Traditional Welsh Cawl

Welsh Recipes: Traditional Welsh Cawl
2lb best end of  Welsh lamb
1 small swede
1 medium parsnip...
1/2 carrots
1lb potatoes
2 leeks
1oz parsley
1/2 oz flour
salt and pepper
METHOD
1. Place the meat in a large saucepan and cover with water, add salt and pepper.
2. Slowly bring to the boil and skim carefully.
3. Add the chopped carrots, swede, parsnip and whites of leeks and simmer for 2 hours. If in season cabbage, celery etc. can all be used.
4. Add chopped potatoes and simmer for a further 1/2 hour.
5. Thicken with flour and water and add the chopped parsley and green of leeks.
6. Simmer for a further 15 mins.
7. Serve hot.
8. Cawl is particularly tasty when left overnight and again served hot.See more

Facebook

Historical sites in Wales: Cilmeri

Historical sites in Wales: Cilmeri (sometimes given the anglicised spelling Cilmery) is a village in Powys, mid-Wales.
The village is famous for being close to the spot where the last native Prince of Wales of direct descent, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was slain in a skirmish by soldiers in the service of Edward I of England, on 11 December 1282.
A memorial stone to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd was erected on the site in 1956 and serves as the focal point for an annual day of remembrance on the anniversary of his death.

Lligwy Burial Chamber - Neolithic

 

The Huge capstone estimated to weight around 25 tonnes is supported by 8 side stones of locally occurring limestone. Described in 1781 and excavated in 1909, it contained numerous Neolithic flints and pots, along with the remains of 15-30 people including children. The Possible East, West and South alignment of stones suggest astronomical purposes
The pottery included Grooved Ware and Beaker suggests a later Neolithic date but could have been placed there at the end of the tombs life as a burial place . Grooved Ware is thought to have originated on Orkney and is often associated with ritual sites

Like · · Share · 3116 · 2 hours ago · ·

(1) Facebook

Cambriae Typus

Welsh History: Cambriae Typus (below)
Cambriae Typus, the "model image of Wales", is the earliest published map of Wales as a separate region from the rest of Great Britain. Made by Elizabethan polymath Humphrey Llwyd in 1573, the map shows Wales stretching to the River Severn, including large areas of what is now England.
Publication ...
Humphrey Llwyd (1527–1568), a Welsh historian, physician and politician, though not a professional surveyor, began work on the Cambriae Typus late in his life. In a letter shortly before his death he sent the manuscript of the map to Abraham Ortelius, who published it in the 1573 Additamentum to the 1570 publication of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. The map was titled Cambriae Typus. The map of Wales appeared alongside a joint map of Wales and England, also by Llwyd. Cambriae Typus was subsequently revised and used in the Mercator atlas of 1607 and in later atlases.
Specifications
The original four-sheet manuscript of the map has now been lost, but original prints from Theatrum Orbis Terrarum still survive. Although often described as a 1573 publication, the National Library of Wales, which owns an original print of the map, place a tentative date of 1574 to the work. The original print of the map was 47.2 by 34.7cm, using Ortelius typeface. The scale was set at ca.1:520,000.
Features
Cambriae Typus is the first printed map to show Wales as a separate region. The map itself is a weak representation of the country, even for its time, with multiple inaccuracies that did not exist in contemporary maps. It has been suggested that the poor delineation of the coastline may be due to a mistake made by Ortelius in transferring the original or that Llwyd had based the original on an earlier inaccurate map.
Location names on the front of the map are given in Latin, English and Welsh, while the back side contains the equivalent text in German. Various features depicted on the map include a divider caliper in the lower left-hand corner, a cartouche, a sailing ship in Cardigan Bay, as well as a sea monster in the Irish Sea off the coast of Pembrokeshire. The map has a decorative border.
In total five revisions were made to Llwyd's map, including a copper etching by Peter Kaerius, published by Jodocus Hondius in 1603. This version retained the original features of the map, but the additional graphics were changed. In the 1603 print the dividers were replaced by a quarter compass radiating lines out across the Irish Sea, the cartouche was enlarged; while the original ship and seas monster were removed and replaced by two different versions of each. A 1612 version had a stronger more defined coastal outline based on the original, with a further edition using the same improved coastal outline on Hondius' map.
The map shows Wales stretching to the River Severn, land which is now part of England. This was because Llwyd was making a cultural and historical map, rather than one that showed the political situation of the time.

- Wales ~ Land Of My Fathers. <3

 

 

 

Welsh connections to The Gunpowder Plot of 1605;

 

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of England's Parliament on 5th November 1605. The plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter and during a search, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble—and arrested. He was sentenced along with seven other conspiritors to be hanged, drawn and quartered....
* Welsh spymaster Hugh Owen ( 1538 - 1618 ) who had dedicated his life to overthrowing the Protestant Order and to restore the Church of Rome to England and Wales is regarded by many as being the mastermind behind the Gunpowder Plot. He also helped plan the Spanish Armada and was involved in plots on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, after which he had fled, firstly to Oswestry, then via Spain to Brussels, where he advised the Netherlands government on English affairs, frequently using Welsh in his secret correspondence. He made several journeys to Italy, Spain and France and maintained a succession of secret agents in England, and used Welshmen in the English regiments in Flanders for information and keeping in touch with Welsh affairs .
It is thought that it was Owen who originally introduced Guy Fawkes to the other conspirators, when Fawkes acted as a servant to him during his time in Brussels and if the plot had been successful, it was Owen who would have organised continental reaction. Owen was also named in Fawkes' trial as the man ‘whose finger hath been in every treason which hath been of late years detected’. Owen himself escaped retribution, operating from the comparatively safe haven of Catholic Europe. Despite many assassination attempts mounted against him by Elizabeth’s agents, including Sir Francis Drake and regular demands from the English government for his extradition, which were consistently repulsed, Owen died peacefully of old age in Rome,
* Father Robert Jones who resided at the Jesuits' South Wales Mission "Cwm" in Llanrothal, Herefordshire, was implicated in an attempt to save two of the Gunpowder Plot perpetrators.See more

Facebook

Leeks and the Welsh……………

Welsh Traditions: Leeks
The leek is one of the national emblems of Wales, worn by Welsh citizens on St. David's Day and it is still tradition for soldiers in the Welsh regiments to eat a raw leek on St. David's Day. According to legend, K...ing Cadwallader ordered his Welsh soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets in an ancient battle against the Saxons. Another version refers to the Battle of Agincourt, where the leeks in their caps are said to have distinguished the Welsh archers from their enemies when they fought with Henry V against the French.See more