The 18th March was the last talk of the 2024/2025 season and the speaker was me! This was the second of my talks about the people who have lived in Portland House. Last season I spoke of Bensha and his daughters:  The first owner Benjamin Evans, who was thrown off his farm tenancy for following his political beliefs The scandal surrounding the move of the post office from Aberaeron House His daughter, Margaret’s fascinating career as a University Matron and house keeper for Lady Llanover The mysterious circumstances surrounding the ‘death’ of her sea captain husband and that of her sister Jane’s. Bensha Bensha's Daughters: Ann, Margaret & Jane. This time, I introduced more of Bensha's descendants, the Howells: Anne, the runaway bride John, JM Howell, a man who did so much in every walk of Aberaeron’s life Fred, a multiple bigamist with wives in Llangrannog, London and Australia.   Bensha's Descendents You can read more about them and other remarkable residents of Portland House in articles on the Heritage page of this website :  -Portland People -Portland House Captains -The barque Glenara -The Aberaeron Post Office Scandal of 1874.

In September 2023, our first talk of the 2023-24 season, was by Michael Freeman, back by popular demand. Michael is the former Curator of Ceredigion Museums and Honorary Research Fellow at the National Museum of Wales. Always informative and entertaining, his topic this time was ‘Anne Evans, Highmead, the best farmer in the County.’ Temporary image until original is recovered. Here is a summary from Michael about her: Anne Evans (1738-1807) kept very detailed records of the produce of the Highmead estate farms (near Llanwenog) from 1778 until her death. After her husband died in 1787, leaving her with seven young children, she ran the farm and estate. She was obsessed with weighing and measuring the farm produce and kept some very detailed descriptions of the work of the maidservants' work in the dairy and brewer Anne recorded some of the costs of building their new house and provided us with an almost unique breakdown of the cost of building cottages for the workers; for repairing and improving mills and the cost and nature of her footman's livery. She kept many records of the volume of the corn sent for grinding and the weight of different grades of flour returned; the quantity of butter and cheese made and its current value and the weight of all the products of the animals that were slaughtered on the farm including the number of candles made from the tallow rendered from those beasts. Her notes provide us with a fascinating and very detailed insight into work at a Cardiganshire estate farm around 1800. Michael Freeman Nov 2023

26th February marks the beginning of eating disorders awareness week. We tend to think of anorexia and other eating disorders as a fairly modern phenomenon. In the 19th century, however, numerous young women, inspired by medieval saints, alleged they were forgoing food and surviving on faith alone. In reality some of them may have had anorexia, others like Dyfed’s own Sarah Jacobs had a more sinister story.   Sarah Jacobs became known far and wide as 'The Welsh Fasting Girl'. She was born at Llethr-neuadd farm, Llanfihangel-ar-arth, Carmarthenshire in 1857. After taking to her bed following an illness she appeared to have not eaten or drunk for nearly two years.    Visitors travelled miles to see her, eminent physicians debated her case and she was the subject of extensive press coverage. Queen Victoria was interested in the case and there were even rumours of a royal visit.   Sarah and the potential visit were certainly the subject of discussion here in Aberaeron and is recorded in Ann Howell’s letter of July 1869, written from Portland House to her son, J M Howell:     “They say that the Queen is coming here next week to see Sarah Jacob.      Ha, Ha!“   Sarah’s tragic death later in 1869 led to a man-slaughter case, the preliminary investigation for which took place in the Wilkes Head, Llandysul.   Sarah’s life and death have been featured in works of Welsh fiction, including  Sarah Arall   by Aled Islwyn and Gwenlyn Parry’s play  Sal . She was also clearly a major inspiration for Emma Donogue’s novel,  The Wonder  and the subsequent film based on the book.    You can read her story in the blog below by historical fiction writer S E Morgan:   https://semorganhistoricalfiction.wordpress.com/2020/11/14/the-tragic-tale-of-the-welsh-fasting-girl-sarah-jacobs-1869/

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Activities 2025-26 Talks The full programme of talks for our Winter 2025-26 follows showing both past and forthcoming events. All talks are held in the Tabernacle Chapel Vestry , Aberaeron & start at 7.30 pm (Doors open at 7pm) Tuesday 16th September 2025 Huw Alban Davies: Was the Friedeberg one of Davy Jones’ decoy ducks? Tuesday 21st October 2025 Elinor Gwilym & Robert Thomas: 100 years of Aberaeron Memorial Hall (in the Aberaeron Memorial Hall). Tuesday 18th November 2025 Meirion Jones: Ei waith, ei gelf (His work, his art). Tuesday 20th January 2026 Ioan Lord: Hanes Rheilffordd Cwm Rheidol a'r cynllun gwreiddiol i ymestyn hyd Aberaeron. (History of the Vale of Rheidol Railway and the initial plan to extend to Aberaeron.) Tuesday 17th February 2026 Will Troughton: Early Ceredigion photographers. Tuesday 17th March 2026 Annual General Meeting . Tuesday 21st April 2026 Beverley Harrison: She ruled by Love - Mary Ashby Lewis; social pioneer, honorary Welsh woman and mistress of LLanerchaeron . Dining Always popular with our members, we hold a mixture of lunches and dinners between September and April. These are kindly organised by Margaret Bevan. The dates for the winter 2025/26 season are as follows: Thursday 25 September 2025 (7pm): Stubborn Duckling Tuesday 4 November 2025 (12.30 pm): The Harbourmaster Friday 5 December 2025 (12.30 pm): The Hive- Xmas lunch Thursday 27 January 2026 (12.30 pm): The Feathers Wednesday 11 March 2026 (12.30pm): Y Seler Thursday 16 April 2026 (7pm): The Hive Menus and prices are circulated to members in advance of each date. Trips You told us your preference is for local visits so that we avoid long travel times. In response, our recent trips have been: a behind-the-scenes tour of Llanerchaeron a visit to the tiny Llanon Cottage Museum an afternoon in the National Wool Museum, Drefach Felindre Watch this space for more outtings!