1960 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1960 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Archbishop of Wales – Edwin Morris, Bishop of Monmouth
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales
• William Morris (outgoing)
• Trefin (incoming)

Events

• 1 January – Portmeirion Pottery is established when Susan Williams-Ellis and her husband Euan Cooper-Willis (managers of the gift shop at her father's village of Portmeirion) take over Gray's Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent (England).
• 5 January – Closure of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway (opened to passengers in 1807 and by this date operated by double-deck electric trams). The service is replaced by buses operated by its owner South Wales Transport.
• 28 June – Forty-five miners are killed in an accident at Six Bells Colliery, Monmouthshire.
• 6 August – At Llandaff Cathedral a service of thanksgiving attended by Queen Elizabeth II is held to mark the end of eleven years' restoration work following air raid damage in 1941.
• 5 September – Poet and peace campaigner Waldo Williams is sentenced at Haverfordwest to imprisonment for six weeks for non-payment of income tax (a protest against defence spending).
• 3 November – Esso opens the first oil refinery at Milford Haven.

Arts and literature

• 29 September – Ricky Valance is the first male Welsh singer to hit number one in the charts, with his cover version of Tell Laura I Love Her.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Cardiff)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – withheld
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – W. J. Gruffydd, "Unigedd"
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Rhiannon Davies Jones, Fe Hen Lyfr Cownt

New books

• – Tipyn o Annwyd
• Thomas Glynne Davies – Haf Creulon
• Menna Gallie – Man's Desiring
• Dic Jones – Agor Grwn
• Kate Roberts – Y Lôn Wen
• Bernice Rubens – Set on Edge
• Raymond Williams – Border Country

New drama

• Saunders Lewis – Esther

Music

• Alun Hoddinott – Concerto no. 2
• Arwel Hughes – Serch yw’r Doctor (opera)

Albums

• Osian Ellis – Handel (with the Philomusica of London conducted by Granville Jones
• Treorchy Male Choir – Nidaros
• Die Zauberflöte (featuring Geraint Evans)

Film

• Glynis Johns stars in The Sundowners.
• Rachel Roberts stars in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, becoming the first Welsh actress to win a BAFTA for Best British Actress.
• Keith Baxter appears alongside Orson Welles in Chimes at Midnight.

Broadcasting

September – The Wales Television Association is formed. On 6 June, the franchise is awarded to the Wales Television Association.

Welsh-language television

• Colegau Cerdd
• Her Yr Ifanc

English-language television

• 1 January – Broadcast of the first weekly episode of an eight-part serialization by BBC Wales of How Green Was My Valley.
• Johnny Morris narrates the imported children's TV series Tales of the Riverbank.

Sport

• Boxing – Dick Richardson wins the European Heavyweight title. Brian Curvis wins the British and Commonwealth welterweight titles.
• Summer Olympics – David Broome wins a bronze medal on Sunsalve in the individual show jumping event.
• Tennis – Mike Davies wins the British hard court title. He also becomes the first Welsh man to reach a Wimbledon final where he partners Bobby Wilson in the Men's Doubles.
• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Brian Curvis

Births

• January – Anne Boden, banking executive
• 16 January – Alun Huw Davies, vascular surgeon
• 30 January – Peter Black AM, politician (in Wirral)
• 6 February – Jeremy Bowen, journalist and television presenter
• 14 February – Dawn Bowden, politician
• 15 February – Russell Coughlin, footballer (d. 2016)
• 18 February – Rhys Parry Jones, actor
• 26 February – Roger Lewis, academic, biographer and journalist
• 30 April – Martin Phillips, darts player
• 3 May – Geraint Davies, politician
• 4 May – Elfyn Edwards, golfer
• 8 May – Peter Lawlor, cricketer
• 9 May – Jillian Lane, spiritual medium (d. 2013)
• 13 June – Sir Clive Buckland Lewis, judge
• 19 June – Andrew Dilnot, economist, statistician and academic
• 23 June – Ricky Evans, rugby union player
• 29 June – Helen Mary Jones, politician (in Colchester)
• 13 July – Ian Hislop, satirist
• 24 July – Gwilym Emyr Owen III, US-born singer-songwriter of Welsh descent
• 1 August – Lesley Griffiths, politician
• 18 September
• Carolyn Harris, politician
• Ian Lucas, politician
• 29 October – Sue Jones, Dean of Liverpool
• 12 December – Kelvin Smart, flyweight boxer
• 24 December – Carol Vorderman, television personality (in Bedford)
• date unknown
• Nigel Davies, chess player
• Lisa Francis, politician
• Gareth Jones, orchestral and choral conductor
• Malcolm Pryce, novelist (in Shrewsbury)
• William Owen Roberts, novelist and dramatist

Deaths

• 2 January – Leila Megàne, opera singer, c. 69
• 13 January – Reginald Herbert, 15th Earl of Pembroke, 79
• 17 January – E. Llwyd Williams, minister and poet, 53
• 19 January – Charles Jones, Wales rugby international, 66
• 27 January – Joseph "Joe" Jones, dual-code rugby international, 60
• 25 February – Sir Edward Enoch Jenkins, judge, 65
• 30 March – Edward Evans, politician and disability campaigner, 77
• 11 April – William Llewellyn Morgan, Wales international rugby union player, 76
• 7 May – Mai Jones, songwriter, 61
• 23 May – John Edwards, politician, 77
• 4 June – Margaret Lindsay Williams, artist, 71
• 19 June – Thomas Alwyn Lloyd, architect, 78
• 27 June – Harry Pollitt, politician, 69
• 30 June – John Morgan Lloyd, musician and composer, 79
• 6 July – Aneurin Bevan, politician, 62
• 9 July – John Dyke, Wales international rugby union player, 76
• 24 August – Dai Edwards, Wales dual-code rugby international, 64
• 25 August – Tommy Jones-Davies, Wales international rugby player, 54
• 30 August – "Taffy" Jones, First World War flying ace, 64
• 31 August – Edith Picton-Turbervill, social reformer, writer and politician, 88
• 3 September – Frank Hawkins, rugby international, 75
• 27 September – George Morgan Trefgarne, 1st Baron Trefgarne, politician, 66
• 29 October – Horace Williams, footballer, c. 60
• 19 December
• Billy Bowen, dual-code rugby player, 63
• Helen Parry Eden, Welsh-descended poet, 75
• 20 December – Harry Uzzell, Wales international rugby union captain, 77
• 22 December – Evan Davies, politician, 85

See also

• 1960 in Northern Ireland

References