Little England beyond Wales
Encyclopedia
Little England beyond Wales is a name applied to an area of southern Pembrokeshire
and southwestern Carmarthenshire
in Wales
, which has been English in language
and culture
for many centuries despite its remoteness from the English
border. The language boundary
between this region and the area to the north where Welsh
is more common, sometimes known as the Landsker Line
, is noted for its sharpness and resilience. Although it is probably much older, the first known use of the term was in the sixteenth century, when William Camden
called the area Anglia Transwalliana. Most of the area is known in Welsh
as Sir Benfro Saesneg, meaning "English-speaking Pembrokeshire
".
raided in the 9th and 10th centuries, and some may have settled, as they did in Gwynedd
further north. There are scattered Scandinavian placenames in the area, mostly in the Hundred of Roose
, north and west of the River Cleddau
. The medieval Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion
mentions many battles in southwest Wales and sackings of Menevia (St David's
) in the pre-Norman period. Sometimes these were stated to be conflicts with Saxons
, sometimes with people of unspecified origin. The first explicit documentary evidence is that of Gerald of Wales and Brut y Tywysogyon, which record that "Flemings" were settled in south Pembrokeshire soon after the arrival of the Normans
in the early 12th century. Gerald says this took place specifically in Roose.
The de Barry family, the Lords of Manorbier near Tenby, originally came from Barri near Tournai in Flanders. Gerald de Barry says that the family name was previously Barri, which changed to de Barry when they were ennobled as a reward for their participation in the invasion of Wales. He says that the name was taken from the Island of Barry, which became part of their holdings. The Flemish were noted for their skill in the construction of castles, which were built throughout the Norman territories in Pembrokeshire.
The previous inhabitants were said to have "lost their land", but this could mean either a total expulsion of the existing population, or merely a replacement of the land-owning class. The development of Haverfordwest
as the castle and borough controlling Roose dates from this period; this plantation occurred under the auspices of the Norman invaders. The Normans placed the whole of Southwest Wales under military control, establishing castles over the entire area, as far north as Cardigan
.
That Flemish might have continued to be spoken is borne out only by a statement of 1577 that a few families could still speak Flemish. However, Ranulf Higdon
in his Polychronicon (1327) states that Flemish was by his time extinct in southwest Wales, and George Owen in 1603 was adamant that Flemish was long extinct. As for placenames, the greatest concentration of Anglo-Saxon names is in Roose, while there are considerable numbers of Welsh placenames
in the rest of Little England, although these areas were certainly English-speaking. Flemish names are rare, and those that exist are based on personal names of landowners.
At the end of the Tudor period
, George Owen produced his Description of Penbrokshire (sic), completed in 1603. The work is essentially a geographical analysis of the languages in the county, and his writings provide the vital source for all subsequent commentators. He is the first to emphasize the sharpness of the linguistic boundary. He says:
Of Little England, he added: keep their language among themselves without receiving the Welsh speech or learning any part thereof, and hold themselves so close to the same that to this day they wonder at a Welshman coming among them, the one neighbour saying to the other "Look there goeth a Welshman".
He described the linguistic frontier in some detail, and his 1603 line is shown on the map. His description indicates that some northern parts had been re-colonised by Welsh speakers. The disruptions of the post-Black Death
period may account for this.
Although Little England is described by several later writers, they do little but quote Owen. Quantitative descriptions of the linguistic geography of the area start with that of Ernst Georg Ravenstein
, around 1870. This shows a further loss of territory since Owen's time. From 1891 onward, linguistic affiliation in Wales has been assessed in the census, and the situations in 1901 and 1981 are shown in the map. The overall picture is that the boundary has moved to a significant, but small degree. Furthermore, the boundary has always been described as sharp. In 1972, Brian John
said of the linguistic boundary that it "is a cultural feature of surprising tenacity; it is quite as discernible, and only a little less strong, than the divide of four centuries ago."
. As mentioned by Owen, the cultural differences between Little England and the "Welshry" extend beyond language. Manorial villages are more common in Little England, particularly on the banks of the Daugleddau estuary
, while the north has characteristically Welsh scattered settlements. Forms of agriculture are also distinct, although this mainly accords with land fertility rather than culture. Parish churches often have a characteristic tall, narrow castellated tower, in contrast with usual towerless Welsh design. In domestic architecture, the "Flemish chimney" - a detached cylindrical structure - is characteristic of Little England, although it is also occasionally found in North Pembrokeshire. The name is typical of the semi-mythical nature of the "Flemish" influences: no such structures are to be found in Flanders
, but they are to be found in southwest England, and this is the probable origin of both the chimneys and their builders. None of these distinctions is anything like as clear-cut as the difference of language. The language of Little England is a dialect most closely related to the English of Somerset
and Devon
.
On the other hand, Little England and the Welshry have many similarities. Typical Welsh surnames of patronymic origin (e.g. Edwards, Richards, Phillips etc) were almost universal in the Welshry in Owen's time, but they also accounted for 40% of names in Little England. According to John, the majority of English-speaking Little England natives today regard themselves as Welsh, as did Gerald, who was born on the south coast at Manorbier
in 1146.
A Y-chromosome study in Haverfordwest revealed a singularly undiluted "Celtic" population.
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
and southwestern Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. It is the 3rd largest in Wales. Its three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, which has been English in language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and culture
Culture of England
The culture of England refers to the idiosyncratic cultural norms of England and the English people. Because of England's dominant position within the United Kingdom in terms of population, English culture is often difficult to differentiate from the culture of the United Kingdom as a whole...
for many centuries despite its remoteness from the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
border. The language boundary
Language border
A language border or language boundary is the line separating two language areas. The term is generally meant to imply a lack of mutual intelligibility between the two languages...
between this region and the area to the north where Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
is more common, sometimes known as the Landsker Line
Landsker Line
The Landsker Line is a term commonly used for the language boundary between the Welsh-speaking and English-speaking areas in southwest Wales. The English-speaking areas, known as Little England beyond Wales, are notable for having been English linguistically and culturally for many centuries...
, is noted for its sharpness and resilience. Although it is probably much older, the first known use of the term was in the sixteenth century, when William Camden
William Camden
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
called the area Anglia Transwalliana. Most of the area is known in Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
as Sir Benfro Saesneg, meaning "English-speaking Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
".
History
The area was formerly part of the kingdom of Deheubarth, but it is unclear when it became distinguished from other parts of Wales. B. G. Charles gives a survey of the evidence for early non-Welsh settlements in the area. The NorseNorsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
raided in the 9th and 10th centuries, and some may have settled, as they did in Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...
further north. There are scattered Scandinavian placenames in the area, mostly in the Hundred of Roose
Roose (hundred)
The Hundred of Roose was a hundred in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was formed by the Act of Union of 1536 and was essentially identical to the pre-Norman cantref of Rhos. It derives its Welsh name from its position nearly surrounded by water, bounded east by the tidal Western Cleddau, south by Milford...
, north and west of the River Cleddau
River Cleddau
The River Cleddau consists of the Eastern and Western Cleddau rivers in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. They unite to form the Daugleddau estuary, which forms the important harbour of Milford Haven....
. The medieval Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion
Brut y Tywysogion
Brut y Tywysogion is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. Brut y Tywysogion has survived as several Welsh translations of an original Latin version, which has...
mentions many battles in southwest Wales and sackings of Menevia (St David's
St David's
St Davids , is a city and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Lying on the River Alun on St David's Peninsula, it is Britain's smallest city in terms of both size and population, the final resting place of Saint David, the country's patron saint, and the de facto ecclesiastical capital of...
) in the pre-Norman period. Sometimes these were stated to be conflicts with Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
, sometimes with people of unspecified origin. The first explicit documentary evidence is that of Gerald of Wales and Brut y Tywysogyon, which record that "Flemings" were settled in south Pembrokeshire soon after the arrival of the Normans
Norman invasion of Wales
The Norman invasion of Wales began shortly after the Norman conquest of England under William the Conqueror, who believed England to be his birthright...
in the early 12th century. Gerald says this took place specifically in Roose.
The de Barry family, the Lords of Manorbier near Tenby, originally came from Barri near Tournai in Flanders. Gerald de Barry says that the family name was previously Barri, which changed to de Barry when they were ennobled as a reward for their participation in the invasion of Wales. He says that the name was taken from the Island of Barry, which became part of their holdings. The Flemish were noted for their skill in the construction of castles, which were built throughout the Norman territories in Pembrokeshire.
The previous inhabitants were said to have "lost their land", but this could mean either a total expulsion of the existing population, or merely a replacement of the land-owning class. The development of Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales and serves as the County's principal commercial and administrative centre. Haverfordwest is the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire, with a population of 13,367 in 2001; though its community boundaries make it the second most populous...
as the castle and borough controlling Roose dates from this period; this plantation occurred under the auspices of the Norman invaders. The Normans placed the whole of Southwest Wales under military control, establishing castles over the entire area, as far north as Cardigan
Cardigan, Ceredigion
Cardigan is a town in the county of Ceredigion in Mid Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Teifi at the point where Ceredigion meets Pembrokeshire. It was the county town of the pre-1974 county of Cardiganshire. It is the second largest town in Ceredigion. The town's population was 4,203...
.
That Flemish might have continued to be spoken is borne out only by a statement of 1577 that a few families could still speak Flemish. However, Ranulf Higdon
Ranulf Higdon
Ranulf Higden was an English chronicler and a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Werburgh in Chester....
in his Polychronicon (1327) states that Flemish was by his time extinct in southwest Wales, and George Owen in 1603 was adamant that Flemish was long extinct. As for placenames, the greatest concentration of Anglo-Saxon names is in Roose, while there are considerable numbers of Welsh placenames
Welsh placenames
The placenames of Wales derive in most cases from the Welsh language, but have also been influenced by linguistic contact with the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Anglo-Normans and modern English...
in the rest of Little England, although these areas were certainly English-speaking. Flemish names are rare, and those that exist are based on personal names of landowners.
At the end of the Tudor period
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
, George Owen produced his Description of Penbrokshire (sic), completed in 1603. The work is essentially a geographical analysis of the languages in the county, and his writings provide the vital source for all subsequent commentators. He is the first to emphasize the sharpness of the linguistic boundary. He says:
- [Y]et do these two nations keep each from dealings with the other, as mere strangers, so that the meaner sort of people will not, or do not usually, join together in marriage, although they be in one hundred ( and sometimes in the same parish, nor commerce nor buy but in open fairs, so that you shall find in one parish a pathway parting the Welsh and English, and the one side speak all English, the other all Welsh, and differing in tilling and in measuring of their land, and divers other matters.
Of Little England, he added: keep their language among themselves without receiving the Welsh speech or learning any part thereof, and hold themselves so close to the same that to this day they wonder at a Welshman coming among them, the one neighbour saying to the other "Look there goeth a Welshman".
He described the linguistic frontier in some detail, and his 1603 line is shown on the map. His description indicates that some northern parts had been re-colonised by Welsh speakers. The disruptions of the post-Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
period may account for this.
Although Little England is described by several later writers, they do little but quote Owen. Quantitative descriptions of the linguistic geography of the area start with that of Ernst Georg Ravenstein
Ernst Georg Ravenstein
Ernst Georg Ravenstein was a German-English geographer cartographer and promoter of physical exercise...
, around 1870. This shows a further loss of territory since Owen's time. From 1891 onward, linguistic affiliation in Wales has been assessed in the census, and the situations in 1901 and 1981 are shown in the map. The overall picture is that the boundary has moved to a significant, but small degree. Furthermore, the boundary has always been described as sharp. In 1972, Brian John
Brian John
Dr Brian S. John is the author of the historical-fiction series Angel Mountain Saga.John was born in Carmarthen, Wales. He studied at Haverfordwest Grammar School and at Jesus College, Oxford, where he read Geography from 1959 to 1962 and went on to obtain a D Phil for a study of the Ice Age in...
said of the linguistic boundary that it "is a cultural feature of surprising tenacity; it is quite as discernible, and only a little less strong, than the divide of four centuries ago."
Little England today
Due to the sharp distinction between the English- and Welsh-speaking populations, the two groups are often divided into the "Englishry" and the "Welshry", terminology that is also used on the Gower PeninsulaGower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
. As mentioned by Owen, the cultural differences between Little England and the "Welshry" extend beyond language. Manorial villages are more common in Little England, particularly on the banks of the Daugleddau estuary
River Cleddau
The River Cleddau consists of the Eastern and Western Cleddau rivers in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. They unite to form the Daugleddau estuary, which forms the important harbour of Milford Haven....
, while the north has characteristically Welsh scattered settlements. Forms of agriculture are also distinct, although this mainly accords with land fertility rather than culture. Parish churches often have a characteristic tall, narrow castellated tower, in contrast with usual towerless Welsh design. In domestic architecture, the "Flemish chimney" - a detached cylindrical structure - is characteristic of Little England, although it is also occasionally found in North Pembrokeshire. The name is typical of the semi-mythical nature of the "Flemish" influences: no such structures are to be found in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, but they are to be found in southwest England, and this is the probable origin of both the chimneys and their builders. None of these distinctions is anything like as clear-cut as the difference of language. The language of Little England is a dialect most closely related to the English of Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
and Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
.
On the other hand, Little England and the Welshry have many similarities. Typical Welsh surnames of patronymic origin (e.g. Edwards, Richards, Phillips etc) were almost universal in the Welshry in Owen's time, but they also accounted for 40% of names in Little England. According to John, the majority of English-speaking Little England natives today regard themselves as Welsh, as did Gerald, who was born on the south coast at Manorbier
Manorbier
Manorbier is a village on the south coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales.The name means the 'Manor of Pyr'.-History:The Norman knight Odo de Barri was granted the lands of Manorbier, Penally and Begelly in gratitude for his military help in conquering Pembrokeshire after 1003. The first castle was motte...
in 1146.
Blood and Genetic studies
The Welsh scientist Morgan Watkin originally noticed high levels of Group A blood in the area, which are 5-10 per cent higher than in the surrounding areas. Watkin suggested that it was due to a substantial Viking settlement, instead of from the forcible transfer by Henry I of a colony of Flemish refugees from Holland and Belgium in the early twelfth century. Brian Sykes commented on the "Flemish" explanation that the levels of blood group A in the Low Countries are not particularly high, but that it is not possible to decide from blood sampling whether the high levels in 'Little England' were caused by rampaging Vikings or by a few cartloads of Belgians. But from his Oxford Genetic Atlas Project genetic data Sykes said that the lack of patrilineal Y-chromosomes from the “Sigurd” clan in south Wales (and very few in other parts of Wales) is strong evidence against any Norse Viking settlement in Wales, and means that the Viking explanation of Morgan Watkin for the high frequency of blood group A in ‘Little England beyond Wales’ is wrong.A Y-chromosome study in Haverfordwest revealed a singularly undiluted "Celtic" population.
See also
- Landsker Borderlands TrailLandsker Borderlands TrailThe Landsker Borderlands Trail is a waymarked long distance footpath in the United Kingdom running through Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in West Wales...
- a waymarked long-distance footpath through this region - Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the EnglishCultural relationship between the Welsh and the EnglishThe relationship between the Welsh and English within Great Britain is mostly characterised by tolerance, respect, and an intermixing of people and cultures. However, elements of mutual mistrust or dislike, and occasionally overt racism, also persist. Hatred or fear of the Welsh by the English or...
Further reading
- Aitchison, John W., and Carter, Harold, The Welsh Language 1961-1981: an interpretive atlas, UoW Press, 1985, ISBN 0-7083-0906-2
- Bowen, E. G., (Ed.), Wales: a Physical, Historical and Regional Geography, Methuen, 1957
- Davies, Thomas, Penfro Gymreig a Seisnig a’i Phobl in Y Berniad 4, 1914, pp 233–238.
- Jenkins, Geraint. H., (ed) The Welsh Language before the Industrial Revolution, UoW Press, 1997, ISBN 0-7083-1418-X
- Jenkins, Geraint. H., (ed) Language and Community in the 19th Century, UoW Press, 1998, ISBN 0-7083-1467-8
- Jenkins, Geraint. H., (ed) The Welsh language and its social domains 1801-1911, UoW Press, 2000, ISBN 0-7083-1604-2
- Jones, Emrys, and Griffiths, Ieuan L., A linguistic map of Wales: 1961, in The Geographical Journal, 129, part 2, 1963, p 195
- Pryce, W. T. R., Welsh and English in Wales, 1750-1971: A Spatial Analysis Based on the Linguistic Affiliation of Parochial Communities in Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 28, 1978, pp 1–36.
- Thomas, J. Gareth, The geographical distribution of the Welsh language, in The Geographical Journal, 122, part 1, 1956, pp 71–79
- Williams, D. Trevor, Linguistic divides in South Wales: a historico-geographical study, in Archaeologia Cambrensis 90, 1935, pp 239–66
- Williams, D. Trevor, A linguistic map of Wales according to the 1931 census, with some observations on its historical and geographical setting, in The Geographical Journal, 89, part 2, 1937, p 146-51