Spring has arrived! And hopefully it will feel even more like spring by the end of the month. Saturday the 1st of March is, of course, Saint David’s Day in Wales: a day that for centuries has celebrated Wales and all things Welsh.
Our national anthem is an important aspect of Wales’s identity and is a part of this country’s celebrations. Interestingly, there is a link between the Gelligaer and Merthyr Common and the poet Evan James – who wrote the words to the anthem.
Nobody knows which came first: the words of Evan James or the music by his son James James. Whichever it was, the song – in the beginning – was called Glan Rhondda (maybe because Efan James was living in the Rhondda when he wrote the words).
The Welsh national anthem was the first anthem ever to be sung before a sporting event. It happened in 1905 when the New Zealand rugby team came to Wales as part of their tour. Before the match started, New Zealand performed the Haka. In response to this the Welsh team and their supporters sang Hen Wlad fy Nhadau back to them.
Ffos-yr-Hebog Farm
Ffos-yr-Hebog is a farm on Cefn Gelligaer in the area between Bedlinog and Deri. It is probably best known in recent times as the place where Howells keep their buses. But in 1841 it was a 27-acre farm and it is still shown on the OS map today with a field system very similar to what would have existed in 1841.
There isn’t much individual information about this farm because in the 16th century it belonged to the owners of Bryn-rhe farm and in the 17th and 18th centuries it belonged to the owners of Glan-y-March farm. As a result, some of the history of Ffos-yr-Hebog can be found amongst the histories of those other two farms.
What we do know, however, is that in 1826 Elizabeth Williams, a widow, married Efan James (senior) who was a widower. They married in St Catwg’s church in Gelligaer on the 22nd of December of that year. They lived at Ffos-yr-Hebog and there is evidence from the taxes of that era that the Ffos-yr-Hebog taxes were paid by Efan James (Senior) and that he was also the owner – but this would have been on behalf of his wife. Later the pair moved to Glyn Coch outside Pontypridd. His son, Efan James (Junior), wrote a poem about a part of his childhood spent living in Ffos-yr-Hebog. In the poem, the bard is walking to see his father and step mother who by this time live in Troed-Rhiw’r-Trwyn farm, near Pontypridd. As he walks there, he remembers fondly times past at Ffos-yr-Hebog on Cefn Gelligaer. This is the same Evan James that wrote our national anthem. You can read his poem about Ffos-yr-Hebog below.
The poem was originally written in Welsh but was translated into English by the historian Gwyn Griffiths. It was published in the book The Author of Our Anthem – Poems by Evan James written by Gwyn Griffiths and published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch.
Memory by Evan James
In accord with my promise
I went in a gentle mood
To visit my old parents
Who live in Troed-rhiw’r-Trwyn,
Stirring within my thoughts
Memories of the place
Known as Ffos-yr-Hebog
Near to Brynyre.
My childhood was so pleasant
On one of Wales’s hills,
Under the watchful presence
Of my stepmother and my father.
My food was good and tasty –
Toast, cake, milk and tea –
And a little dough occasionally
When my father went away.
By a wall far end of Coedca
I sat for many an hour,
Penning sometimes a poem
Close to the mountain’s edge;
There were not many people
And yet I gently felt
Sweet nature so diverting
Mist heather, rushes, gorse.
By the well of Coedca
Much poetry did I write.
My stepmother sometimes peeping
Then nipping back indoors.
Sometimes she would tell
My muse would be improved
If I smoked a long pipe
When writing in my grove.
I had a sheep at onetime,
It was indeed well fed,
But, woe me! It perished
Between the gatepost and the wall.
I wrote an elegy for it In order to relieve
My grief – I know my father
Has kept it somewhere safe.
It’s too much to remember
All the old twists and turns
By that peaty mountain
Cared for by parents fond.
Although leaving Ffos-yr-Hebog S
o dear ‘tis to see
My amiable stepmother And kindly father well.
Thank you very much to the Gelligaer Historical Society for the information about Ffos-yr-Hebog and its link with the author of our national anthem. It was taken from their publication Parish of Gelligaer The Farms and Their Families 1580-1840 Volume 3.
