The Bangor National Eisteddfod Chair 1914 at the National Eisteddfod Carmarthenshire 2014

On Friday August 8, the Chair of the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Bangor, 1914, will be displayed on the stand of The National Library of Wales at this year’s Eisteddfod at Llanelli (stand number 401-405).

The appearance of the Chair will record exactly a century since the beginning of the Great War, and it fits with the theme of the Library’s exhibition, 'Cofio Canrif’ (Remembering a Century).

The Chair was created by Messrs. Waring & Gillow Ltd. of Liverpool for Bangor National Eisteddfod 1914. This heavy oak chair is carved with a rampant dragon, and medieval dragons as serpents on its arms. It is certainly one of the most beautiful chairs created for the festival.

With the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, and young Welsh soldiers fighting on the battlefield, it was decided that it wouldn’t be fitting to hold an Eisteddfod that year. Therefore, it was decided to defer the 1914 Eisteddfod  - the first modern Eisteddfod be postponed.

David Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time (1908 -1915) and, although the conflict continued, he was eager to re-establish the Eisteddfod. So the following year, in 1915, the National Eisteddfod of Bangor was held.  As the Chair has already been created a year earlier, the decision to present it as a prize at the 1915 Eisteddfod is recorded on a brass plaque mounted on the back of the chair.

Winner of the Chair was T.H. Parry Williams, for his poem "Eryri” (Snowdonia). In this year also captured the Eisteddfod Crown (an achievement he’d already accomplished at the Wrexham National Eisteddfod in 1912).

Further Information

post@llgc.org.uk or 01970 632471