ALARMING SCENES here in the Morriston Opium Fields, though to be honest, things have been a bit weird for a few days. It started with squirrels, but then it often does. They have been nibbling away at the poppy heads in the garden, and that never ends particularly well. I knew Monday was not going…
Category: Blog – Archive
Tenuta Contessa Chiara
We have returned from a magical holiday in Piemonte in northern Italy. I promised the owners Alessandro and Andrea that I would put a link here on my website in case anyone is interested in a perfect Italian villa holiday. Alessandro is in the process of changing his web hosting service so once that has been done…
A Bit of Needle
This is taken from the Cambrian Newspaper in 1856. It deals with an extraordinary operation necessitated by a most singular accident. It involved a young Irishman who was, as they say, larking about with some young country women. He grabbed a buxom girl who was engaged in seamstress work and hugged her.But as he pressed…
Rotten Rabbit
Here is another small item from the pages of the Cambrian newspaper published in Swansea throughout most of the nineteenth century July 1875 You will be pleased to learn that the Inspectors of Nuisances for the Swansea urban Sanitary Authority buried the creature in the rubbish heaps near the Old Infirmary. It was a rabbit…
The Extraordinary Child
Let us consider the great Monsieur Chouville. A showman without a doubt, determined to bring thrills to the eager public of Swansea, starved as they had been of top-quality and spectacular entertainment. This was June 1858. There was no need for a large and grainy TV screen displaying inaccurate weather forecasts to the discerning crowds in Castle…
Bloody Welsh History – Swansea now available!
I am pleased to be able to announce that my latest volume, Bloody Welsh History – Swansea is now available. It is a fine looking book – for which I take no responsibility whatsoever. It is available in bookshops and of course from Amazon where you can get a Kindle version too. Or you can…
Bloody Welsh History – Swansea
I am reliably informed that my next book, Bloody Welsh History – Swansea will hit the shops on 15 July 2012. In fact you can even pre order it from Amazon and from the publishers The History Press now. Apparently you can even order it as a Kindle download. How exciting. I need to get…
Go Home. You know you want to.
This is a story from September 1866 and it concerns an incident on Wind Street. Nothing unusual there you might think. But wait. Catherine Williams, the wife of Lewis Williams, was standing at the bottom of Wind Street minding her own business entirely. She was with a pal of hers and it was ten minutes to midnight. Time…
Wedding Gifts
Weddings are full of difficulties. I should know I have been the father of the bride twice. It is a minefield for everyone. Take the issue of presents for example. Today the wedding list might seem mercenary but it takes away some of the nightmares associated with the unwanted duplication of presents – or should …
Madame de Winton’s Turkish Bloom of Health
I love Victorian advertisements. They are so different from what we read today. They have more words, more elegance, and more style. They are less strident than our own – and more entertaining as a result. Here are two fantastic examples from The Cambrian newspaper from 1865. When I read that Madame de Winton’s Turkish…