page_title: Capel Celyn
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Capel Celyn / History
caption_attribution_description: Teitl Cymraeg/Welsh title: Protest yn Lerpwl yn erbyn boddi Cwm Tryweryn Ffotograffydd/Photographer: Geoff Charles (1909-2002) Dyddiad/Date: 21/11/1956 Cyfrwng/Medium: Negydd ffilm / Film negative Cyfeiriad/Reference: (gch13939) Rhif cofnod / Record no.: 3370636 Rhagor o wybodaeth am gasgliad Geoff Charles yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru More information about the Geoff Charles Collection at the National Library of Wales Mae ffotograffau Geoff Charles hefyd yn rhan o Broject Europeana Libraries Geoff Charles' photographs also form part of the Europeana Libraries Project
context_page_description: Capel Celyn was a rural community to the north west of Bala in Gwynedd, Wales, in the Afon Tryweryn valley. The village and other parts of the valley were flooded in 1965 to create a reservoir, Llyn Celyn, in order to supply Liverpool and Wirral with water for industry. Capel is Welsh for chapel, while celyn is Welsh for holly.
context_section_description: In 1960, a private bill sponsored by Liverpool City Council was brought before Parliament to develop a water reservoir in the Tryweryn Valley. The development would include the flooding of Capel Celyn. By obtaining authority via an Act of Parliament, Liverpool City Council would not require planning consent from the relevant Welsh local authorities and would also avoid a planning enquiry at Welsh level at which arguments against the proposal could be expressed. This, together with the fact that the village was one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities, ensured that the proposals became deeply controversial. Thirty-five out of thirty-six Welsh Members of Parliament (MPs) opposed the bill (the other did not vote), but in 1962 it was passed. The members of the community waged an eight-year effort, ultimately unsuccessful, to prevent the destruction of their homes.
  When the valley was flooded in 1965, the village and its buildings, including the post office, the school, and a chapel with cemetery, were all lost. Twelve houses and farms were submerged, and 48 people of the 67 who lived in the valley lost their homes. In all, some 800 acres (3.2 km²; 320 ha) of land were submerged. A new reservoir, Llyn Celyn, was formed. Many of the stones from the original chapel were re-used in the construction of the new Memorial Chapel.
  The water in the reservoir is used to maintain the flow of the River Dee (Afon Dyfrdwy) so that water may be abstracted downstream, and additionally to improve the quality of white-water sports on Afon Tryweryn.
  A full list of the submerged properties (broadly from west to east) is as follows:
  Families who had relatives buried in the cemetery were given the option of moving them to another cemetery. Eight bodies were disinterred and the remainder left. All headstones were supposed to be removed, and the cemetery was to be covered in layers of gravel, then concrete, but this was not done.
  When the reservoir dried due to a drought in the 1980s and early 1990s the village became visible. The whole of the walled cemetery next to where the chapel stood was completely covered in concrete. There were no gravestones left standing. The removed headstones can be seen at the new chapel at the Bala end of the lake.
caption: Protest in Liverpool attempting to stop the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley, 1956
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