Historic Bibles that saved Welsh language protected by new multimillion pound archive

A historic collection of Welsh language Bibles will be saved for future generations thanks to a multimillion-pound investment in a new archive.

It was feared that the William Morgan Bibles collection, which is currently kept in Ruthin, could deteriorate to the point of destruction if urgent action wasn’t taken to keep the precious texts safe from damage.

Plaid Cymru Councillor Emrys Wynne, who is the Cabinet Member for the Welsh Language, Culture and Heritage on Denbighshire County Council, has hailed the investment as “hugely important to our cultural heritage in Wales”.

The William Morgan Bibles collection is currently stored at Ruthin Gaol, on Clwyd Street, along with other historic archives but the system used to maintain the delicate air quality that is necessary to safeguard the material is old and will cease to function in a few years.

The precious historical texts are also at risk from the Gaol flooding again. But thanks to a £7.3 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which is subject to a successful development stage review, contributions of £2 million from Denbighshire County Council and £3 million from Flintshire County Council their future has been secured.

The investment will be used to establish a new facility for the North East Wales Archives (NEWA).

Archives currently spread across Ruthin and Hawarden, will be moved to a single, purpose-built, net carbon-zero facility in Mold. Moving the archives will enable Ruthin Gaol, to be further developed as a popular attraction. An archive room will continue to exist on the site, and there will be a consultation with users on what it will look like.

The first person to translate the New Testament was William Salesbury, a lawyer from Denbigh, but his version in 1567 was very formal and stiff.

Enter William Morgan, the Bishop of St Asaph, the son of a farmer who was born at Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant in Penmachno, in the Conwy Valley, and educated at Cambridge University.

He revised and improved Salesbury’s text and also translated the Old Testament to create the classic Welsh Bible that appeared in 1588.

He then began work on a revision of the 1588 Bible. Work was continued by Richard Parry, from Ruthin, who was the Bishop of St Asaph, and the leading Renaissance scholar John Davies, who was from the village of Llanferres. This revised version was published in 1620.

Decades later when another pioneer, Griffith Jones, began his Circulating Schools, which were a series of schools that would rotate or circulate around the rural parishes of Wales, more than 250,000 people were taught to read and write using Morgan’s Bible.

It’s still used today and has been described as “a work of great beauty that appealed to the gentry and the ordinary man or woman”.

In the eyes of many Welsh scholars, Morgan’s Bible literally saved a language that, at the end of the 16th century, was beginning to fragment into a number of different dialects and styles.

Cllr Emrys Wynne, of Plaid Cymru, said: “We know there are serious problems with the current archive facility that we have at the Ruthin Gaol Museum which isn’t fit for purpose in the long term.

“The storage space we have there is full to bursting and the systems that we rely on to maintain the delicate air quality that is necessary to safeguard the material that has been stored will cease to function.

“It is clear that the present arrangement is not sustainable and therefore it is necessary for us to find another long-term solution.

“The material that is stored in the archives is priceless and it is equally fragile, and delicate, so it is vital that it is kept in a particular way.

“The archives have enormous historical and cultural significance and we have a moral obligation to keep them safe.

“Every local authority in Wales is also bound by law to maintain an archive, and it has become abundantly clear the current facilities we have are not fit for purpose.

“The archives include the William Morgan Bible, the significance of which for Wales and the Welsh language in particular is difficult to overstate. It is unlikely that the Welsh language would still be with us as a living language had it not been created.

“Because of that, it is undoubtedly one of the most important texts in the history of Wales.

“We are investing in facilities to enable us to safeguard our precious cultural heritage.

“The Council has spent many years looking at different options for an alternate long-term solution that is needed for the archives.

“The conclusion of this work was that the best and most cost-effective option was to work with Flintshire County Council on a new purpose-built zero-carbon building on the campus of Theatr Clwyd in Mold.

“The investment that is being made will ensure the survival of priceless artefacts that are hugely important to our cultural heritage in Wales, and ensure they are available for future generations.

“This new facility was made possible thanks to a generous £7.3 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which we are very grateful for.

“The combination of this grant with £2 million from Denbighshire County Council and £3 million from Flintshire County Council, will enable us to provide an archives service that is far more efficient and effective than the one we have at present.”