Wales

It was a special award ceremony for this year’s winners of the Welsh History Competition. Not only that it was hosted at the impressive premises of Welsh largest library, the National Library of Wales, but students also got to witness two special performances.

Character Performances introduced the winners to two special women who had a lasting impact on Welsh history. The first play was on Betty Campbell, the first black headteacher in Wales. Born to a Welsh Barbadian mother and a Jamaican father in 1934, she was determined to become a teacher from early age. While taking care of her three children, she started teacher training and soon returned to her native Butetown as the first black headteacher. She then started educating her students on Black history, slavery and the Apartheid system. This intriguing story also inspired the students from Ysgol Penrhyn-Coch, who dedicated their research project to the life of Betty Campbell.

The second play told the story of Mari Jones, another important female figure in Welsh history. In 1800, as a fifteen-year-old girl, she walked barefoot 42 kilometres to buy herself a copy of the Welsh Bible. Bibles in Welsh language were extremely scarce at this time, and Jones had saved for six years to finally buy an edition. Today, one of Mari Jones’ bibles is kept in the National Library of Wales, and of course, students had the opportunity to catch a glance at it. Librarians also presented the first bible in Welsh language, printed in 1588.

However, after the performances, this year’s winners took the spotlight. Over 9,000 students from all over Wales participated in 2024. Huw Griffiths, Chair of the Welsh Heritage Schools Initiative, was extremely satisfied with the edition: “This year, we witnessed a significant number of schools competing, with increased participation from secondary schools. Another positive development is the overall rise in the standard of submissions, making it particularly challenging for the judges to select a winner, as shown by the number of schools in the top category”.

While all works had to focus on Welsh history, Griffth also noted an uptick in research on minority stories: “Personally, I am especially pleased to see schools developing projects on Welsh women and Black, Asian, and ethnic minority history. These elements are integral to our collective story (…)”.

One of those projects came from secondary students at the Cantonian High School in Cardiff. They researched the history of Cardiff Bay, that until the 1960’s was known as Tiger Bay. It was Wales' oldest multi-ethnic community, with sailors and workers from more than 50 different countries living there. For their work they were awarded with the Digital Excellence Award sponsored by the People’s Collection Wales.

The EUSTORY prizes went to three students who researched Wales' 19th century history. Gwenllian Miles Jones investigated how the so-called Treachery of the Blue Books is still impacting Wales as a nation. The publication from 1847 condemned the Welsh language, morality and views on religion.

Siwan Jones and Erin Jones both researched the causes of the Rebecca Riots, a series of protests of in the late 1830’s and early 1840’s against too high taxes. The protestors, often men dressed as women in reference to the Biblical character Rebecca, focused their actions on tollgates that hindered them on reaching their fields without paying a road tax. All three EUSTORY prize winners are now eligible to apply for the EUSTORY Next Generation Summit in Riga in October.

Detailed descriptions of all other prizes can be found in the Full Summary Report 2024.