BEFORE the Saxon assimilation into the British Isles from C7th all Britons spoke various dialects of what we now call Welsh (Saxon for foreigner Waleas) I prefer to call this language 'British', which is far more accurate. King Arthur spoke it, Queen Boudicia etc, not the perfect Queen's English depicted in films.

Wales is an area where there remained the greater concentration of Celtic British peoples, where the Saxons had not spread to and this is also true of Cornwall and parts of the North West of England.

All towns from pre-Saxon times obviously had their own 'British' names. Hereford was called Henfford by its inhabitants -its true original name.

Why do we have such relish for celebrating everyone else's culture and history but neglect our own?

Hereford has always been firmly British and not Saxon, seen in the vast number of British place names that remain eg Llanveynoe, Llangrove, Llanrosser, Mynyd Brith, Pontrilas, Clodock, Cwm, Pentre, Pentwyn etc etc etc.

Many common Herefordshire surnames have British roots such as Powell, Morgan, Howells and Gwillam. In my own locality, many British words survive and are regularly used as part of the local dialect.

Owain Glyndwr loved Herefordshire so much he settled, died and is buried here among what was then a largely British (Welsh) speaking people.

The language we now refer to so glibly as Welsh is at the historic root of our wonderful group of islands and is the oldest language in Europe. We are fortunate it still survives not only in parts of Wales but in Cornwall and other small pockets of the country.

It is certainly not a "hobby language" in North Wales, but a first tongue. We owe it to our heritage that we preserve and resurrect it, and the knowledge of it, as much as we revere our Celtic heroes and heroines.

We should all stand together for the preservation and use of the original language of our great people.

When I go to the train station I would love to be able to point out to my kids the original name for our city. No one is going to lose their way or miss their station if this is not done, but it would add much interest to the stops along the way.

J A Dimbylow,

Forest Lawn, Craswall.