Mair Williams's blog

Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas has won the 2018 Tour de France. The annual Tour de France is the world's premier cycling race. The race was first organised in 1903 and has been held every year since then, except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. This year's 2,082 mile  (3,351 km) race started from Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, in the Vendée department, on 7 July and finished with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris, today on 29 July.

Image: Geraint Thomas when winning Gold at Commonwealth Games.

In the Celtic lands poems and stories are often carried in the minds of the people. Recently in the Welsh newspaper Cambrian News there was an item about a lost rhyme. The rare Welsh nursery rhyme was redicovered during an exhibition at Plasgwyn Care Home, near Criccieth, on the Llŷn Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Llŷn) in Wales. It was recalled by 92-year-old resident Will Hughes from his childhood in Penrhyndeudraeth. He said: “It has just stuck in my mind all my life and it came back to me from when I was in school.”

The use of wild animals in circuses across Wales will be banned. A statement released this morning from the Welsh Government states: “The way animals are treated is an important reflection of society and over the next 12 months, a bill will be introduced to ban the use of wild animals in travelling circuses on welfare grounds.”  Animal welfare campaigners have hailed the decision as an important stand to stop the suffering of animals in circuses in Wales.

The decision made by the British government yesterday not to sanction the building of a proposed £1.3bn tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay has been widely criticised in Wales. The scheme off Swansea Bay had £200m backing from the Welsh Government. Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has condemned the decision not to go ahead with the scheme.

Gwrych Castle is a Grade I listed 19th-century country house near Abergele in Conwy County Borough (Welsh: Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy), in the north of Wales. The castle was built between 1810 and 1822. During World War Two, it housed 200 Jewish refugee children as part of Operation Kindertransport. The house had been open to the public until 1985, but after being closed it went into decline. It was bought in 1989 by an American businessman but plans to renovate the building didn't progress. The castle was looted, vandalised and reduced to a derelict shell.

In a joint effort between volunteers from Aberystwyth Friends of the Earth and Ceredigion County Council a programme of bee-friendly planting is being undertaken in the grounds of Aberystwyth Castle (Welsh: Castell Aberystwyth). As reported in the Welsh newspaper Cambrian News, Ceredigion council have provided the plants and equipment while Aberystwyth Friends of the Earth provided the volunteers. The plants chosen are specifically known to attract pollinating insects like bees.

The decision on whether to build a proposed £1.3bn tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay is likely to be announced next week. It has been reported that the UK government is set to reject the plans. Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) who are behind the scheme said it could provide power for 120,000 homes for 120 years and that the unit price of power from a pathfinder project at Swansea Bay need cost no more than the unit price of power from Hinkley Point C [nuclear plant], which has already received government backing. 

This week, in 1865, the converted tea clipper Mimosa set sail to establish a Welsh speaking colony called in Welsh ‘Y Wladfa’ (‘The Colony’), in the valley of the Chubut River in Patagonia in Argentina. The Mimosa, embarked from Liverpool on 28 May 1865 with 153 emigrants aboard. They sailed to the coast of Patagonia, an area of Argentina which had by this time declared its independence from Spain in 1810. In the 1880s, a further colony was established in the foothills of the Andes and this was called ‘Cwm Hyfryd’ (‘Pleasant Valley’).  

Today, 21st May, is the feast day of Saint Collen. Saint Collen was a  monk born in c.600 and the Welsh town of Llangollen takes its name from him 'gollen' being a mutation of "Collen". He is said to have arrived in Llangollen by coracle and to be descended from the Kings of Gwent. St Collen died on 21 May, at sometime in the early 7th century and was buried in his chapel, which for many centuries was located immediately to the west of the present medieval church of St Collen in Llangollen.

Waldo Williams (30 September 1904 – 20 May 1971) was born in Haverfordwest (Welsh: Hwlffordd). He was one of the leading Welsh-language poets of the 20th century, a Christian pacifist, anti-war campaigner, and Welsh nationalist. He used his bardic name Goronwy. His early childhood was spent in Mynachlog-ddu, where his father was the head teacher of the primary school.