Wales -- Cardiff Castle

  

If you're spending only a day in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, you will want to see the Cardiff Castle. One among some 300 in the country, the 2,000-year-old castle has seen many faces and reconstructions. The Romans were the original builders of a series of forts. The Normans took over in 11th century and added fortifications and the keep (below). The medieval Lords of Glamorgan began work on the House during the 15th century. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 19th century, the Bute family, among the wealthiest in the world at the time,  transformed the castle into the opulent Victorian Gothic home it is today. (They also tore down the medieval city and built a new one with arcades for shopping. ) During World War II (1939-45) the walls which surround the Castle were used as air raid shelters, which provided a place of safety for 2,000 Cardiff citizens during the German bombings with the layers of masonry and earth banks above.

In 1947 the Bute family gave the castle to the City of Cardiff, which is now open to the public visits as well as for weddings and parties. That's quite a life for a castle that has literally seen the face of ancient, medieval, and modern history. 

 

 The Bute Family 

The second Marquess of Bute who through a coal exportation business turned Cardiff into the world's greatest port. He had acquired the castle through marriage in 1766. His son, John, the acquired the castle and his father's fortune in the 1860s. He was reputedly the richest man in the world, and he spent much of his wealth in decorating the castle. 

John was a learned man, a Biblical scholar, and a polyglot of about 20 languages including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He was obsessed with medieval life, and he re-created it in his castle in collaboration with an architectural genius named William Burges. The gothic towers have lavish and opulent interiors and the castle rooms have an abundance of murals, stained glass, marble, gilding, and elaborate wood carvings--each with a special theme with Mediterranean, Italian, and Arabic decoration. Many unfinished projects were completed by the 4th Marquess of Bute.

 

 

With the death of the 4th Marquess in 1947, the Bute family and the 5th Marquess decided to give the Castle and its surrounding parkland, as a gift to Cardiff and her people. In this photo, the Marquess (center) has given the key to Cardiff's mayor.

 For 25 years, the Castle was home to the National College of Music and Drama , and since 1974 it has become one of Wales’ most popular visitor attractions.

Below are examples of the clock tower and some of the rooms and special features of the castle. For one-minute video explanations of various rooms with more dynamic photos, click here on the Castle's website.

Ceilings were important to the architect and they provide a different look from what one might expect in a castle let alone any modern building.

Here are some special highlights of the castle in the form of sculptures and murals. They also reflect the third marquess' scholarship of history and language.

 

 

This is a table setting of Victorian Wales. The castle currently hosts weddings and parties that provide similar beautiful tables aimed at delighting the eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roof Garden sports a statue of the Virgin and some copies of ancient Roman wood warmers that the Marquess saw on his journeys to Italy.

 

 Even the bedroom and bath spare no lack of decorations

The Cardiff Castle Animal Wall

Surrounding the castle grounds is the unique Animal Wall. It originally comprised eight animals placed on the wall from the South Gate entrance to the Clock Tower. They were moved to their present position in 1928. They were carved by the Thomas Nicholls of Lambeth between 1887 and 1889 and are distinguished by their glass eyes.

Another group of animals was added in 1928-30 by Alexander Carrick of Edinburgh, which include the lynx, vulture, beaver, leopard, racoon, ant-eater and pelican.

 

 

One other note on the fortification around the castle illustrates its history. A portion of the wall that is uncovered reveals the Normans' original wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

Cardiff Castle -- https://www.cardiffcastle.com/history/ 

 

 

Wales -- Cardiff

 

Cardiff is the capital of Wales. The city is over 2,000 years old, but it has only been the capital of Wales since 1955. Cardiff is the main commercial centre of Wales as well as the base for the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament), the Wales Millennium Centre Arts Complex, and the Cardiff International Sports Village. Its population in 2021 was 362,400.

Wealthy men made Cardiff what it is today. For example, in 1766, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herbert family and was later created Baron Cardiff. In 1778, he began renovating Cardiff Castle. A racecourse, printing press, bank and coffee house opened in the 1790s and Cardiff gained a stagecoach service to London.

in 1793, John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute was born. He spent his life building the Cardiff docks and was later hailed as "the creator of modern Cardiff". A twice-weekly boat service between Cardiff and Bristol opened in 1815, and in 1821, the Cardiff Gas Works was established. 

Cardiff had been a medieval city and the Bute family sought to make it a new, modern city with wide boulevards, pedestrians areas, and lots of arcades for shopping. In the early 1900s, Cardiff was the home of what would be known as shopping malls. These arcades contained small and independent stores with products made by local craftsmen. A university and the municipal buildings were re-located into one area. As a result, the entire city is well-organized and well-managed.

 

Rugby is the national sport and people are crazy about it. Games took place in the Cardiff Arms Park was rebuilt and made into Principality Stadium before 2000. The orange plastic seats were sold everywhere to raise money. Matches between England and Wales are magical events with lots of singing and drinking as well as good-natured camaraderie.  

 

 

Cardiff is a very multi-cultural city. After all, it has been a seaport since the 19th century when coal was exported. Immigrant ships at that time stopped in Cardiff for their coal supplies, and many of the people got off the boats because they thought they had landed in the USA, their destination. They formed a working class that mined coal.

Today, Cardiff is a major center for television and film production (such as Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sherlock), and it is the Welsh base for the main national broadcasters. 

 

 

Cardiff University contributes to the diversity of the student-friendly capital.  

 

 

               

 

The Welsh language is unique and still being spoken. According to Historic UK, 

Welsh is a Brythonic language, meaning British Celtic in origin and was spoken in Britain even before the Roman occupation. Thought to have arrived in Britain around 600 BC, the Celtic language evolved in the British Isles into a Brythonic tongue which provided the basis not only for Welsh, but also Breton and Cornish. At this time in Europe, Celtic languages were spoken across the continent even as far as Turkey.

Welsh spoken in the Middle Ages period, between 1000 and 1536, became known as Middle Welsh. From the twelfth century onwards, Middle Welsh formed the basis for one of the most famous manuscripts of this time in Britain, the Mabinogion. This famous literary collection of prose stories is one of the earliest examples of its kind, thought to date from either the twelfth or thirteenth centuries and inspired by earlier story-telling.

In the twentieth century, there was a growing recognition that the Welsh language and Welsh speakers were being discriminated against, for example, in 1942 the Welsh Courts Act formally addressed the issue of defendants and plaintiffs being forced to speak in English and ushered in a new law allowing Welsh to be used in the courts.

By 1967, a very important and crucial piece of legislation was introduced thanks to the campaigning of many individuals including Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Language Society.

This marked a pivotal moment when the prejudices ushered in during the Tudor period began to be reversed. Today the Welsh language is embraced and spoken at home, in the workplace, in the community and in government. In the 2011 census, over 562,000 people named Welsh as their main language.

Signs in Wales are typically in both Welsh and English. Here are some examples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

 Andrew Speed, guide of Costsaver Tour Company

Cardiff -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff

Historic UK -- https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/Welsh-Language/

Welcome to Wales

 

We began our journey to Wales today at 5:30 a.m. It would take us two hours to get to the 7:30 ferry boat in the town of Wexford, Ireland--the only ferry running on this day. The hotel provided us with a light snack for breakfast; we would eat a full breakfast on the ferry boat that would cross the St. George's Channel over four hours to land in Fishguard, Wales. The sea didn't look that rough, but the boat rocked enough that you had to ground yourself and acquire a new set of sea legs to keep from falling. 

Loading huge buses and trucks as well as cars onto the ferry boat is a slick operation. There are two levels for such vehicles and they just roll onto the ship with ease. Passengers may roam on the top two decks of the ship where there is a dining room, café, cinema, private cabins (only for guides and drivers), playroom for kids, and seats along the sides of the hallways. 

Cars line up waiting to board the ferry boat.

 

Ramps are lowered between the dock and the ship to allow vehicles to roll effortlessly on and off the boat.

Once in Wales, we left the beautiful harbor behind to ride for the next two hours to Cardiff, the capital of Wales since the 1950s.

I have fond memories of the boat ride thanks to having breakfast with my two new friends from western Pennsylvania. Wayne is a retired minister and Carol is a retired public health nurse. We talked a lot about mainline churches and their struggles to attract parishioners. Many pastors, said Wayne, quit the ministry due to burn-out and a lack of job satisfaction. He made it for 38 years and now subs for pastors who take some time off. 

On the road in Wales

Three million people live in Wales where hundreds of coal mines used to produce the slowest-burning coal in the world. (Now, there is only one mine left.) Welsh slate was also mined and together these two resources made Wales very rich. Mining came at a price for the mine workers, however. Children under 12 helped to sort coal. There used to be competitions among the various pits to see who could produce the most coal.

The area west of Cardiff was one characterized by rolling green hills. People used to mine or raise sheep. In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the mine workers were highly paid. Unfortunately, the workers suffered from emphysema and most died from it. In the 1980s, the mines closed down because they were running at a loss. It also became cheaper to import coal than to mine it locally. Mining villages were decimated and the people suffered from poverty and drug abuse. The government pumped loads of money into these communities to help them survive.

One of the episodes of "The Crown" features a mining disaster where 116 schoolchildren and 28 adults were buried alive by coal that rolled down the hill onto their school on October 21, 1966. Our bus passed a turn-0ff leading to Aberfan. The photo on the left below shows the damage done by the coal sliding down the hill. The photo on the right is the cemetery where the victims are memorialized.

 

 

Agriculture and the film industry have become the substitutes for the mining industry. Welsh lamb, for example, is the most expensive with the highest quality of any lamb produced in the world. That is because the sheep are always walking on the hills, and this makes their meat very lean. Nevertheless, Welsh farmers are inclined to buy New Zealand lamb for their tables because it is cheaper than the lamb they produce.

The Welsh topography includes deep valleys and green granite mountains in the north. The mountains actually resemble the Tibetan mountains, which allowed Sir Edmund Hillary to train for his climb to Mt. Everest in 1953. 

Wales also has old and dense oak forests and the once-inhabited sites of the ancient Celtic settlers. The Welsh, in fact, are the oldest descendants of the Celtic people and they speak the oldest versions of the Celtic language. It is a poetic language and one where one word can stand for one sentence. Welsh is the first language for many people, and it wasn't until the 20th century that it was written down. So important is the language that people stopped going to church in the 19th century because services were in English. To remedy this situation, the Welsh Methodists went into the coal pits to preach and get the people to sing in Welsh. They also started Sunday schools in Welsh. It worked!

There is a bardic tradition among the Welsh where history and stories have been handed down orally for centuries. 

Wales was a patchwork of small ancient kingdoms who were often at war with one another. The bards, however, were allowed to cross borders safely in order to provide news and entertainment to the people. They usually carried a harp to accompany their storytelling in music or a poem. The harp is consequently the ancient symbol of the Celtic people. This tradition of music still prevails in Wales, which has produced many top opera singers.

Wales has more medieval castles than anywhere in Europe because King Edward I of England had them built as a defensive move to control this region. He had defeated the Scots, and he was the first to take Wales. 

It is important to note that Wales is not a kingdom but rather a "principality". That means that the oldest son of the king becomes the Prince of Wales as a result of Edward I's defeat of the Welsh in the 12th century. He knew the people would never be ruled by a king, so this was the political compromise. 

 

The flag of Wales is a red dragon on a green and white background. In its battles for the region, the white dragon represented the Anglo-Saxons and the red dragon stood for England. The red dragon won and chased the Anglo-Saxons out.

 

Minced pie is a Christmas specialty in Wales. It originated with the Crusades where meat was preserved with spices. The same spices are still used today although the pie is not necessarily filled with meat. We tried some minced pie and it was very flavorful.

 

 

Wales used to mine gold until the 1950s because it was too difficult and too expensive to mine gold. In the 1990s, however, the price went up so high that they re-opened the mines. Actually, gold mining goes back to the ancient Celts. They created a metal works that allowed them to make ornate pieces that they then sacrificed to the gods. They often threw these pieces into the rivers in Wales and all over Europe where the Celts settled.

Richard Burton was born in Pontrhydyfen (Port Talbot), a steel town in southern Wales. He never forgot his roots and fame did not spoil his affection for his hometown. So in his second marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, he built a fabulous home on the rolling hills that offer stunning views. The problem was that the view of the town was a steel plant, and Elizabeth refused to live in the house. In 2013, the couple's dream house was up for sale for  2 million pounds. 

 

 

 

The steel plant is now a recycling center.