Talhaiarn

Who was Talhaiarn?

John Jones, known by his bardic name of Talhaiarn, was a Welsh poet and architect.

He was born at the Harp Inn in Llanfair Talhaearn, Denbighshire. He was probably apprenticed and then worked for the architect and Denbighshire County Surveyor Thomas Penson between 1830 and 1843. He then served with ecclesiastical architects in London, and was employed by Sir Joseph Paxton to oversee the building of the Crystal Palace. He came to prominence as a member of Cymdeithas y Cymreigyddion in London, and became its president in 1849.

Suffering from ill health, he returned to Wales in 1865, in 1869 he took his own life by shooting himself in his bedroom at the Harp Inn, and is buried under a yew at St Mary's church in Llanfair Talhaearn.

Talhaiarn lived in England and France but wrote in the Welsh language. His works included well-known lyrics such as Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn, and Mae Robin yn Swil. Whilst his bardic name is derived in a conventional way from the place of his birth, it is likely also to be a reference to Talhaearn Tad Awen, a noted 6th century Welsh poet.

Although he was accepted into Gorsedd y Beirdd in Bala in 1869, he is known to have failed several times to win the chair at the Eisteddfod. In 1849 at the Aberffraw eisteddfod he rose to his feet to contest the adjudication and defend his defeated awdl. In 1863 at the Swansea eisteddfod he held that the Nonconformist judges were biased against him as an Anglican.