This week on Darn Bach o Hanes, Dewi Prysor looks at a literary deceit. Rhys Mwyn looks at the history of cholera in Caernarfon town and Rhodri Llwyd Morgan looks at the history of Sinclair C5.
William Shakespeare didn’t write his plays but Francis Bacon – this is what the American, Dr Orville Ward Owen (1854 – 1924) thought. In 1910 Owen said that there was evidence under Chepstow Castle. Dewi Prysor goes to Chepstow to tell the story.
Manon Steffan Ross comes from the village of Rhiwlas near Bangor originally, but now she lives in the village of Pennal near Tywyn. She talks about Tywyn cinema, one of Manon’s family was part of the group that built the cinema. This is also the cinema where Manon’s grandmother and grandfather met for the first time.
The poet Dafydd ap Gwilym (c.1320-1370) is one of Wales best poets. Iolo Morgannwg (1747 – 1826) was very fond of his work; he wrote a lot of poems and put Dafydd ap Gwilym’s name on the poems. In 1789 Owen Jones and William Owen Pughe published a book of Dafydd ap Gwilym’s work; Iolo’s poems were in these books. Dewi goes to talk to Mary-Ann Constantine in the National Library about this deceit.
In 1866 cholera was a big problem in the town of Caernarfon. Rhys Mwyn goes to Caernarfon to see where the cholera started in the town’s old slums.
Rhys talks to John Dilwyn Williams about the cholera. Cholera was a problem because there wasn’t clean water in Caernarfon. Before 1868 there were only two places in Caernarfon where people could go to get clean water.
In 1985 there was a new buggy – the Sinclair C5. Rhodri Llwyd Morgan goes to Llandrindod Wells to the National Cycle Museum to talk to David Williams about the history of the C5. People said that there was a washing machine engine in the C5 but the story wasn’t true.
Every week on Darn Bach o Hanes Dewi Prysor goes to St Fagans National History Museum and chooses a special relic. You have to guess what the relic is.
