Quarrymen who disposed of non-usable slate.

The agent or steward of the lord, prince or king in a particular district, or bailiwick.

A district under a bailiff ’s jurisdiction.

Conservative MP from 1908. Prime Minister 1923–4, 1924–9, 1935–7. Leading figure in the national government 1931–5.

Conservative MP from 1874. Prime Minister 1902–5. Leader of the opposition 1906–11.

Act of Parliament which legislated that parliamentary elections should be by secret ballot thus limiting improper pressures on voters.

Youth temperance movement.

Christian Nonconformist religious denomination, practising baptism by total immersion in water.

Poet. Poets were in practice custodians of Welsh history and tradition and occupied honoured positions in princely and gentry households.

See Bard.

Agreement between managers and quarrymen on how much slate should be cut and paid for in one month.

The confrontation between Simon de Montfort and his followers and Henry III.

A fortified and walled borough on a grid plan built by the Normans.

Fought between Richard III and Henry Tudor in 1485, as a result of which Henry Tudor became King as Henry VII.

Immensely wealthy ancient landowning family based in Raglan.

(1894-1955). Cardiganshire author, Roman Catholic and founder-member of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru.

The local body in the district of Bedwellty in south-east Wales charged with administering poor relief. They incurred the wrath of central government for spending more on poor relief than the government allowed. The Bedwellty Guardians were replaced by the government.

A skilled job in the tinplate industry.

Monks following the rule of St Benedict, who established the order in the sixth century. The rule of Benedict was the basis of a number of monastic orders founded in the tenth century, the first being that of Cluny (910) but the most important of which was that of the Cistercians, who wanted to return to the letter of St Benedict’s rule (c.1100). The Cistercians were a particularly important order in Wales.

(1698–1779) Supporter of Griffith Jones’s circulating schools, especially after his death in 1761; known as ‘Madam Bevan’.

The civil servant whose report on social insurance in 1943 was the blueprint for the post-Second World War welfare state.

Person who works in defiance of a trade union when there is a strike.

The published findings of a Government enquiry into the state of education in Wales in 1846–7, which reported that the Welsh were ignorant, lazy and immoral – and that these poor qualities were due to the use of the Welsh language. The report caused much outrage in Wales, and was referred to as 'y brad y Llyfrau Gleision' (the treachery of the Blue Books).

Founded in 1899 as the central government agency for administering education.

Local organisations responsible for the administration of poor relief. See, for example, Bedwellty Guardians.

The first, 1880–1, occurred when the Boers or Dutch settlers of the Transvaal rebelled against British annexation. The second, 1899–1902, normally called the Boer War, broke out when the Boers invaded Nataal. British forces eventually won, annexing the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

The seventh of that name, c. 1250–98, Marcher lord of Brecknock.

The name generally applied to the post-1917 Russian communist state, or its party members. Originally applied to the majority group led by Lenin who defeated Martov and Trotsky in a crucial ideological debate in 1903 on the nature of the communist party in Russia.

Part of the organisation of medieval Welsh social and economic life. The lower orders in Welsh society consisted of bondsmen whose position in society was roughly equivalent to that of the villein. Their freedom was restricted and they provided labour services.

The lower orders in Welsh society consisting of those whose position was roughly equivalent to that of the villein. Their freedom was restricted and they provided labour services.

See Bond hamlets.

See Battle of Bosworth.

The middle class or entrepeneurial, owning, capitalist class created by the Industrial Revolution.

Brecon Beacons – the range of hills around Brecon.

Founded in 1804 initially to provide inexpensive Bibles in Welsh.

The sixth (1210–95). Claimant to the Scottish throne, assented to the marriage of Princess Margaret of Scotland to Edward, Prince of Wales, and the Union of England with Scotland, 1290.

The legendary founder of the Britons in Britain.

The major landowning family in Anglesey with origins going back beyond the Tudor period.

Property within a borough held by a burgess by payment of rent to the lord.

A person with rights and property within a borough.

(1729–97) Irish politician and philosopher, author of Reflections on the French Revolution.

A measure of capacity of eight gallons.

Nineteenth/twentieth-century dynasty of landowners/industrialists – built Cardiff docks and Cardiff Castle.

By this system jobs in a coal mine were sub-contracted by the colliery under-manager to the butty who was then responsible for employing the men.