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Where are they now?

Were you at the National Eisteddfod in Haverford West in 1972 … or were your parents?!

As part of a huge archive of photos from the National Library which are being contributed to the Europeana Libraries project staff at the National Library of Wales came across hundreds of un-catalogued photos.

Douglas Jones, Digitisation Programme Manager at The National Library of Wales commented:

‘While preparing this collection for the project, staff have discovered around 500 un-catalogued photographs from the 1972 National Eisteddfod at Haverfordwest.’

This exciting discovery includes photographs of rugby coach, Carwyn James, Solva-born singer and song-writer, Meic Stevens, the main ceremonies, the Theatr Ifanc’s production of the drama ‘Y Rhai a Lwydda’ and the ‘Gwallt yn y Gwynt’ rock concert. The set also includes photographs of the competitions and of the Eisteddfod field.

‘Forty years since last seeing the light of day the Library, in conjunction with the People’s Collection, needs the help of the Welsh public to identify some of the individuals and events portrayed in these rediscovered images. That’s why we’ve selected twenty photographs from this set for the Welsh public to view and comment upon on the People’s Collection website.’ added Douglas.

With Eisteddfod week rapidly approaching and with the fortieth anniversary of these images been photographed by Geoff Charles can you help us? Are you or is someone you know depicted in these photographs? Can you identify or know what happened in the competitions Geoff Charles photographed? Were you, like John Pierce Jones or Mei Jones, a part of the production of ‘Y Rhai a Lwydda’, or were you, like a young Michael Povey, part of the audience at the ‘Gwallt yn y Gwynt’ concert? If you can help us and want to share your memories go to the People’s Collection website and leave a comment!

The Library has been a part of the Europeana Libraries project, since the beginning of 2011. This is an ambitious project that will create free access to 5 million digital objects from 19 of Europe’s leading research libraries through the European Library and Europeana websites. The eventual aim of the project is to build the foundations for the creation of one portal through which access would be created to all the freely available digital content from every one of Europe’s national and research libraries. The National Library of Wales will be contributing over a quarter of a million digital objects to the project, amongst them over 120,000 images from the Geoff Charles photographic collection.Further InformationElin Hâf, NLW Press Office 01970 632534  post@llgc.org.uk