To celebrate the Urdd’s centenary, this month’s object is the Urdd banner, adran Horeb, Bangor circuit, 1920s-1930s.
The banner was made by the donor’s grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Williams, later Thomas. She was a headmistress at Bwlchgwyn primary school near Wrexham where she met David Thomas, a conscientious objector who had moved to Wrexham to work as a farm labourer during the First World War. They got married and moved to Bangor.
David was a superintendent and Elizabeth a teacher at the Horeb Wesleyan chapel Sunday school in Bangor. There was an early Urdd branch run through the Sunday school.
Urdd Gobaith Cymru was established by Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards in 1922. His aim was to give children and young people the opportunity to learn and socialise in the Welsh language.
Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards was the son of O.M. Edwards, Wales’ first Chief Inspector for Education, who established the monthly magazine ‘Cymru’r Plant’ in 1892. In ‘Cymru’r Plant’ 1922 Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards appealed to the children of Wales to join a new movement ‘Urdd Gobaith Cymru Fach’. This was a new beginning in the history of the Welsh language and culture.
The first local Urdd branch was established in Treuddyn, Flintshire in 1922, and the first Urdd National Eisteddfod was held in Corwen, 1929. Today the Urdd is a National Voluntary Youth Organisation with over 55,000 members between the ages of 8 – 25 years old. It is best known for its National Urdd Eisteddfod, sports clubs, peace and goodwill messages and residential centres including Glan-llyn, Bala.
The banner is on display in the community case in the foyer at Storiel.