Translating the Bible and a Beautiful Welsh Garden

After a leisurely breakfast in our miners cottage Julie and I picked up our National Trust guide book and identified two sights worthy of our attention. The National Trust guide reminds me of our National Park guide. They even have National Trust Passports like our Park Service where you can record your visits by getting a stamp at each location. The tour guides at these sights are well informed and filled with interesting information. We have found them eager to share their information and answer in detail all our questions. Today's first sight was Ty Mawr which means large house - large by 1300's standards.

Getting to this house was way off the beaten path. Miles of one cow-width roads which were very exciting to drive. Gladly we saw no one else on the road, because an approaching car would have called for 1/4 of a mile driving backwards to some farmers yard to allow them to pass.

Our Guide shared with us the life and significance of William Morgan who translated the Bible into Welsh in 1588.  He also shared insight into what life was like in 16th Century Wales. Julie will share the chronicle with you...

Life in a 16th century Welsh cottage

This morning we visited a stone "cottage" which is the birthplace of Bishop William Morgan 1545-1604. He translated the bible into Welsh. You history buffs will remember that William Tyndale translated the latin bible into English, helping to fuel the reformation. For his efforts he was hung, buried, dug-up, and burned at the stake. Putting the bible within everyones grasp was a powerful  tool, dreaded by the Roman church. At this period, Mary Queen of Scots was attempting to take the throne and turn England back to Catholicism. The Welsh had been continually a problem for the English throne since the days of Edward the I. Queen Elizabeth saw opportunity in giving the Bible to the Welsh people and therefore solidifying their protestantism. William Morgan was supported by Queen Elizabeth to translate the Bible into Welsh.

A 15th century bible box which held the family bible and other important documents. 

Our guide explained life in this cottage in the 16th century.William Morgan's birthplace home was a (relatively) wealthy place, a large house for those days. Ty Mawr means "large house". Unlike England, Wales was a matriarchal society. Women were the head of the household. Marriages were arranged and girls would be married by age 12. The oldest girl would be betrothed to (preferably) an old man so that he would die sooner and she would inherit his estate. She, being the most prized possession, would sleep (they all slept sitting up) on the shelf in the hearth by the fire, being the warmest place in the house. As she was wed, the next girl would take her place, and so on. . .(hence the term - being left on the shelf). Boys left home at age 10 to find work to earn their keep. They were never allowed home again, not even to visit. 

Windows had no glass and were open spaces with interior shutters to close in bad weather.

Children were smothered in goose grease, brown paper, wrapped in a crude vest and sewn into their underwear  for the winter. In the spring the clothes would be cut off and they would have their only bath of the year, and then wear their summer clothes until being sewn back for next winter. Our guide informed us that  this was normal practice until the 1950's. This happened to children who were evacuated here from Liverpool during WWII. This speaks to the saying that I know so well and often quote, "Nae cast clout till May be out" - meaning don't take off your clothes (clout) until the end of May.

Women ruled the house - men were not allowed inside the house during the day. The women cooked, had babies, tended the fire and the children, and spun the wool into yarn. The men were outside tending the sheep, shearing them once a year, and they would knit whilst they tended them. Of course it wasn't the same kind of knitting with two needles that we know today, there are other ways of doing this, though the visual I have is quite amusing. 

This was considered a large house. There were 3 rooms. You entered via the central room/hallway and there was a room on each side. The room with the fireplace was the living room where they lived, ate and slept, and the room the other end was for the cattle to overwinter. The cows would be in there for more than four months of the year. YUK! The presence of the cows provided "central heating".

At some point the roof was raised and an upstairs created so there were more spaces for people to sleep. There was a four-poster bed upstairs with (wool) blanket curtains and top. Six people would sleep in that bed, three at each end, with one woolen blanket between them. (I thought of the old nursery rhyme, "There were ten in the bed, and the little one said, "roll over", so they all rolled over and one fell out.")The top was intended to catch things that might fall from the then thatched roof during the night - like mice, birds, straw, etc.

This was a very busy house because it was at that time on the A5 which is a road originally built by the Romans and runs from London to Holyhead (furthest western point of Anglesea Island. There is (now) a ferry to Ireland from there). 

The world was a very dangerous place back then, with robbers and brigands just waiting to pounce. So the roads were very dangerous places for travelers. There were people called drovers who lived by driving cattle to London from the outlying counties and they would be driving over 200 cows and geese to market. They would stop at this house to rest. The cows were shod to prevent their hooves from wearing down and one of the drovers would constantly be replacing them along their journey. 
Sometimes, if a man owed a debt to someone in London, the drover would be given livestock to sell in London so that even though money was not actually carried, the debt could be safely paid. In this way, the drovers became the first Welsh bankers. 

Life expectancy at this time was 35 for women/ 55 for men. Property was split up between all children - boys AND girls, unlike in England where the oldest boy inherited the estate. Our guide explained that the house was run as a BUSINESS. Individual life was only valued for sale ability, there was no value on individual life for its own sake. 

Now this was a wealthy home, so when William Morgan was 10 and had to leave, he was taken in by a local landowner. He remained with him for several years and was educated by him. He then went on to Cambridge University where he received several degrees. He worked in the church and eventually rose to the position of Bishop. His translation of the Bible put the bible in the hands of all Welsh people and not just the clergy. His bible had additional benefits hundreds of years later.

Because he wrote down so much of the Welsh language, years later when a revival of the lost language occurred, his bible became the standard and is credited with being the basis for all the Welsh language spoken and written today.

In my childhood I remember that Welsh was forbidden to be spoken or learned in schools in Wales. Since the 1970's it is learned in all Welsh schools and is the first language spoken in many homes. 

We thanked our tour guide for a very informative visit and headed onto our next destination the Beautiful Bodnant Gardens, a short 19 miles away. In route we celebrated our last wandering day with "Sunday Roast" at a nice guest house/pub in route. Boy those little lambs taste great! 

Our minds chock full of history and on overload we refused to learn anything about the Gardens but we enjoyed the afternoon. We were visiting at peak azalea season. 

The garden gazebo housed a group of musicians playing medieval folk music 

As the clouds turned black and rain threatened we headed back to our miners cottage and our last evening in Tan y Grisieau.  I thought I would share with you our central heating unit for the last four days. I have become quite proficient at the coal stove and can stoke it up to last all night. The cottage environment is much more pleasant than when we arrived - which was literally STONE COLD.

Keep the home fires burning we'll be back Tuesday!