Liverpool Recognizes Welsh Cultural Heritage
By EIFION WILLIAMS
Liverpool has sometimes been called the capital of North Wales. Thousands of Welsh migrants settled in the city over the years, eventually forming a substantial part of its population. Most were dock workers and their families seeking to share in the prosperity of one of the world’s great port cities. There is also the fact that almost everyone in North Wales lives closer to Liverpool than to Cardiff, the nation's capital.
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AN AERIAL VIEW of the City of Liverpool.
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Liverpool's Welsh connections have been the subject of two intense and continuing public debates this summer. The first is over Liverpool City Council’s decision to invite the National Eisteddfod of Wales to the city in 2007. This would not be without precedent as the Eisteddfod has in the past been held in both Liverpool and Birkenhead, the last time in Liverpool in 1929.
Liverpool will celebrate its 800th Anniversary in 2007 and has been designated European Capital of Culture for 2008. The Eisteddfod would constitute both a significant demonstration of Liverpool’s rich cultural history and a fitting prelude to the cultural events planned for 2008.
Sir David Henshaw, Liverpool City Council’s chief executive, pointed out that “a lot of Welsh people have made, and continue to make, contributions to benefit the fortunes of the city.”
The Liverpool bid has aroused strong opposition from Eisteddfod leaders, most of whom hold firmly to the belief that the festival must not be held outside Wales. This despite the fact that no North Wales community has yet applied to hold the annual festival because of the increasing financial burden involved.
The Eisteddfod has traditionally alternated between North and South Wales. The 2006 and 2008 festivals will be held in Swansea and Cardiff, respectively. As of now, the alternative to holding the 2007 Eisteddfod in Liverpool appears to be not holding one at all.
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THE WELSH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH in Liverpool, built in 1865, now sits in ruins. One of the most striking churches in Toxteth, it is also called Toxteth Cathedral. The congregation left after the First World War and this beautiful church, a lovely part of Liverpool and Toxteth heritage, is currently being allowed to waste away.
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Strangely enough, the strongest opposition to the bid has come from the Welsh Societies of Birkenhead and Liverpool, who maintain that there are now too few Welsh speakers on Merseyside to organize such an event and that the city has changed.
The second public debate over Liverpool and its Welsh connections seems ironic in view of the Council's Eisteddfod bid and the Welsh Society’s opposition to it. The Liverpool Council has decided to demolish several hundred houses in the so-called “Welsh streets” in the Toxteth area of the city. The houses were built in the late Nineteenth Century to house the large number of Welsh migrants who went there to find work.
The terraced houses are generally in poor condition, many of them boarded up, and most have no indoor plumbing. The city plans to make use of government funding under the Housing Market Renewal Initiative to regenerate this area and many other parts of Merseyside. The inhabitants will be given the opportunity to be re-housed in the new homes.
Opposition to the regeneration has come mainly from the Liverpool Welsh Society. The Reverend Dr. Ben Rees, one of the leaders of the Society, said it was important that the Welsh streets in Toxteth be retained as an important part of Liverpool’s heritage.
“One can understand that people do like improvements in their housing, but I don’t know that they should do away with 20,000 houses in Liverpool,” said Dr. Rees. “We still want these houses to remain as a reminder of the tremendous influence of Welsh builders in Liverpool.”
Despite Dr. Rees’s enthusiasm the fact is that there is little of the Welsh character remaining in the area. Most of the original Welsh families eventually prospered and moved out to the suburbs. The Council has promised that Welsh street names like Wynnstay and Powis will be retained.
Although a majority of the inhabitants of the Welsh streets support the regeneration plan, the Council decided in June to put the demolition on hold temporarily. Opponents of the plan have since gained the support of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, who grew up in Madryn Street.
Whatever the outcome of these two issues, North Wales still hopes to benefit from the Liverpool celebrations in 2007-2008. Already tourist representatives from North Wales resorts like Llandudno and Colwyn Bay are meeting representatives from Liverpool to find ways they can benefit from the expected increase in visitors to the city.
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