1985 in Wales

← 1984 1983 1982 1985 in Wales → 1986 1987 1988
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1985 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1985 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales – Charles
• Princess of Wales – Diana
• Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards
• Archbishop of Wales – Derrick Childs, Bishop of Monmouth
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Elerydd

Events

• March 3 - UK miners' strike (1984–85) formally ends. Among mines not reopening is Bedwas Navigation Colliery.
• May 16 - Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland are convicted of murder at Cardiff Crown Court and jailed for life. The previous November, at the height of the miners' strike, they caused the death of a taxi driver by dropping a concrete block onto his car as it passed under a bridge.
• June 29 - A55 Colwyn Bay Bypass completed.
• July 4 - At the Brecon and Radnor by-election caused by the death of sitting Conservative MP Tom Ellis Hooson, local farmer Richard Livsey takes the seat for the Liberals.
• December 20 - Swansea City A.F.C., struggling in the English Third Division just three years after being in the First, are issued with a winding-up order in the High Court and are at risk of closure and being forced out of the Football League.^[1]
• Terry Matthews sells his stake in Mitel to British Telecom.
• Cefn is founded to campaign for the civil rights of Welsh speakers.
• The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies is founded at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
• Seventeen women are prosecuted on conspiracy charges after the occupation of a nuclear bunker near Carmarthen.

Arts and literature

• Robat Powell becomes the first Welsh learner to win the Chair at the National Eisteddfod (see below).

Film

• Jonathan Pryce stars in Brazil.
• Richard Marquand directs Jagged Edge.

Broadcasting

Sport

• Horse racing - Hywel Davies wins the Grand National on "Last Suspect".
• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year - Steve Jones, marathon runner

Births

• 8 April - Gareth Rees, cricketer
• 16 April - Mark Baker, historian and author
• 13 May
  • Iwan Rheon, screen actor
  • Danny Thomas, footballer
• 16 June - Craig Morgan, footballer
• 17 July - Tom Cullen, actor
• 11 September - Danny Parslow, footballer
• 10 October - Marina Lambrini Diamandis, singer
• 14 December - Alex Pennie, musician
• 15 November - Simon Spender, footballer
• 25 December
  • Leon Pisani, pop singer
  • Perdita Weeks, actress

Deaths

• 26 January - David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, 66 (car accident)
• 4 April - Kate Roberts, author, 94
• 22 April – Sir Thomas Parry, academic, 80
• 8 May - Tom Hooson, politician, 52
• 9 June - Clifford Evans, actor, 73
• 1 September - Saunders Lewis, writer, 91
• 17 September - Laura Ashley, designer, 60 (brain haemorrhage)
• 28 October - Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek, politician, 81
• 1 November - Bruce Dargavel, singer
• 17 December - Gwyn Richards, dual-code rugby player, 79
• Dewi-Prys Thomas, architect

See also

• 1985 in Northern Ireland

References