THE latest community news from Harlech

Historical Society

DESPITE the appalling weather there was a good turnout for the first lecture of the new season on Tuesday, 12 September.

Those who came were not disappointed.

Richard Suggett, senior investigator at the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments in Wales gave a splendid talk on ‘Medieval Wall Paintings in Wales’.

These can be found in many locations in both private houses and in churches.

There were much church rebuilding and restoration in the later middle ages and often churches acquired wall paintings then.

Those that survive are only fragments of what once adorned the walls.

Most were painted over in the Reformation of the Tudor period when the emphasis shifted from pictures as a means of sharing Bible stories to the reading of the Bible.

Paintings were seen as being Catholic and not acceptable to Protestants. Some of the best examples can be found in churches which were abandoned and not restored by Victorian ‘improvers’.

They clearly destroyed many examples which had survived under later paintwork until that time.

Richard took examples from all over Wales but the best were from Glamorgan.

Those at Llandeilo, Tal-y-Bont were recreated in the full technicolour in which they would have been seen hundreds of years ago when that church was re-erected in the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagan’s.

Anyone who has seen them will testify that they are a stunning sight.

Some find them garish and overwhelming.

Others have been found at Llancarfan and Richard described those as ‘the find of the century’.

These are still preserved in the church itself and without restoration.

He demonstrated the painstaking work of recording, photographing and tracing which the Royal Commission undertakes so professionally in all its work.

Richard brought the story up-to-date by contrasting the colour on the walls of houses and public buildings in the past with the pastel shades, white and general blandness of the walls in most of our homes these days.

Bright and colourful wall paper was the last surviving element of the old tradition of bright decoration on walls and in recent years sales of wallpaper have fallen by about 75 per cent.

‘Colour has been drained from our houses in the second half of the twentieth century.’

Richard was warmly thanked by the society’s chairperson, Neil Evans.

The lecture was followed by the AGM.

Sian Roberts as secretary and Tom Mort as treasurer were particularly thanked for their vital work but it was stressed that everyone on the committee has a specific role to play and all do it conscientiously. The committee was unanimously re-elected.

WI

WITH the August summer break over, it was down to business as usual at the September meeting.

Christine Hemsley, president, welcomed members and informed the group that the planned speaker, Paul Morgan of Aber Artro Hall was in hospital and couldn’t make it.

Dianna Treganza was kindly standing in to take his place.

Thanks were given to Eileen Greenwood for allowing them to use her home for their August tea party.

They have been discussing the possibility of making donations to local charities and a final vote will be taken at the October meeting.

Also to be decided in October is where they will be celebrating their Christmas meeting in December.

Christine thanked those members who gave up their time, either by baking, jam making etc. or just helping with the sales table at the recent Llanfair Art Group Exhibition.

The labour for the painting of the interior of Harlech Memorial Hall has been arranged and will take place at the beginning of October, exact date to be confirmed.

Harlech WI will pay for the emulsion paint and hopefully they can obtain a bright, cheerful colour for the woodwork.

They had talked about a few volunteers tidying up the Capel Dwr grave yard, we don’t know who but somebody beat us to it.

On 24 November, at 1pm, a march through Harlech High St will take place to mark the ‘Not In My Name‘ campaign; Joyce Watson AM will be coming to Harlech for the event.

Next art group will be on Saturday, 30 September, next craft club on Thursday, 21 September.

Christine introduced our speaker for the evening Dianna Treganza, a volunteer with Sea Shepherd UK, a charity dedicated to protecting the worlds marine ecosystems.

Her talk was extremely interesting, covering many aspects, mainly the devastating effect plastic debris in our oceans have on marine life and what we can do to help eliminate this.

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