New project launched to uncover Wales’s forgotten herbal medicine traditions

A major new research project will delve into Wales’s long and often overlooked history of herbal medicine, shedding light on how people treated illness and maintained their health before the arrival of the NHS.

Led by Aberystwyth University, the study will explore how communities across Wales relied on plants, local knowledge and self-help medical guides during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—an era marked by rapid social change, rising living standards and the gradual emergence of modern scientific medicine.

Researchers say the project will reveal not only how people cared for themselves, but also what these practices tell us about Welsh culture, identity and the nation’s relationship with the natural world.

Dr Steve Thompson, Head of the Department of History & Welsh History at Aberystwyth University, said the study would “reveal how people understood and cared for their health within their communities,” adding: “These traditions tell us a great deal about Welsh culture, our connection to the land and how people responded to illness before the arrival of modern medicine.”

The research will analyse a wide range of medical and herbal self-help books published around the turn of the twentieth century—guides that often blended folk knowledge with practical advice for families. These texts include practices rooted in Wales’s own indigenous traditions, such as the Meddygon Myddfai, a medieval collection of remedies that continued to be published in Welsh herbal books into the nineteenth century.

The project will also examine how outside influences shaped Welsh herbalism. These include British herbal traditions from the early modern period and new American herbal movements that began to reach Wales in the 1840s, bringing fresh ideas that mixed with older local approaches.

Partnership 

The project brings together Aberystwyth University, the National Library of Wales, Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales and the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

The National Library will provide access to its substantial collection of nineteenth-century medical texts, while Amgueddfa Cymru will open its archives of handwritten herbal recipes and oral histories. At the Botanic Garden, researchers will use the Apothecary Hall, herbarium and seed bank to connect historical remedies with living plants.

Dafydd Pritchard, Head of Legal Deposit and Study Services at the National Library of Wales, said the project highlights “the value and range” of Welsh collections, while Dr Sioned Williams of Amgueddfa Cymru said it would “reveal new histories” from St Fagans’ extensive archives.

Healing

Dr Laura Jones of the National Botanic Garden added that the work would deepen understanding of “Welsh plant heritage and healing,” linking historical remedies to present-day medicinal knowledge.

The project includes a fully funded PhD studentship through the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme, with applications now open.

Researchers hope the findings will offer fresh insight into how herbal medicine in Wales adapted in the decades leading up to 1948—and what this transformation reveals about the changing health, culture and environment of a modernising nation.