New Welsh Reader 130: Restored Memory

By Jonathan Edwards, Hilary Menos and Steven Lovatt

Illuminated by Anthony Arrowsmith's beautiful photography of the Loughor estuary, this anthology of prose on the theme of 'restored memory' and showcasing writing of place and blended nonfiction, features Angela Evans, in the second of her series celebrating the Wales Coast Path. Here, she uncovers the landscape's secret stories: a skeleton coas

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Welsh Review
• Release date: Sep 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781913830151

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was a pastor, theologian, and missionary. He is generally considered the greatest American theologian. A prolific writer, Edwards is known for his many sermons, including "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," and his classic A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Edwards was appointed president of the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) shortly before his death. 

Book preview

1.png

Contents

IMPRINT

TIDELANDS: BURRY PORT AND THE LOUGHOR ESTUARY

RIVER

VENUS AS A SPINSTER

ANNA AND THE ANGEL

TAXI

REVIVAL

HAUNTED LANDSCAPE

THE SHEEP SHOW

BAIT

National Eisteddfod, Carmarthen, 1975

THE FIR CHURCH

July 2nd, 15:08

BURNING ALIVE A SACK OF CATS

EMPEROR PENGUINS

CONSCRIPTION

REVERDIE

AWASH

NOTES ON THE RESURRECTION, III

NOTES ON THE RESURRECTION, IV

IMPRINT

New Welsh Reader

New Welsh Review Ltd

PO Box 170, Aberystwyth, SY23 1WZ

Telephone: [phone]

www.newwelshreview.com

Editor: Gwen Davies

[e-mail]

Administration & Finance Officer: Bronwen Williams

[e-mail]

Marketing & Publicity Officer: Edie Franklin

[e-mail]

Management Board: Ali Anwar, Gwen Davies (Director), Andrew Green (Director, Chair), Ruth Killick, David Michael (Treasurer), Matthew Francis, Emily Blewitt (Poetry Subs Editor, Vice-Chair)

Aberystwyth University Partnership: TK Quentin, Beau Longley, Nicola Cann

Sponsor of the New Welsh Writing Awards: RS Powell

Design: Ingleby Davies Design

Host: Aberystwyth University

Main images: Covers & contents page photography © Anthony Arrowsmith: (front) Burry Port Lighthouse, (back) Burry Port Marina and Yacht Club in distance, (inside front) Salt Marsh at Burry Port, (inside back) Burry Port Lighthouse viewed from the Harbour, (contents) View from Burry Port Harbour

© New Welsh Review Ltd and the authors

ISBN: 9781913830151

ISSN: 09542116

Views expressed in NWR are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either editor or board.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, recorded or otherwise, without the permission of the publisher, the New Welsh Review Ltd.

The New Welsh Review Ltd publishes with the financial support of the Books Council of Wales, and is hosted by Aberystwyth University’s Department of English & Creative Writing. The New Welsh Review Ltd was established in 1988 by Academi (now Literature Wales) and the Association for Welsh Writing in English. New Welsh Reader is New Welsh Review’s print (and digital) magazine for creative work. We also publish monthly roundups of online content, including reviews, comment and poetry, and at least one book annually on the New Welsh Rarebyte imprint, run a writing competition (New Welsh Writing Awards), and improve diversity in the UK publishing industry by hosting student work placements.

Mae croeso ichi ohebu â’r golygydd yn Gymraeg.

Patrons: Belinda Humfrey, Owen Sheers

TIDELANDS: BURRY PORT AND THE LOUGHOR ESTUARY

ANGELA EVANS (IN THE SECOND IN OUR SERIES CELEBRATING THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WALES COAST PATH) REPORTS ON A SKELETON COAST, BONAPARTE’S NIECE AND AMELIA EARHART’S EMERGENCY LANDING.

photos © anthony arrowsmith

Burry Port has never

had much destination status. Its most famous visitor didn’t mean to go there. In June 1928, Amelia Earhart was forced to end her recordbreaking 2000-mile cross-Atlantic flight in the Burry Inlet because she ran out of fuel. Dai Harvey Thomas, who was at the time fishing in the estuary in his punt The Black Pad, was first on the scene. When Earhart opened the plane door and asked, ‘Where am I?’ Dai, who struggled to understand the pilot’s American accent, couldn’t provide a satisfactory answer. In frustration, Earhart slammed the door shut and there they remained, Earhart sealed into her plane Friendship and Dai bobbing alongside in his punt, wondering what he had done to upset her.

The Burry Port area has a spare, opalescent, estuarial beauty but the remnants of its busy industrial past linger on like mantelpiece photos of long-gone relatives. A wall that once enclosed a mighty copperworks still stands near the harbour, rusty oversized pipes nestle in undergrowth, and the town’s housing is more miner’s terrace than fisherman’s cottage. There have been various initiatives to plaster over the industrial cracks. The area between Llanelli and Pembrey has seen one of the UK’s most ambitious regeneration initiatives. More than 2000 acres of industrial wasteland have been transformed into the Millennium Coastal Park, which encompasses lakes, landscape sculptures, viewing points and the coastal path. Burry Port harbour has had a facelift, which includes the creation of a marina and the replacement of the old shed-like lifeboat station with a Hilton hotel for boats. The site of a sprawling munitions works just along the coast at Pembrey is now a country park. And yet the signs of the intertwining of human and natural worlds are everywhere, even on the beach, where worn fragments of brick, coal and concrete combine – in surprising harmony– with naturally occurring pebbles.

Sand

Whilst this stretch of the coast has been heavily industrialised, the process hasn’t been an easy one. The sea has repeatedly asserted its power – sweeping away coastline, silting up harbours and wrecking cargo-laden ships – each time reminding developers that the coast isn’t a static stage set for human activity. The sea here has one of the longest tidal reaches in the world, running out for some two miles, and sand levels can shift by up to two metres in a day. The overall pattern is for the coastline to extend seawards. The sea once lapped the base of Pembrey Mountain (boldly named as it stands just 580ft high). It is now some two miles away, separated by partially embanked and reclaimed marshlands and Pembrey Forest (planted in the 1920s to stabilise shifting sand dunes).

This process of accretion has led to the abandonment of several local harbours. From as early as the twelfth century, Kidwelly was a busy port of national importance but the ‘insidious movement of sand’ hampered its use, finally forcing its closure in the early eighteenth century. Thereafter, the town turned its back on the sea, using the quay and canal to dump rubbish and building a bridge over the river, thus closing passage for even the smallest vessel. Only pub names – the Lord Nelson, the Fisherman’s Arms – hint at the town’s rich nautical history. The quay (now a nature reserve) is just over half a mile from the