2001 in Wales

← 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 2001 in Wales → 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Centuries:	19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 2001 in The United Kingdom England Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 2001 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• First Minister – Rhodri Morgan
• Secretary of State for Wales – Paul Murphy
• Archbishop of Wales – Rowan Williams
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Meirion Evans

Events

• 1 March – Peter Clarke is appointed Children's Commissioner for Wales.
• 1 June – Official opening of Cardiff Bay Barrage.
• 7 June – In the UK general election:
  • Plaid Cymru retain a total of 4 seats. They lose Ynys Môn to Labour but Adam Price gains Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from Labour's Alan Williams.
  • Newly elected Labour MPs include Hywel Francis (Aberavon), Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Ian Lucas (Wrexham) and Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
  • Kevin Brennan replaces Rhodri Morgan as MP for Cardiff West.
• 16 June – Entrepreneur Terry Matthews is knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
• 11 July – Welsh language pressure group Cymuned is launched at a meeting in Mynytho.
• 1 August – Coleg Harlech Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) is created through the merger of The Workers' Educational Association (North Wales) and Coleg Harlech.
• 16 September – To commemorate "Glyndwr Day", actress Siân Phillips unveils a memorial statue to Catrin Glyndŵr in London.
• 26 October – A memorial service to celebrate the life of Harry Secombe is held at Westminster Abbey and attended by the Prince of Wales (now Charles III).

Arts and literature

• 15 March – Julien Macdonald is chosen as fashion house Givenchy's new designer.[1]
• 24 March – Opening of the exhibition Let Paul Robeson Sing! in Cardiff.[2]
• 15 December – Rob Brydon wins Best TV Comedy Actor award in the British Comedy Awards.
• 25 December – Matthew Rhys and Tom Ward star in a TV adaptation of The Lost World.
• November – John Bourne establishes the Wrexham Stuckists group of artists.[3]
• Jessica Garlick makes the last ten in the first series of Pop Idol.
• Andrew Vicari sells a collection of 125 paintings of the First Gulf War to Prince Khaled of Saudi Arabia for £17 million.
• Irish photographer Paul Seawright is awarded a personal chair by the University of Wales, Newport.

Awards

• Prix Hélène Rochas – Rebecca Evans
• Cardiff Singer of the World – Marius Brenciu
• Glyndŵr Award – John Meirion Morris

National Eisteddfod (held in Denbigh)

• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Mererid Hopwood (first woman ever to win the chair)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Penri Roberts
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Elfyn Pritchard
• Wales Book of the Year:
  • English language: Stephen Knight – Mr Schnitzel
  • Welsh language: Owen Martell – Cadw dy ffydd, brawd
• Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen -

New books

English language

• Malcolm Pryce – Aberystwyth Mon Amour
• Alastair Reynolds – Chasm City
• Jon Ronson – Them: Adventures with Extremists
• Carole Seymour-Jones – Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T.S. Eliot

Welsh language

• Roger Boore and Rhian Nest James – Hoff Hwiangerddi
• Gwynfor Evans – Cymru o Hud
• Tudur Dylan Jones – Adenydd
• Angharad Tomos – Cnonyn Aflonydd

Music

• Feeder – Echo Park (album)
• Hilary Tann – The Grey Tide and the Green, commissioned for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms and performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes
• Catatonia – Paper Scissors Stone (album)
• Goldie Lookin' Chain – Don't Blame the Chain (album)
• Melys – Chinese Whispers (album)
• Terris – "Fabricated Lunacy" (single) and Learning to Let Go (debut album)

Film

• John Rhys-Davies makes his first appearance as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
• Sara Sugarman writes and directs Very Annie Mary, featuring Welsh stars such as Jonathan Pryce, Kenneth Griffith, Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd, Mary Hopkin and Ruth Madoc.
• Rhys Ifans co-stars in The Shipping News.
• A Bollywood film, Mein Dil Tujhko Diya (I Gave You my Heart), is shot in Aberystwyth and the Elan Valley.
• In Gosford Park, Jeremy Northam plays a fictionalised version of Ivor Novello. Several of Novello's songs feature in the film's soundtrack.
• Nia Roberts stars in A Day Out.

Welsh-language films

• Against the Dying of the Light[4]
• Y Delyn

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

• Y Stafell Ddirgel (drama serial)

English-language television

• The Bench

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Joe Calzaghe[5]
• Football – Liverpool F.C. win the FA Cup the first time it is played in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Births

• 23 March – Dream Alliance, racehorse bred near Blackwood[6]

Deaths

• 11 January – Lorna Sage, critic, 57 (emphysema)[7]
• 20 January – Crispin Nash-Williams, mathematician, 68[8]
• 18 February – Claude Davey, Wales international rugby union captain, 92[9]
• 22 February – Cledwyn Hughes, Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos, former Secretary of State for Wales, 84[10]
• 11 April – Sir Harry Secombe, singer and comedian, 79[11]
• 16 April – Henry Morgan Lloyd, clergyman, 89[12]
• 26 April – Dafydd Rowlands, minister and writer, 69[13]
• 30 April – Brian Morris, Baron Morris of Castle Morris, poet, critic and politician, 71[14]
• 25 May – Delme Bryn-Jones, operatic baritone, 67[15]
• 10 June – Samuel Ifor Enoch, theologian, 86
• 17 July – Val Feld, the first member of the Welsh Assembly to die, 53 (cancer)[16]
• 19 July – Roderic Bowen, MP, 87[17]
• August – Valerie Davies, Olympic swimmer, 89
• 19 September – Rhys Jones, archaeologist, 60
• October – John Owen, television writer (suicide)
• 6 December – Eryl Stephen Thomas, former Bishop of Monmouth and of Llandaff, 91[18]
• 7 December – Ray Powell, MP, 73[19]

See also

• 2001 in Northern Ireland

References

1. Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf (2002). Contemporary Fashion. St. James Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-1-55862-348-4.
2. New Statesman. New Statesman Limited and Contributors. April 2001. p. 40.
3. "About us". Stuckism Wales. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
4. Ifans, Rhys (2000). "Archif Genedlaethol Sgrin a Sain Cymru/Against the Dying of the Light (search for Jack Jewers)". Promotional film (10 minutes). The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. pp. Cell E123 8313. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
5. "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
6. Marcus Armytage (4 April 2010). "Dream Alliance: from slag heap allotment to Grand National hopeful". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
7. Nigel Reynolds (24 January 2001). "Whitbread judges split over Kneale". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
8. "Crispin St John Alvah Nash-Williams". dcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
9. "Great Welsh centre Davey dies". ESPN. 21 February 2001. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
10. Andrew Roth (23 February 2001). "Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
11. Harris M. Lentz III (16 April 2002). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2001: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-7864-1278-5.
12. "The Very Reverend Henry Lloyd". The Telegraph. 26 April 2001. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
13. Meic Stephens (2008). Necrologies: A Book of Welsh Obituaries. Seren. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-85411-476-1.
14. Meic Stephens (1 October 2007). Poetry 1900-2000. Summersdale Publishers Limited. p. 365. ISBN 978-1-84839-722-4.
15. Trevor Herbert. "BRYN-JONES, Delme (1934-2001), opera singer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
16. Paul Williams (10 August 2001). "Val Feld". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
17. Andrew Roth (25 July 2001). "Roderic Bowen". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
18. "Farewell to former bishop". South Wales Argus. 12 December 2001. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
19. Andrew Roth (10 December 2001). "Sir Ray Powell". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 January 2020.