The Unquiet Graves of Laugharne. It all started when they decided to exhume the pig, but we shall come to that in a moment. This story time takes us back to Brixton Farm near Laugharne in Carmarthenshire in 1850. The farm is still there, a grade 2 listed building, and in 1850 the tenants were…
Category: Blog
William James. Dying with Custer 1876
The graves are immediately inside the gate across the road from the old Ramah Chapel in Bryn Henllan at Dinas Cross in Pembrokeshire. The graveyard is unkempt and overgrown, but you will find the three graves of the James family in a neat row right in front of you. They are fading and weathered…
Albertina (Louisa Maud Evans) 1881- 1896
The girl on the flying trapeze Fire took her from earth to air to water and then finally back to earth once more. Now Louisa Maud Evans rests in Cathays cemetery in Cardiff, beneath a white marble headstone. Brave woman, yet in years a childDark death closed here thy heavenward flight.God grant thee, pure and…
The Cribyn Tragedy
You will find the Chapel opposite the old post office on the corner as you drive into the village of Cribyn from Lampeter. The compact graveyard at the rear is neat and well maintained. The gravestone you seek is still intact and easy to find and it will appear unexceptional to those who do not…
The Bleeding Stone of Adulam, Bonymaen, Swansea
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. But it will feature in my next book, Grave Tales from Wales Adulam Baptist Chapel on Cefn…
The Maid of Cefn Ydfa
This is the story of Ann Maddocks, the Maid of Cefn Ydfa, her forlorn love for the bard Wil Hopcyn remembered forever in a folk song we all know so well. You can read the full story in my new book Grave Tales from Wales. There are details below about how to buy a copy …
La Supreme Sagesse and the Brotherhood of Strangers
The Massif de la Clape rises above the Mediterranean outside Narbonne in the south of France. It is a beautiful wilderness, 17 km long and 8 km wide, perfect for rugged walking and cycling. The name comes from the local Occitan word Clapas – meaning a pile of stone. Rather unkind if you ask me…
Bedside Manners
The story comes from Hanmer in Flintshire in the seventeenth century and concerns Elinor Evans who was a maidservant. She had injured her ankle and a surgeon named William Jones was called. She had financial assistance from her friends and neighbours to pay for treatment. It cost 30 shillings. You can judge for yourself whether she got…
Wales is Weird
It won’t come as a surprise to you to learn that Wales is one of the strangest countries in the world. And it is official – paranormal investigators say so. We are surrounded by the unexplained. The message is clear. If you want to be puzzled and bewildered then come to Wales. The place is…
The Holy Grail
Did you know that the Holy Grail, used by Christ at the Last Supper and then later to gather His blood from the Cross, is in a secret bank vault in Wales? Trust me, Indiana Jones got it spectacularly wrong. The story is quite straightforward.The Grail was brought to Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathea and closely…