THE WELSH community in Coventry will mark St David’s Day with a performance by singers from Wales.
Coventry Cambrian Society is getting ready to celebrate 50 years of connecting the Welsh community, who made Coventry their home.
This year, the Cambrian Society will celebrate the festival on the night before St David’s Day, with a dinner on February 29 at Coventry Golf Club in Finham, where a group of singers from Conwy, led by Trystan Lewis, will provide entertainment.
The society starts its 50th year in September – throughout the year it puts on talks, musical events, social evenings and an annual trip to Wales.
In May it will visit the National History Museum in St Fagans – Wales’ most popular heritage attraction and winner of the 2019 UK Art Fund Museum of the Year prize. And in April, Derek Poulson will present “It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it” – a whimsical tour of the accents of the British Isles.
Anyone with an interest in Wales is welcome at the society’s meetings.
The society says a third of the membership are fluent Welsh speakers with another 15 per cent Welsh learners, though all its meetings are held in English.
Those keen to learn Welsh can join Coventry’s two ‘Say Something in Welsh’. groups where learners go for conversation practice and building confidence.
There is also a Welsh Chapel in Coventry on Holyhead Road, and Côr Cymraeg Coventry – a male voice choir, currently six strong, whose repertoire is almost all in the Welsh language.
Coventry’s reputation as a boom-town in the early 20th century drew immigrants from across Wales, particularly the South Wales Valleys.
In 1948, Coventry Welsh rugby club was set up in Radford.
Coventry’s champion amateur boxer Derek Richards moved to the city from Merthyr age 4, he also became Wales’ national champion.
For St David’s dinner tickets or more information on events, phone 024 7671 1397.
