National Library of Wales tour hits four Welsh towns in September 2026

Key Points

• Your Library tour by the National Library of Wales will kick off in four towns in Wales on 21-25 September 2026.
• The program includes visits to Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea, Wrexham and Conwy towns, all influenced by their local history and community organizations.
• These include boxing in Merthyr Tydfil, Bonnie Tyler in Swansea, football in Wrexham and the Gresford mining tragedy, as well as local history in Conwy.
• All sessions will take place between 1pm and 7pm, admission will be free of charge and will consist of lectures, archival films, performances and workshops.
• This tour is organized as a part of the National Library of Wales Engagement Strategy aimed at reaching every town in Wales.

Wales (Wales Times) September 16, 2026 – The National Library of Wales is taking its collections out of Aberystwyth and into communities with a four‑stop Your Library tour running from 21 to 25 September 2026. The initiative is designed to help residents discover, explore and share the stories that have shaped their towns, their people and their place in Wales, using archive material, creative activities and local partnerships. Each stop will run from 1pm to 7pm at a local library or culture centre, with free entry and no booking required.

As reported by staff at Wales247, the tour will connect communities with the stories, memories and collections preserved by the National Library of Wales, inspiring new discoveries and fresh perspectives on Wales’s past and present. The programme is part of the Library’s Engagement Strategy, which includes a commitment to engage with every town in Wales, and sits alongside wider efforts to encourage people to explore the Library’s holdings through local Clip Corners, the Wales Broadcast Archive and digital resources.

What will happen at the Merthyr Tydfil stop focused on boxing heritage?

The tour opens in Merthyr Tydfil on 21 September at Merthyr Tydfil Library, where the town’s boxing history will take centre stage under the theme “The Golden Era of Merthyr Boxing”. The event will bring together archive footage of local boxing legends, personal memories and a boxing exhibition, with Geraint Thomas and Wynford Jones – described as local boxing historians – discussing Merthyr’s contribution to the sport.

Visitors will also enjoy a performance by the local community choir Merthyr Aloud. Rob Phillips of the National Library of Wales will lead a session titled Myth vs Reality, exploring the history of Merthyr Tydfil through historical objects, images and broadcast archive material. Free drop‑in activities throughout the day will include opportunities to explore Watch and Listen, the Wales Broadcast Archive, meet the People’s Collection Wales team, search the Women’s Peace Petition and experience Ôl | Haunts, a virtual reality experience built from Welsh collections.

How will Swansea’s event explore Bonnie Tyler’s story and local industrial heritage?

In uk/local/swansea/">Swansea on 23 September, the South Wales Miners’ Library will host an event exploring how the city helped shape global star Bonnie Tyler, using archive film and audio material to chart her formative years and career. Broadcaster and musician Mal Pope will be joined by Roger Bell, who has been closely associated with Tyler’s early career, to reflect on her development as an artist.

As reported by Swansea Bay News, Bell will tell the story of how he first heard Tyler singing in a Swansea club and went on to work with her for decades, offering a personal account of her rise from local venues to international fame. The evening will also feature entertainment from the Dulais Divas and will premiere new performances created by Swansea young people and adults, inspired by the 1984–85 miners’ strike, Copperopolis and the area’s industrial past.

These performances grew out of Snippets of Swansea, a four‑day creative project in August that used material from the Wales Broadcast Archive and the Miners’ Library’s own collections. Stacey Brown, the National Library’s community engagement officer for south west Wales, said the project was designed as a relaxed and creative way for people to try something new while making archive material feel accessible, adding that young people in particular found it a more engaging educational tool.

What football and mining history will be highlighted in Wrexham?

Wrexham Library will host the tour on 24 September, focusing on the town’s football heritage and the Gresford mining disaster. Wrexham AFC commentator Mark Griffiths will host a panel discussion exploring the town’s place in the story of Welsh football, drawing on archive footage of players, supporters and life around the club.

As reported by the Leader, Griffiths said the National Library’s archive is a “remarkable mine of information about Wrexham AFC, the third oldest football club in the world, and Welsh football in general”, adding that seeing the names of the past brought to life in previously unavailable footage is “such a thrill”. He noted that beyond historic moments, the TV companies’ background footage shows faces from the past chatting, training and playing at the oldest international football stadium in the world.

The discussion will cover the history of Wrexham AFC, the 150th anniversary of the Football Association of Wales, and what video archives reveal that written records cannot. To mark the 92nd anniversary of the Gresford disaster, there will be a screening of The Terrible Price documentary alongside poetry readings from the Wrexham Year of Wonder 1876 and performances from the Wrexham All Voices choir. Schools and community groups are invited to take part in dedicated sessions during the event.

What local history and digital projects will be showcased in Conwy?

The tour concludes in Conwy on 25 September at the Conwy Culture Centre, where local history, creativity and digital technology will come together to celebrate the area’s heritage. Journalist Maxine Hughes will join Dafydd Tudur, Head of Engagement at the National Library of Wales, to explore some of the people, places and memories captured within the Library’s collection.

The People’s Collection Wales team will showcase more than 1,500 items relating to Conwy and demonstrate how local knowledge, personal collections and public archives can come together to tell the story of a community. The event will also feature a performance by Maelgwn Male Voice Choir and contributions from creative partners, including TAPE Community Music and Film, who will showcase Below the Waves, a stop‑motion feature inspired by archive collections and local stories. As in other towns, visitors will be able to access Watch and Listen, the Wales Broadcast Archive, the People’s Collection Wales, the Women’s Peace Petition search tool and the Ôl | Haunts virtual reality experience.

Background to the National Library of Wales community tour development

The Your Library tour builds on long‑running efforts by the National Library of Wales to make its archives and broadcast collections more accessible beyond its Aberystwyth base. The Library has previously supported hundreds of interactive events and digital learning programmes for young people, enabling communities across Wales to connect directly with archival material, including through projects linked to the Wales Broadcast Archive. The current tour is explicitly framed as part of the Library’s Engagement Strategy, which includes a commitment to engage with every town in Wales and to encourage people to explore its collections through local Clip Corners and digital resources.

By partnering with local libraries, miners’ libraries, culture centres, schools, community groups and creative organisations, the National Library is positioning its holdings as a resource for place‑based storytelling rather than a distant national repository. The emphasis on free, drop‑in access and on co‑created performances – such as Snippets of Swansea and Below the Waves – reflects a broader shift in archival practice towards participatory, community‑led uses of heritage material.

Prediction: how could this development affect local communities and library users in Wales?

If the Your Library tour is repeated or expanded, local communities in Wales are likely to see greater awareness of the National Library’s collections and a stronger sense of ownership over local history. Residents who might not travel to Aberystwyth can encounter archive footage, broadcast material and historical objects in familiar settings, potentially increasing use of digital services such as Watch and Listen, the Wales Broadcast Archive and the People’s Collection Wales. Schools and youth groups may integrate these resources into lessons and creative projects, particularly where events are tied to local topics such as mining, industry, sport and music.

For library users, the model of free, drop‑in heritage days could encourage more frequent visits to local libraries and culture centres, especially where events are linked to well‑known figures or local institutions such as Wrexham AFC or Bonnie Tyler’s story. Over time, this could support broader goals around digital inclusion, cultural participation and place‑based identity, while giving the National Library of Wales richer feedback on which parts of its collections resonate most strongly in different parts of the country.