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English names on road signs targeted by independence group

12 Aug 2024 5 minute read
Signage targeted in Denbighshire. Image: Mudiad Eryr Wen

Stephen Price

A grassroots Welsh independence youth group has taken responsibility for spray painting English versions of Welsh place names on road signs across Denbighshire.

A number of English place names across the county have been targeted, with the inclusion of the emblem of the Free Wales Army – a Welsh nationalist paramilitary organisation formed in Lampeter in Ceredigion (formerly Cardiganshire) by Julian Cayo-Evans in 1963.

Mudiad Eryr Wen, who shared photos of their protest on Instagram, describe themselves as a brand new and energetic approach to defending our nation and campaigning for our eventual independence. They say they are “a movement and community created by the youth, for the youth”.

Mission

According to the group: “Our nation stands upon a precipice. Westminster is growing increasingly heavy-handed towards devolution and nationalism in both Cymru and in Scotland, second home ownership and a failing education system is endangering our language, the reckless pursuit of growth and unfettered capitalism is destroying our environment…”

Signage targeted in Denbighshire. Image: Mudiad Eryr Wen

Their mission is to “rally the youth of Cymru as one united front, stood firmly in opposition to the destruction of our self-determination, language, identity and environment.”

The protesters targeted the Anglicised names ’St Asaph’, ‘Ruthun’ and ‘Denbigh’, leaving behind only the indigenous Welsh names (Llanelwy, Dinbych and Rhuthun).

They say: “In the face of impending Anglicisation and climate collapse, other organisations have failed to grasp the severity of the situation we face”.

Autonomy

The movement has ten key principles:

1.  Wales is a nation defined by its geographical boundaries, people (Cymry), culture and language.

2. Wales is an ancient Celtic nation with a right to self-determination and independence from the United Kingdom.

3. Cymraeg is the native language of the Welsh and must be protected and promoted with the aim of restoring it as the majority language.

4. Power should be devolved to local communities and systems of direct and participatory democracy should be established.

5. Holiday lets and second homes, belonging to either Welsh or outsider, should be rendered economically untenable.

6. Wales is not subject to House of Windsor or the illegitimate ‘Prince of Wales’ and should strive to abolish the institution of monarchy.

7. Wales’ resources belong to the Welsh people and England should be required to pay for the resources that it extracts.

8. The Welsh economy should not be predicated on limitless growth, but rather, should aim to improve living standards and economic equality.

9. Wales should foster close ties with fellow Celtic nations and aid them in their struggle for autonomy, in addition to other small nations.

10. Wales should make every effort to end its reliance on fossil fuels and create a green economy in harmony with nature.

Signage targeted in Denbighshire. Image: Mudiad Eryr Wen

“Justified”

A representative from Eryr Wen who was a part of the most recent protest told Nation.Cymru: “We believe it to be necessary and reasonable to remove imposed English place-names from road signs within Wales.

“As is often the case, many of the names targeted are wholly unnecessary and meaningless, being mere bastardisations of the original Welsh names.

“Following on from the official name change of Eryri and Bannau Brycheiniog last year, there is a growing movement to de-anglicise names within Wales.

“It certainly isn’t without precedent; similar acts of direct action from the likes of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg have resulted in the removal of ‘Carnarvon’, ‘Portmadoc’, ‘Cardigan’, ‘Dolgelley’, ‘Conway’ and ‘Llanelly’ already.

“The names are nothing more than a bad hangover from England’s historic conquest and failed attempts at forced assimilation in Wales.

“Some may attempt to argue that because most of Wales cannot presently speak the language fluently, that it therefore simply isn’t fair or appropriate to de-anglicise the names.

“However, this is complete and utter nonsense. No one struggles with the aforementioned examples of places in Wales that have already been de-anglicised, do they?

“Indeed, there also are no complaints about other Welsh place-names either. Non-speakers and speakers alike have no issue with the likes of Llangollen, Llandudno, Pwllheli, Abersoch, Pontypridd, Aberystwyth or any of the countless other places within Wales with Welsh names.

“It’s time for Wales to wholly reclaim its rich linguistic heritage, and there is no simpler starting point than by first reclaiming the names of its many towns, villages and cities.”

Petition

Debates around English place names have raged for decades now, but tensions have reached a critical point recently, with a Senedd petition, titled ‘Use only Welsh names for places in Wales’ having closed in October 2023.

And it’s not only place names that are proving contentious. Another popular petition with over 11,000 signatories called to ‘Abolish the name ‘Wales’ and make ‘CYMRU’ the only name for our country’.

This petition ran until June 2024.

Local backing

A local resident and teacher backed the work of the youth movement, but stressed the need for nuance in the approach.

He told us: “The etymology of Welsh place names isn’t a black-and-white affair. There are examples of English place names in Wales that predate the Welsh names such as Rhyl (originally ‘The Hill’) and ‘Prestatyn’ (originally ‘Priest’s Town).

“Having Swansea and Abertawe, for example, gives us two histories. One of the Island of an unknown Viking called Svein, and another denoting the mouth of the river Tawe.

“But when it comes to insulting, garbled, derisional spellings of Welsh places such as Cardigan and the notorious Llantwit Major, we need to make a stand now and revert them all to Welsh. We don’t need a Kidwelly and a Cydweli, or a Caerphilly or Caerffili. And Peterston-super-Ely makes my blood boil!

“I totally support the reintroduction of Welsh-only place names except for those where the English has developed in tandem and has a unique meaning.

“The Welsh Language Commissioner has been too toothless in this regard and things need to change.”


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Karl
Karl
3 months ago

Don’t agree with the method. But if the English and some dim witted locals have issues with reading to much on a sign. Just remove the English is a perfectly valid move. You don’t translate names, no need for the English versions.

Paid a malu
Paid a malu
3 months ago
Reply to  Karl

This method is necessary to push towards the removal of anglicised names in Wales.

Paid a malu
Paid a malu
3 months ago
Reply to  Paid a malu

Love when quislings downvote my comments

Penybontboy
Penybontboy
3 months ago
Reply to  Karl

OK so the Welsh can’t translate England to Lloegr, London, Llundain etc.

Robert
Robert
3 months ago

The sooner Cymru is indy the better.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
3 months ago

No threat to Banksy then…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
3 months ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Confusion behind the wheel causes accidents…

Paid a malu
Paid a malu
3 months ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Bruh

onedragonontheshirt
onedragonontheshirt
3 months ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Well, the English are always saying how dangerous the bilingual signs are…

John Ellis
John Ellis
3 months ago

I went to Lampeter as an undergraduate in 1964 – when, incidentally, I recall sitting on a hillside with a few friends looking down at Julian Cayo-Evans marching his small band of FWA activists up and down in the spacious grounds of his dad’s house! – just as the campaign to eradicate ‘English only’ road signs was kicking off. I was broadly sympathetic to it, even though it did seem a bit counter-intuitive to obliterate road signs in an area considerably dependent on tourism from across the border. But after all most local folk in Ceredigion back then seemed to… Read more »

Last edited 3 months ago by John Ellis
John Ellis
John Ellis
3 months ago
Reply to  John Ellis

And as an afterthought, is ‘y Bontfaen’ ever likely to supplant ‘Cowbridge’ in popular use?

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
3 months ago
Reply to  John Ellis

Wales was much less reliant on tourism back in the 1960s and agriculture far more important, as well as the considerable spend by the MoD in West Wales at the time. In the early 60s Ceredigion was much more Welsh speaking, and in many schools the majority of children starting school would have been completely without English. (I had personal experience of this when I started school in Ceredigion in 1962 – I was bilingual, but in English and French, which wasn’t a lot of use in Ceredigion. There was one other child in the class who spoke English. All… Read more »

John Ellis
John Ellis
3 months ago
Reply to  Padi Phillips

Your depiction of primary school teaching in the western reaches of Wales accords with my own impressions. Back in 1960 when I was 14 my parents arranged us a holiday in rural Anglesey, and while we were on a wander through the lanes near to the farm where we were staying we encountered a little group of local children who were also pottering about the same lanes. My mum always had a affection for little kids and as we passed them she said something kindly to the smallest, a little lad who looked to be about five or six. He… Read more »

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
3 months ago
Reply to  John Ellis

I also went to school on Ynys Môn during that period, (my dad was stationed at Y Fali) and in my experience moving up to the juniors at age seven meant that I received all my tuition from Miss Griffiths in Welsh! I already spoke English, but I do remember the slight shock of being taught in Welsh by a teacher who took no prisoners… I coped, and in the event only had to endure it for a few months until my dad was posted somewhere else – this time Norway, where I spent a very happy two and a… Read more »

John Ellis
John Ellis
3 months ago
Reply to  Padi Phillips

Your early experience in primary school rather mirrors my partner’s. She was a daughter in the large family of a Manchester man who had his own milk round there, and who opted to move his family to Benllech to run a shop and a milk round just at the time when she was due to start school. In consequence she found herself enrolled in the small village school at Llanallgo where all the teaching, in her memory at least, seemed to be through the medium of Welsh. The family didn’t last long in Benllech because they seemed not to have… Read more »

Gwyn
Gwyn
3 months ago

The action itself is great, and de-anglicisation is a necessary step and tactic in the language battle (and it is a battle!). However, the article is missing some vital information of MEW. Here is the original manifesto they published only a couple of years ago: 1. Cymru is a nation defined by its geographical boundaries, people (Cymry), culture and language. 2. The Cymry are the descendants of the native Britons, an ethnocultural group who have a right to self-determination and a homeland. 3. Cymraeg is the language of the Cymry and must be restored as the majority language of Cymru.… Read more »

Annibendod
Annibendod
3 months ago
Reply to  Gwyn

I note that no.2 has been changed and that for the better. You’re right – the original wording was blood and soil nationalism. If that’s the basis of our nationhood we have problems. I hope the change is a step in the right direction. On the matter of their campaign, I’ve been where they are. You feel the injustice surrounding our language and it can make you feel militant. However, there is more goodwill towards Cymraeg than ill will. Most want to see it thrive and most who live in Wales would like to be able to speak it. Our… Read more »

Gwyn
Gwyn
3 months ago
Reply to  Annibendod

I’d hope so – but I’m yet to see any form of backtracking from them over the last few years. I would bet they’d like to quietly move away in order to not alienate progressive people whilst not offending those who agree with the blood and soil aspects. However on militancy, I see your points. I think militancy of all sorts has a place alongside a greater campaign, and I don’t think the government is capable of delivering this campaign. I’m a Welsh learner as an adult, and I have no real opportunities to use the language in a community… Read more »

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
3 months ago
Reply to  Annibendod

Is it rabbits or squirrels they throw on tables…beware of ‘agent provocatuers’ !

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
3 months ago
Reply to  Annibendod

There is a lot that government could do, if it were pressed to do so. One huge boost would be the superceding of the cumbersome and utterly ridiculous language legislation that creates more problems than it solves. Simplicity is best, so why not a simple law that at least establishes the principle of universal bilingualism for all of Wales, both private and public sector? I think that for most of Wales, bilingualism is the wisest approach, but in the area increasingly known as Arfor, why not implement a Cymraeg only policy for things like road signs,official notices, shop fronts etc?… Read more »

Rhosddu
Rhosddu
3 months ago
Reply to  Gwyn

It sounds, then, as if they’ve acknowledged that there are now other ethnic groups in Wales who legitimately claim Welsh nationality and who include Welsh speakers.

hdavies15
hdavies15
3 months ago
Reply to  Rhosddu

Incomers who treat various aspects of our identity with respect are welcome in my book. When they go on to embrace the language and enjoy the culture they go further. Such people do not dilute our Welshness, they enhance it. I suspect that to date they remain a minority part of the influx that is the source of concern to many of us. We could of course bury our heads in the sand and deny the existence of a strong smell of arrogance, superiority, even hatred among the Anglo Brit influx and that often conditions the low awareness among other… Read more »

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
3 months ago
Reply to  Gwyn

The whole existence of ‘Celts’ is also contraversial, as it would seem to be an ethnic, i.e. cultural trait rather than a ‘racial’ trait, though even the notion of race itself is a nonsense as the only species of humans that exists today is homo sapiens sapiens. Using the criteria of MEW, most of Europe could claim to be ‘celtic cousins’. (Though I’m sure the more Blood & Soil types would find ways of denying that.) Mew seems to be a little more ‘progressive’ than some other political groups in Cymru, but the echoes of Blood & Soil are there,… Read more »

Johnny Gamble
Johnny Gamble
3 months ago

2 Comments have disappeared.
I was about to reply to them before my broadband went down.

WilliamsG
WilliamsG
3 months ago

I visited Aberystwyth and Aberdyfi a few weeks ago, the first time in several years. I always remember them as strong Welsh speaking strongholds. I was shocked and saddened to see how the places have been so thoroughly linguistically and culturally cleansed. Very little Welsh signage (none at all mostly), no Welsh spoken, not even a Welsh accent. You would be forgiven for not thinking you were in Wales. I agree with non violent action to stop this, Wales, it’s language and identity is being removed at an alarming rate and needs to be highlighted and reversed.

Nia James
Nia James
3 months ago
Reply to  WilliamsG

The same for Carmarthen. So many English retirees with little knowledge or interest in anything Welsh.

Riki
Riki
3 months ago
Reply to  Nia James

No, they laugh at us when we call ourselves foreigners. Cymro Briton (British) is what am.

Jeff
Jeff
3 months ago

Hmm. Post vanished. I said
“Well thats a bit dim, especially since we are not a closed country. Who will be paying for the signs to be repaired/replaced, if they have to be replaced because incorrect then do it through the proper channels.”

Don’t think I will ever be on the same page as them. Now the locals will be getting a hit on their taxes no one on the UK can really afford at the moment.

CapM
CapM
3 months ago
Reply to  Jeff

If it’s a cost issue then leave the signs with the words with green paint over them as they are. Members of Mydiad Eryr Wen would repaint the green as and when necessary and at their own expense. No increase in taxes, a bit of extra cash for DIY shops, tourists from England get a sense of having travelled beyond their home country, we get our heritage back the signs are more colourful. I’d like them to redesign the eryr wen logo though as it looks like a crocked swastika and so is a gift that will keep on giving… Read more »

hdavies15
hdavies15
3 months ago
Reply to  CapM

Most “pro Brits” seem quite happy to have swastikas tatooed on their bodies or printed on garments. With matching Union Jack of course. Always done in the best possible taste.

Gwyn Hopkins
3 months ago

The profound affrontery shown by the English establishment in anglicizing our place names (and names of rivers, mountains, etc) centuries ago badly needs rectifying. The so-called English names are merely corrupted versions of the original Welsh names. For example are both Resolven and the correct Resolfen, really necessary? Using both on road signs is both laughable and absolutely ridiculous – and there are hundreds of them. Mudiad Eryr Wen needs to conduct a relentless campaign to pressurize the Welsh Government to direct our 22 County Councils to eliminate all of their corrupt English names.     

Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas
3 months ago
Reply to  Gwyn Hopkins

Although there are several places in Wales where the Welsh name is not the original. Prestatyn and Mostyn, for example, are Welsh transliterations and are totally meaningless in Welsh.
Who was really responsible for changing Welsh place names, why did Aberystwyth avoid it but Dolgellau (for a long time spelt Dolgelly) did not.

Randall
Randall
3 months ago
Reply to  Gwyn Hopkins

Another ridiculous example is on Junction 40 M4: CYMMER / CYMER. How can this have an English and Welsh version the former is a Welsh place name spelt wrong.

Billy James
Billy James
3 months ago

At least they left one name in place…

Remember as a kid holidaying in the New Quay/Ceredigion area with my parents as a kid and their being no signs up at all…
Thank god for road atlas’s ..

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
3 months ago

Although I don’t condone the damaging of signs do understand why they have been damaged. Currently there is an assault of Welsh place names. They are being are systematically being replaced or bastardised. For example. Take the outcry at the Ordinance Survey who recently were criticised for using English-only names on their maps erasing those native Welsh place names there for milenia. And what about the 18,000 who signed a petition in 2021 that wad debated in the Senedd over second home owners from England who moved Tenby then changed the Welsh language names of their house there for centuries… Read more »

Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas
3 months ago
Reply to  Y Cymro

In practice the opposite appears more to be the case to me; we’ve moved away from the likes of Carnarvon/Caernarvon, Nevin, Conway, Aberayron, Llanelly and many others in favour of using the native spelling. We also have Eryri and Bannau Brycheiniog moving to the forefront in public usage. Returning things to an “original” form is problematic too. The Llanelly in Llanelly Hill near Brynmawr was always spelt in local dialect Welsh with a ‘y’ at the end. Cader Idris is not an Anglicism but the local dialect spelling. Caernarfon has been spelt, in Welsh, as Kaerenarvon before changes in Welsh… Read more »

Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
3 months ago
Reply to  Y Cymro

While I don’t condone what happened, but……………….. 🙂 !

Riki
Riki
3 months ago

Well done, a legitimate and non violent way of protesting the anglicisation of the Britons.

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
3 months ago

Agree with the substance of their ten principles, but vandalism is childish and counter-productive. Wales is better than that.

Unlike the 60s – 90s, we now have a democratically elected Senedd – the group should talk to their Aelodau Senedd.

Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas
3 months ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

I do tend to think this approach is counter-productive. While most comments on here either agree with the approach or are at least sympathetic to the cause, this is Nation.Cymru, which is going to have readership likely to be supportive of the language.
The comments sections of some of Welsh online news sites is markedly more hostile to such things.
The language needs to carry public support to thrive. Such actions preach the choir, but don’t build a congregation.

CapM
CapM
3 months ago
Reply to  Richard Thomas

When green paint was deployed back in the sixties some of the harshest criticism came from Welsh speakers. There seemed to be a sense of – we shouldn’t misbehave in front of the English.

Welsh online news sites (are there that many of them?) seem to be like catnip to types who are anti everything Welsh so even if it’s a congregation it’s one that will never convert.

However it’s strategically bad and self indulgent to daub the crocked swastika about the place. It was a twp logo to use in the sixties and still is.

onedragonontheshirt
onedragonontheshirt
3 months ago

English people are always banging on about how dangerous the bi-lingual road signs are – problem solved!

Mark
Mark
3 months ago

Doesn’t Wales rely heavily on tourism for income? Therefore removing 2nd homes and holiday let’s would reduce income and make a lot of people who rely in the sector unemployed

CapM
CapM
3 months ago
Reply to  Mark
Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
3 months ago
Reply to  CapM

Maybe I will learn from sources with better reputation!

CapM
CapM
3 months ago
Reply to  Welsh Patriot

Are you “Mark” also.
Schoolboy error?

Che Guevara's Fist
Che Guevara's Fist
3 months ago
Reply to  Welsh Patriot

Maybe someday you’ll actually learn.

Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
3 months ago

All in all this story and the comment sums up parts of Wales and how the anti English racist vein runs deep. Removing English from signs when the majority here speaks English is to me, just plain racist!

CapM
CapM
3 months ago
Reply to  Welsh Patriot

Which begs the question.
Was the original imposition of Anglicised versions and alternatives on the signs when the majority here spoke Welsh “just plain racist”

Was it an indication that the anti Cymraeg/Cymru/Cymry racist vein ran deep.
Is getting hysterical now an indication that anti Cymraeg/Cymru/Cymry “racist vein runs deep” still does in some.

Riki
Riki
3 months ago
Reply to  CapM

They’d say – “ofcourse not, the People of Wales was given the gift of English, at the end of a cane, a gift none the less” Its amazing how they ignore or distort the recovery of Cymraeg as somehow parallel or somehow worse than how English was introduced. They do this in many areas where Wales is concerned, many things are ignored in order to create the narrative where we end up looking like the xenophobes.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
3 months ago
Reply to  Welsh Patriot

It’s interesting to see the extent to which the ant-Welsh lobby have hijacked the terms ‘racist’, ‘right-wing’, and ‘xenophobia’ in an attempt to clean some spurious credibility for the bigotry of BritNat apologists. Nice try, but you’re fooling no-one.

Bongo
Bongo
3 months ago

We only need the one iaith on these signs, just too annoying having that engrish gobbledegook alongside

Simmo
Simmo
3 months ago

This campaign feels a bit dated and negative to me. I can’t see it winning new supporters , I just have the inckling that it is going to get local people’s backs up as the signs will need replacing (article below mentions about graffiti’d / defaced signs needing replacing), and the graffiti itself looks unsightly. So I can’t see the actions having mass appeal.

https://nation.cymru/news/the-20mph-sign-that-keeps-getting-spray-painted-with-swastika/

Freya Nolton
Freya Nolton
3 months ago

Oh Dear. No wonder Wales is seen as a backward looking nation. Morons with a can of spray paint illegally defacing legimate road signs, no matter that it targets indigenous Welsh Men and Women who do not speak Welsh. Once again, a minority pathetic bunch of morons trying to dictate to the rest of us. Grow up 🙄

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