Gorseth Kembry - 2006

This year the Welsh National Eisteddfod, together with the Welsh Gorsedd, was held near Swansea, at a location which was originally the site of the Felindre Steelworks. The site was easy to find, it being about half a mile to the north of the M4, opposite Junction 46. Accommodation for the Celtic delegates was in Swansea University, about 25 minutes by car from the Eisteddfod field.

It seemed to us that a lot of work was necessary to the Eisteddfod Field and the bigger car parks adjoining - doubtless it being a former steel works - because the entire site had been levelled and covered in gravel. The appearance of the Field therefore was somewhat bare, and the gravel created a multitude of problems through the clouds of dust sent up each time a car passed over it, and if there was very much wind, it was twice as bad. There were a lot of complaints regarding this, especially in the press and on the TV. In truth, after spending an hour or two walking around the Field, our feet and shoes were absolutely filthy. By Tuesday things had got so bad through the dust that a tanker was brought in twice a day to spray the paths.

We went on Saturday the 5th of August to get our tickets etc., and Sunday we looked around the Field, meeting loads of people we hadn’t seen for a long time. Sunday morning the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, preached in the Pavilion and afterwards came into the Council Room, where he came over to us and had a chat. He was delighted to say that the copy of the ‘New Testament’ given to him in Cornwall last year, was on his bookshelf, although he doesn’t understand much of the Cornish! He said that he would be coming to Cornwall at the end of September, and when I suggested to him that if he came a little earlier he could come to the Gorsedd, he said that this was something he would like to do, and perhaps in a year or two he could arrange something.