Welsh Language and Cultural Heritage
Bluestone is proud of its Welsh origins and identity and seeks to promote the Welsh culture and Welsh language through its activities, as far as is practicable and consistent with our resources, abilities, and business needs.
Welsh Language Policy
In order to promote the Welsh language and culture as far as possible within the current business context, our policy is as follows:
- Where practicable, signage visible to visitors will be either bilingual (English/Welsh) or graphic (i.e. involving symbols and not words).
- We will participate in the Iaith Gwaith (Working Welsh) badge scheme, where Welsh-speaking staff will wear a badge to indicate that they are fluent in Welsh, and staff who are learning Welsh will wear a badge with the Dwi’n Dysgu Cymraeg (“I’m learning Welsh”) logo.
- Wherever possible, we will promote Welsh culture to visitors, including visible use of the language where appropriate, local dishes in the restaurant, Welsh-based characters in the shows, and so on.
- Produce for the various dining facilities and restaurants within the site will be locally-sourced wherever possible, and this will be advertised on menus and publicity material.
- Although the language used for all written communication within the business will be English, there shall be no restriction in the use of Welsh by staff.
Preserving Culture and Heritage
Bluestone is developing a new Welsh Language and Cultural Heritage plan.
Working with local historians Terry John and Dr. Simon Hancock, we have commissioned research on the history of language in South Pembrokeshire, and on the medieval Castell Coch and Iron Age Minwear Ring Works, scheduled monuments that reside on our grounds.
With the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority at Carew Castle and Castell Henllys, we are creating an educational experience for our guests and for local schools based around the story of language. The story will begin in the Iron Age, when early settlers quarried bluestones for Stonehenge from the Preseli Hills, through the rise of the ancient language of the Britons and Welsh, to the decimation of the native tongue of the UK since the Roman invasion, the demise of Welsh in Medieval times, the Industrial Revolution, and the rise again of Welsh in modern times.