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Cadair Cymdeithas Ceredigion
Cymdeithas Ceredigion has honoured me over the last three years by asking me to make a chair to be awarded as a prize in their Eisteddfod. The first year was for a full sized chair. Last year and this year I was asked to make a miniature chair. This is the chair I made this year and a brief description which went with it along with the translation. Tresi Aur Ond ai dyna’r enw? Beth am Feillion Sbaen, Coed Sbaen, Bedwen Sbaen? Mae’r enwau ‘na i gyd wedi dod o ardal De Ceredigion. Chwedl glywais i oedd i’r pren ddod i mewn i Aberaeron yn y 1860au fel “balast” mewn…
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The Secret Ballot
The Secret Ballot The secret ballot is something I think we all take for granted nowadays, whatever our political leanings or even if we feel that “whoever we vote for the government gets in”. However, we don’t have to go very far back in time when the secret ballot was but a dream in some people’s vision for a more democratic future. Troad Allan (Lock out). This Unitarian chapel became famous in 1876 as the congregation were locked out of the chapel and the graveyard for three years. The landlord, John Lloyd, Alltrodyn was a Tory and he felt that the minister Gwilym Marles Thomas, who incidentally was Dylan Thomas’…
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Physicians of Myddfai
The Physicians of Myddfai were very real people even if their mother was a legend (see my ‘Lady of the Lake’ blog). Welsh Herbal Medicine by David Hoffmann says “Rhiwallon and his sons first became physicians to Rhys Gryg who gave them rank, lands and privileges at Myddfai. Their fame soon spread and their services were in demand throughout the country. The descendants of this ancient family continued to practice medicine in Wales without a break until the middle of the 18th century, when the last lineal descendant died in 1743. The late Rice Williams M.D. of Aberystwyth, who died in 1842, appears to have been the last of the…