The Tryweryn flooding, or Tryweryn drowning (), was the 1965 flooding of the Tryweryn valley in Gwynedd (then Merionethshire), Wales, to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir. The flooding of the valley, located to the north west of Bala, submerged the rural community of Capel Celyn. The project was developed by Liverpool Corporation, to supply Liverpool and Wirral with water for industry.
The flooding was and remains controversial in Wales. Capel Celyn was one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities in the area. The flooding was opposed by 125 local authorities. Protests were held on site and at Liverpool. The parliamentary bill establishing permission for the reservoir received no support from Wales' 36 members of Parliament, with members mainly opposing and a few abstaining, however the bill passed overall.
Failed efforts to prevent the flooding despite strong opposition in Wales has attributed the flooding with leading to a rise in support for the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, and increasing powers and responsibility to Wales, culminating in Welsh devolution, although water is not fully devolved to Wales.
The event has inspired various media, particularly the Cofiwch Dryweryn mural. Liverpool City Council formally apologised in 2005.
History
The villagers first knew about the proposal a few days before Christmas 1955, from reading about it in the Welsh edition of the Liverpool Daily Post. The villagers created the Capel Celyn Defence Committee, which debated and denounced the scheme all over Wales through newspapers, radio and television. The villagers marched to Liverpool twice in 1956 to make their objections known. However, Liverpool councillors voted overwhelmingly to proceed.
In 1957, a private bill sponsored by Liverpool City Council was brought before Parliament to develop a water reservoir in the Tryweryn Valley. The development would include the flooding of Capel Celyn. By obtaining authority via the Liverpool Corporation Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. xlii), an act of Parliament, Liverpool City Council would not require planning consent from the relevant Welsh local authorities and would also avoid a planning inquiry at Welsh level at which arguments against the proposal could be expressed. This, together with the fact that the village was one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities in the area, ensured that the proposals became deeply controversial; 35 out of 36 Welsh Members of Parliament (MPs) opposed the bill (the other did not vote), but in 1962 it was passed. The members of the community waged an eight-year effort, ultimately unsuccessful, to prevent the destruction of their homes.
The Tryweryn flooding was opposed locally by the Capel Celyn Defence Committee led by Dafydd Roberts and Elizabeth May Watkin Jones. Altogether, 125 local authorities opposed the plan, and 27 of 36 Welsh MPs voted against the second reading of the bill with none voting for it.
When the valley was flooded in 1965, the village and its buildings—including the post office, the school, and a chapel with cemetery—were all lost. Twelve houses and farms were submerged, and 48 people of the 67 who lived in the valley lost their homes. In all, some 800 acres (3.2 km2; 320 ha) of land were submerged. A new reservoir, Llyn Celyn, was formed.
The water in the reservoir is used to maintain the flow of the River Dee () so that water may be abstracted downstream, and additionally to improve the quality of white-water sports on Afon Tryweryn.
A full list of the submerged properties (broadly from west to east) is as follows:
Moelfryn Glan Celyn + y Llythyrdy (post office) Y Fynwent (cemetery) Tynybont Brynhyfryd Cae Fadog Coed Mynach Garnedd Lwyd Y Tyrpeg (The Turnpike)
Gwerndelwau Y Capel (chapel) Tŷ Capel (Chapel House) Yr Ysgol (school) Y Gelli Penbryn Fawr Dol Fawr Hafod Fadog (Quaker meeting place) and Mynwent y Crynwyr (Quakers' Cemetery) Tyddyn Bychan
Stones from the chapel (built in 1820 and rebuilt in 1892) and other buildings in the village were used in the construction of Capel Celyn Memorial Chapel, designed by the Welsh sculptor R. L. Gapper with the Liverpool City architect Ronald Bradbury, which was completed in 1967 and overlooks the reservoir at the north-west end. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Families who had relatives buried in the cemetery were given the option of moving them to another cemetery. Eight bodies were disinterred and the remainder untouched. All headstones were supposed to be removed, and the cemetery was to be covered in layers of gravel, then concrete, but this was not done.
When the reservoir dried due to a drought in the 1980s and early 1990s, the village became visible.
Hafod Fadog One of the farmsteads covered was Hafod Fadog, a Quaker meeting place. It is recorded on a bronze plaque in a lay-by near to the dam:Under these waters and near this stone stood Hafod Fadog, a farmstead where in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Quakers met for worship. On the hillside above the house was a space encircled by a low stone wall where larger meetings were held, and beyond the house was a small burial ground. From this valley came many of the early Quakers who emigrated to Pennsylvania, driven from their homes by persecution to seek freedom of worship in the New World.
Political effects
Almost unanimous Welsh political opposition had failed to stop approval of the scheme, a fact that seemed to underline Plaid Cymru's argument that the Welsh national community was powerless. At the subsequent general election, the party's support increased from 3.1% to 5.2%.
Of perhaps greater significance, however, was the impetus the episode gave to Welsh devolution. The Council for Wales recommended the creation of a Welsh Office and Secretary of State for Wales early in 1957, a time when the governance of Wales on a national level was so demonstrably lacking in many people's eyes. By 1964 the Wilson government gave effect to these proposals.
The flooding of Capel Celyn also sharpened debate within Plaid Cymru about the use of direct action. While the party emphasised its constitutional approach to stopping the development, it also sympathised with the actions of two party members who (of their own accord) attempted to sabotage the power supply at the site of the Tryweryn dam in 1962.
A more militant response was the formation of (Movement for the Defence of Wales), abbreviated as MAC, which blew up a transformer on the dam construction site in February 1963. MAC went on to carry out a number of other bombings over the following six years.
In October 1965, the Llyn Celyn reservoir opened with a ceremony by the Liverpool Corporation, and there was a sizeable Plaid Cymru-organised demonstration. A year later, Gwynfor Evans won Plaid Cymru's first parliamentary seat in Carmarthen. But according to some commentators, Capel Celyn did not play a major part in Gwynfor Evans's victory: in addition to Carmarthen's long distance from Tryweryn, they claim that Plaid Cymru's victory owed as much to an anti-Labour backlash in the constituency's mining communities as it did to Plaid's successful depiction of Labour's policies as a threat to the viability of small Welsh communities. The demonstrations at Tryweryn soon devolved into brawls between demonstrators and police as they attempted to block the vehicles of Liverpool Corporation officials and invited guests, impeding them from reaching the opening ceremony. For the first time, three uniformed members of the Free Wales Army (FWA) made a public appearance at the demonstration, including the organisation's leader, Julian Cayo-Evans. According to eyewitness accounts, the FWA were responsible for rallying the crowd to charge down in to the escarpment and into the grandstand set up for the opening ceremony, defying pleas for restraint from Plaid Cymru officials.
There are also claims that it was the FWA men who disconnected the microphone that was being used for the ceremony, leading to the ceremony coming to an early end as the Liverpool Corporation officials were drowned out by the demonstrators singing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. A Union Flag was burned by the demonstrators on the high stone parapet of the reservoir outlet during the scuffles.
On 19 October 2005, Liverpool City Council issued a formal apology for the flooding. Some in the town of Bala welcomed the move, though others said the apology was a "useless political gesture" and came far too late.
Impact on Welsh law The flooding is often cited in discussions around devolving powers to the Welsh Government, such as those following the Government of Wales Act 2006 and the Wales Act 2014. The 2015 United Kingdom election took place during the flooding's 50 year anniversary, and saw the UK Conservative Party campaign on the St David's Day Agreement which would give further powers to the Welsh government.
The agreement's proposals effectively meant that any Welsh laws on water could be overruled by UK ministers if they judged it would have a serious adverse effect on the water supply in England. As such, the proposals were heavily criticised in Wales; both the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru stated that a new agreement was needed to address the issues around devolved, reserved and excepted matters, especially on the emotive subject of water.
In backing the UK government's proposals, Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns directly referenced the Tryweryn flooding, stating that the UK proposals were "about righting a wrong from 50 years ago", adding that UK Government proposed settlement "sends a strong message" on how the UK and Welsh governments relate to each other.
The discussions would eventually lead the UK government losing the power to intervene in any laws relating to water (and many other areas) enacted by the Welsh Government, with supporters of the new Wales Act 2017 describing it as "preventing another Tryweryn". Alun Cairns again backed the amended act, stating that the new arrangement showed "how far we have come from the events of 52 years ago, which resulted in the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley".
Cultural references
Theatre The flooding of the village was dramatised in a joint production by Theatr Clwyd and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru in 2007. The original title was Porth y Byddar and the revival in 2008 was titled Drowned Out.
Music The flooding of the village inspired a Manic Street Preachers song "Ready for Drowning"How Green Is My Valley copy of Select magazine review, November 1998, at thisisyesterday.com and Enya's song "" ("Under the Water") from her self-titled album of 1987. It is referenced in the Los Campesinos! song "For Flotsam" on their 2013 album No Blues. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event, English composer Michael Stimpson released an album entitled Dylan & The Drowning of Capel Celyn, which featured a work for solo pedal harp, inspired by the flooding. Electronic musician Bibio released a song called "Capel Celyn" on his 2017 album Phantom Brickworks.
TV and film