Category: News

WELSH TRADITIONS 2 CALAN MAI – MAY DAY

In the old Celtic Year, the summer season consisted of the months of May, June and July so the first day of May was also the first day of summer. The Welsh name for July – Gorffennaf – testifies to this as the word actually translates as ‘the end of summer’ ( gorffen – end + haf – summer). The Welsh word ‘Calan’ translates as ‘the first day of’ – thus the Welsh equivalent of May Day is Calan Mai.

Like May Day in England and Walpurgis on the Continent, Calan Mai was an important time for celebration in Wales – and the roots of this festival go far back into our Celtic past – to the Beltane festival (various spellings) which celebrated the coming of summer and the time when the animals were turned out to pasture. Beltane was one of the four main seasonal festivals of the Celtic year – the other three being Imbolc (February 1st), celebrating the coming of Spring, Lughnasadh (1st August), celebrating the beginning of the harvest season (autumn) and Samhain (1st November), celebrating the end of the harvest season and marking the first day of winter.

During the Beltane celebrations the lighting of bonfires represented an opportunity for purification, to protect the animals from disease – and they also celebrated fertility and new growth. And the tradition of lighting bonfires continued down the centuries and was associated with Calan Mai – as with Calan Gaeaf (the first day of winter – November 1st) of course. The celebrations and revelry started on the eve of Calan Mai – and history tells us that here in Wales, May Day Eve was even more important than May Day itself. It was one of the three ‘Spirit Nights’ in the Celtic year – when the veil between this world and the spirit world was at its thinnest – and when people believed that the spirits of the dead walked among them. (The other two Spirit Nights are St John’s Eve on 24th June and Halloween of course on 31st October). The people would decorate the outside of their houses with flowers and sprigs of hawthorn as they welcomed the coming of summer – and fires would be lit to ward off evil spirits. Young men would place bunches of rosemary, tied with white ribbons on the windowsill of a young girl they admired.

The building of the village bonfire was steeped in ritual. Nine young men, after emptying their pockets of all coins, were sent to gather branches of wood from nine different trees. The bonfire would be built in a traditional way and once the fire had been lit, they would leap three times over the flames in order to make sure of a good harvest. Later, when the fire was out, the villagers would carry some of the ashes to their homes to ward off illness and sadness throughout the coming year.

On the morning of Calan Mai, the village youngsters would welcome the coming of summer after the cold and barren winter by parading around the area carrying the Bedwen Fai (May Birch) – always birch, decorated with flowers and ribbons. They would sing and dance as they paraded – and many of the songs – known as ‘summer carols’- were quite bawdy and explicit in nature. Others were topical verses reminding the villagers of some of the interesting things that had happened during the year gone by. The dancers would all be dressed in white with colourful ribbons – except for the ‘Cadi’ – the Fool – the main character who led the parade. He would be masked or have a blackened face – and would wear a lady’s petticoat and a man’s waistcoat! When they reached the village green the Bedwen Fai would be erected and the ‘Twmpath Chwarae’ (play Mound) opened for the rest of the villagers to join in the dancing and singing. A harpist or ‘fiddler’ would sit atop the mound to accompany the singing and dancing.

Different traditions developed in different areas of Wales. In some areas, a mock battle between representatives of winter and summer would be staged. In the village of Defynnog in mid Wales it is recorded that on Calan Mai, the Winter King and the Summer King would be crowned – the Winter King with sprigs of holly and the Summer King with colourful ribbons. In Tenby, numerous Maypoles would be raised in the town – and groups of dancers would wind their way from one to another. It was not unusual, of course, for a group of youths to raid another village’s Bedwen and steal it before the celebrations began. Here in Gwenfô our Bedwen was often in danger from raiders from Sain Ffagan! But I believe the Gwenfô youngsters did their share of raiding too!

All in all the Calan Mai revelries and celebrations were a means of bringing colour and enjoyment to people whose lives were hard – and very often bereft of colour and just plain fun!

Ann M. Jones

THE NGS OPEN GARDEN
SCHEME LOCALLY

Once again, thank goodness, the weather is starting to dry up and let us out into the garden. For many of us, the bulbs we planted last autumn (or maybe years ago) are popping up and reminding us that they’ve just been waiting for a bit of sun and warmth, and of course the grass has started to grow, making us wonder if the lawn mower needs a service. For those of us that open our gardens for the NGS, we worry if everything will look good in the garden, will the sun shine, will the cakes rise and will the visitors come.

Last year the NGS raised a record amount of money in the UK meaning that over £3.4million could be donated to charity. The main beneficiaries are MacMillan cancer support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, and The Queen’s Nursing Institute, carers trust and Parkinson’s UK. Smaller donations are given to Horatio’s garden, Maggie’s, the army benevolent fund, Mencap, Sue Ryder, and Thrive. There are also garden charities that benefit including The National Botanic Garden of Wales. And all this happens because ordinary people open their gardens and visitors come, admire, and eat cake!

Visiting the NGS website should guide you to many of the small gems open in Glamorgan and Gwent, as well as those further afield. There are group gardens in Penarth (June 15th and 16th), Dinas Powis (July 6th and 7th), and Creigiau (June 23rd). Horatios garden in Llandough Hospital and Maggies at Singleton open on May 18th, and illustrate the results of the charity’s work. Many others, including Gileston Manor (Aprl 28th), Llandough Castle (open by arrangement), and Maes y Wertha (July 14th) where live music is promised, are bound to provide a glorious summer afternoon, all complimented by home made cakes, teas and coffee. In addition there are lots of individual city, suburban and country gardens to inspire you, and enjoy. Just look for the yellow sign, visit the website, or pick up a brochure from Tesco or the post office.

My own garden in Dyffryn is open April 21st for blossom and tulips, if hopefully they haven’t drowned, and again with my neighbour Rozanne, June 2nd for roses etc. We are looking forward to seeing lots of visitors, new and returning, enjoying themselves, eating cake and raising record amounts for these very worthy charities.

Janet Evans

Of Wooden Ships And Iron Men

As part of the work that Tony Hodge does as a volunteer on the Digitisation Project in Barry Library to upload historical photographs and the like to the “Peoples Collection Wales” website, he came across the following account complete with photographs and the pen and ink sketch of the Bristol Channel pilot cutters. They were in an envelope addressed to the Barry Borough Librarian with a 3p Christmas stamp which has been identified as being issued in 1971. It is introduced as:

“This is part of Jack Davey’s life story as told to me aboard the “Result”, a square tops’l schooner, in 1926”. It had been sent by R D Evans, Hillhead, Falmerston Road, Mount Pleasant, Newhaven, Sussex. (NB the history of the HMS Result, which was built in 1893 and continued in service until 1967, is fully documented on the National Historic Ships UK website and is worthy of its own article.)

“Barry Roads for Orders”. What memories such a cry invokes. The first time I heard it was on the Barque “Friends” one hundred and five days out of Valparaiso, it was the first year Barry Signal Station was opened. Previously we had made either Queenstown or Falmouth for orders, and then picked up our pilot. On this trip we were bound to Barry for orders. With the sleet driving down from nor’east, Simon Bartlett’s cutter the “Dawn” with the letters BY on the mains’l was a most welcome sight, as she lay hove to off the Fastnet.

The picture made by the sailing cutters at sea was truly wonderful, particularly after a long voyage, when they seemed to make home that much nearer. The arrival of the pilot on board with fresh news, after being out of touch with the outside world for so long a period, had to be experienced to be believed.

The history of the Bristol Channel Pilots and their cutters is lost in the dust of antiquity together with many of the early records of ships and shipping which had been written, but we know that a pilot named Ray took Cabot’s “Matthew” down the Bristol Channel in the sixteenth century, and that the Ray family, father to son, father to son, have been pilots ever since.

What wonderful sailing craft these cutters were, and what a wonderful breed of men sailed them.

Until 1914, when amalgamation took place, the system was competitive, each pilot owning and sailing his own cutter and going westward “seeking”. That often meant sailing as far as the Fastnet Rock off the west coast of Ireland, or up St George’s Channel and the Irish Sea to Liverpool, or around Land’s End and into the Straights of Dover, looking for ships that required a pilot to take them to Barry or even Bristol.

Two years after I left the “Olivebank” I took a job with Simon Bartlett on the “Dawn” as a deck hand. The following is an account of a typical trip “seeking”.

The cutter was generally sailed out by the pilot, pilot boatman and an apprentice, the boatman and the apprentice doing the work and the pilot would take the tiller if he felt like doing a little sailing. After the pilot had been put aboard the incoming ship the cutter was sailed home by the apprentice and boatman.

As the Bristol Channel has the second highest rise and fall of tide in the world – the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia has the highest – and few havens of shelter once Barry or Ilfracombe were left behind, this was seldom a fine weather trip.

It was a case of “ride it out” and although the cutters were built of wood you had to be an iron man to sail them year after year summer and winter. How true the saying: “From Padstow Bay to Lundy Light is a watery grave both day and night”.

Now back to the trip, which I think will interest you, it has been copied from the log book.

4am. Breeze freshening.

5am. Log 120 miles. Breeze strong still freshening

7.45am Block Split. Peak halyard chaffed and stranded. Hove to and had gaff on deck. Cut out and renewed block and spliced afresh the purchase. Had a bit of fun in the lumpy sea, especially when we hauled up again. The sea is oppressively lonely.

10am. Have gone about on the starboard tack going west by north with 75 miles to Cape Clear. Wind freshening , sky heavy and overcast. Took another roll in the mains’l.

10.30am Hauled fores’l slightly to wind’ard so as not to shake her up too much with this hard driving.

12 noon. Reaching shead (north by east) slowing. Breeze strong. Down to storm jib. Double reefed fores’l and seven rolls in the main.

12.45pm Sighted a Clan Line and made up under her lee.

2.25pm Pilot put aboard and then made for home. When Old Head of Kinsale (ie in County Cork, Ireland) was on the beam, homeward bound bearing east ¾ south.

When I arrived home after this trip I read in the “Western Mail” that the gale had caused severe damage around the coast stripping roofs of buildings, uprooting trees and causing ships to seek shelter.

After five years with the pilots I went back to the deep sea again

WELSH TRADITIONS

In this short series we’ll take a step back in time to remind ourselves of some of the interesting traditions which took place in Wales in the past. We’ll begin with a look at what in Welsh are called ‘Merched y Gerddi’ – literally translated, ‘The Garden Girls’.

During the 18th and 19th Centuries, it was the tradition for young girls and women to travel annually from impoverished rural Wales to London – to look for work in the market-gardens and parks of the city. They would travel in late spring or early summer, remain in London all summer – and travel back to Wales before winter set in. It was poverty and the lack of work that caused this exodus – and the name given to these girls and women was ‘Merched y Gerddi’.

A simple verse written by poet Daniel Ddu o Geredigion, mentioning this tradition, has survived.

O na bawn i fel colomen

Ar Sant Paul yng nghanol Llunden

I gael gweled merched Cymru

Ar eu gliniau’n chwynnu’r gerddi.

Oh that I were a pigeon

On St Paul’s in the centre of London –

To see the girls from Wales

On their knees weeding the gardens.

The majority of these women came from Ceredigion, although others from various parts of Wales would join them on their journey through Breconshire – Powys today – towards England. The tradition was centred on the town of Tregaron – which was also one of the main centres for the drovers – who drove their animals to the markets of London. It is possible that the drovers helped the women find work in the parks and gardens.

Of course, the romance and excitement of the journey to London appealed to the young women – and their hope was that they would meet and marry a wealthy young man whilst they were in London! But it was not only young women who undertook this annual tradition. Widows and married women also travelled – so long as they had someone at home to care for their children.

There was no transport to take them to London of course, so they had to walk all the way – following the drovers’ tracks. It is said that many of them walked barefoot in order to keep their clogs in good condition for wearing in London. They would sleep in the open air or in a barn – and many would gather fruit like bilberries or whinberries to sell along the way – thus putting a few pennies in their pockets. Others would knit stockings as they walked – and sell the finished articles.

After finding work in London, the women would have to work hard – and not many of them were able to afford to stay in lodgings of any kind – so they slept in warehouses and such buildings – with only straw and sacking to keep them warm. They lived on fruit and vegetables from the market-gardens where they worked – and no doubt this was often better than the paupers food they ate back home in Wales. Most of them worked up to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week – and only a few of them had a day off on Sunday. Those who did liked to go to the fair at Lambeth Marsh to buy a few goods and to listen to the ballad singers spreading the latest news through their songs. This is how Lambeth Marsh grew to be a well-known place in which the Welsh congregate.

By the middle of September, the work in the gardens and parks had dried up and it was time for the women to return to Wales. Once again, they had to walk – but now they had a little money in their pockets. Their pay in London was between 1 and 2 shillings a day (5-10 pence today) – and this was far more than they could earn back home in Wales.

This tradition had all but died out by the middle of the 19th century – as, by then, the population of London had increased to such an extent that far more people were looking for work. Also, the famine in Ireland had forced many Irish men and women to move to London to look for work. Fortunately, by this time conditions were improving in Wales – with new industries being developed in the South Wales valleys. At last, there was now more work for the men and women of Wales in their own country.

Up until then, life was hard – especially in rural Wales. I wonder how many of our readers had heard of this tradition – and how many people were aware that possibly one of their ‘foremothers’ had been forced to take part in this annual trek to London to earn a little extra money. We cannot begin to appreciate the hardship of the time – and should count our blessings today!

Ann M. Jones