The giant cardie of Cardigan town

Enter Cardigan's  market hall and you'll be brought up short by this stupendous garment, 5 metres wide, hanging above the stone staircase that connects the two levels. It was knitted by local people to commemorate the 900 year history of Aberteifi, as the town is called in Welsh. The name means 'mouth of the Teifi' and this front view depicts the original setting on the river with the castle above the strategically important bridge, a focus of the Welsh-Norman struggle for power over several centuries.

Seen from the back we have a panorama of the town in its hey-day when the port was a centre of trade, ship-building and emigration, a major commercial hub exchanging the fat of the land for the products of the wider world and supporting a panoply of nautical operations.

If you look carefully at the blipfolio image you can make out many of the buildings (warehouses, church, chapels, hotels) that still exist including in the centre the market hall itself with its red and white checkered stonework.

I should add that the garment gets its name from the notorious Lord Cardigan who led the charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean war in which  knitted wool waistcoats were popular with the officers. His title came from the Welsh region of Ceredigion in which Aberteifi lies, but typically the name and lands were taken by the English aristocrats and overlords who colonized the area. While adopting the  cardie as the town's mascot seems innocent enough perhaps there's also a subtle irony to be found in this knitted historical document.