Did you know that a group of men, outraged by the 1955 decision to flood the Welsh-speaking village of Capel Celyn to create a new reservoir to provide drinking water for Liverpool, decided to take matters into their own hands?
What Happened?
By 1963, the dam was well under construction, though efforts to prevent what was viewed as an enormous injustice in Cymru remained strong. Three men, a farmer’s son named Owain Williams, an Aberystwyth student named Emyr Llewelyn and former RAF military policeman, John Albert Jones, founded Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (the “Movement for the Defence of Wales”).
The three men got together and created a 2.3 kg (5 lb) bomb. In the early hours of 9 February, 1963, they fought against sub-zero temperatures and large amounts of snow to plant the bomb at the site of the dam – successfully destroying an electricity transformer.
Unfortunately for Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, this would only delay the plans to flood Capel Celyn and would result in each of them, eventually, being caught.
Emyr Llewelyn was sentenced to 12 months in prison for the attack and, whilst he was busy being charged, Williams and Jones successfully blew up a pylon at Gellilydan (near Trawsfynydd), Gwynedd. They, too, would be caught and charged following this second bombing. Williams was given a one-year prison sentence for his part while Jones received three years on probation for his own involvement in the plan.
Just two years following the efforts of the three men, Capel Celyn was flooded. 70 people were forced to leave their homes while 12 houses, a school, a chapel and a post office were submerged under water. The remnants of Capel Celyn remain visible to visitors to the lake at certain times of the year, when water levels reduce.
If Cymru had not been politically powerless and underrepresented at the time then, perhaps, none of this would have happened. It makes you think.
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Niklas is the founder, owner, manager, editor, writer, video creator, voice over artist, and so forth, of Welsh Histories. He is passionate about the preservation of Welsh culture; the rejuvenation of the Welsh language and the promotion of Welsh history. Niklas currently resides in Pune, Maharashtra, with his beloved wife.