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Channel 4 show criticised after calling Llŷn Peninsula ‘Cheshire-by-the-Sea’

14 Sep 2017 2 minute read
A screenshot from the programme

A programme broadcast on Channel 4 about a couple looking for a summer home in Gwynedd has been criticised by viewers.

The programme A Place in the Sun: Home or Away was strongly criticised on social media after it was seen to advise viewers on the best places to buy second homes in the area.

During the program, the Llŷn Peninsula is referred to as “Cheshire-by-the-Sea”, and the “Land’s End of Wales”.

The Llŷn Peninsula, where over 70% of the population speak Welsh, has often been at the forefront of efforts to save the Welsh language.

Protest groups have long complained that second homes raise house prices, forcing young people who have grown up in the area to live elsewhere.

Iola Wyn, who has presented programmes for the BBC and S4C, complained about the programme on Facebook and said it raised “big questions” about the summer home industry in Wales.

“It raises big questions that now need to be answered about immigration into Welsh-speaking communities,” she told Golwg360.

“It’s a subject politicians aren’t willing to get to grips with at the moment because they think it’s too sensitive. They think that it would be music to the ears of anti-Welsh language politicians.

“It’s not black and white. We need a realistic assessment of the situation. How many summer homes are in our Welsh-speaking communities?”


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iantoddu
6 years ago

Does anyone know where on Facebook the above occurred? I can’t find it. This sort of thing happens regularly on such programs – down with it, I say.

daffy2012
6 years ago
Reply to  iantoddu

Look at Iola Wyn’s timeline for 10/9/17.

“I’m looking for a cultural experience not just a beautiful environment”. 🙂

iantoddu
6 years ago
Reply to  daffy2012

Thanks!

Capitalist and Welshnash
Capitalist and Welshnash
6 years ago

If this happened in other countries, the locals would show up at these people’s doors with a steel rod and solve the problem.

sibrydionmawr
6 years ago

That sounds pretty close to incitement.

Dafis
Dafis
6 years ago
Reply to  sibrydionmawr

… or excitement !!!

Welsh as f**k but speak English, like 90% of Wales.
Welsh as f**k but speak English, like 90% of Wales.
6 years ago

But it’s true. The locals are only there to serve the all fur coat no knickers common as muck but with Range Rovers Cheshire set.

It’ll be a lot worse when the Caernarfon bypass opens the Lleyn up.

It is Lleyn by the way. Named after the Irish Viking who stripped the peninsula (and Anglesey) away from Gwynedd.

CambroUiDunlainge
CambroUiDunlainge
6 years ago

I think you’ll find it was the Laigin who occupied what is now Gwynedd before Cunedda forced them out (like 400 A.D). Vikings were Norse who came much later (790s). If I remember correctly the etymology of the name “Gwynedd” itself was Gaelic (Gaelic which was the Brythonic name for Irish – meaning Pirate). Irish Vikings were a group which came into existence after the Vikings took Dublin – better called Norse-Gaels. Llyn or Lleyn works… Lleyn is regarded as the Anglicised version even though it does sound closer to “Leinster” also named for the Laigin (and is to this… Read more »

Emlyn
Emlyn
6 years ago

The last time I checked, Cheshire has its own coastline with beautiful seaside resorts within easy commuting distance (and good public transport links) of its conurbations. It’s called the Wirral. The Llŷn Peninsula is in another country, and Channel 4 would do well to remember that.

iantoddu
6 years ago

Oh, 7th June 2015 it was first broadcast. No wonder I couldn’t find it on the Place in the Sun Facebook page where I was going to make a few choice comments. It’s obviously being broadcast again though, so still very relevant, and demonstrates a real and present attitude. People might want that bit of information, though (those who don’t know already, of course!).

Dafis
Dafis
6 years ago

This fits in well with the spate of supremacist Anglo centric world view that’s being pushed by all sorts of media and politics. Sadly, Brexit is also based on the same set of premises, that the Anglos will come out on top and jonny foreigner hasn’t got a chance. I backed Brexit, but as a first step, with the next major step being disengagement of Cymru from the U.K. That idea that the whole of our country is open to being picked off for “leisure opportunities” needs to be well and truly kicked into touch as one of a number… Read more »

Margaret Taylor-Hill
Margaret Taylor-Hill
6 years ago

How very sad that such a beautiful part of Wales can be thought of as little more than an English playground. Cheshire-on-Sea is the Wirral anyway.I was born in England and recently moved to the Llŷn Peninsula on retirement. One of my first things on settling here was to look for a Welsh language course. I find it incredible that English people move to a Welsh speaking area of Wales and still expect everyone to speak English! I’ve met an English woman who has lived here for 30 years and still can’t speak or understand a word of Welsh! It… Read more »

Tame Frontiersman
Tame Frontiersman
6 years ago

It’s probably in the nature of these sort of programmes and not just the property related one. The feel one gets is of moving to landscapes conveniently devoid of a people, but with lovely views, to do their own thing and If the natives do get a look in at all, it is the spirit of “there’ll be welcome on the hillside”, of iiw-jiwing hillbilly-yokels handing out cups of cuprinol strength tea while the sound of a male voice choir drifts in from somewhere. In the European versions, a frequent theme is one of networks of local Brits all mucking… Read more »

Capitalist and Welshnash
Capitalist and Welshnash
6 years ago

Direct action is the answer to that question. If Local, National and British wide government sees people raising hell and starting a raucous so loud and sinister that the local authorities cannot control it, they will be forced to enact legislation to protect Welsh speaking communities.

God helps those who help themselves. Cliché, but it has a tonic of truth in it.

sibrydionmawr
6 years ago

I see where you are coming from here, but quite simply we spend too much time as it is worrying what the English think of us. It’s not that there isn’t support for our cause amongst some English people, I’ve been quite surprised at the level of understanding and sympathy amongst anarchists in England, who would readily support our cause, would we as a people start to stand up for ourselves. It’s fine to comment in places like this blog, as it does provide a means of measuring support, and communicating between interested parties. But these are just words. Traditionally… Read more »

Capitalist and Welshnash
Capitalist and Welshnash
6 years ago
Reply to  sibrydionmawr

We know the answer, we’ve tried everything else.

Dafydd Davies
Dafydd Davies
6 years ago

Important to remember a couple of things:
1. This programme’s raison d’etre is to take people from overpriced areas to underpriced areas and show them a fakse Utopia.

2. They do this in underprivileged and rural English areas too. And it’s no less palatable.

The problem is the programme’s general ethos and not its treatment of Wales.

Cariad77 (@Cariad77)
6 years ago

Very typical English superiority complex – seeing Wales as little more than a part of England. Wales had far more identity than England will ever have.

Davydh Trethewey (@MawKernewek)

The BBC is no better. It always seems to be glossed over on Escape to the Country how the migrants will support themselves in their new rural idyll. I don’t watch it much these days, but a couple of episodes that sticked in my mind was one in Ceredigion where the couple who wanted to move there wanted to be ‘self-sufficient’ on a small farm. I don’t think they realised how much hard work that would be. The other one was people looking for barns to convert in Devon, and the presenters trying to break it to them that all… Read more »

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