CONWAY, Portmadoc, Caernarvon, Pentervoelas, Ruthin.

Which is the odd one out?

If you are unsure, the answer will hopefully be perfectly clear when you have finished reading my contribution this week.

The campaign for bilingual road signs in Wales was finally won in the in the early 1970s.

By now, nearly all road traffic signs in Wales are in Welsh and English.

With place names, if there are English and Welsh versions of the same name, both versions will be used.

Bilingual signs in Wales were permitted by special authorisation after 1965 and in 1972 the Bowen Committee recommended that they should be provided systematically throughout Wales. 

It has been argued that producing bilingual signage costs more than monolingual signage.

This is a cost that is built into the budgets of all councils.

It’s recognised that the spirit of fair play and parity often have costs attached to them.

Now, in their wisdom, when the eight Welsh counties of 1974 were obliged to provide bilingual signage, they looked at opportunities to reduce the costs that this legal obligation entailed.

Caernarfon and Caernarvon sounded the same, as did Porthmadog and Portmadoc and to pronounce Conwy correctly was no more of challenge to the non-Welsh speaker than to pronounce Conway.

Consequently, Gwynedd decided that the Welsh versions alone were all that were needed.

And lo and behold, despite vociferous objectors proclaiming that visitors to these places would not be able to find these ever so popular tourist destinations, turn up they did in their droves and they continue to do so every year.

This brings me back to my own town, Rhuthun.

The anglicised version, Ruthin, is meaningless. It is simply an attempt to re-create the same sound as when pronouncing the meaningful Welsh name, Rhuthun. Yes, over the centuries, the Welsh version has seen slight variations of the current official spelling, including Rhuddin, Rhuthyn and Rhuthin but like the current Rhuthun, they do reflect the true meaning of the name. We know that Rhuthun is built largely on red sandstone and the old buildings of the town usually incorporate the local red hued stone. Rhudd-hin (rhudd – old Welsh word for red and hin, meaning edge or border). The edge refers to the land that borders the River Clwyd or of the sandstone rock of the castle. Now some readers may well be about to choke on their Corn Flakes! Were we not taught that Rhuthun meant Red Castle? This was certainly what I believed before I read The Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales by Hywel Wyn Owen and Richard Morgan. This book explains why Red Castle could not be the correct definition of Rhuthun.

So, Denbighshire, let’s look at our own place-name here at Rhuthun. Do we need both Rhuthun and Ruthin? After all, to the average ear, they sound the same. The old county of Clwyd ditched the horrendous Pentrevoelas spelling, frequently used by the pre-1974 Denbighshire. By using just the Welsh spelling on road signs, financial savings will be made and yes, anyone visiting our town will still find us.

Were you right? Did you spot the odd one out? Do you agree with me that Rhuthun should be the town’s only name? 

I look forward to receiving your responses.