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Description

Photographed by John Thomas, 1867.

J. Ceiriog Hughes (1832-87) was born in Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, Denbighshire. After working in Manchester and later as a railway clerk in London he returned to Wales in 1868 when he was appointed station-master at Caersws. Ceiriog had begun composing poetry as a young man, but it was not until 1860 that his first volume was published, entitled 'Oriau'r Hwyr'. Further volumes quickly followed, including 'Oriau'r Bore' (1862) and 'Cant o Ganeuon' (1863), which contained some of his most popular work. His songs in particular were extremely popular and some, such as 'Nant y Mynydd' and 'Alun Mabon' continue to be sung and recited at eisteddfodau and concerts.

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Comments (2)

Anonymous's profile picture
My name is Bruce Matteson, I live in Los Angeles, California. My mother was English and her mother's family settled in the Rhonda Valley sometime in the late 19th century. My grand uncles worked down in the coal mines of the valley and the only thing that got them out was WWI and the trenches of France, where Uncle Jimmy was killed just before Armistice. My grandmother must have learned some of John Ceiriog Hughes poetry as a girl; our family always heard bits of Ar Hwyr D Nos and Nant y Mynydd in Welsh as my grandmother and great grandmother remembered them. Tonight as I was strolling to the grocery for a few odds and ends, as is my wont, I popped in to the used book and record store on Franklin Ave. As I was looking about, I spotted a hard copy edition from 1965 of The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, used, in Welsh for $4.00. Sure enough Nant y Mynydd was in there. I asked my mother a few years ago if she could write down what she remembered of the poem and send it to me so that i could read it to my students. My mother died in June and with her, I thought, this poem. Tonight I found the poem and as I begin next month teaching Tennyson's Idylls of the King, I will now have some Welsh verse to read to them so that they can hear the non-Latinized tongue of the British Isles.
Anonymous's profile picture
John Ceiriog Hughes 1832 - 1887. His eldest son Arthur Trevor Ceiriog Hughes was born in Chorlton Cheshire in 1863 and after various jobs he settled in Benwell Newcastle upon Tyne,he married Elizabeth Atkin a native of Corbridge on Tyne in 1906. In December 1910 a daughter was born Elizabeth Ceiriog Hughes unfortunatly the child died in 1911 but not before she was recorded in the census for that year the family lived at 16. Clara Street Benwell the sameaddress where Arthur Trevor Hughes died in 1920. His widow later moved to Rochdale Lancashire living in Rochdale she remarried in 1931 to Walter Butterworth who died in 1935, Elizabeth herself died there in 1946.

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