BARDSEY ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 20980, 19 December 1931, Page 12

BARDSEY ISLAND

TINY "KINGDOM" SURVIVES Bardsey Island, the burial place of 20,000 saints and the smallest “republic ” in the world, is not, alter all, to lose its population of thirty-five souls yet awhile. But it is to lose the “President,” who, six years ago, succeeded the last of its “ kings,” says the ‘ New York Times.’ The tiniest habitable island in the United Kingdom, Bardsey lies in Cardigan Bay, about two miles from the extreme western tip of North Wales, of which it formed a part. It is two miles long and abpnt a mile wide. Even in fair weather the tides and currents of the treacherous sound that lies between it and Wales make the passage one of live miles; and when storms rage, as more often than not they do, no boat can live in the seas, and the island is cut off from the mainland for weeks at a stretch. At such times the “republicans” of Bardsey, one of the quaintest communities on earth, suffer hardships. It is tantalising, too, the islanders declare, to have to wait sometimes for a month or six weeks to go to a picture theatre that you can see on the mainland—particularly if you yearn to see a film that is on for only three days. In April last the Bardseyites announced that they , had had enough of “splendid isolation,” and would evacuate their sea-girt home and settle on the mainland, but now they have made up their minds to grin and hear it for a while longer anyway. They will have to elect a new President, however, or rather the owner of the island will have to appoint one, for the present head of the little State, John Roberts, is leaving Bardsey, having signed an agreement to become tenant of a farm near the Welsh town oddly named Pwllheli. In an interview Mr Roberts stated that he was leaving the island on account of the ill-health of his wife and the difficulty of obtaining medical attendance. The action of Frederick Wynn, owner of the island, in placing a motor boat at the disposal of the people had alleviated matters to a large extent, he said. In wild weather, however, it was impossible to launch a boat for days. • According to old chronicles, monks of Bangor Iscoed who escaped the massacre of the Saxons fled to Bardsey, which was also the last retreat of the Welsh hards. The island gained a reputation as a place of sanctity and was the goal of countless pilgrims. Under the name of “ Insula Sanctorum,” Bardsey is referred to by the poets as the burial place of 20,000 holy men, or “saints.” In the great Welsh epic, ‘The Mabinoglon,’ there is an account of the House of Glass of Bardsey, to which Merlin took the magic ring of Crcrleon-on-Usk. SENSE OP HUMOUR. Bardsey was owned for many years by the first Lord Newborough, a nobleman who evidently possessed a sense of humour. It was his custom to choose one of the islanders to be head man and his personal representative, and it seems to have occurred to him one day that it would enhance the latter’s authority if he had the title of “king.” So he proceeded to confer it upon him, the first king of Bardsey being one John Williams, a worthy farmer. A king must have a crown, of course, and so Lord Newborough had an ornate one made. It was ot brass and fashioned after the crowns of the old Welsh kings. His lordship also presented the “king ’’ with a “treasure,” in the shape of a silver casket, and an “ army ” to guard the treasure in the guise of a wooden figure painted to represent a soldier. One of the kings of Bardsey, sad to relate, having abdicated, died in a Welsh workhouse. The last king, who had the odd name of Love Pritchard, was “crowned” in 1911. Thirteen years later, with all his fifty or so '“ subjects,” ho abandoned the island because of extreme loneliness and went to Jive on the mainland; ho died a year later at the ripe age of eighty-three. About a year later, however, the island was repopulated. In the meantime it had passed into the possession of its present owner, a descendant of Lord Newborough. Mr Wynn seems to have thought that Bardsey had had kings enough, and ho decided that its head-man should ho known in the future as its “president.” There is now a wireless station, as well as a lighthouse, on the island, but until a few months ago its solo moans of signalling to the mainland was by means of flares. These were burnt on Quart Rock, the topmost point of Bardsey, which towers 500 ft above the

sea. One flare meant an illness on the island, two constituted a summons for a doctor, three carried warning of a death.