We want to be Welsh say English villagers

The Celtic boarders of Alba/Scotland, Cymru/Wales and Kernow/Cornwall with England have been fixed for many years now, but occasionally a debate about which side of the border a particular town or a tract of land belongs, flares up again.

As reported in Celtic news recently, such a debate has erupted in the town of Berwick, which currently is just across the border from Scotland in England. Berwick has switched hands between Scotland and England a number of times, with the last time being in 1885.

Also the Welsh status of the county of Sir Fynwy/Monmouthshire was disputed for many years until the Local Government Act in 1972 stated that Monmouthshire was indeed Welsh. However some candidates running in the Welsh Assembly Government elections in Monmouthshire in 2007, mwere still calling for a local referendum to decide if the population wanted the county to become part of England. Of course, in respect of the many economic and cultural benefits there are in being Welsh, the candidates polled very few votes.

In Cornwall too, many of the towns north of Launceston and west of the river Tamar were in Devon until the 1960's. Also it is argued that today there are still areas of land just across the border in England that should legally come under the Duchy of Cornwall.

More often than not though such disputes are resolved according to the unwritten English constitution, although not always democratically. The residents of Berwick for instance, in a referendum carried out by a television channel, voted by a clear majority that they wanted to be administered by the Scottish Government. The Westminster Government in England however has stated that they have no intention of letting Berwick go back to Scotland, no matter what the residents say.

Most recently, a town in Cheshire that is some nine miles across the Welsh border in England and a 2005 winner of the Northern England village of the year, has voted overwhelmingly in an online poll to become part of Wales. 63% of the residents of Audlem, Cheshire who took part in the poll said that they support the move to Wales. As in the case of Berwick, many of the residents of Audlem have stated that they want to be in Wales, because of the benefits that devolution has brought to the Welsh and Scottish people, such as free prescriptions and better health care.

Audlem however has never been in Wales and it is highly unlikely that it ever will, although parts of Cheshire were incorporated into Wales at one time. Historically there has also been a great deal of interaction between Wales and Cheshire, although not all of it friendly to say the least. In fact today in the town of Chester - the County town of Cheshire - it is still legal to shoot a Welshman with a crossbow after midnight and the clock tower does not have a west facing clock, because the residents purportedly did not want to give the time of day to the Welsh!

It seems that the traditional boarders of the Celtic countries will remain as they are for the foreseeable future, but maybe when Cornwall is devolved, perhaps there will be villages in Devon, England also voting to become part of this Celtic country too.

(Article prepared for Celtic News by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)

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J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

28/04/08