The Cambrian Newspaper is a remarkable resource for anyone even vaguely interested in Welsh history. It was published in Swansea as the first English language newspaper in Wales, beginning in 1804 and it shows us things that nothing else can. […]
The great Welsh novelist Allen Raine died in June 1908 and my piece this month looks at her remarkable life. She is a sadly neglected figure today and yet towards the end of her life she was one of the […]
The thing is, in 1909 a car was a new enthusiasm, reaching out slowly but steadily to take over the quiet roads of Wales, a new, exciting but dangerous toy. The roads were still nineteenth century roads that had […]
There were very dodgy doings going on in Tintern in April 1894. Now that is not a sentence I ever thought I was going to write and I am sure quite a few reporters at the time didn’t think so […]
Tricky thing, neighbours. You can never get away from that. But then, it was ever thus. Events in 1888 in Wales rather prove that point. Let’s start in Maindy, where Daniel Dew, a labourer from Cardiff, was summoned for assaulting […]
In the early nineteenth century, Valentine’s Day was just about the most important day of the year. It provided an enormous boost to the income of local printers, anxious to exploit the exciting demand for greetings cards by providing the […]
No matter how inconvenient it might seem, climate change is for real. Those of us who are old enough can remember how things used to be and are ready to compare them with how things are now. Go back even […]
This month, let’s look at the Abergavenny Chronicle, which was founded in 1871 and soon established itself as the true voice of the town, always ready to whisper useful words of advice in the eager ears of its readers. And […]
In his review of a play called ‘Quarter of a Million Company’, at the Theatre Royal, Cardiff, the critic of The Cardiff Times finds occasion to praise some of the acting he has seen. You will probably be very pleased […]
For quite a few people called Jones, September 1854 was not their best month. In Cardiff Jane Jones repeatedly stopped respectable persons in Duke Street. For this she was arrested, though in court she was cautioned and discharged, since it […]
I‘m sure most readers (like me) were taught in Junior School how Britain set a wonderful example to the rest of the world in the 1800s by abolishing the slave trade, then slavery itself, forgetting of course that we helped […]
He could quite legitimately have said: ‘Come up and see my etchings’. Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961) was a Welsh painter, Tenby born (4th January 1878), who studied at the Slade in London (1896-99) with elder sister Gwen, of whom more […]
