New Publication in Welsh on Liverpool Welsh by DR D Ben Rees.

Name of the volume AR DRYWYDD CYMRY LERPWL (Talybont, Ceredigion 2026 ) 

Price £14.

The review is by a contemporary Welsh scholar D  J Graham Jones located in Aberystwyth.

The author migrated from the Cynon Valley to Liverpool in 1968 to take up a position as a nonconformist minister and he has lived there ever since. His contribution there has been exceptional in several different spheres. Not the least of these has been his long series of academic publications on the history of the city and its people. The present volume is in many ways complimentary to his earlier seminal study Hanes Rhyfeddol Cymry Lerpwl (Y Lolfa, 2019).

And the fruits of this exceptional research work have now been collated in this substantial, handsome volume running to no fewer than 311 pages packed with information. And the work has been dedicated  as well as  acknowledging the work of the Trustees of the Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society for its constant support ever since the millennium. There is also a fine foreword by Professor Dylan Foster Evans, Cardiff, one whose roots lie deep in this city.

The first part of the study outlines the history of the city from the year 1217until the present time. Especial attention is given to the contribution of the Welsh to the development of the city and its

activities, above all its ministers of religion and the membership of the chapels, its poets and the supporters of the eisteddfodau. Section C of the volume is also devoted to the chapels of the Welsh Independents.

Among the other themes covered here are effects of the terrible bombing on the city during May 1941, the contribution of Liverpool to the setting up and development of the Welsh colony at Patagonia in South America, the history of the ship Mimosa, and the importance  of Liverpool in the story of J. Saunders Lewis, the author of Tynged yr Iaith (1962), and one of the most eminent sons of the city. There is also some interesting material relating to the history of medicine within the city.

Section B presents details about a number of poets and literary figures from the area, among them Gwilym Hiraethog, Minimus, Llew Llwyfo and Pedrog. Section CH comprises brief biographies, a total of 57 in fact, of prominent personages. Among the most eminent  are   Thomas Charles Edwards, the first principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1872, the high profile Liberal politician Sir John Herbert Lewis, one of the leaders of the Cymru Fydd movement, Ronw Moelwyn Hughes, and Dr Emyr Wyn Jones, the doctor, author and  well-known patriot.

And five famous footballers are covered in section D, among them Craig Bellamy and Joe Allen. Here, too, the early history of the Everton Football Club, 1870-1906, is narrated. It is noted that the club, during May 2005, left Goodison Park for a home in a brand-new stadium built on the Bramley Moore dock site close to the River Mersey following a whole century at Goodison.

Among the strengths of the study are the many photographs, several of the individuals discussed in the text, and the exceptionally helpful maps.

To conclude, Dr D. Ben Rees’s knowledge about the Liverpool Welsh is wholly unique. Throughout this study his skill as a historical researcher is buttressed by his experience of having led for decades the Welsh community at Liverpool. It is a work which is a worthy testimony to the role of the Welsh on Merseyside which takes a pride in their contribution without fawning over it.

Graham Jones