Historical Society

A LARGE audience turned out for the society’s monthly meeting to hear community archaeologist Andrew Wolfe’s talk on Bronze Age Ardudwy.During the first half of his presentation Andrew described the wealth and diversity of Ardudwy’s early Bronze Age archaeology. “This was prob-ably a rather pleasant time to have been alive”, he suggested, noting the absence of any defensive structures, the warm and dry weather and egalitarian social conditions. He then described Ardudwy’s four extant stone circles at Llecheiddior, Hengwm (two).The meeting then looked at slides of The great Bronze Age Trackway that leads from Llanbedr along the aptly named Y Fronllech Hir to Moel Goedog and Bryn Cader Faner. This latter monument appears to have been deliberately sited so as to be highly visible from its southerly approach. In the second part of the presentation Andrew gave an account of the discov-ery of a series of remarkable rock markings located mainly on Rhinog Fawr. They appear as curving lines, rings, ‘eye’ motifs and occasionally, complex shapes. Most of the markings, possibly even all of them, are what geologists call ‘concretions’ formed when the rock of the Rhinogs was laid down in silt form on an ancient sea bed. However, some of them may be rock art attributable to the Bronze Age inhabitants of Ardudwy.Andrew concluded his talk by proposing the establishment of a ‘Rhinog rock markings group’ comprising an archaeologist, a geologist and a mountain guide in order to continue research into this fascinating subject.

Show

ONE-man show, A Regular Little Houdini, will be performed at Theatr Ardudwy on Saturday, 21 May at 7.30pm.Written and performed by Daniel Llewelyn-Williams, A Regular Little Houdini, set in Newport, south Wales at the turn of the last century, is a coming of age story. A tenacious young boy from the docks idolises Houdini and commits himself to a life of magic. But the harsh reality of working class life in Edwardian Britain gets in the way. Regardless, he trains himself to emulate his hero’s magic tricks and escapology on the town’s famous landmarks while his toiling family struggle to accept their son’s eccentricity. It’s a beautiful tale of hope and magic inspired by the author’s own family stories and of course, the real life visits of Houdini to Newport.