The Upper Tywi farms and Field Names Project
As you may know the project was successful in gaining funding for a book and two audio trails in August and since then a core group of volunteers has been developing the project plan. I would like to thank the following for hosting project meetings, the Neaudd Arms, The Towy Bridge Inn and Ty Te Twm.
Figure 1 Taken from – John Campbell Book Map, 1777 Copyright Carmarthenchives
The first phase has been archival, searching for documents and images for the farms, online, and in local and national archives. The volunteers visited Carmarthen Archives one evening in October which was opened up especially for the group by John Davies the head archivist for Carmarthenshire County Council, who gave an informal talk on how to use the archive, showing us many interesting documents connected to Rhandirmwyn and Cilycwm, including the Campbell book map for Carmarthenshire, finishing with a backstage tour.
In early November spent a day at the National Library of Wales who kindly performed a similar service in the morning and in the afternoon we looked at documents we had ordered in advance.
We decided early on that we would use the tithe maps from the 1840’s as a baseline for the project as they usually include field names, unfortunately the Cilycwm tithe does not have these so for this parish we are going to rely more on local knowledge and any estate maps or sales catalogues we can find which might shed light on this.
Figure 2 taken from Nantybai Manor map copyright Carmarthen Archives
Some of the interesting field names coming to light have included ‘Cae Pwll y Bwbach’ the field of the goblin’s pool, ‘Cae melyn saison’ which could mean Field of the English people’s mill or Yellow field of the English, ‘Gardd y crydd’, Shoe-maker’s garden, ‘Cae pen millwr’ this name suggests that a soldier’s head was discovered in the field, and that possibly a battle had been fought in the vicinity, and ‘Cae brych neidir’ blemished field of the snake or field of the spotted snake? All of these need further research as to their origins and meanings.
The project has set up a database to store all of the information gathered by the group, which will act as a valuable archive for future researchers, as obviously not everything can be included in the book.
The next phase of the project will see the volunteers going out into the community for information, they will be interviewing people living in farms and cottages across the two parishes to see how things have changed since the tithes were drawn up over 150 years ago.
If you have some information or would like to take part in the project please contact Liz Williams project secretary on 01550 750 211 liz.wakely@btinternet.com
Arianwyd gan / Funded by
