A Welsh language pressure group wants to extend a scheme that helps to protects land names in Wales. The Diogelwn (we will protect), a scheme launched by Cymdeithas yr Iaith, was launched in 2021 as a way for owners to protect their houses' Welsh names.
The project encourages people to ask their solicitor or conveyancer to include a particular clause when selling their house to prevent the buyers and their successors from changing the name. It also helps people to prevent buyers or beneficiaries under their will and their successors from changing the name of the house.
But it has now been extended to include names of land. According to the pressure group, it became obvious that there was a need to extend the scheme to include land names as well, after the name of a Carmarthenshire farm was lost from the Ordnance Survey map and replaced with another name.
In February of this year, people on social media called for better legislation in protecting Welsh place names after Banc Cornicyll in Gorslas near Cross Hands was renamed 'Hakuna Matata' on an Ordnance Survey map. The name change sparked a furious response, with some saying it was "literally wiping our language, history and culture off the map".
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In response however, the owner of the house defended the name change. Sara Davies, who had lived in the house for nearly 25 years, said that the name, Banc Cornicyll, had disappeared before they had purchased the land in 1997, despite it being listed on documents recording the sale still on the land registry. You can read more about this story here.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith has now said they are eager to make it as "easy as possible" for anyone to protect the name of their home or their land either before or as they sell it. As it stands, only the owner can change the name of their land or protect it by using the Diogelwn scheme, but tourist names are replacing natural names such as Carreg Edwen, Coed Llyn Celanedd, Coed Cerrig y Fran and Ffos Clogwyn y Geifr.
The newly-adapted scheme will be presented at an event in the Cymdeithas yr Iaith stand on the Maes at Eisteddfod in Tregaron on Monday, July 1. At the event, campaigner Howard Huws will talk about Cylch yr Iaith's campaign to press the Welsh Government to legislate to prevent the names of landscape areas being replaced by English names.
Speaking at the event also will be Simon Chandler - a lawyer who devised clauses and documents for people to use after poet and author Sian Northey, who was selling her house, asked on social media in June of last year if it was possible to protect her house's Welsh name after the sale.
Such clauses and documents that contain standard covenants are available to download on the Cymdeithas website. Prior to the event on Monday, Simon Chandler said: "The scheme exists because there is a call for it, and because the Welsh have a long tradition of self-help. We're all concerned about the loss of Welsh names, and we're all keen to see legislation by the Welsh Government which protects those names by statute."
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