# data[].attributes.headline
Sgrifennu y Mabinogi // Mabinogi is written (800)

# data[].attributes.subject
Sgrifennu y Mabinogi // Mabinogi is written (800)

# data[].attributes.headline
Reiat Rebecca // Rebecca Riots (1839-1844)

# data[].attributes.subject
Reiat Rebecca // Rebecca Riots (1839-1844)

# data[].attributes.body
Disgrifiad / Description.

The 'Welsh Not' was a device used by some teachers during the C19th to shame children out of using the Welsh language at schools in Wales.

Any child heard using Welsh in the class was made to wear a board around their neck, which bore the letters 'WN', until another child was caught and the board passed on to the new culprit. The child wearing the board at the end of the day was punished - either by caning or detention.

According to welshnot.com, the practice started at a time when the Welsh language had been designated as a kind of ‘sickness’ harming the nation, a view endorsed by the UK government and the 1847 report into the state of Welsh education – commonly known as the Blue Books. This report claimed that the Welsh language was to blame for many social problems within the country.

The 'cure' was to remove the Welsh language from schooling, even though Welsh was the everyday language of the majority at the time.

Cadarnhaol / Positives

English was the official language of the law courts and administration, and was seen to represent progress. Parents and teachers wanted their children to not miss out on opportunity, and the Welsh Not ensured they used English.

In the industrial south communities were becoming more diverse due to migration. English could now be learned not just in the classroom but in the workplace, the pub and the street. Surrounded by an increasing number of workmates and neighbours who could not speak Welsh, the dynamics of language were changing from migrants learning Welsh to the existing population learning English.

Negyddion / Negatives

Children were punished for using their own language.

Children were denied access to their culture.

In Welsh speaking communities, children who were made to speak English in school may not have understood what they were being taught, as English was foreign to them.

It contributed to the loss of Welsh language across generations.

According to the Encyclopaedia of Wales, "Welsh patriots view the Welsh Not(e) as an instrument of cultural genocide".

Professor Martin Johnes writes it is "a powerful symbol of the oppression of Welsh culture."

# data[].attributes.headline
Trychineb Aberfan // Aberfan Disaster (1966)

# data[].attributes.subject
Trychineb Aberfan // Aberfan Disaster (1966)

# data[].attributes.headline
Arwisgiad Tywysog Cymru // The Investiture of the Prince of Wales, Charles (1969)

# data[].attributes.subject
Arwisgiad Tywysog Cymru // The Investiture of the Prince of Wales, Charles (1969)

# data[].attributes.headline
Betty Campbell yw'r brifathro ddu gyntaf yng Nghymru // Betty Campbell is Wales' first black headteacher (1970s)

# data[].attributes.subject
Betty Campbell yw'r brifathro ddu gyntaf yng Nghymru // Betty Campbell is Wales' first black headteacher (1970s)

# data[].attributes.headline
Streic y Glowyr // The Miners' Strike (1984-85)

# data[].attributes.subject
Streic y Glowyr // The Miners' Strike (1984-85)

# data[].attributes.headline
Deddf yr Iaith Gymraeg // Welsh Language Act (1967 a 1993)

# data[].attributes.subject
Deddf yr Iaith Gymraeg // Welsh Language Act (1967 a 1993)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC One - The Chartists, Miners Strike 1984 - Protest March

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Coal miners march in a Rhymney valley town in the miners strike of 1984-1985.

# data[].attributes.body
In July 1957, following parliamentary approval, Liverpool City Council pursued the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley without the consent of Welsh authorities and against the wishes of most Welsh Members of Parliament. The council also failed to respond to formal planning inquiries presented by residents to explain their concerns with the proposal. Despite protests in Liverpool, London, and Wales, the valley was flooded in 1965, and several centuries-old communities such as Capel Celyn were lost

flooding-llifogydd

disaster-trychineb

remember-cofio

important-pwysig

reservoir-cronfa ddwr

people-pobl

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tryweryn  Locals on the Welsh village 'drowned' by a reservoir