Although he was raised in Leicester, Benjamin Dafydd Jones always felt a special link to Wales, due to his family connections.
Ben’s father was a Welsh-speaker from Aberpennar, his grandfather was a preacher in a Welsh chapel, and Ben has relatives in Carmarthen.
And so it was no surprise that when he moved to Bangor to live in 2023, he was keen to learn the language.
Ben said, “I had always hoped to live somewhere peaceful, surrounded by nature, and I was glad when the opportunity came to move to Bangor. I’d had enough of the big concrete city, with too many people and too many buildings.
“As well as the beauty of the area, I was amazed at how much Welsh could be heard in Bangor – I heard it everywhere, and I wanted to learn it! So I started with the ‘Say Something in Welsh’ app.
“I also listened to BBC Radio Cymru and attended informal conversation groups. And even though I didn’t understand anything at first, with time, I understood more. Just like a young child, the language was all around me even though I didn’t understand much.
“That was back in May 2023, and since then I’ve been twice to the Nant Gwrtheyrn centre on the Llŷn Peninsula, to follow residential courses with the National Centre for Learning Welsh. I enjoyed the courses very much - it was great to be immersed in the language in such a special place.”
Ben now speaks Welsh confidently and gets the chance to use the language every day in his work with Public Map Platform. This is a pilot project led by the architecture department at Cambridge University to highlight what really matters to communities before starting the process of planning and developing. The first area to be mapped is Anglesey (Ynys Môn), but the hope is to expand the project to other places in future.
Ben added, “In Public Map Platform, we involve local people in making a large map of the island – with many layers to the map. These layers can include elements such as the school bus route, cultural or environmental factors, the Welsh language – all sorts of features that provide a full picture of a place.
“For example, we work with children and young people to understand their opinions about the local area, where they play, what needs improving, and what’s already good.
“By working like this, you get much richer knowledge of a place. It’s far more than an O.S. (Ordnance Survey) map – it shares the spirit and feeling of a place to planning departments and anyone else interested in the place. The map is public, and we expect it to be fully online by the end of January 2026.”
And through the Welsh language, Ben feels he now belongs to Wales – to the place, the community, and the heritage.
He added, “I feel the spirit of the land in Wales is unique – it’s ancient like the sea and the mountains. The Welsh language connects me to this spirit in a profound way I can’t explain.”
