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Orielton Banqueting Tower - Doesn't everyone need one?
Once a grand three storey building, Orielton Banqueting Tower, now stands alone and neglected in the south western corner of Wales. The...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
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Birth of a Salesman - And it's not a play by Arthur Miller.
It was 1975 and my first visit to Soho Foundry, Birmingham, Head Office of W & T Avery Limited weighing machine manufacturers. Soho...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
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Owain Glyndwr
These signs have mark’d me extraordinary; And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men. King Henry IV -...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
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Maelgwn Gwynedd and the Yellow Eye
"... you the last I write of but the first and greatest in evil, more than many in ability but also in malice, more generous in giving...
Graham Watkins
5 min read
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The Sleeping Prince of Carreg Cennen
Beneath a rocky outcrop, topped by Carreg Cennen Castle, there is a cave that reaches deep into the bowels of the earth. Within this cold...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
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Tom Wellies takes a Bath
A short story reproduced from my anthology 'A Walk in The Woods' Thomas Jones was a farmer and, like other farmers in the valley, he wore...
Graham Watkins
5 min read
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The Kymin - A folly of voluptuary and gluttony
A painting of Philip Meakins Hardwick, in Monmouthshire Museum, portrays him as a portly gentleman who clearly enjoyed his food. During...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
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The Completion Meeting
Phillips, Tate and Shrive's Cambridge law practice was a modern, glass fronted building on Station Road. Simon and John Hume were taken...
Graham Watkins
6 min read
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The Red Bandits of Mawddwy
Hen ddwyediad lleol – ‘Tri pheth o Fawddwy a ddaw, Dyn cas, nod cas, a glaw’. Old local saying – ‘Three things come from Mawddwy, hateful...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
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Swansea - Incendiaries and High Explosives
The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany was viewed with concern by the British Government. A lone voice had been warning...
Graham Watkins
5 min read
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Thomas Picton - Welsh Hero or Monster
Thomas Picton - Welsh Hero or Monster; you decide.
Graham Watkins
6 min read
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Nantyglo Roundhouses - Riots, masters and men.
In the 19th Century, the South Wales valleys underwent dramatic industrial change. People arrived in their thousands, looking for work...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
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The Enemy Within - A Dystopian Crime Thriller
Yesterday I was asked where the ideas for my new dystopian crime novel The Enemy Within came from. It's an interesting question which...
Graham Watkins
2 min read
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The Hallelujah Obelisk - 'Praise the Lord' but it also means, 'Fools.'
In 1736, landowner Nehemiah Griffiths, who lived near Mold built an obelisk in one of his fields. The stone monument he erected included...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
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Prospect Tower - Bats and a copper bottomed story.
Robert Morris moved from Shropshire to Swansea, in 1724, to work as the manager of Llangyfelach Copper Works. When the proprietor of the...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
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The Rape of Wales
After conquering the Silure, the last resisting Welsh tribe, in AD 76, Governor Frontinus began the next phase of Roman occupation;...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
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Jersey Marine Tower. Rocky Marciano's Wartime home?
In 1886, the brewer Captain Evan Evans was looking to diversify his business. Brewing beer was profitable but he wanted to expand and...
Graham Watkins
3 min read
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The Spirit of Llandegla.
It was Sunday morning and Llandegla Parish Church was full. The congregation waited, patiently at first and then with increasing...
Graham Watkins
4 min read
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The Reckoning
'Due to me this day £4. 7s and...' Ink falls from the nib onto the page. It runs, like a tiny black stream, across the words. I return...
Graham Watkins
6 min read
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The Mermaid of Cemaes Head
Peregrine was a fisherman, like his father and his grandfather before him, a hard workingman used to the harsh life of working the nets...
Graham Watkins
5 min read
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