{{Short description|Welsh poet and historian (1922–2022)}} {{Use British English|date=March 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} '''Ruth Bidgood''' (née '''Jones'''; 20 July 1922 – 4 March 2022) was a Welsh poet and local historian who wrote in English.
==Life and career== Ruth Jones was born at Blaendulais, Seven Sisters,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Poetry Wales |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9JlAAAAMAAJ |year=1992 |publisher=C. Davies |page=73}}</ref> near Neath, Wales, on 20 July 1922. Her mother, the former Hilda Garrett, was a teacher.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/08/ruth-bidgood-obituary|title=Ruth Bidgood obituary|date=8 April 2022|author=Merryn Williams|website=The Guardian|access-date=25 June 2022}}</ref> Bidgood's Welsh-speaking father, Rev William Herbert Jones, became vicar of St Mary's Church, Aberavon,<ref name="Aber">{{cite web|url=https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2019/07/title-224726-en.html|title=Welsh poet and local historian receives Honorary Fellowship|date=17 July 2019|website=Aberystwyth University|access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref> where Ruth was brought up. She was educated at a grammar school in Port Talbot, and went on to read English at St Hugh's College, Oxford.<ref name="Aber"/> During World War II, she served in the Wrens as a coder, at Alexandria in Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.serenbooks.com/author/ruth-bidgood |title=Ruth Bidgood |website=Seren Books |access-date=22 July 2019}}</ref>
After the war, Bidgood worked in London helping to prepare a new edition of ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'',<ref name="Seren">{{cite web|url=https://www.serenbooks.com/newsentry/ruth-bidgood-obituary|title=Ruth Bidgood Obituary|website=Seren Books|date=8 March 2022 |access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref> but eventually she and her husband, David Bidgood, whom she had married in 1946,<ref name="Guardian"/> moved to Coulsdon in Surrey.<ref name="Aber"/> She and her husband had two sons and one daughter, Janet (died 2007).<ref name="Guardian"/>
Bidgood and her husband bought a holiday bungalow at Abergwesyn, near Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys.<ref name="Seren"/> During the 1960s, she became concerned about the construction of reservoirs and introduction of forestries in mid Wales, which she felt adversely affected the life of the region; this influenced her 1970 collection, ''The Zombie-Makers''.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Jane Aaron |title=Welsh Gothic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QcgmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT135|year=2013 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78316-559-9 |pages=135}}</ref> In the 1970s, after her husband had left her,<ref name="Guardian"/> she made her home permanently at the bungalow, and began publishing poetry and researches into local history.
Bidgood died at Bryn Gwy residential home in Rhayader, on 4 March 2022, at the age of 99.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gower |first1=Jon |title=Beautiful Hieroglyphs: A Tribute to Ruth Bidgood |url=https://nation.cymru/culture/beautiful-hieroglyphs/ |access-date=7 March 2022 |publisher=Nation Cymru |date=7 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Ruth Bidgood Obituary |url=https://www.serenbooks.com/newsentry/ruth-bidgood-obituary |access-date=8 March 2022 |publisher=Seren Books |date=8 March 2022}}</ref>
==Collections== In April 2011 her collection, ''Time Being'', was awarded the Roland Mathias Prize.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13023960 'Veteran poet Ruth Bidgood wins Roland Mathias Prize'], BBC Wales, 9 April 2012> Retrieved 2012-10-31.</ref>
A book-length study of Bidgood's work, written by Matthew Jarvis, was published in 2012 by the University of Wales Press in the "Writers of Wales" series.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Matthew Jarvis |title=Ruth Bidgood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlSuBwAAQBAJ |date=15 June 2012 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-2523-0}}</ref> The book was launched together with Bidgood's ''Above the Forests'' collection at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 27 July 2012.
==Works== {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| *''The Given Time'', 1972 *Seven articles in ''Transactions of the Radnorshire Society'', (1974–1980) on Llandewi Hall *''Not Without Homage'', 1975 *''The Print of Miracle'', 1978 *''Lighting Candles'', 1982 *''Kindred'', 1986 *''The Fluent Moment'', 1996 *''Abergwesyn: Bwlch y Ddau Faen'' (1997). Newtown, Powys: Gwasg Gregynog. {{ISBN|0-948714-72-7}} *''Singing to Wolves'', 2000 *''Parishes of the Buzzard'', a local history of Abergwesyn *''New and Selected Poems'', 2004 *''Symbols of Plenty'', 2006 *''Hearing Voices'', 2008 *''Time Being'', 2009 *''Above the Forests'', 2012 }}
==Sources== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20041230203648/http://www.swan.ac.uk/english/crew/welshwriters/bidgood.htm Biography]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bidgood, Ruth}} Category:1922 births Category:2022 deaths Category:People from Seven Sisters, Neath Port Talbot Category:Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Category:Women's Royal Naval Service personnel of World War II Category:Women's Royal Naval Service ratings Category:20th-century Welsh poets Category:Anglo-Welsh women poets Category:20th-century Welsh historians Category:Welsh women historians Category:20th-century Welsh women writers Category:21st-century Welsh historians Category:21st-century Welsh poets Category:21st-century Welsh women writers Category:British encyclopedists Category:21st-century British women poets