22/05/2026
Holyhead Townscape Heritage Initiative – The Eisteddfod Urdd is an annual celebration of Welsh language creative arts and culture. This year it is being held at the Anglesey Showground and for the first time will run for 7 days from the 23rd – 29th May. Robert Roberts (1777-1836) of Holyhead was the son of John/Siôn Roberts and Margaret Roberts. He worked with his Father making Almanacs, including Cyfaill Glandeg and Cyfaill Taeredd, in Church Street, (the old name for parts of Stanley Street), and as a teacher. He ran an Educational Academy with his brother in Williams Street where they built a private observatory. The Academy taught reading, writing, arithmetic, Latin, English grammar and geometry related to engineering and navigation. Natural sciences, especially astronomy, were seen by many in Wales as a continuation of the druidical fascination with the stars and the natural world. Roberts was a skilled geographer and astronomer and wrote the first Welsh language textbook on Geology and Astronomy, Daearyddiaeth Gymraeg, published in 1816. He undertook a very successful National tour lecturing in Welsh on astronomy with his son who used an Orrery (a mechanical model of the solar system) to illustrate the lectures. Roberts presented a copy of his book to the Prince Regent in 1821, before he became King George IV, and the tour earned him a medal from the Carmarthen Cymreigyddion Society in 1829.
