THE latest community news from Harlech

Legends Live!

THE legends of the Mabinogion will spring to life in Meirionnydd this summer.

Visitors to Harlech Castle will step back in time this summer, thanks to Legends Live! – a brand new programme of fully immersive events created to bring the characters, stories and magic of Welsh history to life.

Announced by the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, Cadw, last week, the project will see Cadw team up with Past Pleasures – the experts behind interpretation at world-class sites such as the Tower of London and Warwick Castle.

Legends Live! will pop up at several Cadw sites this summer, including Harlech, over six consecutive weekends during July, August and September.

The interactive events will allow visitors to experience Welsh history first-hand, with the opportunity to meet real historic characters and experience a time of kings, warriors, giants and magic that will shake the stones of Harlech Castle this September, as an enchanted raconteur conjures the legends of the Mabinogion.

A series of live-action performances will see visitors live the magic as the story of Branwen ferch Llyr comes to life within the castle grounds.

This approach to interpretation is a first for Cadw and will be used as a pilot to inform future events at its collection of 128 historic monuments across Wales.

Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, said: “Legends Live! is a travelling programme of interpretation events, designed to tell the fascinating, real stories behind Wales’ historic sites.

“Cadw runs hundreds of re­-enactment events every year. Legends Live! will present historic interpretation with a difference – offering fully immersive and exciting experiences tailor-made by Cadw’s team of historians and the experts at Past Pleasures.

“The project is all part of Cadw’s Live the Legends summer campaign, which focuses on bringing Wales’ legendary past to life during Visit Wales’ 2017 Year of Legends.”

The event will run on 2-3 September.

Historical Society

THE second outdoor meeting of the season explored the historic market town of Machynlleth and was led by Neil Evans, the society’s chairman, who outlined the history of the town from the creation of its market in 1291.

It later became important in the wool and cattle trades.

Machynlleth was significant as the junction of a north-south route way with an east west one.

From the Tudor period to the nineteenth century it was a centre of woollen production.

The town also marked a historic boundary between north and south Wales, linguistically as well as geographically.

Hence, south of Machynlleth, “Nain” and “Taid” give way to “Mamgu” and “Tadcu”.

The next stop, the impressive war memorial, provided a vantage point from which to view the first of the monuments in the town associated with the Vane-Tempest family, the Marquesses of Londonderry.

Here they looked at the school erected to commemorate the birth of the male heir Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest, Viscount Castlereagh, in 1852 and the almshouses of 1868.

After lunch at Plas Machynlleth, they visited the large stone monument to Owain Glyndwr where Neil outlined his life and career.

There was general agreement that he had been at least as much associated with the Corwen area and, of course, Harlech as with Machynlleth.

Then we proceeded to Glyndwr’s parliament house in Maengwyn Street.

The building probably stands on the site of the original structure but has been dated to 1470, long after Owain had vanished from the historical record.

The building was much restored by Lord Davies of Llandinam before the First World War and an institute added in 1911.

Time did not allow for an inspection of the remains of the workhouse, the 17th-century court house and the garden suburb which had been on the itinerary.

Nevertheless, all agreed that it was an interesting town with a fascinating history, well worth exploring.

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