Wales


If you are reading this in the UK, have a look at the change in your pocket. One side features a portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II and the other continues the monarchical theme by displaying one of an array of heraldic badges, devices and national icons. Changing over the years, the choice of these designs tells us something of the importance of giving equal weight […]

Coining the home nations


It is a Welsh nationalist’s fantasy – an independent country boasting two ancient universities to rival Oxford and Cambridge, a free church and a Parliament dating back to the fourteenth century. The Welsh language is the universal mother tongue and the nation stands as an equal to its larger neighbour, England. These were the plans of Owain Glyndŵr, the last native Welshman to hold the title […]

The Wales that never was



Where was Britain’s first formal seat of learning? The University of Oxford has the best claim to be the oldest university in the British Isles, beating the University of Cambridge by some two hundred years. But were both preceded by a monastic institution in Wales? Llantwit Major is a small town on the south Welsh coast, some 15 miles south-west of Cardiff. There are some remarkable […]

The Welsh college older than Oxford University


Covering an area of 55 football pitches and demarcated by 1,400 mature oak trees, the Hindwell Enclosure would have been an imposing monument and represented a powerful statement. Is this Welsh wonder one of Britain’s forgotten historic achievements? Is the Hindwell Enclosure Stonehenge on steroids? Despite a childhood filled with family holidays on Wales’s north coast and recent cycling trips to Pembrokeshire, I don’t know a […]

The Hindwell Enclosure – Stonehenge on steroids?