This week we witness the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley, a devastating event which galvanised the Welsh nationalist cause.
It’s easy to think of history as a gradual accumulation of events, buildings and people – but we don’t spend as much time thinking about its dead ends. That’s exactly what my guest today, Dr Matthew Green, does in his evocative new book Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain. In it, Matthew visits eight villages, settlements and towns stretching from the neolithic period to the twentieth century that fell victim to one form of obliteration or another.
For today’s episode, Matthew chose to travel through time to the beautiful Welsh valley of Tryweryn. Up until the 1960s, the valley was home to the village of Capel Celyn, one of the few predominantly Welsh-speaking communities left in Wales. But in 1955 the inhabitants of Capel Celyn became aware, via an article in their local paper, that their village was to be drowned.
This episode is supported by Faber and recorded at Soho Radio Studios.
Show NotesScene One: 15 August 1965. The Tryweryn Valley, freshly scoured of streets, houses, school, post office, church, farms, graveyards and trees, is filled to capacity after the Capel Celyn Defence committee loses its monumental struggle against Liverpool Corporation and English MPs.
Scene Two: 10 October 1965. The publication of a lurid newspaper interview in which the leader of the Free Wales Army says his organisation fully intends to prevent the opening of Llyn Celyn.
Scene Three: 21 October 1965. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen of Liverpool Corporation attend the grossly insensitive opening ceremony of Llyn Celyn at a tea party in a marquee overlooking the new reservoir. All hell breaks loose.
Momento: The trampled Union jack flag that the Free Wales Army through into the new reservoir.
People/SocialPresenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Dr Matthew Green
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Or on Facebook
See where 1965 fits on our Timeline
S.C. Gwynne: R101 – The World’s Largest Flying Machine (1930)
Peter Moore: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
[From the archive] Philip Hoare: Albert and the Whale (1520)
[From the archive] Bernard Cornwell: The Battle of Waterloo (1815)
Lady Hale: The Rights of Women (1925)
[Live] Flora Fraser: Pretty Young Rebel (1746)
Mike Jay: Psychonauts (1885)
David Veevers: How the World Took On the British Empire (1660)
Leah Redmond Chang: Renaissance Queens and the Price of Power (1559)
Andrew Spira: Botticelli, Perugino and Dürer (1500)
Serhii Plokhy: The Collapse of the Soviet Union (1991)
[From the archives] Craig Brown: Beatlemania (1963)
Honor Cargill-Martin: The Notorious Empress Messalina (48 AD)
Tom Whipple: The Battle of the Beams (1940)
Simon Winchester: Knowing What We Know (1924)
Rebecca Struthers: Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and Watchmaking History (1572)
Luke Turner: Men at War (1943)
Amy Jeffs: Tales from Medieval England (1327)
Nicholas Orme: A Year of Great Promise (1480)
[From the archives] Jane Rogoyska: The Katyń Massacre (1940)
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Lore