843 drawing of the Rebecca riots as depicted in the Paris magazine L’Illustration. (Source: Mary Evans Picture Library.)
From: People and protest
Image 12: Appeal of the gentry to the followers of Rebecca. (Source: Dyfed Archives, Carmarthen Record Office, Bryn Myrddin Collection.)
From: People and protest
Image 13: Contemporary drawing of a Chartist meeting. (Source: The Mansell Collection.)
From: People and protest
Image 14: John Frost’s broadsheet supporting the People’s Charter. (Source: Newport Central Library.)
From: People and protest
Image 15: North Wales Quarrymen’s Union banner
From: People and protest
Image 16: The (Tithe) Martyrs. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: People and protest
Image 17: Threshing at Star, Gaerwen. (Source: Gwynedd Archives Service.)
From: People and protest
Use the link below to download all the images from People and protest as a collection.
From: People and protest
7.6 Wales 1880–1914
Image 1: Binding corn into sheaves, Brechfa, Dyfed, c. 1898. (Source: Welsh Folk Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 2: Title page of the Preliminary Report of the 1881 Census. (Source: Glamorgan Archive Service.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 3: A page from the Preliminary Report of the 1881 Census. (Source: Glamorgan Archive Service.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 4: Dockers unloading pit wood, Barry, c. 1911. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 5: Women hauliers at Abergorki Colliery, Treorchy, c.1880. (Source: Cyril Batstone.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 6: Haulier driving a tram at a south Wales colliery, c.1905. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 7: A Doubler at work at the Clayton Tinplate Works, Glamorgan, c.1920. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 8: The Puddling Furnace, Cwmbran Ironworks, from the original oil painting in the Department of Industry, National Museum of Wales. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 9: Slate splitting, Dinorwig Quarries, c. 1910. (Source: Gwynedd Archive Service)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 10: Hand milking at Felin Newydd, Cardigan, c.1900. (Source: Welsh Folk Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 11: The wagon shop, Rhymney Railway Locomotive Works, Caerphilly, c.1906. (Source: E. R. Mountford.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 12: Examples of the ‘Welsh Not’. (Source: Welsh Folk Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 13: Evan Roberts and colleague revivalists from Loughor. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 14: Crumlin Football Team, 1900
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 15: O. M. Edwards. (Source: Urdd Gobaith Cymru.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 16: Souvenir programme, printed on silk, for the first performance at the Empire Theatre of Varieties, Tonypandy, 15 November 1909. (Source: Cyril Batstone.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 17: Title page of The Miners’ Next Step. (Source: South Wales Miners’ Library.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 18: Tonypandy, early twentieth century. (Sources: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum and Cyril Batstone.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 19: Tonypandy, early twentieth century. (Sources: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum and Cyril Batstone.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 20: Tonypandy after the riots. (Sources: Cyril Batstone and Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 21: Tonypandy after the riots. (Sources: Cyril Batstone; and Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 22: Tonypandy after the riots. (Sources: Cyril Batstone and Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 23: Tonypandy after the riots. (Sources: Cyril Batstone and Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 24: Troops assembled in Pontypridd in 1910. (Source: Cyril Batstone.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 25: Report in the Western Mail, 9 November 1910. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 26: David Lloyd George, 1903. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 27: Tom Ellis, Liberal MP for Merioneth. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 28: Lloyd George’s funeral, Llanystumdwy, 1945. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Image 29: Lloyd George speaking at Killerton Park, Devon, in 1925. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library)
From: Wales 1880–1914
Use the link below to download all the images from Wales 1880–1914 as a collection.
From: Wales 1880–1914
7.7 Wales between the Wars
Image 1: Cardiff Docks, 1923. (Source: County of South Glamorgan Libraries.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 2: Dowlais iron and steel works in 1912, on the occasion of a visit by King George V and Queen Mary. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 3: Unemployed men clearing dumps in south Wales
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 4: Queen Street, Cardiff, c. 1939. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 5: Coleg Harlech, 1939
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 6: Emrys Davies and Arnold Dyson, inter-war Glamorgan batsmen
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 7: Tommy Farr. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 8: Aneurin Bevan and Jenny Lee on their wedding day. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 9: Lewis Valentine, Saunders Lewis (centre), and D.J. Williams. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Wales between the Wars, page 83
Image 10: James Griffiths. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture library.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 11: Rachel Thomas as ‘the Welsh Mam’ in Blue Scar, 1948. (Source: MacQuitty Collection.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 12: Late evening in the kitchen. Bill Brandt, 1936. (Source: Copyright estate of Bill Brandt — courtesy of Noya Brandt.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 13: Pencil-making in Port Penrhyn, c. 1940. (Source: Gwynedd Archives Service.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 14: Cookery book cover, c. 1930
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 15: 1934, Welsh hunger marchers resting. (Source: Dora Cox.)
From: Wales between the Wars, page 108
Image 16: Paul Nash illustration for a cover of The Labour Woman
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 17: 1934, Welsh hunger marchers. (Source: Dora Cox.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 18: A poignant image from the 1930s – empty coal trucks from Ralph Bond’s 1937 film Today We Live
From: Wales between the Wars,
Image 19: An audience in a cinema in the 1930s. (Source: BBC Hulton Picture Library.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 20: Poster for The Proud Valley (Source: Weintraub Entertainment (Administration) Limited.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 21: Haggar’s Cinema, Aberdare. (Source: Aberdare Central Library.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 22: Lewis Jones (centre) greets Arthur Griffiths on his release from prison in 1936. (Source: South Wales Miners’ Library.)
From: Wales between the Wars, page 145
Image 23: Kate Roberts. (Source: Welsh Arts Council.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 24: Gwyn Jones. (Source: Welsh Arts Council.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 25: Idris Davies
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 26: D. Gwenallt Jones (Gwenallt). (Source: Welsh Arts Council.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 27: Gwyn Thomas. (Source: Welsh Arts Council.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Image 28: Raymond Williams. (Source: Welsh Arts Council.)
From: Wales between the Wars
Use the link below to download all the images from Wales between the Wars as a collection.
From: Wales between the Wars
7.8 Post-War Wales
Image 1: Leaflet advertising events to celebrate the nationalization of the coal industry in 1947. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 2: Gwynfor Evans arriving at Westminster following his victory in the Carmarthen by-election, 1966. (Source: Plaid Cymru/National Library of Wales.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 3: Leaflet published by the National Union of Mineworkers (South Wales Area) during the 1984–5 strike. (Source: NUM South Wales Area)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 4: George Thomas, Labour candidate for Cardiff West, talking to voters outside the Grand Avenue Polling Station in Ely during the 1964 General Election campaign. (Source: Western Mail & Echo Ltd.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 5: Front page of the South Wales Echo, 2 March 1979. (Source: Western Mail & Echo Ltd.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 6: A march from St Asaph to Bangor calling for a Welsh-language television channel, 1971. (Source: National Library of Wales.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 7: Filming the Welsh-language soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, 1993. (Source: BBC Wales.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 8: Shopping in Canton, Cardiff. (Source: Mary Giles)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 9: At work in the Sony Plant at Bridgend, 1975. (Source: Sony Manufacturing UK.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 10: Miners’ wives protesting against pit closures, c.1984. (Source: Hazel Gillings/Tondu Photo Workshop.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 11: A Women’s Aid refuge. (Source: Mary Giles.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 12: Salem Chapel, Winchestown, Nantyglo, on a visit to Aberystwyth on August Bank Holiday, 1952. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 13: Gareth Edwards, who played at half-back for Wales 1967–78. (Source: Western Mail & Echo Ltd.)
From: Post-War Wales, page 80
Image 14: Chairing the Bard at the 1991 National Eisteddfod at Mold. (Source: Wales Tourist Board.)
From: Post-War Wales, page 84
Image 15: A male-voice choir competing at the National Eisteddfod in the 1970s. (Source: Wales Tourist Board.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 16: The Capitol Theatre and Cinema, Cardiff, 1956. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 17: ‘Greetings from Wales’. (Source: J. Arthur Dixon.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 18: The Abbey Works at Margam, Port Talbot, 1961. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 19: Wales, the ‘Land of a Thousand Castles’. (Source: Arthur Dixon.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 20: Above Carneddi 2 by Kyffin Williams. (Source: Kyffin Williams/National Library of Wales.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 21: Constructing the Severn Bridge, c.1965. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 22: Aerial view of Cathays Park, Cardiff, showing the Welsh Office and the Temple of Peace, c. 1960. (Source: Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 23: Llangollen International Eisteddfod. (Source: Wales Tourist Board.)
From: Post-War Wales
Image 24: Leaflets issued during the 1975 referendum about EEC membership. (Source: a private collection.)
From: Post-War Wales
Use the link below to download all the images from Post-War Wales as a collection.
From: Post-War Wales
8 Welsh history: weblinks
8.1 Introduction
The following links represent a series of online resources for the study of Welsh history. Each of the sites has been examined by the unit team and selected as helpful to further your study of Welsh history. There is a vast array of impressive resources for you to explore.
8.1.1 Libraries, archives and museums
National Library of Wales: www.llgc.org.uk
Access in both Welsh and English. As well as its own library catalogues, it has a useful and wide variety of online resources, including, on its ‘Digital Mirror’ link:
Page-by-page photographic access to a range of original documents (several dating back to the Middle Ages), including the Laws of Hywel Dda, Iolo Morganwg's notes for a ‘History of the British Bards’, the travel writings of some eighteenth-century tourists to Wales, and letters written by Welsh emigrants to America and Australia.
‘Welsh Biography Online’, an electronic version of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, covering the lives of eminent Welsh people up to 1971.
Collections of photographs, including the Senghennydd mining disaster, 1913.
Some archive collections, including the Diary of David Lloyd George for 1886 and a collection of his letters to his brother William.
Exhibitions on a variety of subjects, including Welsh architecture and the life of David Lloyd George.
On its ‘Family History’ link, there are some useful online archival databases, including:
A searchable database of Gaol Files, 1730–1830.
Searchable access to the Manorial Documents Register.
Archives Network Wales: www.archivesnetworkwales.info
The Archives Network Wales website contains standardised descriptions of the extent, type and scope of collections of historical documents held by Record Offices, universities and other bodies in Wales. It also provides links to further information and access details for the repositories. It is an index to sources rather than a source itself.
Gathering the Jewels: the website for Welsh cultural history: www.gtj.org.uk/
Accessible, well-presented site hosted by the National Library of Wales. Contains a huge number of images (both pictures and documents) on a vast range of subjects, from pre-Christian worship to the coal industry. Organised under topics. There is a brief description of each image, but no linking commentary. Useful if you're seeking pictorial material.
The National Archives: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
The National Archives at Kew, Surrey, are the official archive for England, Wales and the UK government, covering 900 years of history. The site provides online access to searchable catalogues of its vast range of records, but also a great deal more. In particular, under ‘Research, education and online exhibitions’ there is a wealth of helpful advice on how to get started and how to extend your skills in archival research, including family history, local history, military history and house history. Some manuscripts and documents are available online, including some highlights of the NA collection. There are excellent links to the UK archives network.
National Museum Wales: www.museumwales.ac.uk
Access in both Welsh and English. The museum's ‘Rhagor’ website is an on-going project to make the various national collections more accessible online. It contains a number of subject-based homepages, including one for History, where you can access images, articles and interactive features.
8.1.2 Histories
BBC Wales/Eclips: www.bbc.co.uk/ wales/ eclips/
Eclips is an audio-visual resource provided by BBC Wales. It makes available numerous clips from the BBC Wales audio and video archive. The idea is that teachers can use them to illustrate lessons, but they have an obvious interest for a much wider audience. They can be sorted in various ways, including by keyword, subject and/or age of the audience. The history resources are well worth exploring.
BBC/Wales History: www.bbc.co.uk/ wales/ history/
Accessible general-interest site with short sections from Roman Wales to the present day and numerous thematic sections, for example: castles; the Welsh language; family history; and myths and legends. All sections are short but useful reference tools, presentation is very user-friendly, and there are some good pictorial illustrations. The material has been collected by the well-known Welsh historian Dr John Davies and offers a generalist context for periods and topics in Welsh history.
A Brief History of Wales: www.britannia.com/ wales/ whist.html
Accessible general-interest site with bite-sized section on Wales from prehistoric times to the present. Has sections on themes, for example, Welsh literature, the Welsh Bible, industry and Methodism in Wales. Has some pictorial illustrations, but these tend to be small and are not described. Worth a visit if you are seeking generalised information.
Imaging the Bible in Wales: www.imagingthebible.org/ wales
Project based at the University of Wales, Lampeter, analysing the social, political and theological questions raised by Welsh biblical visual culture, and aiming to preserve its contribution to the intellectual, artistic and cultural heritage of Wales, 1825–1975. Collection of Biblical images from churches and chapels in Wales, with academic commentaries. In English only.
Llafur: the Welsh People's History Society: www.llafur.org/ indexe.htm
Llafur publishes an important journal, Llafur: the Journal of Welsh People's History, and its contents pages can be searched on the site.
The Rhondda: www.therhondda.co.uk
Aims to provide a socio-economic history of the Rhondda Valleys during the period 1800 to 1950, but is in the nature of a tribute to the Rhondda by an interested individual. Well-illustrated and clearly presented, it provides snippets of information – which would need to be checked against other sources – about many topics, from living conditions to the Tonypandy Riots. Worth a look. In English only.
The Welsh History Review: www.uwp.co.uk/ book_desc/ whr.html
Tables of contents of volumes of the Welsh History Review, 1996–2004.
8.1.3 Sites, buildings and landscapes
Castles of Wales: www.castlewales.com/ home.html
Lots of interesting material here, some detailed, some generalised. There is a good index of castles in Wales, and plenty of maps. There are also sections on castle architecture, life in castles and castles in art, and numerous other essays, plus some good photographs. There are several contributors, some academic, but the site has an enthusiastic rather than scholarly feel. Still, if you're looking for an extra resource on Welsh castles, you will find things of interest in this site.
The Historic Churches Survey Database: www.cpat.demon.co.uk/ projects/ longer/ churches/ idxall.htm
Database of medieval churches in Wales. Searchable by region and map, with sound academic descriptions of the history and architecture of the churches. Highly recommendable site, backed by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Assembly Government.
Historic landscapes in Wales: www.cpat.org.uk./ projects/ longer/ histland/ histland.htm
Hosted by Cadw (the historic environment service of the Welsh Assembly Government) and the Countryside Council for Wales, a very attractive and easy-to-use bilingual site examining the historical landscape by regions of Wales. Easy to search regions. Very useful.
Mapping the medieval urban landscape: Edward I's new towns in England and Wales: www.qub.ac.uk/ urban_mapping
Hosted by Queen's University, Belfast, this site looks at the new towns emerging after Edward I's conquest of north Wales. Some good town maps and focus on urban development, with academic commentary.
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: www.coflein.gov.uk/
Access in both Welsh and English. Online database for the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Visitors can search for archaeological sites, monuments, buildings and maritime sites using a map or by searching by name or site type. The Coflein system enables direct online public access to many images from the holdings of the National Monuments Record of Wales Archive, including photographs, scanned hard-copy drawings and PDF versions of survey reports and other text documents. Very useful resource.
9 Welsh history: glossary
The Welsh history glossary is a searchable database of words and phrases that figure prominently in writings about the history of Wales. Initially entries will be presented to you in alphabetical order, and there is also a search facility allowing you to seek particular entries within the glossary.
10 Bibliography of Welsh history
This bibliography, linked below, incorporates the bibliographies of the Welsh History and its Sources books edited by Trevor Herbert and Gareth Elwyn Jones, and published by the University of Wales Press in the 1980s and 1990s, together with some additional key works of Welsh historical scholarship that have been published since that series was completed.
Click 'view document' to open the bibliography of Welsh history.
A number of periodical publications are important for the study of Welsh history – the following are published in English or bilingually:
The Welsh History Review is published twice a year by the University of Wales Board of Celtic Studies. Its contents pages can be searched online at the Welsh History Review website.
Llafur, the Welsh People's History Society, publishes an annual journal, Llafur: the Journal of Welsh People's History. Its contents pages can be searched online at the Llafur website.
The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion was founded in 1751 to promote literature, the arts and sciences as connected with Wales, and it publishes the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, an annual volume containing the lectures given at its meetings, as well as other scholarly contributions. The contents pages of recent editions and those from a sample of earlier editions can be searched online at the Society's website.
Two important works of reference should also be mentioned:
The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940, edited by Sir John Edward Lloyd and R. T. Jenkins (London, The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1959), with its supplementary volume The Dictionary of Welsh Biography 1941–1970 (2001), both accessible as Welsh Biography Online through the National Library of Wales ‘Digital Mirror’ website.
The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales, edited by John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur I. Lynch (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2008).
Conclusion
This free course provided an introduction to studying history and the arts. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. After completing this course, you may like to see more courses about History & The Arts.
Acknowledgements
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this course:
The material acknowledged within the texts of Welsh history and its sources (Cymru_1) is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licensing). See Terms and Conditions. Images may only be used in relation to this course Welsh history and its sources and no use in isolation of the course permitted.
These extracts are taken from the BBC Radio Wales programme The People of Wales produced by the BBC © 1999.
Extracts from Coast, series 1, 2 and 3 broadcast by BBC from 2005 and 2007. The Coast series was co-produced with The Open University.
Celebrated Cyfartha Band extracts from Open University course AA302.
Section 3 Courtesy of David Goehring http://www.flickr.com/ photos/ carbonnyc/ 1359721335/ [Details correct as of 27th February 2009];
Section 4 Courtesy of John Birdsall;
Section 5 Capel Mawr, 2003, acrylic by Chris Griffin. Private Collection;
Section 6 Courtesy of Howard Riches http://www.flickr.com/ photos/ 9186045@N02/ 3313258483/ [Details correct as of 27th February 2009].
Adaptation of works by Trevor Herbert
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