Editor

‘Snowdon’ has been called that for at least nine centuries and it’s a lovely name that should not be disappeared (‘Disappointment at no vote on Welsh name bid’, Cambrian News, 6 May).

Nationalists are wrong to claim certain famous place nameswere only changed to English alternatives in Victorian times.The truth is that places in Wales have been known for many centuries by their most familiar names, some English (Fishguard, Swansea), others Welsh (Lanberis, Dolgellau).

We are a nation of mixed heritage and we should keep with it.

Here’s the evidence. Writing his Description of Wales in 1188, Gerald of Wales, born and bred here, his mother the granddaughter of a Welsh princess,talks about ‘Snowdon’ and‘Snowdonia’. The Gough map,dating from about 1400, only uses the word ‘Snowdonne’. Saxton’s map of 1578 uses ‘Snowdon’, but correctly refers to villages nearby, such as ‘Llanlleghyd’ by their Welsh names.

Don’t let an ‘English Not’ take over from the ‘Welsh Not’. Don’t confuse tourists from the rest of Britain and the world, so damaging our vital tourist industry and costing a bomb in renaming.

Start accepting that Wales is a mixed heritage country.

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