Category: Blog

I had to move away the tired tentacle of a creeping bramble littering the tomb just to make sure. But there was no doubt.  This was indeed the burial place of David Thomas and the grave in St. Tydfils Church, represents a terrible crime which reached a truly horrible conclusion, quite at odds with the…

Tank Cottage in Bassaleg was a small property dominated by a large water tank in the front garden. It was the home of Charles and Mary Thomas. He was 82 and she was ten years younger. They had lived on the Tredegar Estate in Newport, where Charles had been a wood cutter but finally, just…

HORRIBLE MURDER OF A FLINT GIRL. ATTEMPTED OUTRAGE. THE MURDERER AT LARGE. We parked the car, walked through the gate of Christ Church, looked to the left, found the grave and then departed. After all, this was Linthwaite, just outside Huddersfield and we had no cause to linger. The things we do for Welsh Country…but…

We were in Montgomery to relax. The smallest county town in England or Wales.  It is a beautiful market town with such a fine range of distinguished buildings. They were glowing in the warm sunshine. It is a peaceful place.  There is a romantically ruined castle high above the town, the beautiful church of St…

Drive through Tintern and Llandogo, then just before the bridge which crosses the Wye into Gloucestershire, turn left into the maze of narrow country lanes that entwine the Welsh side of the river. In  Whitebrook find a dilapidated grave in the precipitous cemetery below the Baptist Chapel, now a holiday rent. If it was not…

The Man Who Fell to Earth St Clears is a lovely place, certainly on a sunny day. So go there. Head towards Laugharne and on the left hand side you will find your destination, the Church of Mary Magdalene. It is opposite the historic Town Hall and you will pass through a beautiful lych gate…

For us, this story started with a gravestone in the cemetery of St Tudno’s Church on the Great Orme in Llandudno. It was a little faded in places but still bright in the sunshine, the details of a lost story set against a blue sky. Inevitably, for us it was a beginning of a search,…

I can only show you some memorials – I can’t afford to visit where she rests, even if we could be sure where it was. There isn’t a grave, but then, there isn’t a body, for it might have been eaten by coconut crabs. Let us hope fervently that she died before they got to…

Landshipping is an unassuming little hamlet with an unusual name, between Haverfordwest and Tenby, where a quiet narrow road eventually decides to wander alongside the peaceful estuary. Here in a layby at the old quayside, with beautiful views across the water, you will find a modest but poignant memorial to forty  dead miners.  If mining…

 Cathays Cemetery – Cardiff  1886 – 1926 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 tells us Captain E. T. Willows Only beloved…