Welsh History Websites

Welsh History

Websites

Wales 1700-1960: Biographies of people born in Wales. People featured include Clifford Allen, William Berry, Aneurin Bevan, Clement Davies, Violet Douglas-Pennant, John Frost, Vernon Hartshorn, David Lloyd George, Josiah Guest, Leslie Illingworth, Augustus John, Gwen John, Samuel Jones, Robert Owen, Richard Price, Sarah Siddons, Thora Silverthorne, Howard Spring, Bert Thomas, David Albert Thomas, Edward Thomas, Jimmy Thomas, Margaret Haig Thomas and Gerald of Wales.

BUBL Welsh History Reference Library: BUBL Information Service, based at Strathclyde University Library, is a searchable database of Internet resources of academic relevance. The websites are organized by Dewey Decimal Classification and can be searched by subject or class number.

Castles of Wales: This website is the work of Jeffrey L. Thomas. This attractively designed website enables the user to find out about 170 different castles. The creators provide a detailed history of each castle. As well as text there are numerous illustrations, for example, Beaumaris has twelve photographs and a drawing of the layout of the castle. To help the student there is an excellent online glossary of castle terms. There is also a section on Welsh Abbeys and a whole range of links with other sites including: 'A History of Wales', 'Royal Families of Wales' and 'Cultural Traditions'.

David Lloyd George is probably the greatest international statesman to come from Wales. His influence was very marked on the life of Wales, the United Kingdom and Europe. He was a Liberal member of Parliament for fifty years and served in government as President of the Board of Trade (1905-08), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908-15), Arms Minister (1915-16) and War Minister (1916). In December 1916 at the height of the First World War he became Prime Minister and held that office until 1922. This online exhibition was originally prepared in March 1995 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death and focuses on both public and private aspects of his life.

Architecture of Wales: The exhibits of this online exhibition are arranged into nine themes some of which accord with building function, namely Domestic Architecture; Public Architecture; Public Utilities; Industrial, Commercial, and Military Architecture; Religious Architecture; Lost Houses; Unfulfilled Conceptions; R.E. Bonsall : Examples from an Aberystwyth Practice; Photographs and Postcards.

South Wales Coalfield Collection was established in 1969 as an attempt to preserve the documentary records of the mining community of South Wales. The South Wales Coalfield Collection (SWCC) gives an insight into the experience of the South Wales Valleys during a period of industrial turmoil both from an institutional and personal perspective. It contains records of trade unions (notably the South Wales Miners' Federation, later the National Union of Mineworkers (South Wales Area) and the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, miners' institutes, cooperative societies, and individuals connected with the mining community.

Welsh Political Archive: This website presents social and political campaigning in Wales during the twentieth century through the use of digitised images of original documents, photographs and sound and video files. The campaigns voice the rights of various groups, for example the right of women to vote, or the right of miners and quarrymen to fair wages and decent working conditions. The material has been selected from various collections in the National Library of Wales. The material can be accessed directly from the site map, the search facility, or the time-line. It is also possible to access the material thematically. The site is divided into six themes - The Ballot Box, Labour Struggles, War and Peace, The Welsh Language, Devolution and The Water Industry.

Tribute to the Rhondda: This website provides a short socio-economic history of the Rhondda Valleys during the period 1800 to 1950 when Coal was King. The material is organized under the following headings: Facts & Figures, General Items, Living Conditions, Miners' Diseases, Photographs, Pit Ponies, Tonypandy Riots, Transport, Visitors and Working Conditions.