COSLETT
,
COSLETT
(
Carnelian
;
1834
-
1910
),
collier and poet
;
b.
15 April 1834
at
Nantyceisiaid
or
Nantygleisiaid
, near
Machen
; the family (related to the old
Methodist exhorter
Edward
Coslet
,)
soon afterwards removed to
Bedwas
. He took to
writing poetry
under the tutelage of
Caledfryn
, who was then
minister
of
Groes-wen
, and began
competing at eisteddfodau
, though he never succeeded at the national eisteddfod. He d.
25 April 1910
, at
Pontypridd
, and was buried in
Groes-wen
burial-ground, where later a monument to him (illustration in
Cymru, O.M.E.
, xliii, 229) was erected.
His elder brother,
WILLIAM
COSLETT
(
Gwilym Elian
;
1831
-
1904
), a
colliery official
, was also a
poet
, and indeed, at several eisteddfodau defeated
Islwyn
, but was never successful at a national eisteddfod. He d.
22 Sept. 1904
, at
Caerphilly
. The brothers, members of ‘
Clic y Bont
’ — ‘
the Pont(ypridd) clique
’ — as were also such men as
Brynfab
,
Dewi Wyn o Essyllt
, and
Glanffrwd
, are interesting examples of the
poets
, of no great individual distinction, who
formed bardic schools
or circles in the industrial towns of
South Wales
during the
19th cent.
Bibliography:
-
Y Geninen
,
March 1906
(on Gwilym Elian) and
March 1911
(on Carnelian);
-
numerous references in
Cymru
(typed index in U.C.N.W. Library).
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
