Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society
Cymdeithas Hynafiaethol Sir Gaerfyrddin

Events in Winter 2005/2006

 

December: MUSICAL EVENING

The old Bishop's Chapel in the Museum decorated for Christmas

The Society's centenary year ended with a superb musical evening at the County Museum in Abergwili. The hall, decorated for Christmas, was full when Council member Heward Rees, the evening's leader, introduced Côr Seingâr. The choir performed two sets of Welsh choral music, their fresh young voices blending perfectly in lively harmony under their conductor Nicola Roderick.

Eiluned Rees, as Mrs Marie Trevelyan, a Glamorganshire Victorian author well known for her work on the folk-lore of Wales, read a selection on the plygain, the Christmas service held very early in the morning, and the Mari Lwyd. This was illustrated by an example of the traditional music sung at the service and the words sung by the men taking the horse's head round the neighbourhood at New Year. Jill Davies read an account of another folk tradition, the giving of a calennig at New Year as a token of luck.

Gwenllian Davies provided two sets of harp music, settings of Welsh and English carols setting off classical pieces by Mozart to perfection. The evening ended with recordings of pieces by Haydn Morris and William Mathias, two Carmarthenshire musicians of international repute.

President Towyn Jones brought the evening and the celebratory year to a close by reminding members of the busy and very successful programme which they had enjoyed since the first event last January, which had also been held in the Museum. This was the opening of an exhibition displaying some of the books and artefacts which early Society members had donated and which were the foundation of both the County Museum and the County Library. It was fitting that the year should also end in the Museum, which has always had close connections with the Society.

 

January: A CARMARTHENSHIRE SQUIRE AND THE BARBARY CORSAIRS

This was the intriguing title of the lecture given by the Revd William Strange, Vicar of St Peter's, Carmarthen, to the large number of members assembled in the church for their January meeting.

High up near the organ, one of the 80 memorials on the church walls, is a plaque to the memory of John Williams of Edwinsford, near Talley. Born into one of the foremost families in seventeenth century Carmarthenshire, the third son of Nicholas Williams, he entered the navy. His career is first noted on board the Kingfisher.

The Kingfisher was a warship built in 1675, designed to be disguised as a large merchant vessel. She was equipped with various means of altering her appearance, such as collapsible bulwarks, so that she could act as a decoy to combat the Barbary corsairs operating out of Algiers and Sallee on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The pirates preyed on shipping not only in the Mediterranean but also on the traffic to the American colonies. Crews and passengers were sold as slaves and in 1631 Baltimore in southern Ireland was sacked and all 168 of its inhabitants carried away.

Kingfisher was commanded by Captain Morgan Kempthorne who as a boy had been with his father Sir John Kempthorne, one of the most distinguished seamen of his day, when he defeated seven Algerian pirates in 1670. She was cruising off the coast of Sicily in May 1681 when attacked by eight Algerian ships. Battle raged for ten hours, during which Kempthorne was killed, the ship was twice set on fire and several attempts at boarding her were repulsed. Seven crew members were killed and thirty-eight wounded. The Kingfisher was repaired at Livorno and Kempthorne was buried there. John Williams was discharged and probably lived in one of the family properties in Carmarthen. He died in 1688 at the age of 29. . His epitaph has a curious reference, ' died a good Christian in the communion of the best Church, the Church of England'. This may well be because at the time of his death the throne was held by James II, known for his Catholic persuasion, but the monument was erected during the reign of William of Orange. Members of the Mediterranean fleet were then viewed with suspicion as supporters of James so this may have been an expression of loyalty to the established church to free the family from any accusation of being Jacobites.

February: Annual Day School

The Printed Word" was the theme of the February event, the annual day school, of particular interest as Carmarthen was such an important centre for the early printing, publishing and book-selling trades. Under the able and erudite chairmanship of Eiluned Rees, formerly Assistant Keeper at the National Library of Wales and a chair of the Society, a wide range of topics was covered. David Hardy, the editor of the Carmarthen Journal, spoke on publishing the modern local newspaper in the internet age, particularly apt in view of breaking news on the transfer of most of the Journal's functions to Swansea. The importance of the paper to the area over the years and the wealth of material it provides for historians were raised by many in the audience. George Tremlett, owner of Corran Books in Laugharne, used a variety of works to prove his point that the town is the cultural capital of Wales. Many authors with connections to the town were discussed, from Jeremy Taylor in the 17th century through the war poet Edward Thomas to Keidrych Rhys. The magazine "Wales", of international standard, was produced in Llanybri in the 1940s.

Eiluned Rees, co-author of A Nation and its Books, rounded off the morning session with a finely crafted lecture on books in Wales. The Reformation became a catalyst for Welsh printing and by 1820 every town had a printer. John Ross, Carmarthen's most prolific printer, advertised himself as the only properly apprenticed craftsman and John Daniels was one of his apprentices.

Sally Roberts Jones, well known as a poet and local historian working in the Afan Valley, showed examples of her books and discussed ways of getting work published.

Thomas Lloyd, in his lecture on Carmarthenshire libraries, showed slides of some of the fine rooms which housed the collections. He commented on the varied use made of the books; in Derwydd there were books in every room and one of the Society's founder members, Alan Stepney Gulston, made another collection after his predecessor had to sell his, while in some gentry houses bindings and appearance were of prime importance.

An excellent exhibition on various aspects of printing had been prepared by Heather James with help from several members. Many of the audience particularly enjoyed seeing blocks and engraved plates shown with their printed image.

March: Aberglasney: A History

The annual Buckley Memorial Lecture was held in Llandovery at the end of March. The lectures, dedicated to the memory of Major Kemmis Buckley who contributed so much to the Society over many years, are intended to reflect some of his many interests. The theme selected for this year's lecture was gardening, when Graham Rankin spoke on the history of Aberglasney.

Mr. Rankin through his skill as a photographer showed the very large audience how the garden at Aberglasney had blossomed from what was once total dereliction. The various stages through which it developed were illustrated and the philosophy and ideas behind the careful restoration and renovation were explained. The inspiration for the latest section, the ninfarium, came from a garden planted in the ruins of a medieval hill village, Ninfa, situated south of Rome. In 2005 this unique garden, the Ninfarium, was created within the ruinous central rooms and courtyard of Aberglasney mansion. The remaining walls of the rooms were stabilized and the entire area was covered with a huge glass atrium. This area now contains a wonderful collection of warm temperate and sub-tropical plants including Orchids, Palms, Magnolias and Cycads.