Oswestry home of Glyndwr comes to life

Owain Glyndwr's 15th century home at Sycharth near Llansilin, has been recreated on a video tour by digital technology experts Vivid Virtual Reality.

The video experience will be one of the highlights of the inaugural two-day Gwyl y Fflam – Festival of Flame, in Corwen near Llangollen on Saturday and Sunday, (September 14 and 15) on the former Pavilion site off London Road.

Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales near Corwen in September 1400.

He set up his fortified Sycarth home where he lived along with his property at Glyndyfrdwy.

VVR’s Toby Niesser, used descriptions in a poem by bard Iolo Goch and his own knowledge of medieval housing and buildings to recreate Glyndwr’s home digitally using a video gaming engine.

“I went along to Sycharth and had a look – it looks like a mound now but it was interesting to see and imagine what it must once have been like.

“It would have bee comfortable and well-appointed but these were turbulent times and they also had to be easily defended against attack so there would have been wooden palisade walls and a ditch and towers as well.”

Visitors can view a screen as if wandering around Owain’s home which, along with his property at Glyndyfrdwy, was razed to the ground by the future King Henry V.

Glyndwr took control of much of North and Mid Wales and called his first Parliament at Machynlleth where he was crowned Prince of Wales before holding out against the English forces until 1409.

He, possibly into the border counties home of one of his daughters before reputedly dying in 1415 – the year his adversary, Henry V, won his great victory at Agincourt.

Gwyl y Fflam organiser Dylan Jones said: “Owain Glyndwr is part of our history and heritage in Corwen and we wanted to celebrate and commemorate his proclamation as Prince of Wales in 1400.

"With the support of the South Denbighshire Community Partnership and the event has grown and grown so that we have two fantastic days lined up."

Gwyl y Fflam has been chosen to host the British Medieval Combat Championship Heritage Cup, the first time Wales has staged this new form of martial art which pits armoured warriors, male and female, against each other in individual and group combat in a 25-metre ring.

Medieval reenactors, including the Freemen of Gwent and the House of the Black Star, from Whittington in Shropshire, will set up camp on site to offer a glimpse of what life was like in medieval Wales.

The organisers are also promising a gastronomic feast with a hog roast, market stalls selling locally-produced food and crafts, a jester, jugglers, historical exhibitions, live medieval music and dancing, a Bayeux-style tapestry, story tellers and children's activities.

“It’s a fantastic coup to have the Medieval Combat Championships here and to have 35 armoured fighters taking each other on over two day.

"We also have lots of other organisations getting involved from the Powys Society which celebrates the life and work of the novelist and poet John Cowper Powys who lived in Corwen for many years, to the Owain Glyndwr Society.”

For more information on the event, go to gwylyfflam.com.