Graham Watkins
Rhys ap Thomas - Hero of Bosworth Field
According to the poet Guto’r Glyn, Rhys ap Thomas struck the blow that killed Richard III.
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Graham Watkins
- Oct 30, 2021
- 2 min
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...
172 views
Graham Watkins
- Dec 2, 2020
- 4 min
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...
838 views
Graham Watkins
- Nov 20, 2020
- 4 min
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...
672 views
Graham Watkins
- Oct 23, 2020
- 3 min
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...
506 views
Graham Watkins
- Oct 14, 2020
- 4 min
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...
167 views
Graham Watkins
- Sep 4, 2020
- 4 min
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...
129 views
Graham Watkins
- Aug 18, 2020
- 2 min
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...
251 views
Graham Watkins
- Jul 23, 2020
- 5 min
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.
277 views
Graham Watkins
- Jul 10, 2020
- 8 min
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...
82 views
Graham Watkins
- Jun 5, 2020
- 4 min
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...
134 views
Graham Watkins
- Apr 7, 2020
- 8 min
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....
226 views
Graham Watkins
- Apr 5, 2020
- 4 min
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...
1,156 views
Graham Watkins
- Mar 17, 2020
- 6 min
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...
357 views
Graham Watkins
- Jan 20, 2020
- 6 min
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...
68 views
Graham Watkins
- Jan 8, 2020
- 3 min
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...
108 views
Graham Watkins
- Dec 15, 2019
- 3 min
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...
382 views
Graham Watkins
- Nov 26, 2019
- 3 min
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...
94 views
Graham Watkins
- Nov 17, 2019
- 11 min
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...
118 views