Epynt Races, Part 2

There's a great site detailing the Epynt races of the late 40s and early 50s, see here.

Hope the site owner won't mind me ripping this fabulous snap showing the start of a race in 1948. It's not just the bikes but the people in the crowd which reminds me of how things used to be. The past another country? Indeed.

Epynt Races, Part 1

Thanks to Builth remembrancer SGP for showing me this programme from the 1951 Epynt motor cycle races.

Someone should revive these races, but for historic bikes. Would make a change from the ghastly over-painted, over-powered, often badly driven rally cars which dominate the hills nowadays.

Shebeening

Shebeening isn't a word that you find very often in the popular press nowadays. Back in Victorian times it was common enough and not just in Ireland or the Scottish Gaeldom. Shebeening, the keeping of an unlicensed drinking establishment was also found in Radnorshire during the building of the Elan Valley dams.

Policemen disguised as navvies roamed the hillsides, calling at lonely farmsteads and asking for a glass of ale. Farmers or their wives who obliged and accepted payment were dragged off to court to be fined - £10 plus costs or a month in jail for example- more than £4000 in comparison with today's average earnings.

One for Miss Marple

So is this latest piece of Innes Ireland Memorabilia really worth £35? At least it's genuine, unlike many of the "original" photographs you currently see for sale. Originally copied from magazines and books that is.

Llandrindod Cover Girl

Curigwen Lewis (1936)

The Spike

It comes as something of a shock to realise that I'm old enough to have worked with a fellow who was born in Rhayader workhouse, or the Spike as they were called. Anyway Radnorshire had an interesting relationship with the New Poor Law responsible for such places, some of which is explored here. Indeed Thomas Frankland Lewis of Harpton, New Radnor was chairman of the gang of three Commisioners who oversaw the operation of the new act in England and Wales, he was succeeded by his son George Cornewall Lewis in 1839.

Edmund Head, who we recently met endorsing the view that the Welsh were a "miserable race of Celtic savages", was the assistant commissioner responsible for Central Wales and Herefordshire. One of his tasks being to set-up the six Poor Law Unions covering Radnorshire - Rhayader, Builth, Hay, Knighton, Kington and Presteigne. Mr Parker's article, linked to above, shows that Head deliberately sought to weaken Radnorshire influence over these Unions:

"The inhabitants of the central part of Radnorshire are exceedingly ill disposed towards the Board ... the only way of enforcing the Act is to unite as many (parishes) as possible with unions in England or on its borders."

By doing so Head hoped to "raise the character of the Radnorshire farmers." elected to serve as Guardians overseeing the Unions and would, presumably, learn from the superior character of their fellow Guardians from east of the border.

Of course Head was correct to mistrust the good folk of Radnorshire who were surely ill-disposed towards the Malthusian world-view which inspired the new laws. Builth Union - which included 10 Radnorshire parishes - resisted building a workhouse for 38 years until forced to do so in 1875, while Rhayader Union resisted until 1878. The Radnorshire guardians seemingly happy to continue with the outdoor relief, often in cash, which our Malthusians saw as an encouragement to the poor to breed.

thirtysomethings

Here's some jolly correspondence between three thirtysomething pals dating back to 1837, which might provide a clue as to the atmosphere that marked the rapid retreat of the Welsh language in Radnorshire during the early decades of the Nineteenth Century.

First off we have George Clive, future Liberal MP for Hereford, expressing his "fervent prayer" that the devil would fly away with the Welsh or "this miserable race of Celtic savages" as he describes them/us.

"Amen" echoes the recipient of the diatribe Ed Head, a future Privy Councillor and Governor of Canada, who in deference to the third of our correspondents asserts that "Wales begins just beyond New Radnor". Ed does however see some hope for the Welsh since "the railroads .... may civilize them in about three centuries."

The third of our Liberal pals is George Cornewall Lewis, "Radnorshire's most distinguished son" and a future Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose monument once dominated the main road into Mid Wales. Of course Lewis lived at Harpton, hence the need for friend Head to push the English border a couple of miles further west. Six generations of marriage to English brides combined with an Eton education had certainly expunged any memory of what had once been a distinguished Welsh family and Lewis is quick to agree with Clive's opinion of the intelligence of the Welsh. However, he laments "how that intelligence is to be raised, while they retain their villainous Celtic language, it is not easy to see."

Cornewall-Lewis considered the Welsh to be cowardly and timid, perhaps he had a point. His letters are available here.

Coming Soon - Hopefully

A couple of frustrations this morning, firstly it's impossible to get on to the London government's new site "police.uk" to check out local crime, but more importantly the National Library's Welsh Journals site is playing up. Now for the good news: it's obvious that they have just added the Radnorshire Society Transactions to the journals available online. Hopefully the present search difficulties will be sorted out soon.

I've never been a member of the Radnorshire Society, it always seemed far too bourgeois an organization for a young council house hot-head such as myself. OK no doubt I got that all wrong and it is infact a wonderfully welcoming society open to all. One gripe I still have though, why is it I can pick up a current copy of Brycheiniog - journal of the Brecknock society - in local bookshops, but not the Radnorshire Transactions? Surely it, and especially works as important as the recent translation of Payne's Crwydro Faesyfed, should be available to as wide an audience as possible?

Anyway it looks as if those earlier, hard to find issues of the Transactions will soon be on-line for all to read.

UPDATE: Four of the top ten violent streets in England and Wales turn out to be in Wales. Not very good considering that on a population basis it should be one in the top twenty. Perhaps it's time to hand over law & order to the Assembly.

FURTHER UPDATE: Radnorshire Transactions are there now. See here. Bravo!

Green Green Grass

I suppose most informed Welsh people will already know that Mrs Mubarak's mother was born in Llwynypia, although obviously not Welsh Office dinosaur David Jones. It's even been said that she once lived in Laura Street, Pontypridd, previously only noted for being the old home of retired hip shaker Tom Jones.

A Google search wouldn't reveal it but Mrs M's nain was a slate worker's daughter from Llanddeiniolen, one Lily Parry, the family originating from Anglesey. Who knows they might even be related to the distaff side of another celebrity couple who have done rather well at the expense of the public purse.

UPDATE: Bit of bad timing here, the Eisteddfod ask Suzanne Mubarak for a pair of shoes for a charity auction. No seriously!

Penny Note Book - part 2

The first three extracts are from 1899. The Gramophone appears in Aberedw in 1901, probably a model like this. The pretty bird appeared in 1906 - I guess it's too late to report to the Radnor bird blog. In the same year the pious old lady of Llanbadarn y Garreg met with her accident.

Agony Aunt

W.G. of Llanyre writes:

A friend of mine was recently reading a post from Llandod blogger and former Lib Dem councillor David Peter. Ever since she has been fretting about the upcoming referendum on more powers for the Welsh Assembly. Is there anything I can do to set her mind at rest?

Radnorian replies:

Dear W.G. tell your friend not to worry. Although Mr Peter needs "to be convinced that more powers for the Assembly is not merely a milestone on the way to full independence for Wales" the referendum is just about more powers for the Assembly. It could equally be a milestone on the way to the fully federal Britain that the poster advocates. The present vote has nothing at all to do with full independence. Unionists should remember that they were responsible for breaking up the original United Kingdom by continually standing in the way of devolution for Ireland.

Mr Peter also worries that the Assembly has no revising chamber. Well tell your friend that many countries get along fine with a single chamber legislature - New Zealand, Sweden, Finland and Norway for example. Also all the Australian, Canadian and German federal states.

Mr Peter does have a point when he complains about East Wales not having much influence within the current Welsh Assembly Government. No doubt this wouldn't have been the case if the Lib Dems hadn't pulled the plug on the proposed Rainbow coalition. Perhaps local voters should cast their ballot for parties who want to participate in government rather than putting their own internal party bickering before the interests of the people of Powys.

Bees and Bonnets

A few months ago in the Western Mail, historian Dai Smith worried that what was described as the Renaissance of Welsh History in the second half of the 20C had run out of steam. One author who has certainly courted the controversy and debate which Dai Smith cites as a positive feature of that renaissance is the author of this little book.

Dr Breeze believes that the Four Branches of the Mabinogi were written by a woman and that the author can be identified as Gwenllian, the daughter of King Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd and wife of Gruffydd ap Rhys, Prince of Dyfed.

Now as one of the mere consumers of history I'm in no position to comment on the validity of Dr Breeze's theory and it certainly hasn't been accepted by his academic contemporaries. At the same time the author makes a lucid, circumstantial case and, although he cannot prove it, challenges his detractors to come up with detail that proves him wrong.

The book is published by a Leominster company called Gracewing who seem to specialize in works of Roman Catholic interest.

Dr Breeze has been described as having a bee in his bonnet about Gwenllian. Perhaps a few of our Welsh academics could be persuaded to unleash some of the bees lurking in their own headgear rather than retreating to what Dai Smith describes as "the cloister of the Learned Journal."

Dorothy Levitt, Update

Dorothy Levitt was a secretary at the Napier Motor Company around 1903 when proprietor Selwyn Edge hit upon the idea of entering a woman in early Motoring events. Edge probably hoped that this would popularise the car with women and Dorothy soon proved herself an able and spirited driver. You can read about her on the excellent Speedqueens blog - here.

Soon Dorothy was an Edwardian celebrity but around the end of the decade she seems to have disappeared as quickly as she came into view. Despite being something of a feminist icon - check out my post on her only sporting foray into Radnorshire - and the subject of recent television shows, no-one really seemed bothered as to who she was or what became of her.

A couple of years ago I came up with the theory that Dorothy was actually a Jewish typist born Elizabeth Levi - my comment on this post sets out the reasons for the identification.

Now some genealogists with access to the probate records have confirmed the identification (see illustration above) - Elsie Ruby Lewis being shown through the BMD records to be Dorothy's or rather Elizabeth Levi's sister.

What became of Dorothy between 1913, when she had an apartment in Portman Mansions, and her death in 1922 remains a mystery.

Outlanders

Fed up with no longer being able to bore your workmates and relations with talk of how much your house has gone up in value? Well I don't suppose many Radnorians spent the 1970s buying Welsh language LPs, but if you did you might just have a new topic of conversation. Say about this or this or this or even this.

Did You Ever

Cardiff blogger Babylon Wales has come up with visual proof of Radnorshire songbird Maralene Powell's 1972 musical adventure with Gareth Edwards. I'm guessing Gareth has a better singing voice than current Welsh scrum-half Mike Phillips.

Penny Note Book

Yesterday while helping to clear out a house, I found a liitle penny note book. It contains occasional diary entries starting on January 17th 1899 and ending on September 23rd 1908. The author was a Nina Price of Pencraig, Llanbadarn y Garreg. At the time of the first entry she was a 15 year old pupil at Llandrindod County School and lodging in the town, the last entry records her father's funeral. The other entries include visits to fairs, concerts and church services, together with reports of local elections, fires, accidents and tragic deaths. Maybe I should send it to the county record office.

I doubt if there's been much skating on Llandrindod Lake this winter - Health & Safety has made cowards of us all - perhaps to the relief of the birds on the excellent Radnor bird blog.

Who They?

A little quiz for any motor sport fan who still checks out the blog. It's the 1962 British Grand Prix - not 1961 - probably the most anglophone race in history and the cameraman obviously couldn't bear to film anyone who drove a non-English car. First eleven are straightforward, you only see the back of driver six but who else wore yellow overalls.

My guesses here:

Graham Hill, Ginther, McLaren, Maggs, Jim Clark, Trevor Taylor, Surtees, Salvadori, Brabham, Innes Ireland, Masten Gregory, Ian Bugess, Tony Settember, Jack Lewis, Wolfgang Seidel, Jay Chamberlain, Tony Shelly.

Merry Christmas

OK I know the BBC and the Met Office both inhabit the wacky-world of AGW. Oh and I do realise they've been grossly underestimating Mid-Wales' temperatures over the last couple of weeks ...... but haven't they over compensated a wee bit on the cold side with their maximum temperature for Christmas Day? A day time max of -13C? I do hope Santa has checked the anti-freeze in his reindeer.

UPDATE: The Met's all time lowest maximum daytime temperature for Wales was -8C. I recorded a high of -8.7C during the day so I wouldn't have been surprised if the official December record (-5.5C) had been broken. Seems it wasn't. Strange that.

Traffic Update

The Hereford to Aberystwyth downmail stagecoach was brought to a halt by the snows on Radnor Forest. Thankfully the passengers had disembarked and the horses been unharnessed when an avalanche swept the coach from the road and left it buried underneath a fourteen foot drift. The stranded party managed to find shelter at the nearby Forest Inn.

In case anyone is worried this was in January 1854, not this morning.

Small Earthquake, No-One Hurt.

OK I realise my blog is getting boring now.