Llanelli is still one of the most strongly Welsh-speaking areas of South
Wales. Daniel would certainly have spoken Welsh, as would his wife if she
was from St Clears. He would also have needed a working knowledge of
English, especially as an Iron Weigher in 1851 census he was in a role where
he would have reported to managers, probably mainly English-speaking.
It is entirely normal for bilingual or multilingual people to use different
languages in different circumstances - at home, at work, in the shops, etc.
Daniel's children would probably have used Welsh at home.
It was after the 'Treason of the Blue Books', the 'Inquiry into the state of
education in Wales' that the increasing imposition of English and
marginalisation of Welsh took place, though English had been in widespread
use in the business classes, law courts and local administration in much of
South Wales for most of the 19th century.
https://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=thebluebooks sets the context. If you
follow the links on that page to the volume which includes Monmouthshire,
you will find the notes about schools visited in Trevethin on page 310.
It is true that Monmouthshire was already using less Welsh and more English
than areas further west. However from the 'Religious Census' of 1851
recorded on
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/MON/Trevethan/ you will see
that the default assumption was that chapels wosrhipped in Welsh, and those
that used English are particularly noted.
I expect you will realise from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abersychan and
the information therein about the history of the iron works why your family
moved elsewhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iron_Company has more about the
foundation of the British Iron Works in the 1820s.
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lilian Fowler via" <monmouthshire(a)rootsweb.com>
To: <MONMOUTHSHIRE(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 10:16 PM
Subject: [MON] Welsh Language Query in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
Hello everyone, I am still researching my paternal family of Bassett
who
were originally from Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. My 3 x gt. Grandfather
Daniel, along with his 2 sons moved from Llanelli sometime during 1820's
after the death of his first wife, to Abersychan, Trevethin,
Monmouthshire.
He died in 1862 and is buried in that area. His son married and his
children were all born in Trevethin area. During the late 1860's he, his
wife and children moved to Stoke on Trent to work in the Iron Industry.
My query is, would they speak Welsh or English or both. If their language
was Welsh, I wonder how they would communicate with the local people who I
imagine would have had a broad North Staffordshire/Pottery accent. I would
appreciate any ideas on this as I am endeavouring to put more 'meat on the
bones' of my research.
Best Wishes Lilian
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