Tokens of Love

Diana Wright meets a maker of one of the UK’s most traditional courtship gifts: Welsh lovespoons

The custom of carving and gifting Welsh lovespoons – llwyau caru – can be traced back to the 17th century, with the earliest known example in a collection at St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, inscribed 1667. It’s likely the tradition predates even this, says David Thomas, who not only carves lovespoons in the Thomas family’s Lovespoon Workshop near Tenby in south Pembrokeshire, but has also written a dissertation on lovespoons as cultural icons of Wales as part of a Master’s degree in Heritage Tourism. David – known as Dai – explains that although there are many stories about these intriguing wooden spoons, their true origin is a mystery: “You sometimes see an early set of knife, fork and spoon, so it is likely they were made as wedding…

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Discover Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2024 - January 2025

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