THE latest community news from Dolgellau.

St Mary’s Women’s Fellowship

ELEVEN member attended the meeting in early February. The speaker was David Roberts and his topic was the evolution of education in Wales. David explained that until the mid-18th century most poor people in the United Kingdom would have been illiterate. It had not seemed essential, up to then, to educate the working classes. There had been some localised attempts to educate the poor, for example, in 1665 the Rector of St Mary’s Church Dolgellau, John Ellis, provided education for 12 poor children, especially orphans. This basic education comprised of prayer five times a day, reading and writing to enable the children to study the Bible. The Chapel Movement in Wales decided education to be essential to enable people to read the Scriptures for themselves, thus set up Chapel Schools. David then went on to discuss the Circulating Schools introduced by Griffith Jones in 1731, which by his death in 1761 it is estimated 200,000 had learnt to read in Wales. Irene gave the vote of thanks. David was thanked once again for a colourful, informative and interesting presentation.

Jessie discussed other business: The group has received a letter of thanks from the British Legion for our donation from the sale of handmade poppies. Irene pointed out that a large poster including Jessie and Johnny, following their Dancethon in aid of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, is on display in all of the Leisure Centres in Gwynedd.

Members held a social evening on 20 February with eight members attending.

Jessie opened with the Lord’s Prayer. A time to catch up on each other’s news and have a quiz and buffet.

Caerwen won the raffle. Next meeting is Noson Lawen.

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