Colwyn Bay Watch
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 […]
Stories In Stone
Rebbeca Riots
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 […]
The Graves of Bodelwyddan
It is such a distinctive church, and can be seen for miles, standing tall and pale on the coastal plain. It has an elegant limestone steeple, in keeping with its beautiful interior. St Margaret’s Church in Bodelwyddan, ‘The Marble Church’, […]
Captain E. T. Willows – The Father of British Airships
He is remembered in the name of a street, a pub and a school in Cardiff. His achievements are recorded on a clock face in Cardiff Bay but his grave lies forgotten and neglected in Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery. His gravestone […]
Robert Recorde…It All Adds Up
You know about Robert Recorde’s invention. Of course you do. Everyone does. You have used it, perhaps even on a daily basis. It is just that no one has told you it was him, but it was. This story begins […]
Stories in Stone – Lake Vyrnwy
In the tangled woods behind the Vyrnwy Hotel, at the top of a steep and sometimes muddy slope, there is a neglected memorial. It is a stone obelisk on a double plinth and engraved on three sides are the forty-four […]
Llanelli Riot
The graves that symbolise a moment of shame stand clean and bright. They are a mute but significant reminder of one of the darkest moments in Britain’s social history. Leonard Worsell’s grave stone announces – “Workers of the World Unite”. […]
William James: From the West to the West
The graves are immediately inside the gate across the road from the old Ramah Chapel in Bryn Henllan at Dinas Cross in Pembrokeshire. The graveyard is unkempt and overgrown, but you will find the three graves of the James family […]
Dic Aberdaron
Geoff Brookes shares with us the story of Richard Robert Jones, a man regarded as eccentric, enigmatic and downright odd. He was known as Dic Aberdaron and the North Wales Express said of him “Among the singular characters which nature […]
Robert Owen
The stone over his grave in the old churchyard was a very plain structure and the spot presented a very desolate and deserted appearance. Now all is changed, and henceforth Wales will have something worthy of the man to remind […]
Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, Not a Number – A Free Man
Geoff Brookes tells the tale of Portmerion and it’s creator, Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis. There is no gravestone for Clough Williams-Ellis. His ashes were launched into the night sky on a marine rocket as part of a New Year’s Eve firework […]
The Wizards of Cwrt y Cadno
This is a grave that either contains mysteries – or contains nothing at all. It is simple and unassuming, close to the wall of the parish church in Caio in Carmarthenshire. It is the grave of John Harries (interred with […]