S. Minwel Tibbott | |
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| Born | 8 February 1936 |
| Died | 13 October 1998 |
| Occupation | Historian, folklorist |
| Nationality | Welsh |
| Literary movement | Pioneer of Women's Studies in Wales |
| Notable works | Welsh Fare |
Sara Minwel Tibbott was an oral historian, anthropologist, folklorist, and researcher on Welsh cuisine.
Tibbott is considered to be a pioneer in the field of women's studies in Wales and an expert in the study of domestic life and traditional foods.
Tibbott was an assistant keeper at the Department of Oral Traditions and Dialects at St Fagans National Museum of History. Through her fieldwork across Wales she collected and recorded Welsh folk life for the Museum for it to be made available to people interested in Welsh life.
With the introduction of the tape recorder it became possible for Tibbott and the Museum to record people speaking about their lives. By collecting such recordings Tibbott helped the Museum to build an archive of oral recollections of traditional Welsh life. The collection is now kept in the archives as taped interviews or in manuscript form and is available on the Museum's web site. [1]
Tibbott contributed to the Museum's programme of publications on Welsh life with Welsh Fare. The book was published in the Welsh language in 1974 and an English language edition followed in 1975. The book is based on oral evidence collected by Tibbott from speakers throughout Wales who supplied information concerning traditional Welsh cuisine. The book contains a selection of recipes and background commentary on them. The commentary is academic in nature and explains the role the recipes have had in the history of food in Wales. In 2017 the book was published on the Museum's web site. [1]
The book is divided into chapters containing recipes on: savoury (dish) food; griddle cakes; cakes; bread; cereal and milk dishes; puddings; fish; jams; toffee and drinks. The recipes include those for dishes commonly eaten at the turn of the twentieth century and based on information provided by people who had used them over many years. Like folk songs and folk tales, recipes were transmitted orally and survived through memory. This meant they could be forgotten or lost easily over the generations and also meant they changed over time. Many foods and recipes were also connected with local customs. [1]
In the booklet The Gwalia: The Story of a Valleys Shop, Tibbott outlined the history of Gwalia Stores from its opening in 1880 to its closure almost a century later. [2]
In the book Domestic Life in Wales, Tibbott wrote about specific aspects of the folk life of Wales. The book was seen by the Western Mail (Wales) as breaking new ground in the study of folk life in Wales. The book also demonstrated the variety and depth of Tibbot's research, it covers the social and cultural history of Wales, folk life and food history and is based on oral and documentary evidence from a variety of sources and periods. The book contains eight chapters on different elements of folk life. In 'Liberality and Hospitality', Tibbot analysed the importance of food as a social factor through the ages. In 'Laundering in the Welsh Home', Tibbott wrote about the time before washing machines, when laundry was a major domestic task. In 'Sucan and Llymru', the sour oatmeal-based 'jelly' produced in Wales is analysed. In 'Cheese-making in Glamorgan' the women's task of cheese-making and its contribution to farming income is discussed. In 'Traditional Breads of Wales', Tibbott writes about the making of home-made bread. In the section 'Going Electric', Tibbott records the changes that modernised the farmhouse kitchen and the suspicion around it. In 'The Covering of Table Legs in (South-East) Wales', a series of photographs demonstrates this unusual tradition. In the final chapter, 'Knitting Stockings in Wales', Tibbott discussed the economic value of knitting and the implements connected with it. Tibbott died before she completed her work and Beth Thomas, Keeper of Social and Cultural History at the Museum completed the work.
In her review of the book, for the Welsh Books Council, Susan Passmore commented: [3] [4]
Mrs Tibbott was a pioneer in the field of women's studies, with her recognition of the wider significance of these generally unsung domestic tasks
In the book O'r Gwaith I'r Gwely: A Woman's Work, Tibbott (and Beth Thomas) used women's recollections from the Sound Archive at the Museum of Welsh Life to show what women's lives were like during the twentieth century. The book shows the skills, effort and many hours of labour needed to run a home. [5]
Tibbot contributed to scholarly journals such as Folk Life, where in 1981 she published her article on Laundering in the Welsh Home. [6]
Tibbott also published in Welsh, including a book on kitchen terminology: Geirfa'r gegin: Casgliad o dermau yn ymwneud â pharatoi a choginio bwyd.
Cawl is a Welsh dish. In modern Welsh the word is used for any soup or broth; in English it refers to a traditional Welsh soup, usually called cawl Cymreig in Welsh. Historically, ingredients tended to vary, but the most common recipes are with lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes, swedes, carrots and other seasonal vegetables. Cawl is recognised as a national dish of Wales.
Welsh cakes, also bakestones or pics, are a traditional sweet bread in Wales. They have been popular since the late 19th century with the addition of fat, sugar and dried fruit to a longer standing recipe for flat-bread baked on a griddle.
The crempog is a Welsh pancake made with flour, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar and salted butter. Traditionally made on bakestones or griddles, the crempog is one of the oldest recipes in Wales. They are also known as ffroes, pancos and cramoth and are normally served thickly piled into a stack and spread with butter. It is traditionally served at celebrations in Wales, such as Shrove Tuesday and birthdays.
Calennig is a Welsh word meaning "New Year celebration/gift", although it literally translates to "the first day of the month", deriving from the Latin word kalends. The English word "Calendar" also has its root in this word.
The morphology of the Welsh language has many characteristics likely to be unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs inflect for person, number, tense, and mood, with affirmative, interrogative, and negative conjugations of some verbs. There is no case inflection in Modern Welsh.
In West Slavic countries, as well as in Belarus, fermented cereals, such as rye, wheat, or oatmeal, are used to make soups. In Poland and parts of Belarus, rye is traditional for making żur; a variant made with wheat flour instead of rye is known in Poland as barszcz biały. Fermented oatmeal is a common ingredient in Belarus and in some regions of Poland. Fermented wheat or sourdough soups are also found in other western Slavic cuisines, in particular in the Slovak (kyslovka), Silesian (Sauermehlsuppe) and Czech (kyselo) cuisines.
A full breakfast is a substantial cooked breakfast meal, often served in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It typically includes bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, fried bread and a beverage such as coffee or tea. Hash browns are a common contemporary but non-traditional inclusion. Ingredients may extend beyond these or include regional variants, which may often be referred to by different names depending on the area. While it is colloquially known as a "fry-up" in most areas of the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is usually referred to as a "full English", a "full Irish", "full Scottish", "full Welsh", and "Ulster fry", in England, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively.
Twm o'r Nant was the pseudonym of a Welsh language dramatist and poet, Thomas Edwards, also known as Tom of the Dingle. He was famous for anterliwtau, which he performed mainly round his native Denbighshire.
Laverbread is a food product made from laver, an edible seaweed consumed mainly in Wales as part of local traditional cuisine. The seaweed is commonly found around the west coast of Great Britain, and the coasts of Ireland, where it is known as sleabhac. It is smooth in texture and forms delicate, sheetlike thalli, often clinging to rocks. The principal variety is Porphyra umbilicalis, a red algae which tends to be a brownish colour, but boils down to a dark green pulp when prepared. Laver seaweed has a high content of dietary minerals, particularly iodine and iron. The high iodine content gives the seaweed a distinctive flavour in common with olives and oysters.
An oatcake is a type of flatbread similar to a cracker or biscuit, or in some versions takes the form of a pancake. They are prepared with oatmeal as the primary ingredient, and sometimes include plain or wholemeal flour as well. Oatcakes are cooked on a griddle or baked in an oven.
Gareth 'Gai' J Thomas 'Toms' is a Welsh singer-songwriter, musician, producer and actor. In 1992 he co-formed the popular Welsh ska-rock band Anweledig, which developed into one of Wales' top live party bands. From 1997 to 2007 he created an 'off the road' Welsh folk outfit Mim Twm Llai, releasing three albums on Recordiau Sain. Since 2008, he dropped the Mim Twm Llai pseudonym for his own lifelong nickname Gai Toms, performing solo on guitar or with his backing band. His latest album titled 'Orig', based on the life of Welsh wrestling legend Orig Williams, gave us Gai Toms a'r Banditos.
Known as The Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire is a county of rich, fertile farmland and productive seas and estuaries, that give it a range of foods that motivate many home cooks and restaurateurs. There is a local tradition in brewing, milling, gathering shellfish from the coasts and meat production. Carmarthenshire has been described by The Daily Telegraph as a "worthwhile destination for foodies" with the county having a modest matter of fact excellence. Carmarthenshire has ambitions to become the premier food-producing county of Wales, based on its strong reputation for first-class products. and Carmarthenshire County Council produces its own on-line and hard-copy recipe book called Taste from Carmarthenshire, for those interested in learning more about the county's cuisine.
Welsh cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with Wales. While there are many dishes that can be considered Welsh due to their ingredients and/or history, dishes such as cawl, Welsh rarebit, laverbread, Welsh cakes, bara brith and Glamorgan sausage have all been regarded as symbols of Welsh food. Some variation in dishes exists across the country, with notable differences existing in the Gower Peninsula, a historically isolated rural area which developed self-sufficiency in food production.
Pembrokeshire has been called "the cottage garden of Wales", due to its good soil and the beneficial effects of the Gulf Stream, which provide a mild climate and a longer growing season than other parts of the country. The good climate and soil meant that the south of the peninsula was coveted by the Norsemen and Normans because it had "great plentie" of corn and cattle The county has prime agricultural land, much of which is located at about 70m above sea level, while to the north, the Preseli Hills rise to 500m above sea level and form uplands that are made up of heather and bracken, which are used for grazing sheep. Consequently, Pembrokeshire is classed as one of the most fertile counties in Wales, with its 392,300 agricultural acres having 14% of its land classed as of good quality, 67% being classed as medium quality and 19% being classed as poor quality. However, agricultural production is subject to market forces and in the 1890s, as a result of the Panic of 1893, a deep agricultural depression led to the area under cultivation falling by a third. Many labourers and farmers had no option but to emigrate to the New World and many of the large farming estates were sold. World War I brought prosperity again, but by the 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression, there was another agricultural depression which lasted until World War II. During the Post-war period agriculture has benefited from marketing schemes and marketing boards, which have helped in the regulation, marketing and distribution of the county's agricultural production.
The Reverend John Davies was a Welsh Congregational Minister, writer, linguist and poet. One source has Davies' date of death listed as 10 December 1884, separately noting that it was his funeral service that was conducted on 16 December 1884.
The coast of Ceredigion is made up of a long coastal plain that contains high cliffs, coves, large bays and estuaries. The coastal plain gets narrower towards the more mountainous north of the county and is cut by the wide estuaries of the Teifi and the Dyfi. The broad and fertile Teifi valley is ideal for dairy farming and mixed farming. Heavy rainfall washes the minerals out of the soil and results in the mountainous areas of the county having relatively poorer, acidic soils. The plough line can be as low as 700 feet, which restricts cultivation.
The cuisine of Monmouthshire is historically associated with Lady Augusta Hall, who was also known as Lady Llanover. Lady Llanover published one of the first Welsh cookery books called First Principles of Good Cookery. The book uses a fictional Welsh hermit to give culinary advice to a visiting guest who is travelling though Wales.
Rhiannon Ifans, FLSW is a Welsh academic specialising in English, Medieval and Welsh literature. She was an Anthony Dyson Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, in University of Wales Trinity St. David. She twice won a Tir na-n-Og prize for her work and won the literary medal competition at the Welsh Eisteddfod, for her 2019 debut novel, Ingrid, which was chosen for the Welsh Literature Exchange Bookshelf. In 2020, Ifans was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
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