Nut Zero

[pwa]

Not 'worked up', just bemused the Beacons that I have spent many happy hours walking and sailing in are at the centre of a rather silly virtue signalling exercise.
My friend Idlois who lives nearby has been trying to get a blocked footpath opened for two years and has been told there is 'no money' but apparently enough to pay for dozens of new signs

Al

To understand it you need to have it in context. It is just one measure in a programme of refreshing and revising for the future of the park. The Beacons, as you and I call that area, will still be there for you, and you will still be free to call it that. But Bannau Brycheiniog links the area to an ancient ruler of that area, almost a contemporary of Offa, and is arguably a more inspiring and intriguing name because of it. It invites people to look at the lumps and bumps in the landscape and wonder about the ancient people who once lived there.

[reohn2]

......And I will add something else. We all make an effort to learn how to pronounce place names when we go to France. We don't want to appear ignorant by getting them wrong. How about making a similar effort with Welsh names? You might find that you can do it!. You may even find some pleasure in it. Welsh place names tend to mean something, and when you decipher a few names, and learn how to say them, you often find other place names containing some of the same elements.

I really like hearing the Welsh language,and though I try the pronouciations can sometimes befuddle me.My closest friend who's a Welsh speaker is always correcting me.
The Welsh are very proud nation and love them for it,the Welsh national anthem always bring an emotional tear to my eye,unlike the English dirge

[reohn2]

Offa, King of Mercia, wasn't he? Not sure why the string of earthworks generally attributed to him (though of questionable origin in some cases) might get cancelled. The fact is, when I go to walk a bit of Offa's Dyke, as I have, or tramp around Hay Bluff, or cycle a bit of the Taff Trail to Talybont on Usk, I don't concern myself with the fact these places are within the Brecon Beacons NP, under its old name or its new name. I go for the individual locations. Which can't be cancelled. They will be there a thousand years after you and I are gone. You are getting worked up over nothing.

Agreed and well said sir!

[reohn2]

To understand it you need to have it in context. It is just one measure in a programme of refreshing and revising for the future of the park. The Beacons, as you and I call that area, will still be there for you, and you will still be free to call it that. But Bannau Brycheiniog links the area to an ancient ruler of that area, almost a contemporary of Offa, and is arguably a more inspiring and intriguing name because of it. It invites people to look at the lumps and bumps in the landscape and wonder about the ancient people who once lived there.

Well said yet again!

[pwa]

......And I will add something else. We all make an effort to learn how to pronounce place names when we go to France. We don't want to appear ignorant by getting them wrong. How about making a similar effort with Welsh names? You might find that you can do it!. You may even find some pleasure in it. Welsh place names tend to mean something, and when you decipher a few names, and learn how to say them, you often find other place names containing some of the same elements.

I really like hearing the Welsh language,and though I try the pronouciations can sometimes befuddle me.My closest friend who's a Welsh speaker is always correcting me.
The Welsh are very proud nation and love them for it,the Welsh national anthem always bring an emotional tear to my eye,unlike the English dirge

I remember when local girl Nicole Cooke won the gold for the women's road race in Beijing, and on her return there was a celebration on our village green. And maybe a couple of hundred people were there to sing the national anthem. I didn't know the words, but it was strangely moving.

[al_yrpal]

I lived and worked in the Valleys for 6 years and spent lots of time in the Beacons. You couldnt avoid knowing the anthem and I still remember all the words. It was the time of the Pontypool front row, Merv the swerve, Phil Bennet, Gareth etc, when Welsh Rugby was tops. I saw Mountain Ash defeat California. At the Opera the audience joined in the Chorus! I'm pleased to say I still have surviving friends there and they are the source of much of the humour, particularly the cancelling of the Beacon image. The lady who runs the Park isnt local and consulted no one. She is the butt of many of their jokes. Generally they arent impressed

Al

[pwa]

I lived and worked in the Valleys for 6 years and spent lots of time in the Beacons. You couldnt avoid knowing the anthem and I still remember all the words. It was the time of the Pontypool front row, Merv the swerve, Phil Bennet, Gareth etc, when Welsh Rugby was tops. I saw Mountain Ash defeat California. At the Opera the audience joined in the Chorus! I'm pleased to say I still have surviving friends there and they are the source of much of the humour, particularly the cancelling of the Beacon image. The lady who runs the Park isnt local and consulted no one. She is the butt of many of their jokes. Generally they arent impressed

Al

You may qualify as hororary Welsh!

I doubt the lady who fronts the NP did the revamp on her own. The Bannau Brycheiniog name is actually a couple of hundred years older than the nineteenth century Brecon Beacons name. The word "beacon" only relates to Pen y Fan, which doesn't give anyone a good picture of the more varied landscapes within the park. And it probably never was a beacon.

But the Welsh, like the English, love mocking those in charge. If the lady wanted an easy ride she came to the wrong place.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65299312

[al_yrpal]

There are lots of 'Beacons' around. Locally nearby in Devon, Beacon Hill near Watership Down and probably many other places across England. I am very fond of Wales, the Valleys particularly and loved living there. I built my own house on a mountainside. My son lives in North Wales now. The really silly cancelling of the Beacon image doesn't wash with the locals, its treated with contempt.

Al

[mjr]

My son lives in North Wales now. The really silly cancelling of the Beacon image doesn't wash with the locals, its treated with contempt.

Have the mountains moved locality to North Wales as part of the rebrand?

[pwa]

There is the site of a beacon in my village, on a low hill overlooking the Bristol Channel. So I do know that there were beacons. But it is suggested that Pen y Fan, the highest peak in the Beacons, never had a beacon, and that the name is a misnomer for that peak and the others nearby. Whereas Brycheiniog was a real historical entity in the days before there was a Wales or an England.

[roubaixtuesday]

Not sure how choosing to use your national language is "virtue signalling".

Just a matter of choice, no?

Are you saying that you think being Welsh isn't a virtue?

My mother is Welsh, and the very epitome of virtue

[roubaixtuesday]

There are lots of 'Beacons' around. Locally nearby in Devon, Beacon Hill near Watership Down and probably many other places across England. I am very fond of Wales, the Valleys particularly and loved living there. I built my own house on a mountainside. My son lives in North Wales now. The really silly cancelling of the Beacon image doesn't wash with the locals, its treated with contempt.

Al

What's really silly is to call this "cancelling".

How many "locals" of the Brecon Beacons do you know?

[Tangled Metal]

Not sure how choosing to use your national language is "virtue signalling".

Just a matter of choice, no?

17.8% of people living in Wales over the age of 3 speak Welsh according to the census 2021. Down from 19% in 2011. Does that actually count as the national language, more speak English. Generally 96.7% spoke English or Welsh, down from 97.1%. So that's 78.9% speak English. Just using the official census figures for languages used in Wales. Both English and Welsh being official languages in Wales, hence bilingual signage, but with those percentages it seems English is first language more often.

Still, good to keep Welsh language going. Cornish effectively died with the lady who was the last recognised native speaker of the language despite it being "saved". Aiui the catalan language was also at risk of dying out until various people promoted it and got it widely taught in schools, etc to save it. Now it's doing well. Always better to save than resurrect!

[Tangled Metal]

I read one commentary say that the King was a serial womaniser and had very many illegitimate kids as a result. Until he gave up his kingdom later in one to become a hermit. Oh and he was actually Irish but welshified his name to consolidate power.

[al_yrpal]

Next to the factory in S Wales that I worked in was AB Electronics. Their flagship products were high gain TV aerials. They sold in shedloads in the Valleys often sited on huge masts pointed at the transmitter on the Mendips so that folk could avoid the local welsh language TV channels.
When we moved to Oxfordshire the tv antenna bloke looked at the AB antenna I gave him to fit. "That wont work!" He said. Later he nearly fell off his ladder when he saw the maximum reading on his signal meter.

Al