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Music for Scotland News
British Royal Wedding Rings
15 March 2011
The British Royal Wedding starring Prince William and Kate Middleton is just around the corner. Since the official announcement on November 16th of last year, there has been much speculation about the royal wedding in general and the couple’s choice of rings in particular.
Previously, wedding rings for the Royal Family have been fashioned from one 22 karat gold nugget. The gold nugget was removed from the Clogau St. David’s mine in North Wales. If Kate Middleton follows tradition, her wedding ring will be crafted from the same nugget of Welsh gold.
The mine, first discovered in the Roman era, was abandoned for centuries, and re-discovered in the late 18th century. In the spring of 1854, the owner of Clogau St. David’s Copper Mine tripped over some shiny yellowish-coloured stones that had chipped off a larger rock that had been extracted from the mine. These were the first pieces of Clogau Welsh gold. From that day on, the mine no longer extracted copper; instead it became the Clogau St. David’s Gold Mine. By the late 19th century, Clogau St. David’s was one of Wales’s most prolific gold mines. The exorbitant costs of mining and the shrinking quantity of gold engendered the closing of the Clogau St. David’s mine in 1998, but there has been recent talk of reopening the facility.
Wedding rings for the Royal Family have been made from Clogau gold since 1923. In fact, they have all been created from one gold nugget.
Will Prince William and Kate Middleton will continue this tradition by having their wedding rings made wedding rings made from gold extracted from the Clogau St. David's mine? The answer to this question has not yet been disclosed. Even the jeweller and the owners of the mine itself, do not yet know the answer. The Queen Mother started the tradition in 1923. The custom continued in 1947 with the Queen, with Princess Margaret’s wedding rings in 1960, and with the rings made for Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1981. All of their rings were made from the same nugget. As for Prince William and Kate Middleton, they are playing it “close to the chest” on this one.
Will they continue the tradition of Welsh Gold wedding bands? Will they start a new tradition all their own? At this point, only the royal couple knows for sure!
This content was provided with the assistance of Clogau Gold Jewellery Website.