Penny S, be careful about mentioning the Taffia too loudly, you might wake up to find a sheep's head in your bed ... and would the court ever believe that excuse ?

The term "Taffia" has on occasion been used to describe the galaxy of acting talent from Port Talbot and nearby (Hopkins from Aberavon, Burton from Pontrhydyfen etc.), or the political figures of widely differing party affiliations but very similar interests, also from the same area (Geoffrey Howe, Clive Jenkins etc.)

It has also been widely used to describe the way in which some local authorities, or other bodies with minor tin-god powers, were allegedly sewn up by local petty oligarchs or families (bear it in mind that in some parts of the Principality, you suspect corruption when the man that gets the contract is NOT related to someone on the committee ...)



Some other Welsh worthies:

Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), twelfth-century chronicler and also made several attempts to make the Bishopric of St. David a metropolitan see, independent of Cambridge;

Major-General Sir Thomas Picton, one of Wellington's best officers, killed at Waterloo (he may not have been Welsh himself, but had large estates in Carmarthenshire, and the family name "Picton" is still quite common there and in Cardiganshire);

Man (anybody remember that pop group from the late seventies ?)

Gren (cartoonist for the South Wales echo, some of his images have travelled world-wide);

Incredibly, I haven't seen Dylan Thomas mentioned in this thread yet.


From the kitchens:
Bara Brith (like a currant loaf, but before you bake it, you soak the dough in cold tea overnight);
Laver Break (yes, when Snowdon erupts, we gather it in buckets)


Some other BTW's:

When Henry Tudor landed in Milford Sound in 1485, Richard III's chief lieutenant in Wales was Rhys ap Thomas. He quickly changed sides and supported Henry. There is a story that he had sworn an oath that Henry would enter Wales only across his belly (this allows a bit more latitude than, "over my dead body"). When the time came to switch sides, it was suggested that Rhys lie down and Henry step over him, but this was turned down as being too undignified. Eventually, Rhys stood under a bridge, while Henry walked or rode across it.

A figure from the Anglo-American War of 1812 was the US Brigadier-General Morgan Lewis. He was permanently a staff-officer or second-in-command to someone else, so didn't have a chance to shine. The only link I can find for him, here suggests that his parents were both native New Yorkers; but surely he could not have been Christened with so Welsh a set of names by chance ? Any US 'Catters know any more ?