Stories In Stone

Geoff Brookes tells the tale of Laura Ashley, pioneer of the infamous Laura Ashley Welsh textile design company. It was her sixtieth birthday; she did not want any fuss, just a quiet night in. She went to bed, got up […]

Leave the A494 from Ruthin and head south towards Corwen, then turn to the left and drive gently uphill to find a beautiful and unexpected valley. Here is Llanelidan, a place that seems untouched and overlooked. Unchanged even and because […]

When I asked about the tomb in the Cathedral no one seemed to know anything about it. Never really taken much notice of it I suppose. Just one amongst many. In the graveyard the great and the good of Brecon […]

As always, we were seeking a grave. Above Porth and in driving rain I explored the Independent Chapel in Cymer. It is derelict now and I couldn’t get past the scaffolding to the graves. The chapel was once an important […]

I can only show you some memorials – Welsh Country expenses wouldn’t stretch far enough to send me to where she rests, even if we could be sure where it was. There isn’t a grave, but then there isn’t a […]

We went to Llanrwst to see a coffin. Not an ordinary coffin, but one the greatest treasure of Wales, the sarcophagus of Llywelyn Fawr or Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and, for a short time in the twelfth century, […]

There is no memorial to Peter Ham. No stone, no statue, no plaque. His ashes were scattered to the winds at Morriston Crematorium in Swansea in 1975. And if there was such a memorial, what would it say? Peter Ham […]

Thomas Johnes had a mad idea, that you could tame and order a landscape as wild and extensive as the Ystwyth Valley. Like others he believed that human intervention could improve what nature had created. But the Hafod Estate, no […]

Outside the castle in the heart of the lovely town of Kidwelly, you will find a fine Celtic memorial, unveiled by Gwynfor Evans in 1991. It stands there defiantly, as if confronting the bulk of the Norman castle before it. […]

Geoff Brookes travels to the battlefields of Ypres to find William Jones We went to the battlefields of the Ypres Salient to find William Jones, one man amongst thousands. You can go there and be overwhelmed by the number of […]

When we arrived in Llandudno we initially ignored the thrills of the excellent tramway; we did that in the afternoon. In the morning we went up the Great Orme by car because we were looking for a grave. It is […]

Geoff Brookes tells the tale of Thomas Rees, a gardener from Mynachlog-Ddu. There are those who believe that near Mynachlog-Ddu in the Preseli Hills, you will find the source of the bluestones used in the construction of Stonehenge. Quite a […]