Welsh History Podcast

A time before the NHS, before universal care, before the idea that healthcare might be something guaranteed. And yet, in this period, we begin to see something remarkable. The foundations of that future being built, often not by governments, but by communities themselves. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 41 CE, Rome did something unexpected. It made an emperor out of a man who had spent most of his life being ignored. That man was Claudius. Photos in this episode Proclaiming Claudius Emperor by Lawrence Alma-Tadema http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=13471, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2254930 Bust of Emperor Claudius By Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011), CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23198004 1:10 model reconstruction of a quadrireme By Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany - (four-banked galley) according to a graffito from Alba Fucens in Italy, mid-1st century AD, Museum für Antike Schiffahrt, Mainz, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65155984 Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed und

By the early twentieth century, rugby was not simply popular in Wales. It was emotional infrastructure. It was civic ritual. And in 1905 a game between Wales and New Zealand would set Rugby Union at the heart of Welsh national pride. Photo :Credited to Bowden Brothers photography - [1] Digitised from Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19060201-15-3 Published in the Auckland Weekly News, 01 February 1906, pg. 15. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Because we have so little written history it might seem that Britain was relatively static in the Iron Age. Britain, however, was not frozen in time. It was dynamic. And that dynamism, that competition between kingdoms and elites, created the conditions that made Roman intervention possible. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For centuries, the history of Wales was written as a history of men—of coal miners, ironmasters, and preachers. But by the 1880s, a quiet revolution was brewing in the valleys and coastal towns. Welsh women were no longer content to be the "angels of the hearth." Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan has returned to the UK and talks about what he wants to do now that he has returned. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between 1900 and 1914, Wales was not simply becoming modern. Wales was arguing about what modernity meant, and whether it had to come at the cost of Welsh language, Welsh institutions, and Welsh identity. Some of that argument happened in Parliament, through bills, speeches, and legislation. Some of it happened in newspapers, in chapels, at eisteddfodau, and in reading rooms. And some of it happened in verse, in voice, and in shared chorus. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Rome ever landed soldiers on British shores in 43 CE, Britain had already been measured, judged, and classified. Not morally, but administratively. Follow us on social media:Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2026 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode we talk about the human cost of the Boer War and give a couple of examples of those who logged their witness of what was being done in the name of the British Empire including the forced imprisonment of women and children into the first Concentration Camps. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we turn to a conflict that shaped the final years of the Victorian era and left deep marks on towns and villages across Wales. The Boer War, fought between 1899 and 1902, was a clash between the British Empire and the two Boer republics in South Africa. It was a conflict of imperial ambition, political controversy and human tragedy, and Wales was deeply involved in all of it. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode looks at why Britain was left alone, how Roman civil wars reshaped imperial priorities, and why the invasion of Britain under Claudius was as much about survival in Rome as it was about power overseas. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode looks at Wales at the end of the 19th century and explores how the country entered the modern age and how world events influenced daily life in towns, villages, ports, and industrial valleys. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon sits down to talk about some changes coming to the podcast and how the past shapes the future of Welsh History. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last decade of the nineteenth century was a period of immense change across Wales. It was a decade shaped by industry, migration, global tensions, political transformation, and cultural shifts. To contemporaries, the time felt restless, uncertain, and filled with possibility. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: @Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode we are going to talk about the structures and configuration of the Roman Army that was about to invade Britain in 43 CE. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, Wales was a nation on the move. Between 1880 and 1900, hundreds of thousands of people either left Welsh shores for opportunities abroad or arrived to seek work in the booming industrial valleys. This movement of people, both outward and inward, would reshape the population, language, and social character of Wales in profound ways. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rambling around the later half of the year and the holidays that surround it. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we discuss Wrexham and how it was established and how as an industrial town grew from a small market village. Thumbnail: Turner, Joseph Mallord William, 'Wrexham, Denbighshire', watercolour, ca.1780s. - http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1029038/watercolour/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93297032 Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He came, he saw, he left... but what did Caesars arrival and departure actually influence iron age Britain. Did the Britons actually know about them and how much would this change their lives over the 90 years before Claudius. Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the mid-19th century to the eve of the Boer War, colonial scramble of colonial expansion created a con. And at the heart of it, we’ll find Welsh men as soldiers, politicians, missionaries, and emigrants, celebrating, shaping and questioning Britain’s imperial destiny. Cover Photo: the painting of The Battle of Rorkes Drift By Alphonse de Neuville - 5AFi-BKNCeU_VA at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21997608 Follow us on social media: Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter: Welshhistorypod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/welshhistorypodcast Please consider becoming a supporter at: http://patreon.com/WelshHistory Music: Celtic Impulse - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100297 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ © 2025 Evergreen Podcasts Learn more about your ad choice