STAFF at Corwen Museum received some good news last week - as they were loaned an Eisteddfod Chair in place of one they are currently unable to find.

An upcoming exhibit is set focus on Corwen as an Eisteddfod Town and will see some of the historic Bardic Chairs go on display - except the so far elusive 1919 Eisteddfod chair.

Mr D. Cledlyn Davies of Cwrtnewydd, Llanbyther was crowned the winner that year for his awdl entitle "Y Proffwyd" (The Prophet). He also won a cash prize of £12 12s - which equates to around £700 in today's money.

As his chair is now presumed missing, the museum say that Bala-based Ysgol Y Berwyn school have given them the 2009 chair to borrow in its place.

"We have been offered the loan, for this year, of a chair that was made 90 years later for the 2009 Bala National Eisteddfod," Treasurer Lindsay Watkins explained.

"The Chair was commissioned by the North Wales Police and made by local craftsman Dilwyn Jones of Celfi Derw, Maerdy, using wood from the Rhiwlas site at Bala where that Eisteddfod was held.

"In the end, the Chair was not awarded as it was deemed that the standard of entries was not good enough.

"As a result, it was given to the Bala Community and Ysgol y Berwyn is now the guardian of this unique piece of history. We are very grateful to the Headmaster, Andrew Roberts, for allowing us to display it in Corwen Museum this year.

"It is a beautiful object and quite different to the Chairs we will be displaying from the first part of the 20th Century."

Corwen Museum is set to have new temporary displays put up which detail the first public Eisteddfod held in Corwen in 1789 and the National Eisteddfod held in the Town in 1919.

There will also be a display on the regional Corwen Eisteddfods and the first Urdd Eisteddfod held there in 1929.

If you have news of the 1919 Chair, please go to corwenmuseum.org.uk and fill in the contact sheet. The Museum is closed at present but re-opens on March 1.