Seven days, seven drives — An Elegant Sufficiency

It’s nearly a road trip!

I had been invited to judge at the Royal Welsh Show last Monday, which is held at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, in the middle of Wales. Mindful of the early start and knowing that the traffic quickly becomes a problem we decided to do as I’ve always done and stay overnight nearby. We set off from home on Sunday afternoon and drove across country to our first stop at the Black Mountain Lodge, a familiar location from previous years.

When the weather is clear, we can occasionally see the landmark of Hay Bluff from a road close to home, but today we were going to be driving right through Hay on Wye to our destination. As we drove through the town, we remembered the times we came here with Edward - always a voracious reader - but in particular we recalled the summer day when he’d just been accepted to read History at Cambridge and been sent an immense reading list. We took that list around the town and managed to gather most of the titles; a staggeringly daunting reading challenge for the four or five weeks left of his summer holidays!

We rose to blue skies early the following morning and encountered a couple of our fellow guests in the car park around 6.15am. “Heading for the show?” they asked.

We certainly were and whilst stopped at the first set of traffic lights, we wondered how they could schedule road works for this, possibly the busiest week of the year?

It wasn’t long before we caught up with the herd…

The thing is, in Wales, all the road signs are bilingual, which makes for an awful lot of writing to read! When both of us are in the car, it’s no problem, but for a lone driver on unfamiliar territory it can be tricky.

We arrived with oodles of time to spare and I was able to leave my kit in the cwtch (in this context, the small “backstage” area with a kettle and a few chairs for the stewards) whilst we headed off to get some breakfast. When I returned half an hour later, we were ready to begin work!

I was judging the “Interpretation and Staging” of the co-operative class, where several people work together to build a pleasing exhibit on a set theme. This year’s challenge was “Welsh Myths and Legends” and had to include floral art, two craft items, one food and one preserve. Marks are awarded out of twenty for each of these things, plus twenty for the Interpretation and twenty for the Staging. Needless to say, I had done some preparation and researched the eleven myths and legends from the Mabinogion together with one or two other stories I came across here and there, such as St Dwynwen, the subject of the exhibit above.

Here’s one from the Mabinogion though: Blodeuwedd. For this English judge, it was a real learning opportunity and in many ways, a real test of my ability to “read” the story from the exhibit too.

I found this beautiful exhibit to be a challenge, however and I was thankful that the team had left a card with Cantre’r Gwaelod there to assist me!

Around the corner was another unfamiliar legend too, but one told with such skill and clever visual devices that I was able to read the story from the design. The Lady of Tretower tells of the ghostly woman dressed in white who haunts a medieval tower. I awarded this entry full marks for both the interpretation of the story and also for the staging. My eye was drawn first to the “ancient” manuscript in the corner, embellished with a wax seal created by the nearby tool, laid at a clever angle to take my eye further into the display. The chosen items are all very much in keeping with the era and are linked both visually and physically by the macrame girdle and the lace. That central candlestick points right up to the lady herself too - and that great view stitched into the background quilt - a real eye-catcher providing instant visual impact.

To demonstrate how the same story can be interpreted in different styles, here’s St Dwynwen again, with Maelon thawing out in front of her. (If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll understand - and maybe spotted the block of “ice” in the first photograph?)

A couple more Blodeuwedds and Dwynwens, together with Branwen and Morgan le Fay and my work was done. My colleagues were still busy judging the cookery and preserves and the crafts and I’d return later, when the scores have been added up to see who won the Rose Bowl this year.

Whilst I’d been judging, my Hero had been exploring the showground and had found himself a good seat in the sheep shearing shed, where I joined him for a while.

What was interesting is that we thought we were watching a sheep shearing competition when it soon emerged that we were actually watching “Wool Handling”, for it was the young women who were in competition, gathering, folding and packing the fleeces as they were shorn from the sheep. Who knew this was a competitive skill? Neither of us - but it was very impressive and yes, very skilled. Here’s a video of the World Championship!

It didn’t take us very long in the Food Hall before we were feeling peckish and headed for our lunch in the Judges Restaurant.

After lunch, with the show ground beginning to get busy, we decided to take up the offer of seats in the Grandstand and see what was going on there.

Admiring a few huge machines along the way of course. Just what are these?

Watching the equestrian classes from our comfy seats, the same thoughts went through my head as they usually do in such circumstances: I felt thankful that I don’t judge these classes. The Equestrian judges have to ride each one of the horses in turn, going through the same routine, ie walk, trot, canter and gallop in front of thousands of people. Riding an unfamiliar horse must be challenging but to his credit, the judge we watched was cool and calm (as were the horses!) Sadly I had to dash before I knew who won, for at this show, the Judge is asked to be present when the results are announced and I knew that the entrants would wish to chat with me about my comments.

Unsurprisingly, the Lady in the Tower won, with the Cantre’r Gwaelod second and the first St Dwylwen third.

My work done, we made our way to find our car and when offered a lift by a chap demonstrating pick up trucks, gladly agreed, though getting into the truck wasn’t easy whilst wearing a skirt. (I hope no-one was watching!)

We set off from Builth Wells through glorious countryside towards Machynlleth, our base for the next three nights.

In true road trip style, we screeched to a halt when we spotted something interesting in the field to our left. There was a gate and a short pathway leading to what appeared to be some kind of monument or viewpoint.

It was both of those things: set on the edge of a steep escarpment with views of the hillsides all around. The name Winford Vaughan-Thomas was familiar to us both and this was a spectacular place in which to pay him tribute.