The Master Shoemaker
Oswestry and Llanfyllin were known for their excellent shoemakers, but who was the best? They held a competition. Oswestry’s finest shoemaker travelled to Llanfyllin to compete against Llanfyllin’s best shoemaker, Edward Wynn. Both cobblers worked ling and hard to make the most brilliant shoes. After long deliberation, the judge proclaimed that Edward Wynn of Llanfyllin’s shoe was the best. The shoemakers from Oswestry were sure he must have cheated, so asked for a rematch at Oswestry. Again Edward Wynn was victorious and everyone in Llanfyllin celebrated their champion’s victory.
Y Meister Crydd
Yn y ddwy dref, Croeswswallt a Llanfyllin, roedd cryddion ardderchog, ond doedd neb yn gwybod p’un oedd y gorau. I benderfynu, cynhaliwyd cystadleuaeth. Aeth crydd gorau Croesoswallt i Llanfyllin i gystadlu yn erbyn crydd gorau’r drefhonnu, Edward Wynn. Gweithiodd y ddau yn galed ac am amser maith, i greu’r esgidau gorau erioed. Ar ôl pendroni, cyhoeddodd y beirniaid yr oedd esgid Edward Wynn y gorau. Mynnodd cryddion Croesoswallt am ail gystadleuaeth. Felly aeth Edward Wynn i Groesoswallt, Roedd o’n fuddugol eto, a derbyniodd ganmoliaeth fawr ar ôl iddo gyrraedd adref.
No-one attempted a video telling of this story during our project. Llanfyllin’s patron saint St Myllin is also the patron of shoemakers so maybe it came as no real shock that the Llanfyllin cobbler should have come out victorious despite Oswestry being a much larger town with many more shoemakers.
More about the Montgomeryshire Folktales project
In 1947 the Montgomeryshire History Teachers Committee commissioned a book ‘The Enchanted Wood and Other Stories’ of site-specific tales passed down through Montgomeryshire communities for generations, rewritten as a local history resource for schools.
During 2019/20 Mythstories was funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund in Wales to turn the 1947 book into an on-line resource.
Mythstories commissioned storyteller Amy Douglas and visual artist Helen Kozich to work with young people in Newtown, Powys and help them re-interpret the tales for their peers. Videos of the young people telling the stories in many different ways are among the Montgomeryshire folktales on this website.
Storyteller Tamar Williams ran two day-long stagecraft workshops for young people at Theatr Hafren, Newtown.
Artists Ed Fisher and Imogen Phillips were commissioned to produce black-and-white illustrations of each location, for a series of postcards and use on this website.
Ashley Thomas edited the videos of the storytellings.
Many volunteers helped:
Members of Bangor University Storytelling Soc. produced the English précis of the stories for the postcard series
Fiona Collins, Alison Layland and Tamar Williams produced the Welsh précis of the stories for the postcard series.
Members of Llangollen’s Caffi Stori visited each of the sites, took photos and reported back to the artists on the locations.
And organisations leant their support:
Newtown Library and Newtown High School hosted a Newtown Young Storytellers Club and Penygloddfa Primary School, Caersws Primary School and Abermule Primary School hosted “Story in a Day” workshops.
Theatr Hafren hosted the stagecraft workshops and the final celebratory event
Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn Town Council funded storytelling performances to school children in Newtown to help promote the project.
Thank You All!
The full teachers resource is at https://mythstories.com/stories/montgomeryshire-folktales/
