My article in the March editio of Welsh Country Magazine is about ‘Professor’ Walter Beaumont the Man Fish, Llandudno’s finest. He was a professional swimmer, lifeguard and showman, touring the world doing tricks on stage in a crystal glass tank. He would stay underwater for over three minutes, playing cards, drinking a bottle of milk or…
Tag: Welsh Country Magazine
The Bleeding Stone of Adulam
This time my piece in the January Edition of Welsh Country Magazine didn’t require me to travel very far. It is a story from the east side of Swansea, from Adulam Chapel on Cefn Road in Bonymaen. It tells the story of the Phillips sisters – Phoebe 14, Emma 12 and Amelia 7 who went down…
The Maja – 1945
My piece in Welsh Country Magazine for November 2017 looks at two graves side by side in Holyhead, Anglesey. In the spirit of Remembrance and to reflect that World War Two was indeed a global conflict, I have written about two Chinese sailors who died whilst serving in our Merchant Navy. Ah Teng Lie was…
The Physicians of Myddfai – Welsh Country Magazine Sept 2017
The September edition of Welsh Country Magazine is now available in newsagents and supermarkets in Wales (price £2.95). In this edition my article is about the Physicians of Myddfai. This beautiful village is three miles south of Llandovery on the edge of the Brecon Beacons . It has a long tradition of healing and therapeutic remedies and…
The Cowbridge Murder of 1885
My piece in the recent edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about the horrible murder of David Thomas during a midnight storm in October 1885. It reached a similarly horrible conclusion with the botched execution of David Roberts who was arrested and condemned for the crime. Welsh Country Magazine is available from newsagents and supermarkets,…
Welsh Country Magazine March 2017 Edition
My story in the March edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about the brutal murder of an elderly couple in Bassaleg Newport in 1909. Charles Thomas was 82 and his wife Mary was 72 and they were beaten to death by William Butler with a hammer. Even though, as the headline tells us, he told…
Dic Aberdaron
The January 2017 edition of Welsh Country Magazine is now available in newsagents, supermarkets (and Marks and Spencer) across Wales, price £2.95. I write this time about the strange eccentric Richard Jones from the Llyn Peninsular who was born in 1780. He became better known as Dic Aberdaron, an itinerant with a peculiar gift for…
Watching the White Wheat
My piece in the September edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about the doomed love of Ann Maddocks and Wil Hopcyn from Llangynwyd, near Maesteg. They are buried in St Cynwyd’s church and are perhaps best known from the famous Welsh folksong Bugeilio’r Gwenith Gwyn – Watching the White Wheat – which allegedly is Wil’s lament…
Violet, Victor, Violence
My latest article in Welsh Country Magazine (July 2016) explores the story behind the murder of Violet Pick, strangled on the Vauxhall Bridge over the river Monnow in Monmouth by her boyfriend in 1910. When Victor was sentenced to death at the assizes a couple of months later, he waved to the public gallery shouting “Ta…
Frances Power Cobbe
My article in the May edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about Frances Power Cobbe (1822 – 1904). She was a fascinating nineteenth century personality- a journalist, a campaigner for women’s rights and a leading anti-vivisectionist. She is a buried in a quiet grave in the cemetery of St Illtyd’s church in Llanelltyd near Dollgellau,…