Lle chwech (toilet): Uhhh?

Re: “Rhech” … Now you’ve let that out of the bag (or should it be the bottle?) I feel able to confirm that I have heard the same theory face to face from a Cymro Cymraeg in Sir Ddinbych … (after a gwydrad neu ddau yn y dafarn) :wink:

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I’ve heard this one before too.

This thread reminds me of my great uncle Eric’s stories about the farm he grew up on in South Wales in the 1920s. The toilet was a plank fixed above the stream at the end of the garden, with a number of holes in it! In the summer it could be quite pleasant, screened by leafy trees, with plenty of camaraderie. In winter it was a different matter…

(I do wish I’d had the presence of mind to record some of his stories before it was too late.)

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There’s a house in Penmachno that still has one like that (though not used these days :wink: ) - a little stone hut built over a little gorge that has a stream running through it at the bottom, and a plank with holes in the hut above the stream. I think the technical term for that type of loo was “a long drop” :smile:

I’m starting to wonder if Mastermind would accept “Historical toilets in Wales” as a specialist subject! :joy:

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A somewhat disturbing train of thoughts here …:worried:

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Yes, but only because we’ve moved away from those situations. We can laugh at those now but sadly there are many countries where those circumstances (and worse) are still very much the norm. :disappointed:

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Yes, all too true,unfortunately - many parts of the world still suffer the conditions that gave rise to the Caernarfon cholera epidemics in the 19thC. Practical Action, the charity (https://practicalaction.org/), does some good work here on introducing basic low cost but effective technological improvements to latrines etc

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I do wish I’d had the presence of mind to record some… stories before it was too late.

You and me both - from my father’s wartime work in Scientific Intelligence back to my great uncle’s and aunt’s memories of our Glynarthen (Ceredigion) 19th C roots and my grandfather’s journey from a childhood in the mines (cliche but true) to teaching 14 musical instruments and running two choirs in Sir Gar. I kick myself daily.

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Already been done :confused:

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:open_mouth:
Damn - missed that edition!

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There’s always the next series of Celwydd Noeth :slight_smile:

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Well I do try and sneak in ‘previous research’ wherever I can! :joy:

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LOL! We’d be winners!!! :joy: :joy:

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Do they allow team entries? Perhaps the size limit for a team should be “as many people as you can fit around a toilet”

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That’d be six, then.

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That’s only the manufacturer recommended amount. I’m sure we could get more if we tried :smiley:

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Are we assuming the Welsh standard pen ôl, in which case, six may be optimistic?

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I think it arises from the desire to avoid a “holy” number when referring to the toilet, so expressions like “number one” and “number two” are out of the question.

1 = the One God

2 = God the Father and God the Son (Jesus)

3 = the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit)

4 = the Four Gospels i.e. the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible

5 = the Four Gospels plus Acts of the Apostles, which form a kind of unity before the epistles (letters) begin with the book of Romans

7 = the number of completeness in the Bible; what’s more, God rested on the seventh day after creating the world.

6 is the ideal candidate for a non-holy number, particularly as it is part of the number of the evil Beast of Revelation, 666, for which please see the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Chapter 13, Verses 15–18.

Man was created on the sixth day, and what is more human than going to the toilet?

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Interesting theory Simon, I can see the logic there.

Another thing I found out recently is that chwech, as well as meaning ‘six’, can also be a form of chweg which means sweet/pleasant/luscious/comely - hardly adjectives that would be applied to the old privies, but given our sense of humour and sarcasm, I could see it as another option for the origin of ‘Lle Chwech’!

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I wonder if it might also be a kind of propitiation, the idea being that you say that something is something good in order to make it good, or better than it is, a bit like a euphemism except that you are appealing to some kind of outside force. This is why the Black Sea, notoriously dangerous for shipping, was known as the Tractable/Hospitable Sea by the Greeks.

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Whats the Welsh word for a double seater ? Been racking lmy brains but can’t remember