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To build upon the historical theme of 'The Rebecca Riots' set in your Brief, today you will respond to the 'Flooding of Capel Celyn' and the wider social and political contexts.

By 15:00, you will have at least 1 'final' outcome. Take a visual language experiment you have undertaken this term and push it as far as you can.

Think Big & Bold.......You're brilliant.

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Betsan Powys grew up with the story of how the Welsh-speaking village of Capel Celyn was drowned to provide drinking water for Liverpool.

From her decades-long career as a journalist she thought she knew the story. But making a podcast about the drowning and the protests that followed gave her an opportunity to look beyond the passion and the myth.

The drowning of Capel Celyn is an emotive topic in Wales - the passion some feel almost 60 years on should come as no surprise and has been well documented.

When speaking to people whose homes were bulldozed and flooded and hearing the stories of those directly involved in the decades of political protest that followed, what struck me most were the nuances and complexities that came to light.

It's by listening carefully to these that you get to see beyond the story I thought I knew.

In my podcast Drowned - The Flooding of a Village, I wanted to explore not just what happened but why it happened from many perspectives, and was keen that the story was told by those who had lived it.

My aim was to find facts not myths.

In 1965 - the same year as I was born - the nine-year battle to save Capel Celyn was finally lost and the village was flooded.

Growing up, it was talked about at my school in Cardiff, but I would also have heard the story at home.

My mother grew up on a farm near the famous graffitied Cofiwch Dryweryn (Remember Tryweryn) wall near Llanrhystud, Ceredigion, and whenever we went to visit my grandparents, we would pass it.

The graffiti appeared in the 60s and the wall has become a bit of a Welsh landmark, iconic in itself, inspiring similar graffiti works across Wales.

Hoodies and other merchandise bearing the words are also worn by some in Wales as a symbol of national pride and defiance.

Growing up, the conversations around Tryweryn were emotionally charged - and the context of the story was clear, that a Welsh-speaking community had been destroyed at a time when the language was under threat, all protest swept aside by the authorities in Westminster and in Liverpool who would benefit from a new supply of water.

But it was more than that.

It was proof of Wales' political impotence, always out-voted and out-muscled by its more powerful neighbour.

What happened to Capel Celyn?

In the summer of 1955, the people of Capel Celyn learnt their homes had been earmarked as the site of a new reservoir to provide water for Liverpool.

This would mean destroying houses in the village near Bala, Gwynedd, and rehousing the villagers elsewhere.

For almost a decade after the announcement, the villagers fought to save their homes, with protests and marches through the streets of Liverpool.

The village could not be saved and in 1965 Capel Celyn was flooded, with 75 people having to leave their homes.

Its 12 farms, school, chapel and post office disappeared under water.

Liverpool's perspective

Visiting the Liverpool Record Office, it struck me that this is Liverpool's story too of course.

But it is a very different story.

Before Tryweryn, Liverpool was already getting its water from Wales - but the city's council argued there wasn't enough of it.

The demand for water in Liverpool had been growing, and as local politicians strove to clear poor housing and improve conditions, they saw a need for a bigger, better water supply.

Building the Tryweryn reservoir by drowning Capel Celyn was seen as serving a vital and greater good.

Thousands of families in Liverpool would benefit while the handful of people who lived in Capel Celyn would be rehoused.

I spoke to the songwriter and broadcaster Sir Richard Stilgoe, whose father, John Stilgoe, was Liverpool's chief water engineer.

He designed the Tryweryn reservoir, and Sir Richard remembers spending many Saturdays as a teenager visiting the site.

While there, he described seeing a mutual respect growing between his father and the people of the valley.

It's the fact that Liverpool is in England and Capel Celyn in Wales that turned an honourable attempt to serve "a greater good" into "perceived bullying," he believes.

Liverpool protest

I also spoke to the son of the village school's head teacher Martha Roberts.

Gwyn Roberts recalled his mother talking about travelling with other villagers on the bus to protest in Liverpool.

She was, he says, extremely proud of her professional status as a teacher and wasn't sure how she felt about being seen on the streets with a placard in her hands.

Yet, she wanted to support her pupils and their families and so joined the protest.

Elwyn Edwards was a schoolboy who lived nearby and truanted so that he could join the protest.

He shared his parents' fury at the plans to flood Capel Celyn and wanted to do something to support the village.

Back in class the next day, his headmaster was equally furious that he'd missed a day's school.

The tiny village of Capel Celyn wasn't, in his view, worth it.

And an honest telling of the story reminds us that not everyone in the area saw injustice.

Some saw jobs and opportunity.

Martha and Elwyn's stories are just two that go to the heart of the little complexities that are sometimes drowned out by big headlines.

Author and historian Dr Wyn Thomas has delved deep into the history of Tryweryn and has meticulously unravelled the story behind it.

He sees beyond the emotion and yet, as I learned, is deeply touched by it.

His father was a police officer at a time when a Welsh paramilitary group was responsible for blowing up pipelines carrying water to England.

He had to go out late at night with his flashlight to check the water pipes in case explosives had been attached.

Wyn saw his mum worry about his dad being placed in danger.

To this day, his interest in documenting an event that many see as a turning point in Welsh history is influenced by that experience.

It's the effect history has on ordinary people that matters to him.

'We mustn't mythologise'

I also met Emyr Llywelyn, one of three men who bombed the site of the planned reservoir in a bid to save the village.

He too is aware that as time goes by, it's all too easy for myth to take over from fact.

"We mustn't mythologise, we must tell the story as it was," he told me.

As a child Aeron Prysor Jones was moved out of Capel Celyn for it to be flooded.

He lived in a caravan through the freezing cold winter that followed while work was carried out on the farmhouse where he and his family live to this day.

It sits above the Tryweryn waterline with a view out over the water.

His young grandson Gwern visited the reservoir during the drought last year and found a roof tile from one of the demolished buildings.

He took it home to show his grandfather, proud of this reminder of his family's story.

Aeron firmly believes that Wales wouldn't have its own national government or a Senedd now in Cardiff Bay, had Capel Celyn not been drowned.

"It was the spark," he says. "The village name should be there in huge letters for all to see."

The challenge for Gwern and his generation is not just to know their own history, but to make their own decisions about what comes next for Wales.

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Tryweryn: The stories behind drowned village Capel Celyn

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Betsan Powys grew up with the story of how the Welsh-speaking village of Capel Celyn was drowned to provide drinking water for Liverpool. From her decades-long career as a journalist she thought she knew the story. But making a podcast about the drowning and the protests that followed gave her an opportunity to look beyond the passion and the myth.

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Tryweryn, the Story of a Valley (1965) | Britain on Film

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Published 17/05/2023 &nbsp | &nbsp

Water in Wales continues to make headlines. This time it's not the quality of water in our rivers, but how much there is for supply and, importantly, where it's going.

Pressures from climate change, population increases, and the need to conserve natural aquatic environments are all increasing the demand for water. Last year's Wales-wide drought highlighted our reliance on a sufficient supply of water.

Water companies are responsible for meeting the needs of customers in the area that they supply, but are increasingly working together to create resilient water solutions. One potential solution is to transfer water from areas where there's a surplus of water, to areas where there's a shortfall.

One proposal in the pipeline is to transfer water from Lake Vyrnwy in Powys to the Thames basin, boosting supply in London and south east England.

Water being transferred from Wales to England isn't new, but it has a contentious history. In 1965 the Tryweryn Valley, including the village of Capel Celyn, was flooded to create a reservoir to supply Liverpool with water. It has been described as "a shameful chapter in Welsh history", which ignited a new wave of Welsh language campaigns, and calls for devolution. Liverpool council apologised in 2005, but the subject continues to stir up strong emotions in Wales.

This article looks at how much water is currently being sent over the border, and what's being proposed.

How much water is being transferred out?

There are two main water companies serving customers in Wales, Dŵr Cymru and Hafren Dyfrdwy (created by the merger of Dee Valley Water and the Welsh part of Severn Trent Water). Two further companies, Severn Trent Water and United Utilities, border Wales and hold licences to take water from Wales to serve customers in England.

Dŵr Cymru operates a series of connected reservoirs in the Elan Valley. From this area, the Elan Valley bulk supply is an export of more than 320 Million litres (Ml) per day, via the 117km long Elan Aqueduct, to Severn Trent Water for it to supply its customers in Birmingham.

To put these quantities into context, an Olympic swimming pool holds 2.5 Million litres of water, so the Elan Valley bulk supply is 128 Olympic swimming pools worth of water being exported each day.

United Utilities is reportedly licenced to take take 252 Ml/day from Lake Vyrnwy (around 100 Olympic swimming pools), which is mostly used to supply customers in Liverpool and Cheshire, but can be pumped to Manchester if needed.

Llyn Celyn was constructed to maintain flows in the River Dee as part of the Dee Regulation Scheme. This regulation means that water companies are able to abstract water downstream, which includes an abstraction by United Utilities to supply Liverpool. From various abstraction points, its reported that United Utilities can take a total of - that's almost 250 Olympic swimming pools of water

These reported quantities of water are the maximum licenced. The amount actually traded varies each year, alongside the charge for the traded water.

© Crown copyright and database rights 2023 OS 100047295.

An idea in the pipeline

It's been proposed that water is transferred from the River Severn to the River Thames, the 'Severn to Thames Transfer' (STT), where it can be abstracted by Thames Water, and potentially other companies in south east England.

This is being progressed collaboratively by Severn Trent Water, United Utilities Water and Thames Water through the Regulators' Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID), with input from the regulators: Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

The 'North West Transfer' is the United Utilities element of the STT, which involves redirecting up to 180 Ml/d of water (currently licenced to United Utilities) from Lake Vyrnwy into the River Severn. This is to be transferred using two separate means:

a direct release of 25 Ml/d of water into the River Vyrnwy; and

a release of 155 Ml/d of water into the existing Vyrnwy Aqueduct to Oswestry, where a new 'Vyrnwy bypass pipeline' will transfer the water into the River Severn.

The maximum release allowed from Lake Vyrnwy is 405 Ml/d. The proposed release direct from Lake Vyrnwy falls within this limit. There are no works proposed in Wales and no change in the quantity of water currently abstracted by United Utilities. Because of this, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is involved in an advisory capacity only. However RAPID works closely with the Welsh Government and NRW where any potential schemes may be within or affect Wales.

Bulk transfer arrangements can either be continuous; moving water from an area with an abundance to one with limited resources, or temporary, providing extra resources in times of drought if available. As such, bulk transfers are included in water companies' statutory long term Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs), and short term Drought Management Plans.

Before any final decision is made on the STT, final WRMPs for each company will all have to be agreed, which will be around October 2023. The water transfer plans will then be agreed later.

A dam sight more

It's important to highlight that reservoirs are not only used for water supply, but are complex multi-use sites, important for nature and recreation. Most reservoirs in Wales, and their surrounding areas, are protected for their internationally important ecosystems and landscapes.

Lake Vyrnwy is as designated as it gets - a National Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area, and a Special Area of Conservation. It's even home to the largest organic farm in Wales.

There are productive hydropower schemes on a number of dams, including at the Elan Valley and Llyn Celyn. Downstream of the dam at Llyn Celyn the River Tryweryn is used by the National White Water Centre during water releases, often enabling white water sports to take place during the summer.

The needs of nature and communities have to be considered before any proposal to move or utilise a water source is approved. As recently highlighted by the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James:

Any development that involves sourcing water from Wales must demonstrate economic, environmental and wider benefits for the people of Wales.

Dŵr Cymru recently told a House of Lords Committee that it would support water transfers as long as sufficient criteria were met, including no detriment to customers or the environment, and "to make absolutely certain that the commercial rate for that transfer was appropriate".
Article by Lorna Scurlock, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament

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Exporting Wales' water: How much and where to?

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The Welsh Parliament is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of Wales and its people. Commonly known as the Senedd, it makes laws for Wales, agrees Welsh taxes and holds the Welsh Government to account.

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Simon Whaley - Author | Writer | Photographer

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The valley in Wales once flooded to provide fresh drinking water for Liverpool makes a great day out

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BBC NEWS | Wales | North West Wales | City apology ’40 years too late’

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An official apology for the controversial flooding of a Snowdonia village is too late for many local residents.

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Tryweryn: Personal stories 50 years after drowning

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Children of Capel Celyn on the day their village was drowned.

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What the underwater Victorian village hidden beneath Lake Vyrnwy was actually like

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It’s easy to write about old Llanwddyn - the lost Victorian village hidden under Lake Vyrnwy.

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BBC Sounds - Drowned - The Flooding of a Village - Available Episodes

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Listen to the latest episodes of Drowned - The Flooding of a Village on BBC Sounds

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BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Official apology over Tryweryn

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Liverpool officially says sorry for flooding a north Wales valley in the 1960s to create a reservoir for the city.

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Historical Relationship Between England and Wales

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Historical Relationship Between England and Wales

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Historian Martin Johnes explores the uneasy relationship between England and Wales.

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In 1965, a Welsh village was deliberately flooded to supply fresh water to Liverpool. What can we learn from this bleak tale?

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Tryweryn -  2D Short Animated Film / Animeiddiad Fer (2021)

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Tryweryn at 55: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch’s ’71,200 Megalitres’ with a new introduction by the author, and online exclusive essay by Sharon Morris - Poetry Wales 56.1 Summer 2020 - Poetry Wales

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Flooded or Drowned? – An Introduction to ‘71,200 Megalitres’ In November 2005 I was on a writing residency at Hawthornden Castle outside Edinburgh. One afternoon I happened to catch part of the BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country, in which the speaker was visiting ‘the Tryweryn reservoir’ to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of ‘the flooding’…