When you are walking around the pathways of Llansteffan, do you ever wonder about the people who walked there years and years ago? Are you curious about the people who built the houses you see in the streets? Would you like to know something about those who lived and worked in them? Are you interested in History in general? Then join the Llansteffan History Society, which was founded in 1981 and is still flourishing. More »
People visit Llansteffan nowadays for its tranquil beauty, but for centuries it was a hive of activity. It lies between the estuaries of the Tywi and the Tâf, facing the expanse of Carmarthen Bay. Over the years, its inhabitants would have watched a variety of ships waiting for the tide to take them up the river Tywi to Carmarthen, once the most important port and town in Wales. More »
Llansteffan Castle is an impressive, dramatically sited stronghold crowning a hilltop overlooking the estuary of the River Tywi. Long before its construction an Iron Age hill fort of the 6th century B.C. occupied the site, its double ditch can still be seen on the west of the castle. The first Norman castle was created between the prehistoric defences: an earth bank surmounted by a timber palisade. This happened in the first years of the 12th century, but the castle was first mentioned in 1146 when it was captured by Lord Rhys and his brothers, princes of Deheubarth. The Norman recaptured Llansteffan after a first failed attempt, Rhys came again in 1189 but was unable to hold on to the castle. More »
Every year the Election of Llansteffan’s Mock Mayor is the first colourful event in what has now become known as Fiesta week. Held on the Friday night of that week of festivities, this huge and important event is an extension of a tradition which has it’s roots way back in the 19th Century and possibly much further . Llansteffan’s status as a borough was confirmed by King John in 1200, which meant that fairs and markets could be held there. Two fairs a year were held, Ffair Fawr and Ffair Fach. Dates changed periodically. A Mock Mayor-making ceremony coinciding with the August Fair was certainly established by 1875 as William Waters describes the ceremony in his History of Llanstephan:
The “Mayor” was `carried on chiefly by Glamorganshire visitors … on or about August 8 … The so-called mayor is drawn by his friends in a carriage for some distance, the procession generally terminating in the wood near the beach, when his representative announces to the audience that the the “newly elected mayor” will soon effect great improvements in the ancient “maritime borough” at his own expense; such as erecting an iron bridge from the Castle Hill to St Ishmael’s, purchasing a large number of bathing machines, and establishing coffee taverns on the sands!’
According to the late Griff Rees, a local historian and County Councillor, the origin of the election has been lost in the mists of the 19th Century when the tenants of the various small holdings that made up the village would congregate once a year in the lounge of the Union Hall, the local hostelry now known as the Sticks. There, they would pay their annual tithes and taxes to whatever local landowner held their leases and over the years this event evolved into a more social occasion, and whether to allieve the pain of paying large sums of money to their landowners or not, the village agricultural workers decided to elect one of their number as Mock Mayor for the year to come. The winner of the election was then mounted in the shafts of a local cart or gambo and made to parade around the village for the amusement of all and sundry.
Dylan Thomas one of the best-known poets of the twentieth century, was born in 1914 in Swansea, and over the years most people tend to associate him with that city, and of course with the township of Laugharne in West Wales. Indeed such an industry has grown up around Dylan’s relationship with Laugharne that one could be forgiven for thinking that the township was Thomas’ only link with Welsh West Wales.