The Cymry or the true history of Britain.

originally posted by: Kester
a reply to: urbanghost

Not far from the yurts. That out of season holiday offer is starting to look very tempting.

Yurts are cool, stayed in one a few years ago at a friends, he lived in it for years. Then he upgraded to this, which I helped build.

a reply to: urbanghost
Cooooooollllll!!!!! I take it he hasn't put down foundations into the ground and therefore didn't require planning permission? I believe that's one thing you can do to avoid planning...I could be wrong.
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: urbanghost

Very impressed.

a reply to: angelchemuel
The posts around the outside are sunk into the ground, it has a floating floor made of oak planks hewn from trees around it. All built with traditional tools and methods. He had the council around telling him to pull it down. So everybody in his village signed a petition to keep it and he went to all the local schools in the area and started an education program teaching school children about how they lived in the Iron Age. They go there and learn how to weave and cook and other cool stuff. The kids love it.
One thing I have noticed about it, it is very unobtrusive in the landscape and there is a certain atmosphere of peacefulness around it, almost spiritual.

a reply to: angelchemuel
There was an older design there before this one which didn't have a raised floor, it was compacted mud.
This newer one is much bigger, you could easily get 100 people inside it standing up.

a reply to: angelchemuel

The way it used to be is no camping in the same place for more than 28 days and no living, i.e. cooking and sleeping in a structure that hasn't got permission. One hopeful was even evicted from a cave five miles from the nearest road.

There are ways around it. A tree patch that needs attention could get you 6 months of the year legally living on site. A huge campaign can get a special allowance in some cases. Researching historical or ecological living styles can be a good way to gain approval. Research, non-profit-making and educational are good words to use.

The truth is an ecologically sound lifestyle is such hard work it's a miracle if you have any time and energy left over for the intellectual battles you're faced with. A small advantage is the fact that those having meetings to decide what to do with you are getting paid for those meetings so it's in their interests to drag out the conflict, unless they're getting grief or bribes from the local snobs or those who perceive your very existence to be interfering with their businesses.

A group living this way are well advised to have the most tactful of their number employed almost full time in fighting the political struggle to be allowed a peasant lifestyle.

a reply to: urbanghost
So, he bought a field and 'planted' his house!
I'm just being nosey as I'm looking to do something similar myself.
I know somebody who, to avoid planning, just chopped the trees down all equally to the same height and built a long house on top from most of the trees they chopped down.

What your friend has done is brilliant! The whole concept is excellent. Hopefully, because he is doing an educational programme from there that's why the council couldn't do much....besides the village and schools being behind him.

I don't mean to be de-railing your thread.....sorry....but I love seeing these old ways being brought back to life, and quite literally lived.
Rainbows
Jane

PS...Ah, you were both busy posting while I was....thank you.....looks like I shall have to look for a field around the Forest of Dean or some such!!!

a reply to: Kester
This roundhouse has been there for over 10 years now and still going strong. The one before it was there for a few years and was only changed as they wanted to try out some different building techniques before using them on the roundhouses that were built in St. Fagans. Luckily enough the roundhouse is built on his own land, so that was one obstacle out of the way.

a reply to: urbanghost

Worth adding that the old idea of an Ango Saxon invasion of eastern Britain has also been largely discounted, in part due to the work of Francis Pryor.

Whilst obviously most of us have some DNA from people who have migrated to Britain from other parts, and interbred, we are mostly all descended from those who returned here after the end of the last Ice Age. Only our cultures and leaders have changed. Celtic, Belgaic, Roman, Saxon, Danish, Norman, American ....

a reply to: angelchemuel
It tells you all about it here
It has pictures of us building it and the different stages that it has gone through. It is a truly beautiful structure and I love going there, one of my favourite places in fact.

a reply to: AndyMayhew
This is what I am saying, people do not give enough credit to the ancient Britons for what they achieved. They could transport massive stones across the country and by boat from Wales, yet they couldn't come up with a few pots or burial rites?
The more I read about them the less I believe this island was invaded in the past.

a reply to: angelchemuel

Some people manage to fly under the radar for years. Not too many visitors and don't hang washing in sight are two basic rules.

We have a small camp that we use occasionally on land that is more of a liability than an asset to the legal owners. I would never suggest squatting land where that would cause any distress to the owners but sometimes squatting causes no issues unless they worry about liabilities. The funny thing is when we chose the site we found another little squatters camp just the other side of the bushes. In the circumstances any approach from representatives of the legal owners will almost undoubtedly be polite and apologetic. More likely they will secretly approve and look the other way. That's one way forward for those who have nothing.

Some friends bought a small field, asked the council what the situation was with opening a gateway onto the road, and were immediately overwhelmed with demands to know, 'What are your intentions! How many of you are there! What are you going to do with your effluent! etc. etc. They quickly went from joy at owning a field to depression at having wasted the money. Forewarned is forearmed.

Keeping it very quiet while building up a massive stock of supportive paperwork for the inevitable day can at least get you some time in paradise. Remember, those who are paid to oppose you will be overjoyed if you give them an excuse to have lengthy discussions on many points with many people. This situation is changing and I'm not up to date with it but it's still a massive political battle, and a battle well worth getting into!

Being a genuine seasonal agricultural worker has the right effect. If you can somehow find and perform the seasonal agricultural work.

originally posted by: urbanghost
I posted this in another thread but I think it is relevant to what I am saying. Not sure if this is allowed, if not I will gladly delete it.

According to the welsh legends, Britain was established by a guy called Hugh Gadarn or Hugh the Mighty, he survived a massive flood that devastated the world. He found a few other survivors and they became the first inhabitants of Britain. The land before they got there was called Glas Merddin, The Island of Green Hills. With Hugh was someone called Aedd Mawr, The Great and his son Prydain. Prydain gave his name to the new country, Ynys Prydain, The Isle of Prydain. Another person called Dyfnwal Moelmud arose in this land and became the great legislator for all the tribes and the whole of the country.
Hugh Gadarn, Prydain and Dyfnwal Moelmud, were called the Three Pillars of the tribes of the Cymry.
The Three Pillars recognised three tribes who were honest in this land. The first were the Cymry, the original and first tribe. The second were the Lloegrwys, they came from Gwaswyn, or Gascony, in Gaul, they were descended from the Cymry. The third and last were the Brythons, from the land of Llydaw, or Brittany, and they were also descended from the Cymry.
The picts were a tribe from the north of Ireland, they were constantly at war with the other Irish tribes. In the 4th century they started coming into Britain on raids and attacking the Romans. In 369, Theodosius the roman general fought and defeated them in a great battle and drove them to the north of Britain.
After the Romans were routed from the country the picts became the number one foe of the Cymric and they had many wars and the Cymric easily defeated them, but once the Saxons came it was harder for the Cymric to defend themselves. They asked the Romans who they had driven from their lands to help and at first they helped, driving the picts back north and holding the Saxons at bay. But later when asked to help again the Romans had too much trouble at home and left the Britons to their ultimate fate.
This is what the Welsh legends when translated properly have to say about the history of Britain.

On the subject of Hugh the Mighty, I found this interesting historical reference:

quote from Compendium of World History Vol 2 Chapter V

"HU THE MIGHTY"

King Danus' realm extended far beyond the reaches of the Danish peninsula. The people over whom he ruled were a collection of tribes which constituted the greatest sea power of the time -- the Pelasgians or sea people.

From the list of sea powers, commented on in Volume I of the Compendium, it is proved that the Pelasgians were Hebrews and their allies. Their chief center of habitation was Palestine.

Denmark was one of several overseas settlements. Israel gained power in 1057BCE, shortly before the break-up of Germany in Europe. They retained it until 972BCE, when Solomon's kingdom in Palestine was split. For the Israelites to have obtained dominion of the sea in 1057BCE in the Mediterranean and Atlantic presupposes that they already were living along the western shores of Europe before that date.

When and how did the Children of Israel migrate to Western Europe before the days of Solomon's reign?

The answer is found in Cymbric or Welsh history.

A fragmentary Welsh record, called the Welsh Triad, reads as follows: "First was the race of the Cymry, who came with Hu Gadarn to Ynys Prydain." Hu came from "the land of summer" -- a land located somewhere in what later constituted the realm of Constantinople (the capital of the eastern Roman Empire).

He journeyed to Ynys Pridain -- the Welsh name of the Isle of Britain. This first major settlement preceded the migration in 1149BCE of Brutus of Troy to Britain.

Who was Hu Gadarn? Gadarn is a Welsh word. It means the "Mighty." Hu was a short form of the Old Celtic name Hesus ("Origines Celticae", by Edwin Guest, vol. 2, p. 9). Hesus is the Celtic -- and also the Spanish -- pronunciation of Jesus/Joshua.

Was there a famous "Jesus" who lived in the balmy summerland of the eastern Mediterranean centuries before the time of Jesus the Christ?

Most certainly! It is found in Hebrews 4:8, "For if Jesus that is, Joshua had given them rest, then would he
not afterward have spoken of another day."

Jesus was merely the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. Hu or Hesus the Mighty was Joshua the Mighty, the great general who led Israel into Palestine. And the Welsh Triad records that in his later years he also settled Israel peaceably in the British Isle.

From there, for trading purposes, they spread to the coasts of the continent which were subject to the German Cymry -- the descendants of the German/Assyrian king Cimbrus (1679-1635BCE). That is how descendants of Israel in Denmark came to be known by the Welsh tribal name of Cymry. "

I don't know what is true, and it is fascinating to research this far back, but I wouldn't be so quick to rule out Welsh ancestry as Israelite.

God Bless,

a reply to: Kester

The oldest bender tent site found in Ireland is 9,000 years old. The nature of the pole holes tells us the poles were seasoned in a jig. A central fire pit suggests there may have been a central ring the poles slotted into much like a yurt. A sewn, fitted cover was likely, far more advanced than most modern day benders. The most common mistake made today is to make the pole holes vertical then the poles bend in from the bottom restricting interior space. The pole holes should be sloping outwards so the poles bow and give a far more usable space and a stronger framework.

The fire pits were deep suggesting bundles of sticks, faggots, were burned. These sticks could be easily cut with a hand axe. Such a fire would keep everyone warm and dry whatever the weather. The ground itself would have been warmed. The floor is best covered with a layer of twiggy sticks giving space for surface water to flow unimpeded after torrential rain. Over these sticks a layer of soft rushes and other strewing herbs are laid. Skins or rugs on top of that and you're sorted. When sleeping on such a floor you are aware of the small earth tremors that usually pass unnoticed.

Hunting parties going ahead on the seasonal migration routes could cut fresh sticks and stack them in jigs at the site that would be used later. That way only the covers, heavy enough themselves, would have to be carried. When cutting poles it soon becomes apparent there is an optimum size for an individual to carry. Too long and the poles immediately begins to bounce with every step. After three steps the bounce is forcing you downwards. Big poles have to be dragged or carried by more than one. The sticks should be as straight as possible and without nubs than would quickly wear a hole in the cover as the structure flexes in strong winds. Finding straight sticks can be time consuming. This may be the origin of the saying, 'When does the old man cut his stick? When he sees it.'

A bender tent image search will show you how many modern benders are sloping inwards while the often brilliantly executed Romany tents will be bowed out.

A basic design that has a little heard ancient chant associated with the placing of each stick is the eight stick tent. I'll try to work out how to add a diagram of the design.

a reply to: Kester

Turn the bender upside down and you have a boat capable of crossing the Atlantic.
sites.google.com...

a reply to: ElohimJD
Yes I have read this before, it is quite an old book. I did some research a few years ago when I read it and found some interesting things relating to the Sea People. For instance the name Morgan which originated in Glamorgan means in Old Welsh, People of the Sea.

originally posted by: urbanghost
There was an older design there before this one which didn't have a raised floor, it was compacted mud.

Half of my house is a 17 century cottage. The tiles are laid directly in the floor, which would have been compacted earth originally, although the tiles are laid on lime mortar (on top of earth). This may explain why nothing is level!

They are building "replica" Neolithic houses at Stonehenge, which is near where I live. I listened to a radio programme on the way they have taken the archaeological evidence to "test" replicas and building methods. Fascinating stuff.

Stonehenge Huts

Regards

a reply to: paraphi

I hope the Stonehenge hut builders are reading this. They need to know how the firewood was stacked and used.

This is the way it was done in Devon until fairly recent times. The only difference being as cutting tools improved it became easier to cut thicker logs. Derek Miller from Winkleigh or one of his proteges can teach the straw rope making technique. There's more to it than you think. Rushes can be used instead of straw. The rope is used to fasten down the thatched roof of the rick.

First brambles and undergrowth that need to cleared are gathered and arranged into a thick, circular mat. This keeps the bottom layer of firewood from becoming damp through contact with the ground. Using a flint hand axe, or billhook if you're really high tech, sticks are cut and tied into bundles. The tie is a split length of hazel. It's wrapped around and fastened tightly using a clever hitch, which I don't know. The last time this was done properly was probably in the 50's. If you can regain this skill in making tight bundles you have contributed greatly.

The bundles are arranged in a circular stack as high as can be comfortably reached. A conical thatched roof is then built on top of the stack. This is all arranged so bundles can be pulled out individually and the roof drops as the stack shrinks. As you can imagine nothing is left for archeologists to determine the location or size of the rickyards.

At least three years supply is aimed for. The wood burnt is then perfectly seasoned and extra is available in case illness or other hardship makes getting more wood difficult. With improved cutting tools the same can be done with logs which are used as backlogs to keep the fire going.

The early riser brings in a bundle and places the entire thing on the embers. It catches and creates a warming blaze so the other inhabitants can get up in comfort whatever the weather. When everyone has done the first chores of the day the fire has burnt down to a perfect cooking fire for breakfast. If logs are available, every few days a new backlog is brought in.

When this was done across the land all awkward, unsightly and in the way branches and saplings were added to the firewood store. Romanticised landscape paintings are not all as romanticised as you might think, it was aesthetic tree surgery on a massive scale.

The old man told me.

Ogham script.
There are many stones in wales with ogham script on them, more than anywhere else in Britain. Only four of them have latin names carved on them, the rest have Brythonic names. Two stones found have this letter on them ᚘ
This letter represents /p/. Primitive Irish doesn't have this sound.

This is what it says regarding the history of the Welsh in the Triads.

"Long before the Kymry came into Britain the Llyn Llion, or Great Deep (literally the abyss of waters), broke up and inundated the whole earth. The Island, afterwards known as Britain, shared the general catastrophe. One vessel floated over the waters, this was the ship of Nevydd Nav Neivion. In it were two individuals preserved - Dwy Van (the man of God) and Dwy Vach (the woman of God). By the posterity of these two the earth gradually repeopled.
The ship of Nevydd Nav Neivion was built in Britain, and was one of its three mighty works. For a long time after the subsiding of the deluge the Kymry
dwelt in the Summer Land, between the Sea of Afez and Deffrobani. The land being exposed to sea floods, they resolved, under the guidance of Hu Gadarn to seek again the White Island of the West, where their father, Dwy Van, had built the ship of Nevydd Nav Neivion.
They journeyed westward towards the setting sun, being many in number and men of great heart and strength (Cedeirn, mighty ones, giants). They came in sight of the Alps, and then part of their migration diverged southward - these are the Kymry (Umbri) of Italy. The others, consisting of the three tribes of the Kymry, the Brython and the Lloegrys, crossed the Alps. Along either side of the Alps, near the sea, part of the Lloegrwys settled; these
are the Ligurians of Italy and Gaul. Pursuing their course still further they crossed the River of Eddies, the Slow River, the Rough River, the Bright River (the Rhone, the Arar, the Garonne, the Loire), till they reached Gwasgwyn (Gascony, the Vine-land). Thence they turned northward and part of the Brython settled in a land they named Llydaw ar y Mor Ucha (the land or expansion on the Upper Sea Armorica). The Kymry still held onward until they saw the cliffs of the White Island. Then they built ships and in them passed over the Hazy Ocean (Mor Tawch) and took possession of the Island. And they found no living creature on it but bisons, elks, bears, beavers and water monsters. And they took possession of it not by war, nor by conquest, nor by oppression, but by right of man over nature. And they sent to the Brythons in Llydaw, and to the Lloegrysw on the Continent, and to as many as came they gave the East and the North of the Island. And the Kymry dwelt in the West. These three Tribes were of one race, origin and speech. These are the three Pacific Tribes of the Isle of Britain, because they came in mutual good-will, peace, and love; and over them reigned Hu the Mighty, the one rightful
Sovereign of the Island. And they called the Island the White Island (Ynys Wen), and the Island of the mighty ones. Its name Britain, or Prydain, was not yet known."