My article in the March 2020 edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about the Garden Pit Disaster in Pembrokeshire in 1844. The memorial you can see here is on the backs of the Cleddau Estuary and carried the names of 40 victims who drowned in the mine when water burst in. The seam was only…
Tag: Welsh Country Magazine
The Bleeding Stone of Adulam – Text
There has been a lot of interest recently in the tragic story of the Phillips sisters who drowned whilst collecting mussels. The piece was published in Welsh Country Magazine in January 2018 but has not appeared anywhere else. In order to allow more people to read it I have placed it below – The Bleeding…
Amelia Earhart
In the January 2020 edition of Welsh Country Magazine, my Story in Stone is about Amelia Earhart, the American aviator. Why? Well she was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane. The seaplane, in which she was merely a passenger, got lost and landed at Burry Port on 18 June 1928, believing…
Dolgarrog Disaster 1925
The terrible Dolgarrog Reservoir disaster of November 1925 in the Conwy Valley is the subject of my latest article in Welsh Country Magazine ( November 2019).Two dams, built to provide hydro-electric power for industrial purposes failed due to inadequate construction techniques. On a cold November evening 70 billion gallons of water poured down the hillside,…
St Julitta’s Church, Capel Curig
We had a very good visit to Capel Curig in Snowdonia. We managed to avoid the worst of the showers at St Julitta’s Church as we researched a future article about Alice Douglas Pennant who is buried in the beautiful graveyard. We can certainly recommend a visit to this grade 2 listed building on the…
Rebecca Uphill – Llandawke
On a beautiful September day we went grave hunting in Carmarthenshire. Down into Laugharne and then up into the hills, along narrow tracks to the abandoned church in Llandawke where we found the lonely grave of Rebecca Uphill, poisoned in 1850. It is such a story….To be published in Welsh Country Magazine soon…
The Story of Daniel James
My piece on page 7 of the September edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about the life of Daniel James, the man who wrote the words to the song Calon Lan, regarded by many as the alternative Welsh National Anthem. He was born in Treboeth in Swansea and had a tough life labouring in the…
Llywelyn Fawr
My piece in the July 2019 edition of Welsh Country Magazine is about one of the great treasures of Wales, the sarcophagus of Llywelyn Fawr , who for a short time in the twelfth century was the ruler of most of Wales.You can find it in the Gwydir Chapel of St Grwst’s Church in Llanrwst in…
Arise Evans (1607 – 1660)
I have been busy recently writing some articles for Welsh Country Magazine. I have enjoyed researching the lives of three interesting women and clarifying the locations of their graves. Amelia Earhart is remembered in Pwll and in Burry Port, the late Victorian novelist Allen Raine ( her real name was Ada Puddicombe) from Tresaith is buried…
Gwenllian – the Warrior Princess
My piece in the May edition 2019 of Welsh Country Magazine is about Gwenllian the Welsh Warrior princess – a beautiful wife and mother, defending her people in the great revolt of 1136 and the only known example of a medieval woman leading an army of Welshmen into battle. She has no grave. Her two…