Yr Etifeddiaeth/The Heritage

Staring a Butlin’s holiday camp in the face at Pwllheli (capacity: 5,000) can the Welsh in this area maintain the faith, language and traditions of their fathers?

The sun sets on an uncertain future for the Welsh of Llyn and Eifionydd who gather on a Sunday to keep the faith, the language and the cultural traditions of the chapel. Amongst them is Pwllheli-born poet ‘Cynan’ (Albert Evans-Jones) who, as narrator, voices the concern. On the other side of the road and poles apart stands the Butlins holiday camp, opened in 1947 and catering for 5,000 bent on fun in English.

Filmed between 1947 and 1949 by 'Y Cymro' photographer Geoffrey Charles with the newspaper's editor, John Roberts Williams as director and script-writer, this film presents the culture, work and rural way of life in Llyn and Eifionydd. Both men came to realise that they were recording a way of life that was vanishing. The film was first shown at the National Eisteddfod in Dolgellau in 1949, attracting full houses for the screenings that included other films made by the pair under the auspices of ‘Y Cymro’ [The Welshman].