This dissertation traces the economic and social transformation of two remote and mountainous parishes in north-west Monmouthshire from the middle of the eighteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth, with the aim of analysing some of the important characteristics of an industrial society in the most exciting stages of its development. Following an Introduction in which the parishes of Bedwellty and Aberystruth are located and the changes broadly surveyed, the first part of the dissertation discusses the nature of the transformation in detail. Attention is given in Chapter II to the coming of industry : the founding of iron works, the opening of coal mines, the improvement of means of transport, and the basic elements of industrial organization locally. The other main instrument of change, namely the growth of population, is the theme of Chapter III, which includes a study in depth of the census of 1851. To close the section, Chapter IV looks at the socio-economic groupings created by these industrial and demographic factors. In the second part, major aspects of life in the parishes are examined in order to judge how far the influence of industry did in fact permeate the warp and woof of society. Chapter V discusses the quality of life; Chapter VI, religion, education, cultural activities, and recreation; Chapter VII, the government of the district; and Chapter VIII, local politics, both parliamentary and unofficial, with particular reference to industrial disturbances, the Scotch Cattle, and Chartism. In each case emphasis is placed on the relationship between the role of the entrepreneur and that of other members of the rapidly growing communities. On the basis of the evidence of these chapters, an attempt is made in Chapter IX to show that, while this society apparently lived, moved, and had its being in industry, it was the persistence of non-industrial elements which constituted perhaps the most significant of all the features of this particular industrial society at the middle of the nineteenth century

Ceir yn y traethawd hwn astudiaeth o enwau lleoedd chwe phlwyf (Llanafan Fawr, Llanddewi Abergwesyn, Llanfihangel Abergwesyn, Llanfihangel Bryn Pabuan, Llanwrtyd, a Llanwrthwl) a dwy dref ddegwm (Llysdinam a Rhosferig) yng ngogledd Cantref Buellt yn yr hen sir Frycheiniog. Fe'i seilir ar gronfa helaeth o ffurfiau o'r holl enwau a gasglwyd o ystod eang o ffynonellau ysgrifenedig (o'r nawfed ganrif hyd hanner cyntaf yr ugeinfed ganrif) ac oddi ar lafar. Caiff y ffynonellau hynny eu trafod a'u gwerthuso mewn pennod ragarweiniol. Trefnir y gwaith yn öl trefn y wyddor fesul plwyf, a cheisiwyd nodi lleoliad ac uchder ar gyfer pob enw, gan gynnig dehongliad Ile bo angen. Cynhwysir atodiadau o enwau caeau (wedi eu rhestru dan enw'r daliad) ar ddiwedd pob adran. Ceir pedwar mynegai i'r gwaith; mynegai i'r elfennau Cymraeg a Cheltaidd (sy'n cynnwys ymdriniaethau ä'r elfennau mwyaf cyffredin), mynegai i'r elfennau Saesneg, Ffrangeg, ayb., mynegai i enwau priod, a mynegai i enwau lleoedd gogledd Buellt (sy'n cynnwys croesgyfeiriadau or holl ffurfiau amrywiol).

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Lady Llanover (1802-1896) was one of the most important female contributors to the nineteenth century Welsh cultural revival and although historians have paid her a certain amount of attention, her life and works have never before undergone a full study. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse her place in the history of nineteenth century Wales and to consider the view that her life's actions ultimately led her to attempt to create a Welsh cultural Utopia for the Welsh tenants on her estate at Llanover in Monmouthshire. This study is not a conventional biography and therefore not every detail of Lady Llanover's life can feature, rather this thesis thematically explores her fascination with Wales, Welsh traditions and culture in order to throw light on what became a full and life long project. This thesis will focus on Lady Llanover's tenacious personality and explore her identity. It will take into account the economic, social and political changes that occurred in nineteenth century Welsh society and consider how Lady Llanover reacted and responded to such changes. Moreover, it will ask what influenced Lady Llanover's cultural ideals and reveal how her home was transformed into a centre of Welsh cultural scholarship. It will be revealed how she used her position of power to influence others and how this became an important aspect of her campaigns to safeguard her version of Welsh culture. She famously showed a special interest in the Welsh costume, triple harp and the Welsh language and therefore no work written on her could omit a discussion of those topics but what this thesis seeks to demonstrate is that even though Lady Llanover eventually came to be regarded by some, as an obsessive eccentric, she pored her energy into creating a haven for her version of Welsh culture.

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This is a study of the Mostyn family and estate down to 1642. The Mostyns were the result of a series of marriages in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries which brought together the 'Five Courts' of Pengwem, Trecastell, Mostyn, Gloddaith and Tregamedd} these lines met in Richard ap Hyvel (d.1540) whose son Thomas first adopted the surname from his principal seat. The first part of the thesis deals with the history of the component families in the middle ages, while the second part covers the history of the Mostyn family from 1540 to 1642; it is followed by discussions of the estate and its management, of office, politics and public life, of litigation, of education and marriage and of the family as bardic patrons. The Mostyns are of particular interest for several reasons. They were lucky; in every generation from before 1200 to 1831 they managed to produce a male heir and were therefore spared the rapid decline which failure brought to Gwydir for example. This also explains why they have retained so much of the original estate. They were never too ambitious; Richard ap Hywel's reputed refusal of Henry Tudor's invitation after Bosworth seems to symbolise their attitude. They played an active and important part in local government but they showed little enthusiasm for membership of parliament and they never sought to dominate their county. Their litigation did not reflect local rivalries; they seem, in fact, to have had few enemies. They gradually built up their estate and their fortunes, helped by the fact that they were among the first to exploit the coal measures on their lands on a commercial scale. And their role as patrons is highlighted by the part they played in connection with the two Caerwys eisteddfodau in 1523 and 1567.

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) is largely absent from the narrative of Welsh devolution, in particular from the left’s engagement with the national question, as it is from much of the discussion of Welsh politics in general, a surprising omission considering its significant role within the labour movement in Wales and its commitment from the 1930s to legislative devolution for Wales. This study offers, for the first time, an in-depth analysis of the party’s engagement with the national question in Wales, from its formation in 1920 to its dissolution in 1991. The party’s engagement with the national question is approached through a study of its policy on Welsh self-government, its attitude to the Welsh language and Welsh culture, its relationship with the nationalist movement, and its broader policy programme for Wales. Despite its early neglect of the issue, the CPGB developed, from the mid-1930s onwards, a policy on the national question in Wales based on support for a legislative Welsh parliament within a federal governmental system, alongside support for the equal status for the Welsh language. While the level of the CPGB’s engagement with the national question was linked to the fortunes of the Welsh nationalist movement, its policy on the issue was guided by its need to accommodate both the right of national self-determination and its commitment to the unity of the British working class movement, its federalism derived from its commitment to this left-wing form of British unionism. Policy on these issues was developed primarily in Wales, the party’s prolonged, if at times intermittent, engagement with the issue, marking the Welsh party out as having, alongside its internationalism and its commitment to the British working class movement, a distinct Welsh identity.

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Summary The thesis comprises of seven main chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter one examines the antebellum years and the development of Welsh-American political thought during the three decades leading up to the American Civil War. Chapter two deals with the effect that the Civil War had upon Welsh-Americans. Chapter Three considers the impact that the conflict in America had upon the Welsh in Wales through looking at the way in which they perceived the conflict and also the economic benefits that the Civil War brought to the Welsh economy. Chapter four focuses upon how the American Civil War influenced the development of modern Welsh pacifism. Chapter five addresses the literary impact of the conflict upon both Welsh and Welsh-American literature. Chapter six examines the beneficial impact that the Civil War had upon Welsh emigration to America. Chapter seven takes as its theme the animosity which developed between the Welsh in Wales and the Welsh in America as a result of the conflict. In the conclusion, I argue that the conflict was a profound event in Welsh history and was an important watershed in terms of the Welsh economy, emigration, pacifism, literature and in the relationship between the Welsh in Wales and the Welsh in America.

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