From Persecution to Celebration

This artwork, on the end wall of The Old School at Tregaron in mid-Wales, shows silhouettes of swooping Red Kites. They form the shape of The Dove of St David. Legend tells of a dove being sent by God to appear alongside Wales’s patron saint as he preached at Llanddewi Brefi, four miles from Tregaron. Within the artwork, the Red Dragon of Wales is picked out in the copper colour. The artwork celebrates the survival and renaissance of Welsh Culture and Language. Back in the days of the ‘Welsh Not’, at schools like this one, children were punished for speaking their native language, in an official attempt to suppress Welsh. Celebrated too, here at the Kite Centre, is Tregaron’s importance in the revival of this beautiful bird - brought back from near extinction in Wales after years of persecution.