Martin Tarr

Croeso 2023

Friday 15 September 2023

A goodly number of members and their guests attended our usual Croeso evening at the Mortonhall Golf Club. We welcomed a number of new members and gave a very special welcome to Bryan and Pat Watts, President and First Lady of the Wellington Welsh Society, New Zealand, seen below with our own Presidential couple and Secretary:

At the Croeso, our generous buffet supper was followed by a competition to match those present with photos of themselves as youngsters. Some were easier than others! A chance was given to each subject to say a few words about the date and location of the snap as each picture was retrieved from the display.

We were then entertained by a short quiz featuring Wales, Scotland and New Zealand, devised by David Hughes, and we finished in proper EWS fashion with a few songs and our national anthem.

John Sampson, scholar of the Welsh Gypsies

At 7.00pm on Friday 25 August Dr D Ben Rees will give a talk entitled “John Sampson, scholar of the Welsh Gypsies”.

John Sampson was a scholar with a Bohemian lifestyle. He was responsible for recording and preserving the Welsh Gypsy language, through his research and his friendship with the Gypsy patriarch Abraham Wood.

This illustrated lecture will describe Sampson’s colourful life, including the close friendship between him and the famous artist Augustus John. The pair met when they were colleagues at Liverpool University and they came to share a great interest in pubs, women, and Gypsy culture.

Dr D Ben Rees, the Minister Emeritus of Capel Bethel, Liverpool, is well-known in the city as a local historian.

Cwmulus are hosting this on-line talk, which is in Welsh, with an optional English translation. Registration at this link.

Sustainable Ogwen Valley

At 7.00pm on Friday 23 June Meleri Davies will give a talk entitled “Dyffryn Ogwen Cynaliadwy”, in which she will discuss the development of the Ynni Ogwen hydroelectric project from its initial idea through to the building and operation of this community energy scheme. She will also highlight the environmental and social benefits which the scheme has brought.

Meleri Davies is the Chief Officer of Partneriaeth Ogwen, one of the founders and a director of Ynni Ogwen Cyf and also a director of Community Energy Wales.

Cwmulus are hosting this on-line talk, which is in Welsh, with an optional English translation. Registration at this link.

Help for Welsh learners

Learn Welsh North West are running online Summer courses to give learners the opportunity to gain confidence and use the Welsh language with other learners. 

Mae Dysgu Cymraeg Gogledd Orllewin yn cynnal cyrsiau Haf ar-lein i roi cyfle i ddysgwyr fagu hyder a defnyddio’u Cymraeg efo dysgwyr eraill.


Do have a look at their website … lots of ideas for learning Welsh for folk at all levels, both for distance and in-person learning, and the prices are extremely reasonable. The Bala course on 11-13 July even has on-site accommodation available for a limited number of learners for a modest additional fee: £100 (single room), £50 (shared room).

Sir Jimmy Shand

At 7.00pm on Friday 19 May David S* Crawford will talk about Sir Jimmy Shand – Scottish Musician and Broadcaster.

Jimmy Shand (1908–2000) was a Scottish musician who played and composed music for the accordion. In this talk, we will trace the career of this remarkable man from humble beginnings as a coal miner in Fife to becoming a successful recording artist and a well-known musician on radio and television. We will hear about his early work with the BBC, his time spent recording with Beltona Records, and then his recordings for Parlophone, where he was their best-selling artist until the Beatles came along in the 1960s.

We will also discuss “The White Heather Club”, a BBC Scotland TV programme featuring Scottish Country Music, for which Jimmy Shand wrote the introduction and was often the lead musician. It was launched in the late 1950s and was popular throughout Britain for many years. During that period Jimmy Shand and Andy Stewart (one of the programme’s presenters) could be regarded as the most prominent representatives of Scottish music to the other nations of the UK.

David Shand Crawford is Curator of the Wireless in Wales museum in Denbigh. He is an engineer who worked for many years in the field of broadcasting, for the BBC and other organisations.


This is another of the series of on-line talks hosted by Cwmulus. They’re usually interesting, all have Welsh connections, and many are given in Welsh with simultaneous translation. Details and registration at this link.