Wales: Introduction

[Under development: 26 December 2006]

Since some of my youngest days, I have visited the Principality of Wales. Although I have never lived in Wales, I have visited many parts, and spent periods of a week or so in a few. Mostly, I know North Wales, because of its proximity to Chester, although I have been for many days out in Mid Wales and South Wales. I can speak no Welsh, despite having obvious Welsh ancestry. A small part of my identity is Welsh: my own Celtic claim. Wales is associated with Old Labour Party politics, based on the former coal mining and steel industries of both North and South Wales. Western Wales and Mid-Wales are associated with Welsh nationalism and Plaid Cymru. There is, therefore something conservative, as distinct from liberal and cosmopolitan about Wales, with which I am not in resonance. It is with a pleasant irony that the places I have visited in Wales begins with the former estate of perhaps the best known Liberal politician in British history.

 Hawarden, and the grounds of Gladstone's former estate at Ewloe, in which I have walked many times.

 For reasons I am able unable to fathom, I find it hard to consider the southern shore of the Dee Estuary to be part of Wales. In my mid-teens I used to go ice skating weekly at Deesside Leisure Centre in Queensferry, which explains my confidence on the ice. I have visited Flint once or twice, although my memories of the place are drear in the extreme. Similarly, my vague memories of Holywell have a sad cast, although a think that there is an ancient crook-structured building there, in which, were it elsewhere, I should have been very interested.

 Wrexham (Wrecsam), where I used to go swimming at the Olympic standard pool, and where I went down a coal mine in 1974. Chirk, with its sickly smell of chocolate and rabbits with mixamatosis.

 North Wales coast: Prestatyn, Rhyll (where we would go for days out to the seaside), Colwyn Bay, the Aber Valley, Llandudno and the Great Orme (on which I have walked a number of times).

 Clwyd Hills, including Moel Famau which I have climbed many times, especially on Sunday mornings). Mold, Ruthin, Denbigh.

 Snowdonia, including the villages of Beddgelert and Nant Gwynant (where I stayed on my first week away from my parents at a World Wildlife Fund (as was then) chalet camp), and the mountains of Tryfan, Glyder Fawr, Glyder Fach, and the lower parts of Snowdon. I feel incomplete as a person for never having climbed Snowdon, and should like to remedy the situation this year.

 Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid), Llangollen, Froncysyllte Aqueduct (that I should like to cross in a narrow boat); World's End is a magical place, with springs bubbling from beneath rocks, fossils in the limestone, scars, screes and wild countryside.

 Conwy town and castle (the battlements of which make an excellent adventure playground), and all down the Conwy Valley, including Bodnant Gardens (National Trust), Llanrwst (Gwydir Castle), and Betws-y-Coed (the Swallow Falls are in the Snowdonia National Park).

 Bangor, including the University that I have visited several times, including in June 2006 for the annual conference of the AUCC. The Menai Straight. Caernarfon Castle.

 Anglesey (Ynys Mwn), including passing through the railway station at Llanfairpwllgwyngychgogerechwryndrobwchllantisiliogogogoch (check this spelling before uploading) on the way to the coastal beaches south of Holyhead; the Anglesey Aluminium plant at Holyhead, which I visited in 1974.

  The Lleyn Peninsula: Porthmadog, Criccieth, and Abersoch where I went on school camp. School camp was this was much more boy scout-like than anything I did in the cub scouts. We camped in tents, slept in sleeping bags, went on hedgehog hunts in the dark and enjoyed midnight feasts, each took a share of responsibility for cooking and cleaning the latrine, and sang songs round an evening campfire. For some reason, I have never visited Portmeirion, but should love to do so.

 Blaenau Ffestiniog, where I went to the slate mines, and cleaved a few slates, as tourists do.

 Harlech Castle, which is a sad place of defeat.

 I visited Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge for the first time in 1998. I have not yet visited the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth despite an enthusiasm dating back to 1980.

 Knighton (straddles the border) and the Offa's Dyke footpath (runs for 168 miles from Prestatyn in the north to Chepstow in the south), parts of which I walked during the summer of 1968, and have also visited more recently; Newtown, Montgomery and Welshpool.

 In 1977 stayed for a week at the Druidston Bay Hotel, visiting St David's, Solva, Haverfordwest and the Pembrokeshire coast. In 1980 I caught a train from Gloucester to Fishguard, from where I boarded a ferry for Rosslare.

 In 1975, I took a train from Chester, via Wrexham, through Mid-Wales, all the way to Swansea, from where I boarded a ferry for Cork. Some time in the 1980s I visited the Gower Peninsula

 During a school holiday in 1974, I travelled with my father to South Wales. He had business to do. We drove through Valley towns including Aberfan (who can forget the children who were killed by the pit heap landslide?), and Merthyr Tydfil. Later, in the 1980s, I visited Abergavenny and Brecon as places in which my wife's parents sold hand-made toys and jewellery at craft fairs.

 Although I first visited Hay-on-Wye (which straddles the border) in the early 1960s, along with, Symonds Yat and Tintern Abbey (visited several times since), it was in 1998 that I first visited its second-hand bookshops. I do not remember, from my early 1960s visit, the hand-pulled ferry (60p each way) from Symonds Yat East to Symonds Yat West, but recently found it a peaceful and pleasant means of crossing a river.

 Chepstow Castle and Caerleon Castle, St. Fagans

I have not yet climbed in the Brecon Beacons, nor walked in the Black Mountains

 

  p.g.h@btinternet.com