ABSTRACT
From the perspective of an over-illuminated early twenty-first century, where ‘light pollution’ is becoming a matter of growing public concern, the profound darkness of the countryside of two generations ago is sometimes difficult to imagine. As the sun sunk below the western horizon and the evening drew in, most rural activity came to a halt when people withdrew to their hearth sides and waited for the night. In earlier years, those requiring more light than that cast by the hearth itself had recourse to rush or tallow candles, or even the crude and rather dangerous benzoline lamp. By the end of the Great War, however, the single-burner flat-wick paraffin lamp supplied a murky and fume-laden light to many homes in the Welsh countryside, giving way eventually to more sophisticated oil lamps and burners. Meanwhile, the open hearth or iron cooking range yielded to the oil stove/oven combination, although in many households the hearth was still employed for some categories of cooking. Open hearths, candles and paraffin lamps may have provided light, but they concurrently produced smoke and fumes, were subject to the capricious effects of draughts, and above all presented a constant risk of fire. The harnessing of a source of energy and illumination free from these hazards and irritations would clearly have massive implications in terms of offering access to an enormous range of time-and laboursaving devices. But the eventual availability of electricity in the rural world was also of profound cultural significance. People were finally freed from the tyranny of night by the simple expedient of flicking a switch. So was twilight extended into the night by the availability of a reliable source of continuous light. The leisure hours between late afternoon and dusk had long been the only opportunity for working people seriously to engage in cultural pursuits, in craftwork or some other form of creative activity. Electricity in effect extended the hours of leisure and even if it meant little more than glancing at a newspaper or tuning in to the wireless (now no longer reliant on a rechargeable battery), the countrymen and women of Wales were liberated from the dreary hours of darkness. This chapter seeks to trace the process whereby this great boon was delivered to villages, and more especially farms, throughout the length and breadth of Wales.
