This
month marks 59 years since the North Welsh village of Capel Celyn was
flooded to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir, to provide a water supply
to Liverpool. It was an event marked as one of the most significant
in Welsh History and as a symbol of the sometimes strained
Welsh-English relationship.
In
1956, a private bill sponsored by the Liverpool City Council was
brought before Parliament to develop a water reservoir from the
Tryweryn Valley – which would include flooding Capel Celyn. Due to
the Act of Parliament, Liverpool City Council would not require
planning consent from the local Welsh authorities and went ahead with
their plans.
This
caused great opposition across the country with many seeing the
flooding as an attack on the Welsh language and culture, given that
Capel Celyn was one of the last remaining exclusively Welsh-speaking
communities in the country. 35 out of 36 Welsh MPs opposed the bill
(the other didn’t vote) and the villagers waged an 8 year campaign
to try and stop the flooding.
Eurgain
Prysor Jones – a former Capel Celyn villager who was just two years
old in 1955 when news first broke that her community was earmarked as
a site for the new reservoir – recalled her memories of protesting
against the flooding in the streets of Liverpool for a new BBC
documentary (Tryweryn: 50 Years On), “The reception we had
in Liverpool was awful. People were spitting at us and throwing
rotten tomatoes at us. It was an awful disappointment.”
Despite
the fierce and restless opposition, the valley was flooded in 1965 to
create Llyn Celyn. The village, the post office and chapel with a
cemetery were all lost underwater. Twelve houses and farms were also
submerged and 48 people out of the 67 who were living in the Valley
lost their homes. “At the end of the day, the eventual consequence
was written before it was started”, added Prysor Jones, reflecting
over the failure of the protest to prevent the flooding of her home.
The
effects of the flooding created a new surge in support for Welsh
nationalism with membership for Plaid Cymru doubling and their first
MP elected in the year following the opening of the Llyn Celyn
Reservoir. There were also further powers given to Wales such as the
creation of The Secretary of State for Wales and The Welsh Office.
However
some of the nationalist reactions took a violent turn with the
militant group Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defence of
Wales) forming in response to the flooding. In 1963 MAC claimed
responsibility for the bombing of the dam construction site – which
led to the one year imprisonment of one its founders Emyr Llewellyn
Jones. They were also behind explosions at other dams, pipes carrying
water to Liverpool, the Welsh Office building and even the Temple of
Peace and Health in Cardiff. Since the 1960s the group has been
inactive.
In
2005, Liverpool City Council issued an official apology for the “hurt
of 40 years ago” and the “insensitivity by our predecessor
council” over the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley and Capel Celyn.
The apology was welcomed by the then-Welsh First Minister Rhodri
Morgan and Plaid Cymru’s Parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd who said
the apology “should be accepted in the fulsome way it is being
offered.”
Nonetheless
the apology was not accepted by all of Wales – “I think nothing
of it, it is just a way to say goodbye and sweep it all under the
carpet” said Betty Watkin-Hughes, whose family was forcibly removed
from Capel Celyn. “They can keep their apology and start doing
what’s right for the people who are left.”
To
mark 50 years since the opening of the Llyn Celyn reservoir hundreds
marched across the dam site on the 17th of October, led by Plaid
Cymru’s former leader Dafydd Wigley and the parties new MP Liz
Saville Roberts. The anniversary was recently raised in Parliament on
the 14th of October by Mrs Saville Roberts who said: “Since the
flooding of Capel Celyn, there has been a significant development in
Wales’ national consciousness, but her resources remain in the
hands of a neighbouring country, there have been no developments to
make a repeat of this sad event illegal.”
“The
UK government, in producing the Wales Bill, must now give the people
of Wales full control of their natural resources. Never again should
the people of Wales be forced out of their communities against their
will, against the will of the country and those who represent us.
“I
hope the people will join us on Llyn Celyn Dam to mark this poignant
reminder of why Welsh land, Welsh culture and Welsh communities
cannot be allowed to be so drastically undervalued ever again.”
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