Cocos a Chwrwglau

Cockles and coracles, each with a long history in Wales. At Penclawdd, Gower, women (mainly) rake and sieve the sands to collect the hidden cockles, as has been the practice since at least the days of the Romans. Transported by donkey, the cockles are sold to eager customers, once washed and cooked. On the river Teifi or Tywi, a man paddles his coracle (using the easy-to-watch but hard-to-master figure-of-eight technique) and another repairs his coracle’s damaged skin.

The women gathering cockles are working the rich mud flats of the Burry Inlet, the estuary of the River Loughor. Tractors have taken the place of donkeys but all gathering is still done by hand (using the same tools – scraper, rake and sieve) and under license, a law of 1965 safeguarding the historic trade. Coracles, too, are licensed and two working together, with a net between, are used to catch salmon or sewin. They can still be seen on the Teifi, the Tywi and the Taf rivers but, in the past, were used as ferries on the River Severn and were also present on the River Dee, around Llangollen. This film is a compilation created by the pioneer of Welsh language films, Ifan ab Owen Edwards.