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Rhys ap Thomas - Hero of Bosworth Field
According to the poet Guto’r Glyn, Rhys ap Thomas struck the blow that killed Richard III.
Graham Watkins
7 min read
660 views


The Smallest House
Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne when a rather unusual house was built in Conwy. To keep the cost down, the builder wanted a site...
Graham Watkins
2 min read
301 views


Swansea Jack
The incredible story of Swansea Jack
Graham Watkins
4 min read
381 views


Gnoll Belvedere - A Story of Welsh Coal, Copper and Corruption.
Sir Humphrey Mackworth was an industrialist, lawyer and fraudster who studied the scriptures in his spare time. He was educated at...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
980 views


The Wreckers of Cefn Sidan
The Wreckers of Cefn Sidan 'Gwyr-y-Bwyelli Bach' The people with little hatchets. The Captain of the La Jeune Emma peered through the...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
949 views


The Mad King's Monument.
King George III, the first Hanoverian king of Britain who spoke English as his main language, had been on the throne for nearly forty...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
542 views


Paxton's Tower, a nabob's revenge.
There is a strange looking gothic tower standing high above the Towy valley between Carmarthen and Llandeilo which was built by a...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
231 views


The Devil's Bridge
The widow, Marged, lived on the south bank of Afon Mynach. For company she kept a little dog and a cow. Each morning, as the sun’s...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
322 views


Tŷ Castell - Castle or Cow Shed.
The Elizabethan country house, Nercwys Hall, was built by John Wynn in the 1638. Wynn, a wealthy gentleman left the estate to his son...
Graham Watkins
2 min read
361 views


Welsh Legends and Myths - King Arthur
In the Welsh legends Arthur’s sword Excalibur was ‘Caledfwlch.’ In the stories the sword was used to kill an Irish king.
Graham Watkins
5 min read
1,201 views

Swansea and the Sea
When Captain Dan Nicholas wrote his diaries, describing forty years at sea, he recorded that his father was a boy of ten when the French...
Graham Watkins
8 min read
206 views


The Devil Dogs of Marchwiel.
'Like one that on a lonesome road doth walk in fear and dread… because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread.' The Rhyme...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
200 views


From Ammanford to Albacete
In the 1930s the political scene was changing across Europe. The Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, and his Nazi Party had seized power in Germany....
Graham Watkins
8 min read
273 views


The Cockle Women of Penclawdd
It was early, before the sun’s warming rays touched the land. A group of women waited with their donkeys for the tide to turn. Their feet...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
1,535 views


Why is a lighthouse or is it a clock tower in the middle of a Cardiff boating lake?
"I am just going outside and may be some time.” Captain Lawrence (Titus) Oates 17th March 1912 In 1909, a young naval lieutenant named...
Graham Watkins
6 min read
393 views


The Boy In The Picture
A short story taken from my anthology 'A Walk in The Woods' It smells funny, not very nice. It's my first visit. I'm six years old in a...
Graham Watkins
6 min read
78 views


Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell died this day in 1941 in Nyeri, Kenya.
Speaking with a reader at a recent book fair I was interested to learn he'd been a boy-scout in Kenya and, every Sunday morning after...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
180 views


Cilwendeg Shell House - Built with profits from a shining light.
When William Trench visited a group of islands off the coast of Anglesey known as The Skerries he came up with a money making idea. The...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
495 views


Thomas Telford's sense of humour
On the 26th November 1805 Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, designed by Thomas Telford, opened to great fanfare. It carried the canal, across the...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
229 views


The White Hat
Ernest Neap shuffled forward in the queue. He didn't feel conspicuous in his raincoat and white roll necked shirt. In fact, he'd dressed...
Graham Watkins
11 min read
123 views
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