Category: Blog

Did you ever hear the story of the Ann of Bridgwater? No I hadn’t heard of it either but if you go  looking you can find the oddest things. As I did, rather like the Rhosili  rocket crew… Ann of Bridgwater was a ship that was found drifting off  Rhosili at the very end of…

The term “Sin Eater” does sound like  the title of a dodgy horror film. In fact perhaps it is. I wouldn’t know. But I  came across it in a news item on the BBC last month (September 2010) It is a fascinating idea and perhaps  you will not be surprised to learn that this ancient…

I have had another one of those occasions  when additional information about one of the stories I have covered appears  suddenly, as if from nowhere. This time it is additional background information  about Sarah Jacob, the tragic story which features in Volume One about the  little girl who starved to death surrounded by nurses who…

The word cemetery comes from Greek, meaning “sleeping place.” But the history they contain should not be allowed to rest. It should be repected and restored, just like the cemeteries themselves. The public cemetery was a Victorian  invention.  Previously under common law,  every parishioner and inhabitant of a parish had a right to be buried…

My grave this time is, oddly enough, a wooden drinking  vessel which you can find in the National Museum in Cardiff, one of many such  objects apparently, made from a great oak tree which blew down in a storm in  1813. The tree was called Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyll – the Hollow Tree of the …

Gelert is the name of a legendary dog which  has become entwined with the village of Beddgelert in Gwynedd. And if you don’t  already know it, the knowledge that the name of the village has been translated  as “Gelert’s Grave” might give you some clue where this story is going. The inscription on the tomb…

I found a very interesting piece by Robert Chambers from 1869 about body  snatching. When I find a grave I just try to take away the story. But in the  past there was a much more sinister trade – the work of the body snatchers, or  as they were sometimes known, The Resurrectionists. And yet…

Halloween. It is one of the oldest festivals  of all, and represents a curious mixture of many different traditions. The  Celts called it Samhain, a festival  that provided a boost for people as they entered the long dark winter months  when the countryside seemed dead and the days seemed so short. Over time it  became…