Borth (Welsh: Y Borth) is a village and seaside resort in Ceredigion, Mid Wales; it is located 7 miles (11 km) north of Aberystwyth, on the Ceredigion Coast Path. The community includes the settlement of Ynyslas and the population was 1,399 in 2011. From being largely Welsh-speaking, the village has become anglicised; over 54 per cent of its residents were born in England.[2] According to both the 1991 and 2001censuses, 43 per cent of the residents of Borth were primarily Welsh-speakers.
On 4 April 1876, the entire Uppingham School in Rutland, England, consisting of 300 boys, 30 masters and their families, moved to Borth for a period of 14 months, taking over the disused Cambrian Hotel and a large number of boarding houses, to avoid a typhoid epidemic.[9]
Amenities and functions
Borth is the location of the Borth Animalarium and the Borth and Ynyslas Golf Club, which was used for many of the scenes in TV series Hinterland.
In 2011, work commenced on the first phase of a £12-million coastal protection scheme along the Borth to Ynyslas coastline,[11] which was finished in 2015. The work was funded by the Welsh Assembly and the EU.[12] An unexpected consequence of the coastal defence work was to reveal the remains of the petrified forest mentioned earlier.
In 2018, Borth was subjected to a media furore over the escape of a wild lynx from its local zoo.
In 2019, Borth hosted a community street production called Borth Begins.[13]
The village football team, Borth United, resumed playing in the Cambrian Tyres 1st Division in the 2021–22 season.[14]
The station building houses Borth Station Museum, which displays community and railway historical artifacts and temporary exhibitions.[16] The museum is run by volunteers.
Governance
An electoral ward named Borth stretches south-east to Geneu'r Glyn. Its total population at the 2011 Census was 2,078.[17] Borth is also the name of a ward in the current Ceredigion County Council, covering the communities of Borth and Llandre.
Local government history
Borth had a representative on Cardiganshire County Council from its formation in 1889. The first councillor elected was Rev. Enoch Watkin James, Brynderwen, a Liberal candidate and Calvinistic Methodist minister. After his election in January 1889, according to a local newspaper, "flags were generally displayed and after nightfall bonfires lighted, fireworks discharged, houses illuminated and hundreds of people paraded the streets up to a late hour. About six o'clock, the rev. gentlemen and friends were drawn in an open carriage through the village and, addressing the assembly, said that the day was rapidly approaching when laws would be made by the people for the people."[18]
Borth was represented on Ceredigion District Council by Tom Raw-Rees, from the 1970s until his death in 2001. He latterly sat also for Borth on Ceredigion County Council. Before 1996, the Borth ward for elections to Dyfed County Council covered Borth, Ceulanamaesmawr and Tirymynach.[19]
In popular culture
The 1976 award-winning children's fantasy novel, A String in the Harp by the American author Nancy Bond, is set in Borth and the surrounding countryside.[20]
Borth, Cors Fochno and the railway station form the backdrop to the main storyline in series 1, episode 4 ("The Girl in the Water") of Y Gwyll (Hinterland in English), transmitted on S4C in 2013 and BBC1 Wales in January 2014.