Friends Spring Visits Programme
http://datingoldwelshhouses.co.uk/english/page50.html
"Gold under gorse, silver under bracken"
Talk By Nia Powell (Lecturer at Bangor University) 9th
February 2013
The talk at the Canolfan in
Capel Curig was well attended, with just under thirty people coming to listen
to Nia give her lecture in Welsh.
The presentation comprised various
maps and photographs to accompany Nia's account.
The focus of the lecture was
on the prosperity of the upland areas of Wales in the early modern period. Nia
described the common view put forward by many over the centuries (and still
today) - of Wales
being a back water, comprised of farmers barely able to provide for their own families
- a subsistence economy. This view has been portrayed in oral accounts, writing
and also maps. For instance, we were shown a map of Wales where the country was
depicted as being wholly mountainous, and those mountains were coloured black. Wales was a
wild, poor place.
Nia then proceeded to
challenge the above perceptions, citing examples to prove that farmers in
upland Snowdonia appeared to be relatively wealthy. There is evidence that they
kept abreast of changes in the wider society and responded to market changes. Useing a cluster of
farmsteads in the Beddgelert area in the 18th century to illustrate the wealth
of upland families.Nia explained that their wealth arose through their farming of black sheep as
well as cattle. The black sheep were kept for their 'sweet' meat and this was a
response to the recent upturn in demand for mutton.
There were some examples
of the gentry, like the Wynns of Gwydir, heavily in debt, borrowing from these upland
tenant farmers.
So, I came away from the
lecture thinking how this alternative view put forward in Nia's lecture
answered many of the questions that have circulated in the Dating Old Welsh
Houses Group. Particularly it answered the question often voiced - "Where
did they get the money from to build such beautiful houses?"
Margaret Barr
