Event 19
Monday 29 August at 2.30pm
Assembly Rooms, Presteigne
Dydd Llun 29 Awst am 2.30pm
Yr Ystafelloedd Cynnull, Llanandras
BORN OUT OF WENLOCK
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, London Mayor Boris Johnson memorably said of London 2012 that ‘Ping-Pong is coming home’. In fact, he might justifiably have said that ‘the Olympic Games are coming home’.
In 1850, Shropshire doctor William Penny Brookes began Olympian Games for the local population of Wenlock Borough. Within a decade he had donated a prize for athletics in Athens and was urging the Greeks to revive their ancient Games. He had also begun agitating for physical education to be compulsory at primary schools in England.
In this illustrated talk to accompany her book, Catherine Beale gives an account of the Wenlock Olympian Games, considers their influence on the modern Olympics, and shows why Coubertin concluded that ‘The Wenlock people alone have preserved and followed the true Olympian traditions’.
Tickets £6 unreserved
Tocynnau £6 sedd heb ei chadw
This event ends at approximately 5.30pm
Bydd y digwyddiad hwn yn gorffen am tua 5.30pm