Welsh pub faces backlash for ‘Google translate’ English name change

One Welshman is urging punters to boycott their local pub after it replaced its “proper” Welsh name with the English translation.

Dylan Jones, a law lecturer at Glyndwr University and former solicitor, said the pub’s change of name was an “absolute disgrace”.

The Pen y Bont in Abergele, Conwy has changed its outdoor sign as part of a recent refurbishment. The original moniker is still printed on the pub sign, though in much smaller lettering below the English name: The Bridge Head.

Law lecturer Jones called for people in the local area to “vote with their feet and never tread into this pub ever again” as a result of the changes made by its owners.

He said: “Pen y Bont is the proper name of this pub, not some ridiculous Google translate Anglophile version.

“It’s time to boycott this pub until their owners come to their senses!”

However, the pub’s management deny that the name has been anglicised.

Michael Warton from the pub claimed it had kept its original Welsh name and so has an associated business called The Winery, formerly Y Gwindy, up the road.

According to the North Wales Daily Post, he said: “We have kept the Welsh names here and the feedback has been very positive. It’s been all good.”

Warton said that since the renovations, events at The Bridge Head have been popular.

In other news, Dr Roland Salmon who was the former Public Health Wales communicable diseases director, recently told an inquiry that the measures to stop pubs serving alcohol during the pandemic seemed to be “an overly enduring legacy of the chapel heritage”. Read more on that here.