THE TRAGEDY of Capel Celyn is a focal point of a new book about lost settlements.
Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain, by historian Dr Matthew Green, recounts the history of a number of lost settlements, bringing together the extraordinary stories of how these places came to be and how they met their fates.
The final chapter of the book is dedicated to Capel Celyn, a Gwynedd village in the Tryweryn Valley that was flooded in 1965 to create a reservoir, Llyn Celyn, in order to supply Liverpool and the Wirral with water for industry.
Author Matthew Green commented: “There is this whole shadow geography of Britain that we don’t really know about.
“It felt timely, more than ever so because of the climate crisis.
“I love the story of Capel Celyn because it’s one of the few instances, perhaps the only instance in the book where there is a real fightback, and people don’t just accept that their community is doomed.
“All over Britain, people thought it was an outrage, a monstrosity, and it seemed very much like the industrial Goliath was crushing the David.”
35 out of 36 Welsh MPs opposed the bill (the other did not vote), but in 1962 it was passed by the UK Government.
The members of the community waged an eight-year effort to prevent the destruction of their homes, which was ultimately unsuccessful.
When the valley was flooded in 1965, the village and its buildings, including the post office, the school, and a chapel with cemetery, were all lost.
Dr Green said: “Earlier on in the book, I look at another lost Welsh settlement called Trellech, and that’s when the English basically came in and started colonising Wales.
“There’s a horrible symmetry really with that and the middle ages, England oppressing Wales and then again in the 1950s and 1960s it rears its ugly head again.
“It’s a really tragic tale, because in spite of this fightback, the dignitaries from Liverpool turn up and have a tea party on the banks and the whole thing is flooded.”
Capel Celyn’s demise remains a sensitive topic in Wales, one which the represents an outside force deciding the fates of Welsh communities.
In 2005, Liverpool City Council (who first brought a private bill before Parliament) issued a public apology for the flooding, which was condemned by portions of nearby Bala as a “political gesture”.
Dr Green added while the book recounted lost places, the same issues that they faced could be faced by mankind again, adding: “When there’s a drought, it does reappear, and you see the stubs of buildings, and then you get this amazing graffiti that appears on it, sort of like “Drowned by English pigs” etc.
“I don’t live in Wales but I’m told that it’s still evoked today quite frequently and you still see Cofiwch Dryweryn spray painted.
“It had a huge resonance, an emotional weight which to me made it worthy of conclusion.
“The fact that it was drowned in water is metaphorically a harrowing premonition of what might happen to lots of our settlements soon.
“There were letters that said it made a mockery of the whole idea of a United Kingdom because it was thrust through by English MPs.”
Cofiwch Dryweryn (Remember Tryweryn) is a graffitied stone wall in Ceredigion that has become a landmark for Wales, and a symbol of Welsh pride and patriotism.
Dr Green’s thought-provoking book is now available to buy at online retailers.
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