St David’s Day Dinner 2024

St David’s Day Black Tie Dinner – held on 1st March at Gerrards Cross Golf Club

All 50 guests were greeted with a glass of bubbly or soft drink – as appropriate.  The lounge provided an excellent space to catch up with old friends and indeed some guests from the principality – Whitland to be precise. I was delighted to meet with the brother of one of my classmates at Narberth Grammar School. Our mutual aquaintances were numerous; a joyful start to the evening.

As usual Gerrards Cross Club did us proud with a very good 3 course meal; the leek and potato soup was so good I thought my mum must have had a hand in it. There were also many compliments directed at the sewin ( sea trout) – main course as well as the suitable lamb dish. The staff looked after us well and added to the friendly ambience of the evening.

 

The after-dinner entertainment was provided by a harpist – Lucy Hewitt.  A local artiste who attended Dr. Challoner’s High School in Little Chalfont. In 2021 she was the Bucks Young Musician of the Year. She concluded her Harp pieces with the Welsh National Anthem – which was accompanied by all guests singing with gusto.

 

 

The evening concluded with “community singing” around the Electronic Keyboard – superbly played by John Breeze. Six hymns ( 3 in Welsh and 3 in English) ensured that we all departed with ‘a song in our heart’.

Well done to the Committee for a very successful evening and fluent compering from Gwyndaf John – with both amusing and informative potted history of St. David.

Da iawn.

Gwyn Owen  5/03/24

 

You can see more photographs of the evening here.

St David’s Day Dinner 2023

On Friday 3rd March the society held its annual St David’s Day Dinner at Gerrards Cross Golf Club. Kay Day had organised the event with the help of the golf club’s catering manager, Martin Hillary and Gwyndaf John.
We all gathered for a welcome drink at 6:30 and met up with new members and old friends. The club house at Gerrards Cross looks very smart after being redecorated last year, and the décor was made even better by the addition of several Welsh Flags around the room.
We were very pleased to have Geraint and Glenys Lewis from the Slough Welsh Society join us, and several new members and guests. In total there must have been about 65 of us present arranged across eight tables.


At around 7:15 President, Ann Evans said grace in both English and Welsh, and we sat down to eat. The food was of a very high standard and we must thank the staff of the golf club for the quality of both the food and the service.

For starters, there was a choice of leek & potato soup, halloumi salad or mackerel, with sea bass, pan roasted lamb or stuffed peppers for the main (no-one went for the vegetarian option), and with chocolate mousse, crème brulé, poached pears or an enormous plate of cheese and biscuits for dessert.
After our meal, Colin Picton introduced our speaker, Margaret Knight. Maggie is an art and cultural historian, has designed courses at the Victoria & Albert Museum and was historical advisor for the Channel 4 series ‘Mrs Brown’.

We had expected her talk to be about Wales and the Welsh in art, but she entertained us with a talk on The Keltoi – a history of the Celtic peoples through their artifacts.
There was a lot to learn, starting with the earliest known examples of Celts in Hallstatt in modern Austria around 1200BC. These people were originally salt miners and many artifacts have been found preserved by the salt including leather backpacks and textiles. From there, these early Celts came to mine and refine metal ores into first bronze then iron, which were highly prized by other cultures.
Their metalwork was distinctive with scrolls and a symbol of three circles within a circle. This form of decoration gradually spread across Europe as the Celts grew in numbers and became more successful. Maggie showed us examples of beautiful ornate torcs worn by high-ranking individuals.
The earliest references to the ‘Keltoi’ were by the Greeks. These people seem to have used little written language (except to keep accounts) and so there is very little history to follow, but it seems that the culture gradually spread across much of Europe, to France and Spain, where they were known as Gauls, and to have reached the British Isles by about 500BC.

Their language and culture were common and even today there are great similarities between the languages of Wales, Brittany and Galicia.
One of the strengths of the Celtic culture was its decentralised nature, tribes ruled locally with no central government structure. But this was also its weakness, for, faced with the expansion of Rome, they were not able to withstand the Roman invasion for long. Maggie described the Claudian pursuit of Celtic druids to Anglesey where most were put to the sword.


Maggie then answered many questions from the floor, before Colin Picton thanked her for a fascinating talk.

John Breese then took to the piano and, after the National Anthem, many favourite songs finished off the evening.

A big thank you to all those who made the evening such a success.

There are many more photos of the evening here.

CDWS Saint David’s Day Dinner 2022

Friday 4th March

The dining room at GXGC

It was so lovely to see everyone in the flesh again! All those Zoom meetings that we’ve had since St David’s Day 2020 were a good way to stay in touch, but not like the real thing, and what a turnout!  – There were 79 of us in total and it was lovely to see new members and guests as well as old friends. We had all been warned beforehand, that due to Covid we should all have had Lateral Flow Tests before we went.

This year our St David’s Day Dinner returned to Gerrards Cross Golf Club. The club house has had a real face lift since we were last there – the interior has been renovated and it looks very smart.  The bar and the dining room were festooned with Welsh flags. People started arriving at 6:30 and were greeted with a drink, giving people time to circulate around the bar, meet old friends and catch up.

Martin Hillary, the GX Manager was very helpful in making suggestions and putting up all the flags.

By 7:15 people were ushered into the dining room, where a table plan assigned them to their places. The tables were decorated with lovely floral displays of daffodils created by the ladies of the committee. Barrie Reece had printed the place names at the table to include the menu choices that people had made – just in case we’d forgotten – and had produced a programme for the evening.

When we had all found our allocated places our Chairman, Colin Picton, welcomed us to the evening and Gwyndaf John said grace.

Then the food started to arrive. For starters we had made the choice between tomato and garlic soup, smoked salmon mousse or asparagus with poached egg.  I had the asparagus and was pleasantly surprised that the poached egg was just right with a really runny yolk, which was quite an achievement when catering for so many people.

Main course was a choice of seabass, lamb shank, or a traditional Welsh cawl. My lamb shank was substantial and very tasty. While we were at the tables, Barrie Reece was touring the room with his camera taking lots of pictures (see more photos here).

Dessert choices were spiced oranges with orange sorbet, chocolate torte with fresh raspberries or a selection of Welsh Cheeses. I went for the cheese option and the cheeses were excellent and so generous that I could not finish them, though I had heard that the spiced oranges disappointed.

After coffee, Colin introduced our guest singer for the evening, Angharad Rowlands a Welsh Mezzo Soprano, accompanied by Iain Ledingham.

Angharad is at the Royal Academy of Music, studying on scholarship for a Master of Arts in Performance. A native Welsh speaker, Angharad grew up singing in the Welsh folk tradition, competing regularly in the National Eisteddfod of Wales. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2019, and this year Angharad will join Royal Academy Opera.

Iain Ledingham is a familiar figure to many of us, a professor in the piano, vocal and opera faculties at the Royal Academy of Music, and founder of the Amersham Festival of Music. We are very grateful to Iain as the source of so many of the very talented musicians who have performed for us over the years.

Angharad spoke quite softly, but that all changed when she started singing and she could really produce some power to her voice.

Angharad’s repertoire included a number of traditional songs with arrangements by Benjamin Britten, followed by works by Mozart, Bizet and Handel. The music then turned to a Welsh theme with Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr and Gwynfyd, and lastly Calon Lân, for which everyone joined in.

Jonathan Pegler then took to the keyboard and played the National Anthem, led by Angharad.

Colin thanked our performers and Ann Evans presented Angharad with a bouquet, while Iain received a bottle of wine from Jonathan.

Due to Covid restrictions, the committee decided not to finish with our traditional singing, but turned to our friends to say goodbye. Hopefully we shall have another opportunity for singing in the near future!

Thanks to all those involved in the planning and execution of our St David’s Day Dinner!

Barrie Reece took a lot of pictures at the event – see more of them here

St David’s Day

SThis year our St David’s Day Dinner was a bit different. There was no dinner!

On Friday 26th February, we were very fortunate to have Dr Rowan Williams, the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, address our St David’s Day gathering.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we were unable to meet in person. So, our meeting was the ‘Not St David’s Day Dinner’ as it wasn’t St David’s Day, and there was no dinner, but we had an excellent meeting anyway.

Janet John acted as technical host for our Zoom meeting and we met at 7:30pm with a welcome from our Chairman, followed by two 10-minute breakout sessions where we were able to chat to about half a dozen other members and catch up on local news.

At 8pm David Powell then introduced Dr. Williams and thanked his cousin Cathy Young for facilitating the talk. Cathy and Dr. Williams share an interest in Religious Icons, like the one shown above, which Cathy painted.

Dr. Williams spoke on the subject of ‘The Age of the Saints in Wales: Fact or Fiction?’, a very suitable subject for St David’s Day.

Dr. WilliamsDr. Williams told us about the early church in Wales and how there was a surprising amount of movement of people and ideas between Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany. The Christians of the time (500 to 700 AD) thought themselves the successors of the Roman tradition, as opposed to the largely pagan influx of Angles and Saxons. Gravestones of the time frequently contain complex Latin verses and Hebrew Christian names.

He spoke of Welsh saints such as St David, St Gildas, St Samson St Asaph and others.

Monasteries were centres of learning, but were not great stones built buildings but more like villages, and these were in touch with each other across Wales and to Scotland, Ireland and Brittany as a sort of Christian Celtic commonwealth around the Irish Sea.

Dr Williams 2There were very many Saints in Wales, and one of the reasons for this was that at the time, there was no central control from Rome and sainthood was determined locally in Celtic churches and was often given to the founder of an ecclesiastical settlement (llan). It wasn’t until the middles ages that there was a central role in determining sainthood.

We then had about 15 minutes of questions and answers, with mention of the Illustrated Manuscripts of St Chad’s Gospels and the pre-Roman druids.

David Powell led a vote of thanks for Dr. Williams, who then joined us in two further chat sessions in breakout rooms, which gave some of us a chance to talk to him on a personal level.

We finished off the evening with Jonathan Pegler playing the National Anthem and a selection of hymns.

Dr. Williams asked that instead of a fee, a donation should be made to Christian Aid.

A recording of much of the evening is available on YouTube, please click on the link below:

St David’s Day Dinner 2020

This year we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Society’s inaugural event, at which the founding members had sat down for a special St David’s Day dinner. After we’d taken our seats Ann Evans recalled that first meal she’d arranged for a small group of friends who shared a Welsh heritage. Ralph Broomby reminisced that at the time he was doubtful the idea of a Welsh Society would take root. But it had grown and thrived. He congratulated our Life President and founder, and also the members of the Society on its continuing vitality.
We welcomed three visitors, of whom David & Glenys Evans have become our latest members.

The event followed our established pattern with the 65 diners enjoying a sparkling drink as they gathered at Harewood Downs Golf Club. The special anniversary cake was on show and much admired. A plentiful display of Daffodils decorated the tables.
The venue and their new chef did not disappoint. The most popular menu choices of Lamb Shank and Poached Pear drew particular compliments. The Sea Trout was excellent. Known locally as “Sewin”, this fish was a regular seasonal catch from the River Taf in West Wales where I grew up. This year, for the first time ever, any Sewin and Salmon caught by the local anglers have to be returned to the river. So my choice was flavoured with a touch of nostalgia.


As the meal drew to a close our chairman, David Powell, rose to speak. He thanked the staff and all who had helped organise the event, and then introduced Glain Dafydd, the accomplished young harpist who provided our entertainment.

Originally from Bangor, Glain’s resume showed that she had studied in Paris and won various international awards, as well as graduating with distinction from her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Unsurprisingly therefore her repertoire for the evening was varied, and every piece beautifully played. The music she played on the evening was:
La Source (Hasselmans); Impromptu Caprice (Pierné); Merch Megan; Llety’r bugail; Ar hyd y nos; Sun Dance (Mathias); Suite BWV (J.S.Bach); Au Matin (Tournier)
After her performance Glain was presented with a bouquet of flowers by Irene Powell, and the formal dinner was closed with a heartfelt rendering of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau.

Of course, the evening would not be complete without our traditional sing-song, so John Breese took his place at the piano. Despite his very topical concern that an assemblage giving full voice might risk spreading viruses, Barrie Reece could not resist once John started to play Calon Lan and he was soon joining in with gusto.

 

 

A most enjoyable evening, and we now look forward to next year’s Dinner at which we will be joined by a special speaker and renowned Welshman, Rowan Williams.

 

Gwyndaf John

St David’s Day Dinner 2019

At Harewood Downs Golf Club – Friday March 1st 2019

And here we had the appearance of our own Rumpole of the Bailey in the form of Welshman, His Honour, Judge Tudor Wyn Owen FRAeS, now retired, He was educated at Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School and King’s College London (LLB). He was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1974 and gained an excellent reputation in Aviation Law and Crime. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman and past master of the Worshipful Company of Pilots. He served as a Recorder on the South Eastern Circuit from 1991 to 2007.
As a true Welshman, his anecdotes of his experiences as a pilot, his knowledge of technical jargon, his ready wit and delightful humour in accounts of his dealings with miscreants as a Judge were a delight to the ear. His experiences with Juries, his acknowledgement of learning most from cases which arrived at a wrong decision (in his estimation) were delivered with the rapidity of a Spitfire Browning Machine gun! He was very much thanked for his attendance and his ability to engage his audience in a most delightful and informative way!

His address, of course came at the end of the Dinner that started with a convivial reception at the excellent venue of the Harewood Downs Golf Club where national flags were prominently displayed. The sumptuous 3 course meal (finished with Coffee and Mints) was well sampled and enjoyed by all present where Mains were chosen from Lamb Rump, Roasted Salmon Fillet and Confit Duck Leg, Wine was in full flow, and conversations raged at each of the tables! (If ever you want to know how a social occasion is progressing, listen to the music of the conversations!!). No-one seemed to share any grief for the English who had been so roundly conquered by the Welsh Rugby Team in the International at the Millennium Stadium the previous week (poor dabs!)

Just before people were ready to depart, Pianist John Breeze struck up on the keyboard in true Canu o’r Galon (“singing from the heart”!!) vein with Calon Lân as a starter and then we progressed meritoriously through the usual classic full bodied and blooded Welsh Songs and Hymns that always adorn our functions, using “song sheets” provided by Gwyndaf, and augmented by the sonorous tones of a melodic tudor Judge. We finally ended up with a great rendering of Delilah! (I seem to remember the ground actually shaking in parts of the voluminous dramatic delivery done in fortississimo(FFF)!!!)

A marvellous convivial occasion that was enjoyed by everyone and we look forward to …yn dathlu Dydd Gŵyl Dewi eto y flwyddyn nesaf mewn arddull debyg! (…celebrating St Davids Day again next year in similar style!). Well done, David, Mr Chairman and to Kay & Gwyndaf for organising such a successful event.

Barrie Reece

Many more of Barrie’s pictures can be seen here!

St David’s Dinner 2018

After the snow reduced the number of attendees for our Christmas get-together, we had to postpone our St David’s Day Dinner as snow again threatened to prevent people attending, so we bravely chose Friday 13th April instead.

The Committee debated what to call our delayed event: CDWS Spring Dinner 2018, the Spring Dinner, the Postponed St David’s Day Dinner?  In the end we stayed with the St David’s Dinner.

While some of our members couldn’t make the new date, fortunately both our singer, Meilir Jones and Iain Ledingham, acting as accompanist, were able to attend. Others who couldn’t make the 1st March could attend for the new date. In the end we had a headcount of 70 – not bad.

Arriving at 6:30, it was a pleasure to see Harewood Downs in the daylight, as it was still light and we were able to admire the fine views over the Misbourne Valley.

The staff were very attentive and we were greeted with a glass of Prosecco or a non-alcoholic alternative while we assembled and met old friends and welcomed new members.

When we found our places at the tables, Gwyndaf John said grace in Welsh, but before he did so he explained the origin of the poem and the rules of the poetic style in which it was written (somewhat similar to a Japanese Haiku), giving it its unique style.

Our menu choices were cleverly printed out for each table, so that that would be no arguments about who had selected which dish – thanks to Graham Beavan.

The food was very good with main course choices of lamb shank, gammon or hake. Everyone was pleased with the quality and service.

After dinner, Kay introduced our entertainment for the evening, Meilir Jones (Baritone), accompanied by Iain Ledingham.

Meilir was originally from Llangefni on the Isle of Anglesey and is one of the first recipients of an award from the Bryn Terfel Foundation. He is currently engaged in postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Iain Ledingham is a Professor at The Royal Academy and also founded the Amersham Festival of music.

Meilir sang a variety of baritone works ranging from opera, to welsh folksongs and even a Shakespearean sonnet. These were all enthusiastically received by the members, who all called for an encore.

 


As the evening came to a close, Barrie Reece stepped up to the piano and played a series of welsh favourites with many of the society joining in.

At the end of the evening, we all thought that it was another successful St David’s Day – even if it had been delayed by six weeks!

 

 

 

St David’s Day 2017

On a dark but not quite stormy night, 77 members of the CDWS crowded into the premises of the Harewood Downs Golf Club to Celebrate St David’s Day on the 25th  February. The ladies dressed like brightly dressed birds and butterflies as usual outshone their dinner-suited companions. It is an interesting phenomenon that in the animal world it is the male who puts on his best plumage and prances around to attract the female of the species but in the human world, .the roles have somehow become reversed.

There was a flutter of anxiety amongst the assembled throng when as 7.00pm approached and there was no sign of the distinguished guest, Mt Huw Edwards. Our photographer, David Powell, hovered on the porch and it was with great relief when a tall, tanned figure appeared to be greeted by Kay Day, Chair of CDWS. It always a surprise to see a celebrity in person such as Mr Edwards, who  is usually seen on the BBC’s ‘News at 10’ sitting down, because one is not aware that he has quite long legs under the desk.

Huw Edwards with President Ann evans

Huw Edwards with President Ann evans

Jean Owen (left) – Welsh cakes baker!

The dining room was gaily decorated with Welsh flags and bunting, put up that morning by Maldwyn Pugh, who must have risked life and limb in doing so, and the very appropriate vases of daffodils dancing in vases on the tables. Gwyndaf John said the Grace in Welsh but prefaced it with an abbreviated English translation. The meal was served with great efficiency and accuracy by the golf club staff following the complicated menu choices of the guests which Graham Beavan, treasurer, who was the author of the table plan and spreadsheet of the meals to be provided. No-one therefore who had ordered the lava bread for the first course got the terrine, nor got the sea bass instead of the lamb nor the chocolate fondant (delicious, by the way) instead of the Bara Brith pudding. Everyone, however, got the Welsh cakes homemade that morning in Jean Owen’s kitchen.

Huw Edwards with Chairman Kay Day

Huw Edwards with Chairman Kay Day

Kay introduced Huw Edwards as the well-known broadcaster and journalist and also spare-time organist when rose to provide the post-prandial entertainment.

 

 

 

 

To the horror of the non-Welsh speakers in his audience he began in Welsh and continued in Welsh for long enough for them to begin shuffling their feet in dismay. However, this was just a ploy on the speaker’s part to remind everyone that the occasion was to celebrate a Welsh Saint’s Day and not to dwell on the collective sorrow as a result of that afternoon’s Six Nations Rugby game in Scotland.

 

 

 

Reverting mainly to English, Huw ranged over .a number of subjects beginning with the risks he faced from comments from a licence-paying audience, such as the person recently who had commented that the advent of wide screen television hadn’t paid Huw’s image any favours, or the listener who had remarked on Huw’s commentary for the broadcast of the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations that he, Huw, had said very little but the listener stated ‘That’s how I like it!’

Huw enumerated the risks the present audience faced from him, that is, that he would go on far too  long because  with the subject of  Dewi Sant (St David) ,we would find him something of an ‘anorak’. He gave a brief history, necessarily so because little is known of the facts of St David’s life which included an excursion to Ceridigion (Cardigan for the uninitiated).

When he asked if there were any members of the Society present who confessed their allegiance to this part of Wales (one confirmed she belonged to the North London Ceredigion Society to gasps of amazement). He said that it was Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709) who stumbled across the earliest evidence of David when on a visit to the church at Llanddewi Brefi in Ceredigion.

After a diversion describing the beauties of Cardigan Bay, the speaker related the simple way of life followed by St David, on a diet mainly of vegetables and water (as someone remarked, the original 5-a-day man) and quoted a saying of his as follows:

‘If you want to live a virtuous life, it is the simple things that matter.’

At which point, many in his audience must have been regretting the amount of food and fine wine that they had already been consumed that evening.

Huw Edwards with Anne Thomas

Huw Edwards with Anne Thomas

Huw continued with his regret that the many of the societies which maintained their links with Wales were disappearing which is why the CDWS should be cherished. He highlighted the London Welsh Society of which he was the current president saying he was delighted that young people were becoming members with the introduction of large screen television and the cheapest’ booze’ in London.

He praised the CDWS website which he had visited when he had accepted the invitation to speak and had been impressed with the range of activities which its members were  involved in

He ended his talk with remarks about the changing way that news is consumed now compared with the past with the introduction of smart phones, etc. Inevitably this means that watching television or listening to the radio is not a communal activity any longer but nevertheless, the BBC News at 10 programme still commands a sizable audience. He cited the mistake that ITN had made in changing its time slot for its evening news and warned that ITV was trying once more to invade the BBC programming space. He compared the BBC with the bias of newspapers in certain directions and the tendency for people to buy the one paper whose opinions they most agreed with, the term ‘fake news’ hovered on his lips with an indirect reference to current events in the USA.

He ended on this serious note but responded to a questioner to relate the most memorable experiences for him in his career. These featured Afghanistan and Iraq during the respective wars, the 2012 Olympics in sport, and in politics, the departure of Mrs Thatcher from Downing Street and the Blairs arriving after the landslide Labour victory in the election in 1997.

Kay Day wound up the evening with thanks to the staff at Harewood Downs who had worked hard to provide us with a delicious meal in a welcoming environment, the committee ladies who had arranged the flowers, Maldwyn for the decorations and Jean Owen for the Welsh cakes, and in particular, Steve Rowsell for being instrumental in inviting Huw as guest speaker.

A rousing rendition of the National Anthem was sung with John Breeze on the piano which I noticed Huw Edwards didn’t sing (he must know the words!).

Huw spent some time chatting to many members of the society, but finally goodbyes were said and the final photographs taken before our distinguish guest drove away into the night.

 

 

Later, song sheets were handed out and, with John again at the keyboard, many a rousing song was sung out.

 

Elan Preston-Whyte.

P.S. There are more photographs of the night here.