Culture & Heritage

Idris Mathias' famous folk map of the Lower Teifi Valley was the inspiration for children's visual arts and shadow puppet workshops. It was also an attraction and a focal point for discussion at cultural festivals and agriculture events.

Llais yr Afon inspired other cultural events. The Cardigan Giant Lantern Parade 2024 (attended by 11,000 people) was themed on the Teifi. It was led by giant lantern puppets of a heron and an owl and featured a range of river wildlife including a swan, otter, salmon and others. These river creatures reappeared in a summer parade at the Cardigan River and Food Festival 2025, accompanied by a stream of children in fish costumes.

A summer programme of free talks, walks, exhibitions and workshops in 2025 gathered further stories and material for the new contemporary map showcased on this website.

An extract from The People's Plan says: "From the days of Strata Florida to its use in agriculture and to the coracles and salmon fishing of Cenarth and its lower reaches, the Teifi has shaped communities in Mid and West Wales, both geographically and culturally. Although we might never engage with the river in the same way as past generations, we can find ways to ensure the river remains to the centre of our communities."

Mapping the river workshops comments:

  • Cardigan River & Food festival should refocus on the river, not just food - make sure the tide is in!
  • Town and villages exist where they are because of the river but people had turned their backs on the river
  • Lost professions - map shows these and instigates conversations
  • Because of the sand bar Cardigan can’t be a port
  • I remember hanging around the Strand after Sunday school and trying to get a trip on one of the beautiful skiffs. Local families would go out on a Sunday and spend a few hours on the river.
  • Coracles and boating on the river are part of local colour and we have an awful lot of visitors to Cardigan in the summer - but there are very few boats. It’s always nice to see the long boat crew go out.
  • Collect original placenames on and around the river
  • Collect the stories
  • Tom’s stopped fishing this year as too many regulations
  • Commission more poems in both languages to place on plaques by the bridges
  • Community and cultural events need to understand and have awareness that the river belongs to all of us.
  • Thanks to the artists scientist working together … Great work
  • A shift is needed from how we frame the river from asset to being in its own right.
  • I was in primary school in Blaenporth We went on a trip to the river and it was like a whirlpool and we could see the edges of the rocks. The memory has just come to me as I look at the map with the witch and the names of the pools.
  • When Google Earth first started out, a whole bunch of archivists and archaeologists got very excited because they spotted a construction at low tide just off the black rocks. It is at the far end of Poppit. They started writing papers and talking about it being a old fish trap and a huge discovery. Of course, everyone in St Dogmaels has always known it’s there.
  • I've only lived here 35 years. I've never come across this map (Idris Mathias’). I follow other maps in the area, and I didn’t know this one existed.
  • Where I live, the river runs practically underneath my house. Looking at old maps, I can see that Poppit and Patch were once the same size. This is a shifting river pattern that goes undocumented.
  • You don't have to have all the electric cars - you just use what you got. We could have community hubs - town's are dying off they say, but we should support our little cafes, shops etc. People need to mix and we need to support our youngsters to live rural lives.
  • Lovely to see the history captured on the map, both the formal and personal history. I remember a lot of the places that are on this map that aren’t there anymore.
  • I remember when the river flooded and all the stones at Patch disappeared and the sand was uncovered. Also, lots of old muscle beds and we collected them in buckets. There’s even a local oyster isn’t there?
  • Just south of Cardigan bridge, there's a deep, deep channel and when the tide is right, you can row it and it's a mile long. You can still see the scratches on the quay walls where the ships used to come up.
  • It’s interesting how culture influences farming practices. Dic Jones used poetry to describe the land in a way that farmers could relate to. It broke the mould of more cerebral approach poetry.
  • I won’t say exactly where or what we did because I’m not sure it was allowed even back then, but there were so many fish in the river that we made the most of it!
  • Just south of Cardigan bridge, there's a deep, deep channel and when the tide is right, you can row it and it's a mile long. You can still see the scratches on the quay walls where the ships used to come up. Now there’s sand in the channel and you cannot go past that stuff.

Please follow the link to The People's Plan to read the Community's Recommendations