Complete the Festival of Archaeology 2015 Audience Survey and you could win an Amazon voucher worth £50!

To support this year’s 25th anniversary of the Festival of Archaeology, festival organisers are asking audiences for their feedback. The survey is conducted according to the Market Research Society guidelines and will provide them with valuable insights into how they can get more people involved in archaeology and heritage activities. If you attended one of our events, or any other Festival of Archaeology event this summer, please complete the online audience survey HERE: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FestivalofArchaeology2015online and you could win an Amazon voucher worth £50!

 
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One Hundred Years Ago This Week …

Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kophamel, commander of U-35 from 3 November 1914 to 12 November 1915.
 http://www.uboat.net/wwi/men/commanders/150.html

… the most successful German U-boat of the Great War had stealthily left Welsh waters and returned to base, leaving behind it a trail of sunken and damaged vessels circling the UK.

U-35 was commissioned on 3 November 1914 and given over to the command of Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kophamel. During the Great War, the submarine undertook 17 patrols around the UK and in the Mediterranean, sinking 226 ships and damaging nine others.

Its first patrol, which caused the trail of destruction, appears to have begun in late April or early March 1915. On 9 March 1915, the BLACKWOOD, a British steamship owned by Tyneside Line Ltd. (J. Ridley & Son & Tully) of North Shields, became the U35’s first victim. The steamship was carrying coal from Blyth to Le Havre and was torpedoed off Dungeness, Kent, in the English Channel. The route of the submarine can then be followed into the North Sea (the sinking of steamship LAILIA on 30 April 1915), and on around the north of Scotland (sinking of CUBANO steamship off the Flannan Islands, Outer Hebrides, on 2 June), until U-35 was in the Western Approaches off southern Ireland. Between 6 &13 June 1915, it would sink 12 ships flying the flags of Britain, France, Norway and Russia.

The first losses in Welsh waters were on the 8 June 1915 – four in one day. The EXPRESS (NPRN 519183), a three-masted schooner, was captured and scuttled south-west of the Smalls. Next was the STRATH CARRON (NPRN 274643), a Glasgow steamship, torpedoed without warning, followed by the French schooner LA LIBERTÉ (NPRN 519181), which was shelled. Finally, the Falmouth schooner, SUSANNAH (NPRN 519182) was captured and scuttled.

A small feature in the ‘Mrs Grundy’s Jottings’ column of the Barry Dock News, 18 June 1915, notes that two of the crew members of the STRATH CARRON were residents of Barry.
http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4130135/4130140

U-35 moved westwards to sink three more vessels off southern Ireland, before returning to Welsh waters on 13 June 1915. Contemporary newspapers implied that the German U-boat captain had used a new infamous ‘tactic’ –- hiding behind a steamship to cover its approach to sink another vessel. The steamship was the HOPEMOUNT (NPRN 519188) of Newcastle, carrying Welsh coal from Cardiff to Alexandria. The HOPEMOUNT's crew, while in their lifeboat, saw the submarine attack and sink an unknown schooner. The submarine then returned and again shelled the HOPEMOUNT, because it was not sinking quickly enough. The master of the unknown schooner, which was the French-registered DIAMANT (NPRN 274645) of St Malo, stated that the submarine appeared from behind a steamer, which watched the operation, and that afterwards the submarine returned to the shelter of the ship.

With hindsight, from the above accounts, we can see that Kophamel was just making the most of the opportunity presented to him. Two days later, he was away to the west again, off southern Ireland, sinking the sailing barque FRANÇOIS and the full-rigged ship MORNA. From there, U-35 slipped away, back to its home base. Its next series of attacks on Allied shipping began in the Mediterranean in September 1915.

To read more of the STRATH CARRON and HOPEMOUNT stories, follow the links below:
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/node/465219
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/node/465183

Remembering those with who gave their lives for their country, and who have no grave but the sea.
http://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/415321


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Discovering the Slate Industry of Wales

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Huw Edwards Reopens Historic Ceredigion Chapel

Hen Gapel, Rhydowen, Llandysul
NPRN: 11594, DS2014_288_001

Interior of Hen Gapel, Rhydowen, Llandysul 
NPRN: 11594, DS2014_288_001

This Friday, 10 July, Hen Gapel, Rhydowen, will re-open its doors to the public after undergoing a £153,000 restoration programme under the care of Addoldai Cymru: The Welsh Religious Buildings Trust.

As part of the opening the Royal Commission will launch its new digital resource, ‘Hen Gapel: A Virtual Museum’. Built on the gaming platform Unity, this digital museum allows the user to explore independently the chapel and its environs while reading a series of virtual ‘books’ that tell the history of the building and its congregations, and experiencing two immersive experiences.

This small chapel in the heart of Ceredigion is significant for the part it has played in the religious and political history of the area. Founded in 1726 by Jenkin Jones, one of the first Unitarian preachers in Wales, it famously made national headlines for the ‘Troed Allan’ when the minister and congregation were locked out of the building by the Tory landlord for supporting the liberal candidate in the election of 1876. By two o’clock that Sunday afternoon, 26 October, a crowd of some three thousand people had assembled at the gates to the chapel, arriving by foot, horseback and carts. Refusing to make forcible entry to the building, the Rev. William Thomas (commonly known by his bardic name Gwilym Marles) preached a powerful sermon from the steps of the burial ground. The history of the chapel is also intertwined with the evictions of tenant farmers and their subsequent emigration to America, including that of the family of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the development of the ‘ y Smotyn Du’, the Black Spot of Unitarianism.

BBC broadcaster Huw Edwards, a patron of Addoldai Cymru and the Royal Commission will symbolically hand the key of the building to minister Wyn Thomas as part of the re-opening ceremonies, mirroring the handing back of the chapel in 1879. The Grade II* chapel is now in the care of Addoldai Cymru and will find a new life as a centre for the local community.

Image of Rev. William Thomas (commonly known by his bardic name Gwilym Marles).

Ceredigion election poster.

Eviction of David Davies Penffynnon Farm.

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