One year ago, in July 2018 the Calon Lan Society held its first ever event in the Kings Head Pub, Treboeth called ‘Poems and Pints’. Back by popular demand the Society agreed that this should be an annual event and on the 19th July we held the second ‘Poems and Pints’ events.
The event was well attended by the local community, some of the local councillors showed their support for the event with Cllr Mike Lewis and Cllr Sam Pritchard attending. The Society is also very thankful for the continued generosity of local businesses in Treboeth. In particular we would like to ‘Terry’s One Stop Shop’ and 'Flowers By Arrangement' on Llangyfelach Road for the generous donation of raffle prizes.
The evening was naturally compared by the wonderful Phil Andrews who interjected stories and song throughout the evening. The contributions by members was fascinating ranging from famous poems, poems in the Welsh Language, stories and anecdotes, original poems, musical pieces and even recitals of Daniel James’ penned works. There were tears, laughs and many rounds of applause all evening.
This year we were very pleased to have Daniel James Gwyrosydd’s ‘high chair’ at the event. This was the same chair that Daniel James would sit in while writing Poems (sometimes as payment for pints) in the Kings Head where our event was held. Having the chair present was a very helpful reminder that 'Poems and Pints' is a tradition well over a hundred years old.
It was a fantastic evening in which we managed to raise over £200 for the Calon Lan Society. This marked two very important milestones for the society, a year since we started holding events but also this pushed the total money raised to over £5,000.
A massive thank you to everyone who has contributed and participated over the past year.
As has become a favourite tradition of many of the Societies events we finished with a resounding rendition of Calon Lan.
Sam Pritchard Secretary of the Calon Lan Society