Welsh Church Melbourne (Yr Eglwys Gymraeg yn Melbourne)
On Saturday, at the Welsh Church in Melbourne, I had the first face-to-face Welsh language class since lockdowns began. Great class.
The church is now dwarfed by the surrounding towers but its place in Melbourne's history is not diminished. In this photo, I quite liked the clouds reflecting back and forth across the towers, and the way the church still stands tall!
The original Welsh Chapel in Melbourne dates from 1856, and this Gothic Revival Church, designed by Charles Webb, was built on the same site in 1871. Welsh language services are still held at the Church twice a month, including yesterday's Welsh Christmas service and carols.
The original Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital for women started in the Welsh Church Hall (St David's Hall) in 1896. The hospital was begun by Dr Constance Stone, the first Australian woman to qualify as a medical practitioner. She, with some of the first women medical graduates of the University of Melbourne, established the hospital initially as an outpatients' clinic in the church hall, with the support of Dr Stone's husband, the Reverend David Egryn-Jones, then the Minister of the Welsh Church.
Lovely shot and your Welsh is coming along nicely.
David was born in North Wales and we lived on Anglesey in North Wales for 4 years too.
He has just got a copy of a book written in Welsh by an old school friend of his. I think it will take some time to read it because his Welsh language isn't so good these days. ha ha
Thankyou for the encouragement. I have cousins in North Wales with whom I practise Welsh from time to time. I am learning Welsh partly because a cousin challenged me to be able to speak in Welsh next time I visit. My cousins are Welsh as first language speakers.
I was going to ask "Why on earth would you want to learn Welsh?" but on reading the comments I now know why - sort of. But as one girl from Wales once said to me "Not even the Welsh can understand what the Welsh are saying." Maybe your cousins could learn Strine
@ankers70 Made me remember back to the opening of the Athens Olympics and a Greek singer was putting her heart and soul into performing a particular song when it occurred to me that it was mostly pretty much wasted effort as only a very small proportion of the total world wide audience watching had the faintest idea what she was singing about. I couldn't think of a single country outside of Greece that spoke Greek - except Melbourne of course. LOL
LOL. I think at one stage it was said that Melbourne was the second largest Greek city in the world behind Athens. I think in recent years, it's about seventh for Greek speaking population! You probably remember as do I when there were Greek cafes everywhere? Lots of other languages and ethnicities now. @terryliv
David was born in North Wales and we lived on Anglesey in North Wales for 4 years too.
He has just got a copy of a book written in Welsh by an old school friend of his. I think it will take some time to read it because his Welsh language isn't so good these days. ha ha
Where does David come from? @onewing
It is a difficult language! It is an old Celtic language, so grammatically, structurally and linguistically very different.
Keeps the brain active. @terryliv
@terryliv
brilliant composition and pov
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