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/

Excavations have recently been completed in Pendinas iron age fort. We were fortunate to hear all about this from Ken Murphy of Dyfed Archaeological Trust in our first talk of 2024. Unbelievably this is one of 700 Iron Age forts in Ceredigion alone. Here are articles in English and Welsh from Ken about both the excavations and the Pendinas festival held in September 2024.

25th January: Dydd Santes Dwynwen is nearly upon us. Some of us will of course be celebrating this in preference to Valentine’s Day the following month. But who was Dwynwen? Why has she become known as ‘Wales’ St Valentine?’ Who, infact was St Valentine and why do people send their loved-ones cards on these day? The blogs below, by historical fiction writer S E Morgan, give us the answers and also introduce her novel, "The King over the Sea" which features Dwynwen: The legend of St Dwynwen; the Welsh patron saint of lovers, and Shakespeare’s inspiration? https://semorganhistoricalfiction.wordpress.com/2024/01/22/25th-january-its-the-welsh-valentines-day-st-dwynwens-day-dydd-santes-dwynwen/

New Year Newsletter introducing the new CAS website:

Summer newsletter from our chair. The dark days of Covid restrictions thankfully over, Cymdeithas Aberaeron Society (CAS) was able to resume some sense of normality in 2023 ... Download the attached .pdf for the full article. Right-click to open in a new tab or window.

Local legends are always good to hear again. When she came to give a talk to CAS in 2022, historical fiction writer, S.E. Morgan also took the opportunity to explore the local area. Here is the resulting blog, with a description of her walk from Llangrannog and some history thrown in too: https://semorganhistoricalfiction.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/a-walk-from-llangrannog-in-the-footsteps-of-giants-the-tale-of-bicas-toothache/

Did you know that Ostium Ayron is the first recorded name for Aberaeron from way back in the 13th Century? I don’t think many of us did until our November lecture when Dr James January-McCann of The Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments of Wales gave a fascinating talk about his work collecting the historic place names in Wales. Here is his brief introduction to the List of Historic Place Names of Wales: https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk is a groundbreaking and innovative resource, unique to Wales. The List contains over 700,000 historic place names collected from a variety of sources, which provide a fascinating insight into the land-use, archaeology and history of Wales. The place names included in the List reflect the various forms and spellings used from the Middle Ages to the present day, often including elements that refer to buildings, people, archaeological or topographical features. The creation of this List and its availability online, as well as through four regional Historic Environment Records, means that for the first time, members of the public, researchers and those involved in decision making on matters affecting the Welsh historic environment are able to easily make reference to a geo-located, national, authoritative record of historic place names. The names are collected from a variety of sources, such as historic maps, local history projects, books of place names, medieval poetry and old documents such as wills or deeds. We also have many thousands of names contributed by members of the public. The List is used by local and national government, developers and governmental bodies such as Cadw and Natural Resources Wales in the naming and renaming of new sites, streets and housing developments, to ensure that they are named with historic names, and that our place name heritage remains visible in the landscape.” Dr James January- McCann Dec 2023. Below is a copy of James' Powerpoint presentation that sadly we were unable to see on the night. It contains a number of helpful links:

Prompted by some photos I sent her of Aberaeron’s Mackerel Fiesta, my friend and historical fiction writer S.E Morgan was inspired to look into this tradition. Her research took her well beyond our own town, as far afield as China in fact. Her fascinating article is available from the link below: https://semorganhistoricalfiction.wordpress.com/2023/08/30/aberaeron-and-its-mackerel-festival/

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.’ 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

Stori Aberaeron Story is getting off to a flying start – 40 – 50 students from Aberaeron School, the Pupil Referral Unit and the Youth Club are building a mosaic to go on the riverside shelter. Community Artist Pod Clare is leading the design and it’s growing very fast! We are delighted that so many are enjoying the process and look forward to the building of the community mosaic for the Tourist Information Office.

Our first post-Covid outing took place in June 2023, our destination, Strata Florida. There we had a fascinating visit to the abbey itself, the Mynachlog Fawr exhibition of Ceredigion rural life and the archaeological dig on the site at the time. Lunch followed in Tregaron; at the cosy and atmospheric old coaching inn, Y Talbot. This has long been a favourite of mine. When researching my family tree some years ago I was surprised to discover a closer connection with the inn through my great-great-great grandfather, Thomas. While waiting to be served, this is the story I shared with members: Thomas Jenkins (1819-1850) Thomas, a local customs officer, died on 19th January 1850 and, I quote The Welshman, in ‘mysterious circumstances’ following a night in that very hostelry. Foul play was suspected - customs officers were probably not exactly popular in those times - and his drinking companion for the evening, a German clock-maker, Herr Christian Moser, was arrested. They had left together but Thomas never made it home. His body was found several days later, 2 miles down the river from Tregaron after the river had been dragged all the way to Lampeter and back. The Welshman gave a detailed report recording the subsequent inquest, held in The Talbot, on 24th January. Its title: ‘Inquest on a drunken dead tax-man.’ Through witness statements, it tells how Thomas had gone to the Talbot at about 10pm. He had drunk one glass of brandy and water then went home to fetch his fiddle. He then remained in the pub drinking amiably with Herr Moser until about 2am drinking brandy and gin, by which time he was ‘far gone in liquor’. As he was having trouble walking, Moser accompanied him towards home & shortly returned to the pub where he was staying. He asked for a torch as Thomas had dropped his hat and asked Moser to look for it. A small search party set off from The Talbot: the hat was found, as was a portion of Thomas’ coat sleeve. Of Thomas there was no sign and it was assumed he had got home. The next morning his maid came to the Talbot looking for him and the alert was sounded. Evidence from Avarina Evans, a servant girl at the Talbot, shed light on Thomas’ behaviour when intoxicated - and I get the sense from the various statements that this was a fairly regular occurrence. He had the habit of pouring water over his face and washing his hands. On several occasions he had asked Avarina to pour a jug of water over his head. Others reported how he had also been seen a number of times going to wash himself in the river when in such a state. The surgeon found no evidence of an attack on his body, just a few abrasions on the body consistent with a fall in the river. It would therefore appear he had simply slipped into the Teifi in his drunken stupor and died. The eventual verdict was therefore ‘accidental death from drowning’ and Herr Moser was released without charge. And that was the sorry end of my great-great-great grandfather!

The beautiful Nanteos mansion was the destination of our October trip. Now a hotel and wedding venue, this 18th century house outside Aberystwyth is probably most famous for having housed the Nanteos cup, said to be the holy grail. Janet Joel, author of the book ‘Nanteos: Life on a Welsh Country Estate’, was our guide for the afternoon. Here she describes the house and our tour: A guided tour: 11th October 2023 Nanteos was built in 1739, by the Powell family. The Powell’s owned over 31,000 acres at their peak, owning mostly North of Ceredigion and many lead and silver mines. The Georgian mansion was built by Thomas Powell and his wife Mary which the foundation stone states on the East side of the mansion. Sadly, Thomas Powell died in 1752 before completion but his brother Rev. William Powell completed the build. The mansion is built on top of a smaller house, which remains underneath and used as a cellar, it has been suggested that it dates to the 13th century. During the tour we walked from the Entrance Hall through to the Morning Room, following through to the library, which is now the hotel bar. During the Powell time the Nanteos Cup was kept in a locked cupboard and taken out when visitors called to drink from it. Then through to the dining room, the largest room of the house. We continued the tour up the grand staircase to the gallery and saw the very grand Music room, with its decorative Rococo design, large mirrors, and Aesop’s Fable marble fireplace. Today, wedding ceremonies are conducted in this lavish room. Then up to the second floor, to see the smaller private areas of the Powell family; today the rooms are bedroom suites for the hotel. The attic rooms where the servants slept had been removed in the early 1960s due to replacing the roof with lead. Returning down to the ground floor via the servant staircase to the service areas. The service bells still hung in the corridor, sadly only the Music Room bell remains in working order. Then onto the kitchen, which was laid out for breakfasts for the visitors of the hotel. The Victorian dresser remains in the kitchen as does the ‘Vigars of Aberystwyth’ cooking range, charcoal ovens, and a huge plate warmer. Hooks can still be seen on the ceiling that once hung the meat for the family. Making our way outside, to the courtyard, where there were more service rooms, including the Estate office and battery store, which are now 4 dog friendly bedroom suites. Leaving the courtyard, we were led to the Greek style stables, built in and around 1837, which would have housed up to 18 horses and several carriages. Then back down to the walled garden, and eventually returning to the dining room for afternoon tea. Jan Joel 2023 You can read more about the house on her website: A History of Nanteos Mansion