On September 8, 1936, in what is recognized as one of the defining moments in modern Welsh history, a minister, a university lecturer and a school teacher set fire to the half-built RAF aerodrome at Penyberth. They then proceeded to calmly report their actions to the nearby police. This action was the final act in the long battle to prevent the siting of an RAF bombing school in the Llyn Penisular. There had been huge opposition to the Ministry of Defense's plans from all quarters on cultural, linguistic, environmental, and anti-militarist grounds. The main cause for this reaction was the fact that the site itself was an old house that had been a resting place in the Middle Ages for pilgrims on their way to Ynys Enlli (Bardsey island-The Isle of the Saints). So supportive of the actions were the people of Wales that at the subsequent trial in Caernarfon the jury refused to convict the three). A retrial was then organized with the case being moved ot the Old Bailey where Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valaentine, and D. J. Williams were all convicted and imprisoned for nine months.
