Written evidence submitted by Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society

Birkenhead’s ‘Black Chair’ Centenary Festival September 2017

1. In September 1917 the National Eisteddfod of Wales was held in Birkenhead Park and was known thereafter as the ‘Black Chair Eisteddfod’. The main ceremony of the Eisteddfod, the chairing of the winning bard, was held on Thursday, September 6th, in the presence of the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. However, when the name of the winning bard was called no one rose in the pavilion and it was then announced that the poet, Hedd Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans) had died in Flanders some six weeks previously. The empty chair, which had been expertly crafted by Eugene Vanfleteren, a Belgium refugee living in Birkenhead, was draped in a black cloth and later taken back to the poet’s home, Yr Ysgwrn, in Trawsfynydd.

2. To commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Black Chair Eisteddfod a partnership consisting of the Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society, Friends of Birkenhead Park, Wirral Council and the Snowdonia National Park Authority organised a major festival for the summer months of 1917 and which consisted of two elements, a bilingual festival (funded by donations from individuals and societies) and a community engagement project (funded by a grant of £9,300 from the Heritage Lottery: First World War Centenary Fund). The organising committee, drawn from the partnership members, met regularly over the preceding twelve months. The following paragraphs give brief details of the two elements of the commemorative programme.

3. A bilingual festival (Gŵyl Hedd Wyn) was held over two days, Saturday, September 9th and Sunday, September 10th. The Saturday programme was held in the school hall of the Wirral Hospital School, situated on the edge of Birkenhead Park and near the site of the pavilion of the 1917 Eisteddfod. The School staff, led by the Headmaster, Mr Phil Arrowsmith and the Deputy Head, Mrs Sarah Marrion, made an invaluable contribution to all aspects of the day’s activities.

4. Some two hundred people attended the sessions held in the School Hall throughout the day. In addition to excellent local support from Merseyside listeners came from north and south Wales and from Welsh speakers’ clubs in Preston, London, Caerphilly, and Cardiff together with a delegation for Flanders.

5. The morning session consisted of three lectures: the first, in Welsh (with simultaneous translation facilities) by Dr D Ben Rees on ‘The Birkenhead Welsh and the Eisteddfod’, followed by Emeritus Professor Robert Lee, University of Liverpool, on the ‘Belgian Connection’; with Professor Peredur Lynch, Bangor University, ending the morning session with a lecture in Welsh (translation facilities) on ‘The Public Memory of Hedd Wyn’ (this lecture was held under the auspices of the Honourable Society of the Cymmrodorion and introduced by its President Professor Prys Morgan). 

6. The afternoon session began with a lecture by Dr Huw Edwards on ‘David Lloyd George’, the Prime Minister of the day and who was present at the 1917 Eisteddfod. This was followed by a chairing ceremony presided over by the Archdruid of the Welsh Gorsedd, Geraint Lloyd Owen. The chair was presented to the Festival by the Hedd Wyn Society of Flanders and eight representatives were present. The chair, awarded for an ode on the theme of Hedd Wyn, was made from the timbers used as railway sleepers in the narrow-gauge lines laid to bring ammunition to the front in the war. Nine entries were received, all of a high standard and the winner was Martin Huws of Cardiff.

7. The next session involved the unveiling of a memorial to Hedd Wyn in Birkenhead Park. It is placed at the foot of the commemorative stone denoting the holding of the Eisteddfod in 1917. It was unveiled in the presence of a large gathering and the Mayor of Wirral, the Metro Mayor, Sir Deian Hopkin, representing the First Minister of Wales, Lieutenant-General Jonathon Riley (R.W.F.), Mr John Meeus, Honorary Consul of Belgium, Manchester, Rev. Glenys Wilkinson, Rev. Dr. D Ben Rees and presided over by Dr. Huw Edwards.

8. An open poetry competition was promoted, as part of the Community Engagement Project (see below) and young poets were invited to submit poems, in English or Welsh, on the theme of ‘The Hero’. The winning entries were presented with their commissioned silver crowns in the final session of the day’s programme. The winning entries and the lectures given were later published in a volume edited by D. Ben Rees, Hedd Wyn & the Black Chair Eisteddfod, (Gwasg Y Llofa, 2018).

9. During the evening session two choirs—the Anglesey Youth Choir and the North Wales Rugby Choir--together with the harpist Dylan Cernyw and the tenor Huw Ynyr, took part.

10. On Sunday morning a memorial service was held at Seion Chapel, Laird Street followed in the afternoon by a singing festival conducted by Dr. Alwyn Hymphreys, Cardiff, along with items from the Rhosllanerchrugog Male Voice Choir.

11. Impact: During the summer of 1917 many commemorative events were held in Wales marking the centenary of the Black Chair Eisteddfod but with the above Festival ‘history came home’. All the elements of the Festival served to raise local and national awareness of the important role played by Birkenhead in the history of Wales’ major cultural event. The memorial to Hedd Wyn now in the Park serves as a permanent reminder of the events of a hundred years ago and of the sacrifice made by a generation of young men.

12. During September 2017, as part of the Community Engagement Project, six classes of year 5/6 pupils from five local schools in an area of high deprivation, visited Birkenhead Park to learn about Birkenhead in the 1st World War and the impact of the 1917 ‘Black Chair’ Eisteddfod. The visits, led by a professional historian and artist, included worksheets, art-work and poetry. Some 200 children, supported by teachers and volunteers took part. Following the visit to Birkenhead park, six half day workshops were held in the schools, led by professional illustrator Siân Bailey and published poet, Eleanor Rees. Their work was then displayed as part of the Black Chair exhibition displayed in Birkenhead Park Visitor Centre, September 9th to October 26th, and viewed by well over 1,000 people. An impressive anthology of their work was compiled and 500 copies of ‘War & Peace’ was published and had a wide circulation.

13. A group of older ladies from BeeWirral joined forces to help research the ‘Black Chair’ exhibition (see below) This included visits to Wirral Archives, Birkenhead Central Library and the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum. Archivists, librarians, museum curators and professional historians were all involved. The group’s research became part of the Black Chair’ exhibition in Birkenhead Park and associated interpretation leaflets. The group, none of whom had ever taken part in a history project before, continued to meet and went on to research the role of local women during the First World War.

14. A group from Livingstone Community Centre visited the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum to learn about curating and mounting exhibitions. The Curator took them ‘behind the scenes’ to show them some of the potential exhibits and they shadowed the Senior Technician who was in the process of mounting another exhibition. Their small exhibition (which included a Bardic Chair) was displayed in the Williamson in early November as part of the Poetry ‘Sharing’ Events.

15. The exhibition telling the story of the Black Chair and the poet Hedd Wyn was opened on September 9th as part of the Black Chair Eisteddfod Centenary festival and remained on display in the Park Visitor Centre until mid-October for delegates attending the World Urban Parks European Congress. It featured the replica of the original Black Chair, on loan from the Snowdonia National Park Authority. A six-page leaflet was also produced about the exhibition and widely circulated. To celebrate the Black Chair and promote the exhibition, a second smaller chair travelled around Birkenhead on a 1916 steam powered lorry.

16. The culmination of the project was a ‘Sharing Day’ held on November 3rd at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, when over 90 children from schools involved in the project came together to share their stories, poems and experiences. It proved to be an extremely memorable event which included performances by professional poets.

17. Impact: There is little doubt that the educational programme with the local schools created a lasting impression on all who took part. The poems and drawings produced in the workshops and presented in the booklet ‘War & Peace’ express graphically the horrors of the First World War and they imagine peace as a reality and a hope. The work was widely circulated and enthusiastically received and admired. The community activity inspired a continuation of an interest in local history. Finally, the role played by Belgian refugees in Birkenhead during the First World War is now the subject of a follow up project.

18. The following items were published; War & Peace: An Anthology of Poems about the First World War; Hedd Wyn Festival Programme; Birkenhead’s Black Chair Eisteddfod (leaflet). Copies can be sent on request.

Arthur Thomas

Secretary, Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society

March 2019