August | 2023 | Letter from Aberystwyth

by The Curious Scribbler,

I called in at St Michael’s Eglwysfach this afternoon to view their latest exhibition – of historic and recent Bridal and Baptismal Gowns. The exhibits are provided by people who are local to the area, some who were born in the parish, others who migrated from elsewhere bringing their memorabilia with them. First impressions are of an airy whitewashed church interior with simple dark brown box pews. Each pew gives access to a wooden mannequin clothed in wedding gown, and a short description of the gown, its wearer and its day of glory. Curated by Lynda Thomas, the exhibition casts fascinating light on not just the fluctuations of fashion but on the social history of the last century or so. Accompanying material include wedding photographs and the wearer’s memories. It is much more personal than just an exhibition of gowns.

St Michael’s Eglwsfach adorned with wedding gowns

The oldest gown on display went up the aisle in 1928 fashionably exposing Sue Billingsley’s grandmother’s ankles. Muriel Mary Richards made the dress herself in fine silk velvet with appliqued velvet flowers and embroidery and beads. She must have been a talented seamstress. Possibly age has discoloured it. In the accompanying photograph is looks to be white.

The oldest gown worn in 1928 in West Bridgford, Nottingham

Next in antiquity was a heavy figured satin gown with long fitted sleeves and a broad divided collar. Alison Swanson’s auntie wore it to her wedding at St Matthew’s Church, Borth in 1957. A prestigious dress from Roecliff and Chapman of Grosvenor Street, London, couturiers to Princess Grace Kelly. Eleven years later Alison wore it to her own wedding at the same church. Flanking this mighty dress are those of her two daughters-in-law who were married this century. The contemporary take on the formal white dress involves bare arms and shoulders which would have surprised the great aunt. The other bride wore a pretty informal floral gown.

Alison Swanson married in 1968 wearing her auntie’s vintage 1957 gown. Her two daughters in laws’ dresses on either side.

Had Alison been buying anew, she might instead have considered a statuesque flowing dress like the one worn by Mary Andrews when she married Keith Fletcher at St Bride’s Church, Cwmdauddwr Rhayader. From Marshall and Snelgrove’s grand London store, it was of floaty rayon georgette fabric suspended from a bodice and sleeves of Guipure lace with pearl droplets. The groom must have had to take care not to tread on her train.

1967 gown with a long train from up-market department store Marshall and Snelgrove

Another mother and daughter trio was provided by Celia Boorman whose wedding to Russell Davies took place in 1972 at St Petroc’s Church, South Brent, in Devon. Graduate students at Oxford at the time, they were on their way to buy tyres for his Mini when she spotted this flamboyant dress in a shop window in Cowley.

Celia Boorman married in 1972 in this flamboyant dress, her daughters’ dresses are on either side .

Her daughter Imogen married at Gregynog Hall in 2014 wearing another white bare shouldered dress, while in 2018 daughter Tamsin had two wedding outfits, one for her wedding at St Michael’s Eglwysfach and the other for her Hindu wedding in Bradford. The sari is displayed like a tent behind the mannequin.

Sheila Cuthbert wore a pale blue Laura Ashley ‘Prairie’ dress when she married Mervyn Lloyd in Wombourne Registry Office in 1979. Sleeves were long and necks were high in the 1970s. It put me in mind of a similar dress I wore to my wedding in 1973. My mother-in-law forbade a white wedding because she knew we had already shared a tent! These were dresses which could come out on other occasions: Sheila wore hers at a Millenium party.

A blue Laura Ashley gown for Sheila Cuthbert and Mervyn Lloyd’s registry office wedding in 1979

Lynda Warren was married twice in the 1980s, both times wearing a hat. Her second wedding, to Barry Thomas, was in a Registry Office and a chic Mothercare maternity gown. It was touch and go whether the nuptuals would precede the baby.

Two 1980s gowns worn by Lynda Warren

The collection of baptismal gowns is less varied that the bridal ones, and also older, with several Victorian or Edwardian gowns which have attended numerous family christenings. The main fashion trend seems to have been that they have got a little shorter over the decades. They are displayed in the enclosure around the font alongside glowering images of RS Thomas.

Baptism Gowns displayed around the font

Many families have carefully preserved their baptismal gowns, but Joy Neal must be congratulated on also retaining the box.

Trouseaux and layettes from Steinmann & Co of Piccadilly

The Exhibition is open till the end of the month 10am-4pm with the option of tea and cake for a modest £2.00 a head. Donations support local charities Hospice at Home ( HAHAV) and Riding for the Disabled (RDA). I reccommend it.

by The Curious Scribbler

Barely had I returned from the walk around Pendinas when the news emerged of the imminent sale of the magnificent meadow and marshland which abuts Tanybwlch beach. For long this land had belonged to farmer Lewis Jones of Ynyshir and Tanycastell farms, – a man with an unenviable reputation for livestock neglect – and limited enthusiasm for SSSIs. Following his death a couple of years ago the most coastal part of Tanycastell farm has now been put on the market with estate agents Aled Ellis.

The area for sale is the stony barrier spit and three coastal fields south of the river Ystwyth and the steeply sloping meadow which clothes Alltwen cliff. According to the particulars the 153 acres has a guide price of £1.4 million, an average of £9150 an acre. This seems a substantial sum. Seventy seven acres is described as level pasture but the particulars omit to mention that part of it floods regularly and it is reverting below Tanybwlch mansion to salt marsh. With rising sea levels it was already resolved twenty years ago that the Tanyblwch flats cannot be protected from the sea. A further 63 acres of Alltwen is described as sheepwalk. This perhaps overstates the case, for the land ownership extends to high tide mark so almost 1/3 of the Alltwen land area is cliff and tumbled former quarry inhospitable even to a mountain goat!

I worry deeply that this high price is not unconnected with the final words in the particulars: The land will also be of interest to investors, statutory bodies and conservationists in additional to those who wish to develop a commercial enterprise (subject to planning) on the Southern fringes of Aberystwyth.

By a miracle Tanybwlch land has escaped a number of commercial enterprises. The previous owner was Col. Lewis Pugh who bought it in hope of installing Aberystwyth airport there, and on failing to secure the necessary investment sold it in the 1960s to Lewis Jones. Some 35 years ago I was one of the objectors who fought off the proposal to install a sewage maceration plant which would mince Aberystwyth’s sewage and discharge it, still rich in microbes, a little further out to sea. ( Thankfully a state of the art treatment plant was instead built on the Rheidol Industrial estate, and our sea is the better for it).

But what commercial horrors might now threaten this beautiful piece of land? We must hope that our planning authority would be equal to the task of fending off development. This is a piece of land which richly deserves a conservationist owner. The Alltwen and Traeth Tanybwlch SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) represents the rare and specialist coastal flora of the shingle beach. Sea holly, sea sandwort, restharrow and horned poppy are among the most conspicuous of an elite flora and Ray’s knotgrass one of the rarest. The sheepwalk above is one of the finest locations for waxcaps and the remarkable Devil’s Fingers fungi in the county. Wheatear and rock pipit nest on the stony shore, and choughs, peregrines and ravens frequent the cliffs.

As climate changes it is becoming even more diverse. With rising seas and fiercer storms the south west corner at the foot of Alltwen now forms a shallow lagoon for long periods of the winter, and the pool is visited by teal, widgeon, mallard, redshank, curlew, lapwing, heron, little egret and migrating geese. The vegetation is already changing to saltmarsh, and if the land drains were blocked, a marsh as important as the Dyfi will soon develop. One day the shingle spit may be entirely breached and the river Ystwyth may resume an earlier course towards the sea.

Flooding of Tanybwlch flats after Storm Dennis in 2020

The sea deposited loads of sand over the shingle bar and into the fields February 2022

All this nature and beauty on the very doorstep of Aberystwyth is a magnificent asset and with a more specific designation could bring yet more visitors to the town. Lying between Pendinas, the finest hillfort in the county and the wooded slopes of the original Aberystwyth Castle, and skirted by the Welsh Coastal Path, these fields are an incomparably important part of the scenery and must be protected. A conservation saviour is urgently required.