It’s come to something when listening to “thought for the day” is preferable to the news. Not that I normally like listening to the news anyway. Right now the news is full of Donald Trump crap. Ironically I’ve been putting drops in my left ear to unbung it a bit. The wireless set is next to my left ear. Feels as if I should be leaving it bunged up. Fortunately/unfortunately the drops seem to be working :).
Was a productive enough weekend, fwiw. I reattached the bath panel that the plumber had removed to replace the taps. All it needed was a replacement screw and a few drops of superglue at the top to keep it in place pending application of sealant. Simples eh?
Also took a look at THG’s ‘new’ slide projector and determined that it had been shipped sans slide magazine tray. Ten quid plus postage on eBay and five second hand magazines are winging their way to Lincoln as we speak, inshallah. We have zillions of slides from THG’s childhood to work our way through. A few gems in there no doubt. I believe we may have a screen in the attic somewhere but the front room curtains will do.
Finally the dinner last night was chops with veggies and the gravy for saturday’s poached partridge meal. Sensational even though I say so myself.
Exciting stuff eh?
In the meantime I had a bit of a result on the family tree side. There’s lots going on but one of my great great grandfathers, William Davies was a farmer and a poet with the pen name Y Bardd Coch (The Red Bard). I’ve been looking for some of his poetry. Other than his epitaph I’ve not had much luck there but his gravestone does say that both he and my gg grandmother lived in a place called Maesybidie, or Maesybidiau.
Now their farm was called Coedsaithpren and the census records for his lifetime don’t show him as having lived in Maesybidie. However his burial record, found yesterday, says that his wife Anne died there and he died at his daughter’s woollen mill Maesdulais and that he had lived in Maesybidie.
This tells an age old story. Old couple retires from the farm and go to live in a cottage. Maesybidie may well have had other family living there as the census shows Davieses from the mid 19th century but not from 1901. William and Anne must have moved there after 1891. When Anne died in 1897 William will eventually have moved out and seemingly moved in with his daughter Mary Ann at Maesdulais.
Maesybidie is quite a famous place locally. It is a Welsh longhouse that has been there for hundreds of years and it is said to have provided shelter for Llewelyn ein Llyw Olaf, the last true prince of Wales, after a visit to Dinefwr (Dynevor). If yer interested there is an article from The Carmarthen Journal on Maesybidie here
If anyone can help with finding Y Bardd Coch’s poetry that would be most appreciated.
Ciao amigos