A HISTORICAL Eisteddfod artifact crafted at the turn of the last century has been saved from a skip and will soon take price of place back home in Abergele.

The 1899 Bardic chair returns has been recovered from South Wales via Conwy county councillor Andrew Wood and will reside within Abergele Town Council’s chambers on Llanddulas Road.

At more that 121 years old, the chair has survived two World Wars and was created by J W Ellis as a prize for the 1899 National Eisteddfod in Cardiff. Carved into the chair’s back are the words ‘Cadair Eisteddfod’ - Eisteddfod Chair.

Cllr Wood said: “The chair was apparently never awarded as a prize at the 1899 national Eisteddfod at the competition in South Wales in 1899, and was eventually awarded to a butcher as a prize - as the story goes - in another related competition within Eisteddfod circles.

“The chair then, after being awarded, disappears from public view and little is known about it for 80 years, until it was found outside and on a skip of rubble from the demolished St Athan YMCA hostel in the Vale of Glamorgan.”

The antique was discovered by South Walian Kita Williams in the early 1980s, whose family used the Bardic chair as a normal piece of furniture which accompanied her family from house to house - and even to a public house - around Wales and the South of England for four decades.

Cllr Wood added: “Now back in Newport with Kita 40 years later the chair was offered back to Abergele town council , back to its home town ,and has been gratefully accepted.

“It would be nice to know where it was for the 80 years until it was found.”

Anyone with any information on the chair can contact The Journal via duncan.rieder@newsquest.co.uk.