1987 in Wales

← 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1987 in Wales → 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1987 in The United Kingdom England Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1987 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

For United Kingdom incumbents, see 1987 in the United Kingdom § Incumbents.

• Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards (until 13 June);[1] Peter Walker
• Archbishop of Wales – George Noakes, Bishop of St David's (elected)[2]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales
  • Elerydd (outgoing)[3]
  • Emrys Deudraeth (incoming)[4]

Events

• 12 January - The lowest daytime maximum temperature ever recorded in Wales (-8.0 °C) is recorded at Trecastle, Powys.[5]
• 12 February - The Roman Catholic Church in Wales creates a new Diocese of Wrexham[6] and moves the Diocese of Menevia to Swansea.
• 5 March - The High Court declares Dorothy Squires a vexatious litigant.[7]
• 15 March - Roy Jenkins is elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford.[8]
• 14 April - Oakwood Leisure Park opens near Narberth, Pembrokeshire.[9]
• 7 May - District council elections take place across Wales (and England). The Conservatives lose control of Cardiff City Council.[10]
• 24 May - Neil Kinnock is interviewed by David Frost about Labour's defence policy and plans for government.
• 28 May - The Mametz Wood Memorial, sculpted by David Petersen, is unveiled in Cardiff.[11]
• 11 June - In the general election
  • Plaid Cymru's Ieuan Wyn Jones wins the seat of Ynys Môn from the Conservatives. Plaid retain their other two parliamentary seats.[12]
  • Alun Michael replaces James Callaghan as MP for Cardiff South.
  • Labour's Paul Flynn wins back Newport West from the Conservatives.
• 11 July - The Mametz Wood Memorial is dedicated at the site of the Royal Welch Fusiliers battle of 1916 in France.[13]
• 5 October - Keith Best, former Conservative MP for Ynys Môn, having been sentenced to four months' imprisonment for share-dealing activities, has his sentence quashed by the Court of Appeal after serving five days.[14]
• 19 October - Four people are killed in the Glanrhyd Bridge collapse, when a train falls into the swollen River Tywi,[15] as a result of the flooding that affects many parts of Wales.
• 20 November - Roy Jenkins becomes Baron Jenkins of Hillhead.[16]
• 22 November - The Welsh language is used within the Vatican for the first time on an official occasion, as part of a beatification ceremony for three Welsh martyrs.[17]
• date unknown
  • Creation of the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation.
  • Chris Loyn establishes the architectural practice Loyn & Co in Penarth.[18]
  • The National Trust buys Dinefwr Park in Llandeilo, including the deer park.

Arts and literature

• Jim Burns becomes the first non-American to win the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.[19]

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Porthmadog)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Ieuan Wyn
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - John Griffith Jones
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Margiad Williams

New books

English language

• Dannie Abse - Ask the Bloody Horse[20]
• Rees Davies - Wales: The Age Of Conquest, 1063-1415[21]
• Stephen Gregory - The Cormorant
• Douglas Houston - With the Offal Eaters
• J. Beverley Smith - Llywelyn ap Gruffudd
• Frances Thomas - Seeing Things
• Peter Thomas - Strangers from a Secret Land
• R. S. Thomas - Welsh Airs

Welsh language

• Euros Bowen - Oes y Medwsa[22]
• T. Glynne Davies - Cerddi
• Dafydd Glyn Jones - Drych yr Amseroedd
• Nesta Wyn Jones - Rhwng Chwerthin a Chrio
• Alan Llwyd - Barddoniaeth y Chwedegau
• Gwylon Phillips - Llofruddiaeth Shadrach Lewis
• Rhydwen Williams - Amser i Wylo

Music

• 3 December - Indian classical musician Ram Narayan records his album Rag Lalit at Wyastone Leys near Monmouth.
• MusicFest Aberystwyth is founded by cellist Nicholas Jones.
• The Alarm - Eye Of The Hurricane (album)
• Anrhefn - Defaid Skateboard a Wellies[23]
• Y Cyrff - Y Testament Newydd (EP)
• Frank Hennessy - Thoughts and Memories (album)
• Karl Wallinger - Private Revolution (album)

Film

• Timothy Dalton makes his debut as James Bond in The Living Daylights.
• On the Black Hill, adapted from the novel by Bruce Chatwin and set in Wales, stars Bob Peck, Gemma Jones and Mike Gwilym.[24]

Broadcasting

English-language radio

• John Humphrys becomes a regular presenter on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Welsh-language television

• Ioan Gruffudd joins the cast of Pobol y Cwm.

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year - Ian Woosnam.[25]
• Golf - David Llewellyn and Ian Woosnam win golf's World Cup in Hawaii.
• Rugby union
  • Wales finish 4th in the 1987 Five Nations Championship with just a single win, over England.
  • Wales finish third, their best ever position, in the first Rugby World Cup.
  • 5 April - Pontypool Park hosts the first international for the Wales women's national rugby union team who lose 22–4 to England.[26]
• Skiing - Dry ski slope opened on the Great Orme at Llandudno.

Births

• 9 January - Bradley Davies, rugby union player
• 21 January - Joe Ledley, footballer
• 24 January - Wayne Hennessey, footballer[27]
• 14 February - Lee Selby, World champion boxer
• 24 March - Rob Davies, footballer
• 27 March - Adam Davies, footballer
• April - Hannah Stone, harpist
• 8 May - Aneurin Barnard, actor[28]
• 23 August - Alexandra Roach, actress
• 4 September - Mike O'Shea, cricketer
• 29 September - Claire Williams, athlete
• 21 October - Steph Davies, cricketer
• 30 November - Victoria Thornley, Olympic rower[29]

Deaths

• 5 January - Brinley Williams, Wales dual-code rugby international, 91
• 21 January - Donald Holroyde Hey, chemist, 83[30]
• 4 February - Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, writer and broadcaster, 78[31]
• 7 March - E. D. Jones, librarian, 83[32]
• 4 April - Richard Ithamar Aaron, philosopher, 85[33]
• 13 April - Alfred Evans, Labour MP, 73[34]
• 19 April - Stan Richards, footballer, 70
• 22 May - Keidrych Rhys, poet and editor[35]
• 22 June - William Price, footballer, 83
• 20 August - Dorothy Rees, politician, 89[36]
• 4 September - Richard Marquand, film director, 49 (stroke)[37]
• 11 September - Hugh David, television director, 62
• 25 September - Emlyn Williams, dramatist and actor, 81[38]
• 5 November - Howard Davies, rugby player, 70
• date unknown - Clifford Williams, politician, Labour MP for Abertillery 1965–1970[39]

See also

• 1987 Cardiff City Council election
• 1987 in Northern Ireland

Notes

1. Stephen Bates (19 March 2018). "Lord Crickhowell obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
2. "The Right Rev George Noakes: Archbishop of Wales, 1987-1991". Times, The (London). 22 July 2008. Archived from the original on May 23, 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
3. "WJ Gruffydd: Writer who helped keep alive the Welsh tradition". The Independent. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
4. "Former Archdruid of Wales Emrys Roberts dies at 82". BBC News. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
5. R Brugge (1987). "Low daytime temperatures over England and Wales on 12 January 1987". Weather. 42 (5): 146–152. Bibcode:1987Wthr...42..146B. doi:10.1002/j.1477-8696.1987.tb06953.x.
6. David Pepin (1994). Discovering Cathedrals. Shire Publications. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-7478-0173-3.
7. Punch. January 1990. p. 124.
8. "What a swell party this is ..And, by the way, we also elected a chancellor – The triumph of Roy Jenkins". The Times. 15 March 1987.
9. Chris Bunting (16 April 2004). "Girl, 16, dies after roller-coaster fall". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
10. Michael Thomas (8 May 1987). "Tories lose city control, but council hung". South Wales Echo. pp. 1–2.
11. Wyke, Terry; Cocks, Harry (2004). Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool University Press. p. 457. ISBN 9780853235675. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
12. Byron Criddle (19 August 2005). The Almanac of British Politics. Routledge. p. 892. ISBN 978-1-134-49381-4.
13. "File NLW ex 2596. - Ceremony of dedication : Mametz Wood memorial". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
14. Michael Levi (1999). Fraud: Organization, Motivation, and Control. Ashgate. p. 389. ISBN 978-1-85521-716-4.
15. Report on the Collapse of Glanrhyd Bridge (1990), page 1
16. "No. 51132". The London Gazette. 25 November 1987. p. 14513.
17. Ivor Wynne Jones (2008). Llandudno: Queen of the Welsh Resorts. Landmark Publishing. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-84306-429-9.
18. "Chris Loyn". Building Dream Homes (BBC). 19 April 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
19. Steve Holland (3 March 2009). Sci-Fi Art: A Graphic History. HarperCollins. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-06-168489-0.
20. Thomas Riggs (1996). Contemporary Poets. St. James Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-55862-191-6.
21. Anthony Emery (1996). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500: Volume 2, East Anglia, Central England and Wales. Cambridge University Press. p. 699. ISBN 978-0-521-58131-8.
22. Ceri Davies (1995). Welsh Literature and the Classical Tradition. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-1321-3.
23. Rhys Mwyn (2012). Cam O'r Tywyllwch (in Welsh). Y Lolfa. ISBN 9781847715821.
24. "On The Black Hill (1987)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
25. "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
26. "Historic day for England Women's Rugby". rfu.com. 5 April 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-07-09. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
27. Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2009). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009–10. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0.
28. "Aneurin Barnard". BBC Wales Arts. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
29. "Victoria Thornley". World Rowing. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
30. Cadogan, J. I. G.; Davies, D. I. (1988). "Donald Holroyde Hey. 12 September 1904-21 January 1987". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 34: 294–320. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1988.0011. JSTOR 770054.
31. Who was who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died. A. & C. Black. 1981. p. 776. ISBN 978-0-7136-3336-8.
32. Daniel Huws. "Jones, Evan David (1903-1987), librarian and archivist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
33. Jones, O. R. "Aaron, Richard Ithamar (1901–1987)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/65645. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
34. John Graham Jones. "Evans, Alfred Thomas ('Fred' 'Menai') (1914—1987), Labour politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
35. Outposts. Outposts Publications. 1994.
36. Chris Williams, ‘Rees , Dame Dorothy Mary (1898–1987)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2011 retrieved 10 January 2016
37. Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. Locus Press. 1987. ISBN 978-0-9616629-4-3.
38. Krebs, Albin (September 26, 1987). "Emlyn Williams, Welsh Actor and Writer, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
39. John Graham Jones. "Williams, Albert Clifford (1905—1987), Labour politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 September 2019.