Gorsedd stone circle, Ebbw Vale
This stone circle may look prehistoric but it dates from the 1950s! It was erected for Gorsedd of Bards ceremonies relating to the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale in 1958. The black American singer Paul Robeson was a guest of honour at the Eisteddfod (see below).
The National Eisteddfod is held in a different area each year. It was in Ebbw Vale in 1958 and in 2010. Ebbw Vale’s Gorsedd stones were originally at the Drill Ground but moved here when the steelworks was expanded.
The Gorsedd (“throne”) of Bards was first convened in London in 1792 by Edward Williams, better known as “Iolo Morgannwg”. A poet, political radical and laudanum addict, he forged documents to convince people that figments of his imagination, including the Gorsedd and its “druids”, stemmed from ancient Celtic history.
A highlight of the 1958 Eisteddfod was the awarding of the chair to T Llew Jones for his poem Caerllion-ar-Wysg (the title refers to the town of Caerleon). He was well regarded as an author of exciting children’s books in Welsh.
Paul Robeson was a singer, actor and civil-rights activist from New Jersey. He felt an affinity with Welsh people ever since he heard a choir of jobless Welsh miners singing in a street in London, where he was performing in a West End show. He also had an uncle in Cardiff. He performed in Wales in the 1930s and was befriended by Ebbw Vale MP Aneurin Bevan. He donated to the relief fund after the 1934 Gresford pit disaster, near Wrexham.
During the Cold War in the 1950s, the American authorities banned Paul from overseas travel. Aneurin Bevan encouraged him to perform concerts through the transatlantic cable during that period. He sang via telephone to thousands of people at the 1957 miners’ eisteddfod.
The travel ban was lifted the following year and Paul and his wife Eslanda (a noted journalist, actor and activist) were able to visit the 1958 National Eisteddfod Ebbw Vale in person.
