Art Students ... eh.

Here's Radnorian Percy Jones playing bass guitar in the 1960's poetry band Liverpool Scene and no, they were never going to make the charts. It gets a lot better when Adrian Henri shuts up, around the 2.10 mark. I've got the Liverpool Scene book somewhere, wonder how much it would make on ebay?

Innes Ireland Bibliography

BOOKS BY INNES

Motor Racing Today, Arthur Baker Ltd., 1961
All Arms and Elbows, Pelham Books, 1967
Marathon in the Dust, William Kimber, 1970
Sideways to Sydney, Morrow and Company, 1971 - US version of Marathon in the Dust
Pied a la Planche, Marabout, 1970 - French Language version of All Arms and Elbows
All Arms and Elbows (with some minor updates), Transport Bookman Publications, 1994
All Arms and Elbows, Thilo Figaj's German Language translation
All Arms and Elbows, Third Edition, 2005, Mercian Manuals
Innes Ireland Remembers, 2008, Mercian Manuals (collection of Ireland's magazine articles)

BOOKS WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM INNES

Competitive Driving, Peter Roberts (editor), Stanley Paul, 1964
My Greatest Race, Adrian Ball (editor), Hart Davis, 1974

BOOKS CONTAINING INTERVIEWS WITH INNES

Vrooom!!, Peter Manso, Funk and Wagnells, 1969 and Pitman Publishing, 1970
The Day I Died, Mark Kahn, Gentry Books, 1974

MAGAZINE ARTICLES BY INNES

Sports Car and Lotus Owner, November 1958, Lotus Training
News from the Mews, 1958 Season Highspots ( very short article by Innes)
Motor Racing, July 1962, Ferrari Face to Face, driving the 156 at Silverstone
Weekend Telegraph Magazine, 15th July 1966, British Grand Prix preview
Car Life, September 1966, Snow-Trac Mk II
Aston Martin Magazine, 1979, Vol 11, No 37, V8 Long term assessment
Classic and Sports Car, December 1982, Halcyon Daze, recalling early Sixties GP racing
Classic Cars, February 1983, Colin Chapman
Classic Cars, July 1984, Innes at Le Mans
Autocar, 1st May 1985, Old-Time Playboys, Moss and Ireland in America for the Playboy series
Classic Cars, July 1985, Cold but Content, the 1958 Le Mans Lotus 11
Classic Cars, September 1986, Ireland in Italy, Coppa d'Italia
Classic Cars, October 1986, Days Gone By, Remembering the Goodwood TT of 1962
Classic Cars, November 1986, Little Black Bentley, Innes's 1926 3 litre Red Label
Classic Cars, March 1987, Sopwith's 1957 F2 Cooper-Climax
Classic Cars, June 1987, Four Wheel Drift, Aston Martin DB4GT
Classic Cars, September 1987, GTO birthday
Classic Cars, October 1987, Aston Memories
Modern Motor, May 1988, Recalls first visit to Australia
Classic Cars, September 1988, Riley Racer, Innes's Brooklands Riley Nine
Classic Cars, December 1988, Modenese Memories
Classic Cars, January 1989, Chequered History, Tojeiro-Jaguar
Performance Car, January 1990, Love 40 - GT replica
Classic Cars, February 1990, Driving a Vanwall
Classic Cars, May 1990, E Type Jaguar
Classic Cars, January 1991, Ferrari GTO, 3589GT
Ferrari World, March/April 1997,The Day at Goodwood

MAJOR MAGAZINE ARTICLES ABOUT INNES

Sports Car and Lotus Owner, July 1957, Innes Ireland Lotuseer
Today, June 11th 1960, The Lazy Man who lives for Speed by Peter Jackson
Autosport, October 21 1960, Profile by Christopher Nixon
Motor Revue, Spring 1961, Portrait von Innes Ireland by Richard von Frankenberg (in German)
Car and Driver, February 1962, Tough Guy in a Tender Torpedo, Innes Ireland profile
Sporting Motorist, May 1962, Men and Cars - Innes Ireland
Car Illustrated, December 1962, Motor racing Today serialisation
Autocar, 8/11/1963, Racing Scotsmen
Classic Car, May 1974, Profile by Eric Dymock
Motor Sport, January 1976, Looking Back with Innes Ireland by Alan Henry
Motor Sport, December 1993, A Very Fine Fellow - 4 page obituary
Classic Cars, January 1994, Innes Ireland, Celebrating his life
Classic cars, February 1997, photo spread covering Ireland's career
Motor Sport, April 1997, Legends by Nigel Roebuck
Motor Sport, July 2002, A Sense of Injustice by Andrew Frankel
Sunday Herald, March 19 2007, The Scot called Ireland who was born in England and lived in Wales

ROAD AND TRACK FEATURE ARTICLES, BY AND ABOUT INNES

01/62, Innes Ireland profile
05/62, Short profile, GP Drivers of 1962
11/77, Innes Ireland profile
11/77, Introduction as R&T's new GP reporter
04/79, The Race of Giants, running the Macao GP in a Ford Escort
10/81, Longest Day at Nelson, the 24 Hour race in a Saab
11/81, Sentimental Journies, experiences with Ferraris
09/82, Longest Day 1982, 24 Hour enduro race in a Ford Mustang Turbo
10/82, Baja 1000 Wilderness Ramblings, running the Mexican off-road race
06/82, F1 cars in the year 2000
01/83, Lincoln Continental Givenchy, driving impressions
05/83, Ferrari 250GTO anniversary party
10/83, Nelson Ledges Longest Day, 24 Hour enduro race in a Mitsubishi Turbo
11/83, Travels with Stirling, with Moss in Europe
04/84, Kenworth W900 Aerodyne, road testing a semi-tractor rig, recording lap times in GP racing
05/84, Driving Trans AM Firebird
06/84, 12 Hours of Daytona, racing a Porsche 924 Turbo in the 24 Hour event
09/84, The Cannonball One Lap of America, driving the event in a Lincoln
11/84, Nelson Ledges Longest Day, 24 Hour enduro race in a Bertone X1/9
04/85, Looking Back at Nassau, racing in the Bahamas in 1962
05/85, Truck Stop, childhood escapade driving a "stolen" American army truck
05/85, Driving Impressions, Junior Johnson Chevy Stocker and De Atley Corvette
07/85, 1961 US Grand Prix Revisted, the story of Innes's victory, Porsche 944 test for Playboy series
07/85, The Playboys Prepare for Playboy, Moss and Ireland prepare for SCCA event in a Porsche 944
09/85, Fastest Cars in America, Ireland and Phil Hill test for Thomas Bryant's article
09/85, Free Spiriting Across America, cross-country in a Porsche 944
10/85, Highland History, Highways and Hideouts, tour of Scotland in a Mercedes G-Wagen
01/86, The Dark Side of the Road, reflections on fate and friends lost
04/86, Classic Confrontation, Ireland, Phil Hill and Bob Holbert drive Testa Rossa, D-type and RSK, Pete Egan writes it up.
05/86, First Solo, learning to drive
06/86, Grand Prix Charity Shoot, clay pigeon shooting with JYS and others
07/86, Ford Sierra 4x4, Extended Use Report
01/87, Bentley Turbo R and Ford Siera XR 4x4 reports
02/87, California Gold Rush Country, travel article
02/87, Cooper-Climax F2, historical Salon article
03/87, Benetton-BMW B186 Formula One, track test
05/87, To Race for Love or Money, stock car racing at Daytona in 1967
03/89, Reims Remembered, story of races Innes ran there
02/90, Silver Ghost, story in the form of a letter to his father about an old family car
07/91, Innes and His Rosebud Lady, experiences with Ferrari GTO #3589
01/94, Innes Ireland 1930-1993, Tribute by Stirling Moss
03/94, Remembering Innes by Pete Egan
12/94, An Enthusiast's English Summer by Dennis Simanaitis, includes a visit to the Innes Ireland Memorial Rally
--/98, Ferrari Le Passion No 14 - profile
06/01, Innes Ireland and Watkins Glen

Innes also penned many Grand Prix reports for Road and Track from the late 70s through the 80s


AUTOCAR ARTICLES BY INNES - far from complete!


1/5/1964, Controlling a spinning car
29/4/1966, Road-going Ford GT40 test
27/4/1967, Driving in the Daytona 500
20/7/1967, A Breath of Fresh Air, Interview with Fangio
27/7/1967, Indy turbine cars
26/10/1967, London Motor Show
30/11/1967, Driving a Cooper- Maserati
25/4/1968, Dream Along, Innes drives the exotics - road testing high performance cars
2/5/1968, Indy Lotus Turbine
20/6/1968, Jack Sears Interview - London-Sydeney recce
15/8/1968, Aston Martin DB6, long term assessment
5/9/1968, Lancia Fulvia, Marathon de la Route
19/9/1968, W O Bentley's 80th Birthday
26/11/1968, Racing driving techniques
12/12/1968, Drives Le Mans winning GT40
21/11/1968, London-Sydney, introducing his Mercedes
2/1/1969, Sydney Bound (part 1), the London-Sydney Marathon
9/1/1969, Sydney Bound (part 2)
30/1/1969, Happiness is Blue and Brabham Shaped
17/4/1969, £7700 Carrot - Audi100 LS & M-B 300 SEL 6.3
8/5/1969, Florida Frolic
21/8/1969, Crashing a Mercedes
10/1/1969, Driving the Williams Brabham-Ford
5/6/1969, Driving a Lancia in the Sebring 12 Hour Race
3/7/1969, Lotus Concept of Four-Wheel Drive
17/7/1969, The Men Behind the Glamour, A week with BRM
11/9/1969, Driving a C111
2/10/1969, Aquatic Marathon - Marathon de la Route report
16/10/1969, Aston Martin DBS - Long Term Assessment
26/2/1970, The State of GP racing
23/4/1970, Driving a 1959 Aston-Martin F1 car
1/5/1985, Driving With Moss in the Playboy series
11/09/1991, Diary - bumpy times at Spa

Innes also penned a column "The Sport" and contributed race reports during his time as Sports Editor in the late 60s. I've also only recently found out that Innes contributed articles to "Formula 1 News" magazine in the early 90s.

Innes had a column in the UK monthly Cars Illustrated circa 1963

The Last Radnorshire Election, Part One

It's something of a coincidence that while Radnorian Clem Edwards was representing Denbigh Boroughs at Westminster, his fellow Liberal MP, the Denbighshire born Frank Edwards, sat for Radnorshire.

Although it was a marginal, Frank Edwards represented the county for twenty of the twenty six years before the seat was combined with that of Breconshire at the 1918 Election. The Tories having snatched Radnor between 1895 and 1900 and during the short lived Parliament between January and December 1910.

That December 1910 election, which Edwards won with 2224 votes against 2182 for Tory Venables-Llewelyn, was the last Radnorshire election. The seat being subsequently abolished in favour of a new Welsh Universities seat, this being a time when graduates, like businessmen, were granted the privilege of two votes.

As far as I know UKIP and their newly elected MEP are not calling for the reintroduction of double votes for businessmen, athough much of their programme does seem to involve turning back the clock. While Radnorian can sympathise with opposition to the centralising of power in Brussels, the call to abolish the Assembly smacks of the Little Englander attitudes which drove Ireland out of the Union and which, no doubt, will do the same for Scotland should UKIP ever come to power. Home Rule and the call for a federal Britain were burning issues in the Westminster of Frank Edwards' day, UKIP seem determined to reinstate English domination of the other nations of what remains of the United Kingdom.

A Forgotten Radnorian - Clement Edwards

The barrister, radical journalist and politician, Allen Clement Edwards (1869-1938) was born in Knighton, the son of local auctioneer George Benjamin Edwards and his Llangynllo born school teacher wife Sarah Tudge.

Edwards was the Liberal MP for Denbigh Boroughs between 1906 and 1910. Defeated in the first election of that year, Edwards fought and won the East Glamorganshire constituency for the Liberals in the December 1910 election. A founder of the National Democratic and Labour Party - a Lloyd George supporting socialist grouping - he fought and won East Ham South for the party in 1918, serving until 1922.

As a young man Clem Edwards was a close associate of Tom Mann and Ben Tillet in the Dockers' Union. As secretary of the Federation of Riverside and Carrying Trades he advocated a General Strike which would "dislocate the entire trade of the country and place the whole of the implements of production and industry in the hands of the workers." Edwards later turned his back on these syndicalist views and was an early opponent of the Leninists.

In 1891 Edwards organised a great march of 30000 laundresses to Hyde Park calling for them to be included within the terms of the Factories Act. As a barrister Edwards represented the Dockers Union at the Titanic Inquiry where he condemned the actions of another Radnorian, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon. Edwards also represented the rail workers union in the famous Taff Vale case.

Clement Edwards was eager to stand up for his native county at Westminster. When the Tories sought to exclude New Radnor from the benefits of church disestablishment because of the supposed English sympathies of its inhabitants, Edwards could call on his knowledge of the area to reply:

"The hon. Member laid down a general principle, however, to which from personal knowledge of New Radnor I will bring its case to the test. He said that it would be well for the Bill, and for future peace in Wales, that only those parishes should be Disestablished where there was a preponderance of Welsh feeling, sentiment, and sympathy. I have no hesitation whatever in saying that the parish of New Radnor which is in Radnorshire, possesses Welsh sympathy and sentiment which is quite preponderating. Applying the general test I should pick out New Radnor as one of the parishes of Radnorshire which has become least Anglicised, except perhaps certain parishes on the Cardiganshire and Breckonshire borders."

Welsh in Nantmel Parish

The more one looks at the rapidity of language shift in Radnorshire, the more one is reminded of Ireland. Research there shows that it took around 50 years for Irish districts to move from a situation where 100% of children grew up as Irish speakers to one where the figure had fallen to zero, and perhaps a 100 years for the language to disappear altogether.

Something similar certainly seems to have happened in the large Radnorshire parish of Nantmel. Writing around 1818 Jonathan Willaims remarked that the inhabitants spoke both Welsh and English but that "the use of the aboriginal tongue is rapidly declining." Similarly a letter writer spoke, no doubt exaggeratedly, of a place between Llandrindod and Rhayader where there was no English at the start of a particular cleric's ministry but no Welsh by 1845. According to Ffransis Payne, Dolau Baptist chapel ceased it's Welsh services around 1840 and the denomination's historian John Jones writing in 1895 reported that the majority of chapel goers in Nantmel and Newbridge-on-Wye spoke Welsh in his youth but that now it was "not understood in these places except by a few aged people."

There is some census evidence for this rapid abandonment of the Nantmelians' native tongue. If we look at the languages spoken by folk born and still living in Nantmel parish at the time of the 1891 Census, we find 100% of those aged over 80 speaking both Welsh and English - the sample is very low however. For those in their 70s the figure declines to 21%, while for those in their 60s just 7% and less than 3% for those in their 50s. There is only one person under the age of 50 and born in the parish who can speak Welsh, Gertrude Price, the 16 year old daughter of the Breconshire born Baptist minister at Dolau chapel.

These figures suggest that the anecdotal evidence is correct, parents began speaking English to their children in the first decade or so of the nineteenth century and by the middle of the century the language had all but disappeared from the hearths of the parish. Something similar must surely have happened in parishes further east a little earlier and which subsequently remain untraceable in the 1891 census.

Why did this rapid shift happen? Let us turn to Ireland and the opinion of one John Moylan of Rathkeale who lived through the language shift in West Limerick. He cited a growing public feeling that Irish was a dying language, a mark of a degraded people who were not "decent."

A farmer, Stephen Evans, who died in 1914, might be considered the last Nantmel native to speak the traditional Radnorian Welsh learnt in Nantmel at his mother's knee, although, no doubt, one or two others who had moved away from the parish may have lived on later than this.

Jumbo in Bwgey Wonderland

It's 1848 and a bored elephant goes on the rampage in downtown Rhaeadr Gwy.

Sarah Chandler

Sarah Chandler was the most celebrated of the 65 Radnorians, including 9 women, transported to Australia between 1788 and 1852. In 1814 Chandler was found guilty of altering three Kington Bank one pound notes and sentenced to death, Judge George Hardinge being unmoved by the fact that the 37 year old forger was pregnant and had seven children under the age of ten - Hardinge of course had also sentenced poor Mary Morgan to the gallows.

Chandler's plight excited a good deal of sympathy in Radnorshire. She was described as "a very jolly good looking woman" and her husband Thomas Chandler of Dolley, Presteigne was said to have kept her short of money and to have treated her cruelly. The hangman was cheated however when Chandler's brothers managed to effect her escape from Presteigne jail in August 1814, she was not recaptured until she was discovered in Birmingham more than two years later. Petitions on Sarah's behalf were subsequently received from many leading citizens, including the High Sheriff and the owners of the Kington Bank. Hardinge's recommendation that she should nonetheless hang was overturned and in 1817 she sailed for New South Wales to commence a life sentence.

All this is well known, but an article in the Northern Star of 1845 provides some further interesting information on Sarah Chandler's background. It seems that Sarah was a member of a notorious family from Bugeildy called Bowen. A family whom the Star claimed lived mainly by plunder and were a terror to the neighbourhood. The article was prompted by the fact that five members of the clan languished at that time in Presteigne jail for various offences. The exact relationships are a little confused but seem to include Sarah's brothers Francis and William and William's son William Bowen Jones held for theft, Francis' son Francis jnr and his wife Ann were also being held for transportation for sheep stealing. A few months before Sarah's son Richard Chandler and her 16 year old nephew Morgan Bowen had been transported for shearing a flock of sheep and selling the fleeces in Newtown. Another of Sarah's sons, Peter, had already been transported in 1824.

Who were these Bowens? A Morgan Bowen of Bugeildy had been prosecuted for attempting to ravish a certain Anne Evans in 1775. Bowen was of gentry status, as was Sarah Chandler's mean-spirited husband. Perhaps they belonged to that class of people called the manwyr by sixteenth century bards in Radnorshire, families of the old bonheddig or noble class who had fallen on hard times after the Acts of Union and who were often a source of dissatisfaction and rebellion.

I don't know what happened to Sarah in Australia. Her brother Francis died in Melbourne in 1853, his wife surviving until 1876. Young Morgan the shearer lived on until 1902.

Billy Griffiths

Billy Griffiths from Llwynypia never rose above the rank of private in the International Brigade's British Battalion, yet he was a private who commanders deferred to and whose work during the Spanish Civil War was singled out for praise by the Comintern. Griffiths' status was not gained through any stirring military exploit. Although his physical courage could never be doubted, he rarely carried a weapon. No, Griffiths was a political commissar, his standing derived from his secret position within the Communist party and the shadowy presence of Stalin's NKVD.

The present-day left in Wales glorifies the International Brigaders, indeed they seem to think far more of the 150 or so Welshmen who fought for Stalin in Spain than for the tens of thousands of their fellow countrymen and women who fought for democracy against fascism. I doubt if our Cardiff Bay leftists have even heard of the Yezhovshchina but if history had turned out differently then Billy Griffiths possessed all the attributes to be a Welsh Beria or Yagoda.

A zealous and fanatical Leninist, Griffiths was quite prepared to mark the cards of his fellow countrymen with the dreaded accusation of Trotskyism - a certain death sentence. Around 50% of his comrades were branded as weak or bad, at a time when countless thousands were being shot in Russia for far less. As it happened shooting Brigaders was not seen as being a good move at the time and at most only five Welshmen received a bullet in the back of the skull from their comrades. One was Griffiths' butty Alec Cummings, who was probably suffering from shell-shock. Cummings had previously survived a court-martial where his old pal had pressed for the death sentence.

Unlike those AMs who worship at the altar of Thirties Spain, Griffiths was a serious revolutionary. He is one of the more interesting characters to have come out of twentieth century Wales. As things are he is largely forgotten and even his memoirs remain unpublished. His story deserves to be better known, but that would involve facing up to some uncomfortable truths, so don't hold your breath.

A Builth Writer

Never mind the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, Thomas Prichard, the first Welsh novelist was born in the lively Wyeside town of Builth around 1790. As the correction to the DWB points out, Prichard left Builth in 1839, presumably to return to life as a travelling actor. His wife Naomi and her five small children stayed on in the town where she found employment as a milliner. In 1848 Naomi died, and by the time of the 1851 census, his eldest daughter Tydvil is found living in Broad Street, supporting her sisters and brother by selling books. Edward Poole, a graduate of Cambridge University and the publisher of Prichard's most well known work The Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Shôn Catti is living next door, in 1841 he had been living with Prichard's wife. One wonders if he was related to Edwin Poole, the founder of the Brecon and Radnor Express.

No doubt selling books proved unsuccessful and Tydvil and her siblings had moved to Cardiff by 1861, where she worked, like her mother, as a milliner. Meanwhile Prichard continued to write on Welsh topics, for example his Heroines of Welsh History, which you can read here. Interestly Prichard's daughters all had names found in the book: Tydvil Nest, Senena (the mother of Prince Llywelyn), Mevanwy (the earliest use of the name in Wales) and Ellen.

By 1861 Prichard had lost his nose in a duel and was living as a recluse in the Swansea slum of World's End. Tormented by gangs of youths, a public subscription by the town's Cambrian newspaper raised enough money to clean Prichard's house and provide him with food and coal. Within five weeks he had fallen into his new fire and burned to death. His daughter Tydvil died in 1869, while Senena Coles lived on in Clare Road, Cardiff, finally passing away at the age of 80 in 1917.

Tawny Reed, Part 2

What a You Tube treat! Cardiffian soul sister Tawny Reed pulls some energetic and frankly erotic moves infront of a roomful of libidinous teens, OK maybe not the guy in the Fair Island sweater. You could think that she was living dangerously but hey this was the Sixties those fellows were probably too shy to even ask her for a dance.

Listen to another track from the Adamsdown aretha here.

Flummery - A Recipe

Flummery was a mainstay of the Nineteenth Century Radnorians diet. It should not be confused with the arty-farty fruit puddings that masquerade under the name today. Here's a recipe provided by Alfred Wallace, the chap who came up with Darwin's theory of natural selection and who worked a good deal in Radnorshire:

"Another delicacy we first became acquainted with here was the true Welsh flummery, called here sucan blawd (steeped meal), in other places Llumruwd (sour sediment), whence our English word "flummery." It is formed of the husks of the oatmeal roughly sifted out, soaked in water till it becomes sour, then strained and boiled, when it forms a pale brown sub-gelatinous mass, usually eaten with abundance of new milk. It is a very delicious and very nourishing food, and frequently forms the supper in farmhouses. Most people get very fond of it, and there is no dish known to English cookery that is at all like it."

Miss Penn-Hughes

In the 50 years up to and including the First World War South Wales was the Persian Gulf of its day. Great fortunes were made in and around the coal, steel and tinplate industries of the valleys and it was hardly surprising when some of the heirs to this wealth decided to spend it on the racing tracks of 1930s Europe.

Welsh born toffs such as Charley Martin, Tim Rose-Richards, the Eccles brothers, Dudley Folland, Owen Saunders Davies, Clifford Penn-Hughes, as well as plausible rogues such as Donald Marendaz and Philip Turner were amongst the leading racers at Brooklands and beyond.

The pre-war period was also a time when women drivers often competed on equal terms with the men, Kay Petre and Gwenda Stewart for example were amongst the sixteen drivers who lapped Brooklands at more than 130mph. So surely there must have been plenty of Welsh born lasses amongst the fast ladies of the period. Well actually no ...... one I did find was 21 year old Elizabeth Penn-Hughes (don't worry that's her brother pictured) who co-drove Clifford's Frazer-Nash in the 1930 Double Twelve Hour race at Brooklands. A hairy moment later in the year at Shelsey Walsh seems to have ended her short-lived career behind the wheel.

Were there any more Welsh born girl racers on the pre-war tracks?

Welsh in Presteigne

How much Welsh was spoken in Presteigne in 1670, at the time of the Hearth Tax Return? Mr Howse thought that the language disappeared from the streets of the town soon after it became the administrative centre of the new county of Radnorshire in 1542. It is certainly the place in the county most likely to be anglicised. The town was close to historically English speaking parishes* and the 1670 return shows that more than half the population had English surnames. The English were particulary strong amongst the middle class:

Social Class based on Surnames and Hearths

Hearths	% of total	% Welsh	% English
+ 5 Hearths	5.5	57	43
4-5 Hearths	16.5	43	57
2-3 Hearths	19.7	32	68
1 Hearth Charged	13.4	41	59
1 Hearth Uncharged	44.9	59	41
Total population		49	51

Mr Howse offers no evidence for his view and admits that sixteenth century wills from the town are "full of Welsh names, with their aps to the second and third generation back." Likewise the town's other historian Mr Parker notes that even in 1620 some 18% of Presteigne landowners were still using the patronymic system rather than surnames.

Even as late as 1675 there is a record of forty of "the poorest Welsh children" of the town being put to school to learn English. This would be around a third of the school age population and interestingly around a third of the town's population in the Hearth tax were poor and with Welsh surnames.

By 1800 the Welsh language was certainly gone from Presteigne, this would suggest that it finally disappeared from the lips of townsfolk during the first half of the eighteenth century, maybe 200 years after the demise accorded it by Mr Howse.

* Elsewhere along the border many parishes in England continued to be Welsh speaking long after the border between Wales and England was drawn in 1536, in Herefordshire south of the Wye for example or in the Oswestry district. The parishes east of Presteigne were nearly all English speaking and so Presteigne was truly a border town.

Book of the Month

I'm currently re-reading Keith Parker's Radnorshire Civil War book. It was originally published in 2000, by the excellent Logaston Press, but is still on sale in local bookshops.

This is a proper history book, lucidly written with a masterful command of primary sources. It essentially covers the period 1640 to 1660 - the dawn of the modern age as far as Radnorshire is concerned, with the bard Sion Cain's elegy for James Phillips of Llanddewi in 1633 perhaps marking the final death knell of the traditional society of the medieval period.

There is a great deal of interest here, the fact that 22% of Radnorians of military age were pressed into the King's service for example, although doubtless a good many had the sense to desert at the earliest opportunity. Mr Parker concedes the likelihood that Charles Price of Pilleth, the local MP and the major figure in Radnorshire military and political life of the day, was not killed in a duel on the streets of Presteigne. as previously believed. More likely he was killed in the ethnically inspired massacre following the surrender of Priors Hill Fort in Bristol in 1645. The troops slaughtered there were long thought to be Irish, although more recent research indicates they were Welsh, maybe some of the 400 Radnorshire men pressed into service at Bristol that summer.

No doubt most folk interested in Radnorshire history will have already have bought this book and be well acquainted with characters such as that local Boadicea, Lady Brilliana Harley and the roundhead colonel Howell Jones of Nantmel. Would that other periods of Radnorian history were as well served as this one.

Musical Interlude

Wonder if Phil would have been better off employing a decent barber rather than those expensive lawyers

Nothing on the Telly

Much innocent fun to be had exploring Radnorian wills on the National Archives site.

Last example of a traditional patronym being used in a Radnorshire will seems to be James ap John of Llandeilo Graban in 1749 ...... last female patronym in a will is also from the same parish Anne vch Thomas in 1677.

Berwyn Baxter - Welshman?

Berwyn Baxter (1920-2005) was a secondline sportscar driver of the 1950s who made the occasional foray into open-wheel racing. A number of motor sport sites list Baxter as a Welshman, presumably because of his Welsh sounding forename and his close association with Kieft cars - Cyril Kieft, who was indeed Welsh - having sold the Kieft Sports Car Company to Baxter in 1954.

The fact is that Baxter was born in Kings Norton and his parents and grandparents were all from the Staffordshire/Warwickshire/Worcestershire area. That forename seems to be Baxter's only connection with Wales and using the same flawed logic, perhaps we should be claiming Lewis Hamilton as our first Welsh world champion, well the first since Alan Jones anyway.

Welsh in Llandrindod

In 1827 the correspondent of the monthly magazine Y Gwyliedydd left us an interesting description of the position of the Welsh language in and around Llandrindod - this was of course before the present-day spa town was inflicted on the county. Here's a translation of what he wrote:

"If it would be suitable for the writer to venture an opinion on a controversial topic which so many learned literary critics have long argued over, namely the districts where the purest and most beautiful Welsh is spoken, then I would say that Radnorshire can rightly take pride in its native tongue, one of the most splendid of the Welsh dialects. It appears that in this venerable dialect the peculiar elegances of Powys and the South are both encountered. On hearing the Welsh sayings of the Radnorshire elders in the neighbourhood of Llandrindod, the patriotic Welshman feels both enormous pleasure and sorrow. Pleasure because he is always happy to encounter the venerable, sparkling old language with some trace of its youthful beauty. But with sorrow when he thinks that English alone is spoken by the youth of this district, and after another generation passes there will be none of the natives who will understand the splendid language of their ancestors."

In a footnote the author asks readers to speculate as to the reason for the recent retreat of the language - he says it has retreated 20 miles in living memory. His own speculation is a lack of poets and literary figures.

Never Mind Llandegley International

Talking of planes, here are a couple of Innes Ireland snippets from the days when he was flying in and out of Radnorshire. The Beech Bonanza is still flying.

That Dam Consarn!

Back in April 1912 two aviation pioneers Leslie Allen and Corbett Wilson decided to fly their machines from Hendon to Dublin. This, of course, involved crossing the Irish Sea, something which had never been successfully completed by plane.

The trip ended in tragedy for Allen. He was seen flying over Holyhead but was never heard from again. Wilson landed in Crewe, Almeley in Herefordshire before touching down in the Radnorshire parish of Colva. On enquiring of a local farmer where exactly he was, Wilson was reportedly told "thee bist in my fild, by my reckoning, so be pleased to take thyself and that dam consarn out of it!"

As it happened Wilson spent the night in Colva, taking off for Fishguard the next morning, by which time a crowd of 500 had gathered at Pentwyn to witness the event. From Fishguard Wilson's Bleriot succeeded in reaching Ireland, landing near Enniscorthy, County Wexford. The world was becoming a smaller place. You can read some more about Corbett Wilson in this book review.