Wales 'losing its heritage' with name changes

A petition to stop Welsh place names being changed to English will be discussed by members of the Senedd.

It has so far received 6,958 signatures, surpassing the 5,000-threshold needed for it to be discussed by the petitions committee.

It states that "little by little, the country is losing its heritage" and "this must be stopped for the sake of future generations".

Former First Minister Carwyn Jones is among those who have added their voice.

Tweeting in Welsh, he said: "The Tregyb Arms was opened in Brynaman in 1865, and there, in 1891, the first branch of the Miners' Union was established.

"The building has changed a lot over the years but in recent days, an English name has replaced the Welsh one. The owners have to rethink."

In the petition, lodged on the Welsh Parliament website, members are urged to legislate to prevent people from changing their Welsh house names, with it reading: "There is a pattern throughout Wales where new owners are changing their house names into English."

It has been a long-running debate in Wales, with comedian Tudur Owen describing how "history is lost when place names are changed".

He gave the example of Cable Bay on Anglesey - allegedly named in English because someone laid a cable there.

"Except of course it's not. It never was Cable Bay. It is Porth Trecastell," he said. "Porth translates as access point or gateway for travel, trade and fishing.

"Trecastell suggests an ancient fort or castle that would have defended this stretch of the coastline."

The Welsh Language Commissioner produced a list of 3,000 place names - and this showed that some Anglicised names had disappeared, such as Llanelly, with it reverting back to Llanelli.

The Petitions Committee was set up to consider all petitions submitted by the public, with those gaining more 5,000 signatures being debated.