Newsletter 2024
The year began with Rachel, Sean and boys moving in while their kitchen was rebuilt and other work done. It was all great fun – here we are in early morning mode But the job took a lot longer than … Continued
Early mining on Cefn Carnau
Following on from my blog posts on deserted cottages and farmsteads above Cardiff, I have been sent some information about early coal mining on Cefn Carnau. In his History of Caerphilly, H. P. Richards says (without references, unfortunately) that coal … Continued
Mitchel Troy
Amy and I set off to Mitchel Troy, just south of Monmouth, to look for this https://twitter.com/johnevigar/status/1716331933066572125 which the wonderful John Vigar posted on Twitter back in October. It’s a medieval church, probably part of the great Norman rebuilding of … Continued
Grandparenting 2023
Seth and Ethan are both growing – which means they are more able to play together. Here they are at St Fagan’s last summer And here sharing the joy of puddles and jigsaw puzzles (at which they are both pretty … Continued
More lost farmsteads: Craig yr Allt
Now that Gwen the cockapoo puppy is a little older (and a little more ready to come back when called), we are doing longer walks. Today, we went up Craig yr Allt, and I was reminded that I never did … Continued
Fforest Fach
This is yet another of those ‘medieval forest boundaries I have walked past dozens of times without recognising them’ posts (see also https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2022/11/forest-boundaries/, https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2022/11/coed-rhiwr-ceiliog/, https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2022/12/fforest-ganol/ ). Fforest Fach runs between the ridge of Rhiwbina Hill and the little valley of … Continued
The Afterlife of Stone Monuments
Some years ago now, Steve (my husband) did the MA in Celto-Roman Studies offered by the late lamented University of Wales, Newport. He got particularly interested in the stone monuments of early medieval Wales and wrote a short article on … Continued
Update on the Griffith Jones Llanddowror Heritage Tour
I have been sent this update on the project. The tour is being developed by the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society to raise awareness of the roles of Carmarthenshire people in the legacy left by Griffith Jones, especially Peter Williams, as this … Continued
Maes Araul and the Little House
Looking again at my photos of the ruined cottages in Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog, I wondered whether they were originally platform houses, built on land dug into the hllside. That would have suggested an early date – but were they really? … Continued
Garth Cottages
I went up the Garth before the snow melted and walked back along the Pentyrch road. This is marked on the 2nd edition OS as Mwndy, but on the tithe plan it’s Gockatt Isha, a house and just short of … Continued
Fforest Ganol
Back to Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woods of South-east Wales. This rather undistinguished hedge-bank up in the woods on the other side of the little valley from Castell Coch turns out to be part of the forest boundary bank of Fforest … Continued
Seth and Ethan
When Seth first saw Ethan, a morning just before last Christmas, he put his hands on his hips and said ‘Well, I never!’ Ethan adores Seth, perhaps too much – whatever Seth is playing with Ethan wants to play too, … Continued
Maesaraul and Coedcae
Back to Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog to look for those ruins in the middle of the wood. On the tithe plan they are described as cottages and gardens, belonging to William Booker, Thomas and Elizabeth Matthews and William Gedrick and tenanted … Continued
Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog
More discoveries in Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woods of South-east Wales. Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog is on the southern slope of the Garth mountain, just north of Cardiff. Looking from the Pentyrch road, it is now a rather decayed conifer plantation, though … Continued
Forest boundaries
Another discovery in the late great Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woods of South-east Wales (edited from his manuscript by Paula Keen with David Morfitt, George Peterken and Simon Leatherdale). It seems that this which I thought (if I thought about it … Continued
John Gwin’s Commonplace Book
John Gwin lived at Llangwm near Usk in the middle years of the seventeenth century. One of the county’s lesser gentry, he worked for the high-profile Catholic Marquess of Worcester: but he had friends and relatives among the county’s leading … Continued
Back to the deserted farms …
I hadn’t been up the Lesser Garth for some time. Nelly the spaniel and I seemed to spend more time on the Cefn Onn side of the valley. Nelly has now gone to the happy hunting grounds and I’m getting … Continued
Rees John of Cefn Llwyd
Some more of our family history has turned up in the papers of my late cousin David Morris. My mother’s reminiscences (downloadable at https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2017/11/betty-john-cefn-llwyd/ ) described how her family moved from Michaelston-le-Pit to Cefn Llwyd in Michaelston-y-Fedw in 1908, and … Continued
The Story of the Fox Inn, Juniper
(photo (c) Snidge, from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Juniper_Hill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_344120.jpg) Here are two inventories of the contents of a little public house on the Oxfordshire-Northamptonshire border. The first, dated 1882, is a probate inventory, a very detailed valuation of the contents of the pub and … Continued
St Michael’s, Lower Machen
INVITATION The church of St Michael and All Angels, Lower Machen, is the old parish church for the whole of the Machen area. Among its treasures are the monuments and funeral hatchments of several generations of the great Morgan family … Continued
More on portable/movable fonts
A couple of additions to the post on small fonts at https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2022/06/portable-fonts/. The Penrhys font is about 9 kg in weight – I would describe it as movable but not really portable. We had a very fruitful discussion on the … Continued
Portable fonts
I have to admit that, before I went down this particular research wormhole, I hadn’t thought much about portable fonts. I knew about the Reformation debates about fonts and baptism, and the move away from chunky stone fonts near the … Continued
Grandparenting 2021
Seth has had a busy year in spite of lockdowns and restrictions. He likes being out in all weathers – snow rain … exploring the stream – in all weathers watching the trains with his best friend Nell the spaniel … Continued
Llanthony – a thin place
I was supposed to be going to Capel-y-ffin, just north of Llanthony, back last January to make a radio programme about Thin Places – then the lockdown struck. We decided to have another go on Tuesday. In folklore (and in … Continued
Reeves and dunghills
This is real hardcore lost farmsteads – this is all that is left of a farm called Maerdy. It appears on the tithe plan as Mardy Du, and in 1840 it was being farmed along with a larger farm, Gwern … Continued
Picturesque tourism and industry: some links
These are links to the online texts that I’m using in my lecture to the Oxford House Industrial Archaeological Society Richard Warner, A Walk Through Wales https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AdcQh0l41XoC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (p. 232) The anonymous ‘Northern Tour, or, Poetical epistles’ is at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s_Q7AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (p. … Continued
Parc y Fan
Well, this is another that I must have walked past several times without realising what it was. These foundations under the brambles and bracken must be all that’s left of Parc y Fan (OK, Park y Van in Wenglish), a … Continued
The Warren
As I expected, there was very little to see on the site of the Warren farm. It’s on the tithe plan but as part of Treboeth, the farm to the east (https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2020/08/tre-boeth-the-warm-town/). Here’s a sketch plan based on the tithe … Continued
Tre-boeth – the ‘warm town’?
This is another little farmstead that I must have walked past at least a dozen times without realising it was there. It’s at the north-east side of the Wern-ddu Claypits, just above the site of the old brickworks, at about … Continued
Not the Head of the Pass
The woods between Rudry and Parc Cefn-onn are about the limit for my weekly long walk – about 12-13 miles with quite a bit of Up! But there is still plenty to have a look at. This little ruined farmstead … Continued
Coedcae and the Cwm
Having found the ruins of Coedcae Garw thanks to @mikekohnstamm (https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2020/07/coedcae-garw/) I’ve reverse engineered the process and gone back to looking for farms and smallholdings which are on the tithe plans and the old OS but not on the modern … Continued
Coedcae Garw
I’m still finding ruined farmsteads north of Cardiff. The number surprises me. We’re used to finding little lost farms in the upland forests – they were no longer viable in the changing economy of the later 20th century and many … Continued
Cefncarnau-fawr – then and now
I’ve been trying to tie up the plan in the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales’ inventory with what’s on old maps on https://places.library.wales/ and https://maps.nls.uk/os/ (another amazing resource and although it’s the National Library of Scotland … Continued
Deserted cottages
I thought I had done all I could with the lost farming landscapes north of Cardiff, but more bits keep turning up. After I’d been to Deri-duon last week, I was trying to locate some sites on the track past … Continued
More about Cefn Carnau
The mother and toddler group in our village was the heart of the community. I had just started going along with my little grandson when the lockdown hit. This was where you could order cake and bread from the cafe, … Continued
Even more deserted farmsteads …
We had quite an energetic Twitter conversation about those deserted farms north of Cardiff. @mikekohnstamm drew my attention to Deri-Duon, which is amazingly in the middle of Lisvane, in the fields between Lisvane church and the reservoir. It’s marked as … Continued
Deserted farmsteads (again)
So is that farm just off the Heol Hir Ty Drav (as on the tithe map) or Ty Draw (which seems more likely)? And is it actually below the track leading to Wern Ddu woods? The lower track doesn’t seem … Continued
More deserted farmsteads …
Well, this is Bwlchygelli, at ST 16711 84736 just where John Owen said it would be, in the dip between Blaen-nofydd and the Heol Hir. Can’t think why I hadn’t spotted it before. Perfectly obvious that heap of stones was … Continued
Lost farmsteads: update
My old student Dave Standing (tweets as @AncientTorfaen ) suggested that the mortar in the farmhouse walls might give an idea of dating. We had an energetic discussion of this on Twitter and I’m not sure how well it works … Continued
Lost farms, lost settlements
To distract us during the lockdown, while we can’t do much in the way of fieldwork, we’ve been having a discussion on Twitter on the mapping and listing of deserted settlements. @DrFrancisYoung asked if anyone had ever done an atlas … Continued
Swansea the Riverside Town
Gerald Gabb has sent me the following information about his magnum opus – the completion of his 3-volume history of Swansea. The 1840 view above by Alexander Rolfe (Glynn Vivian Art Gallery) decorates the slipcase of my new book, “Swansea … Continued
Llanfair-ar-y-bryn
The main purpose of our visit to Llanfair-ar-y-bryn was to check the memorial to the great Welsh hymn-writer William Williams Pantycelyn and his family (see https://welshtombs.wordpress.com/ ) but there was a lot else of interest in and around the church. … Continued
Cross slabs – medieval and post-medieval
Really looking forward to speaking to Cardiff’s Continuing Education series of free lectures next week. The talk will involve telescoping two lectures into one, and as it’s part of the History programme I thought some further reading might be appropriate. … Continued
‘Schall do no …’??
Llanfair Cilgedin, north of Usk in Monmouthshire, is one of the loveliest of the many lovely churches in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. It is most famous for the sgraffito work with which it was decorated by … Continued
Betty John Cefn Llwyd
I had a lovely afternoon exploring my mother’s reminiscences with our village Mothers’ Union last week. They all remembered her as the elegant elderly lady who came to Evensong and were intrigued by the story of her childhood on a … Continued
The pilgrim game
When I was an undergraduate, way back when, we played board games like Risk, sometimes all night. We still have the odd game of Monopoly at Christmas, but I hadn’t realised that board games were a Thing until my daughter … Continued
Alternative routes to Penrhys
(or How the Old Poet Got to Penrhys – part 2) The route over Mynydd Maendy and the Afan-Ogwr watershed still looks like the best route for the Cistercian Way – clearly an old trackway, magnificent views (weather permitting) and … Continued
Chwyldro! Chartist events this autumn
It’s going to be a Chartist autumn … Sponsored by Our Chartist Heritage (OCH) and CHARTISM e-Mag: 10th Annual Newport Chartist Convention 2016 Saturday November 5th 09.30 – 16.30 Venue: JOHN FROST SCHOOL, Lighthouse Road, Newport, NP10 8YD The school (formerly Duffryn … Continued
Limericks and haiku
The limericks from the wedding competition rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(1) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(2) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(3) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(5) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(6) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(7) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(8) rhyt_22-08-2016_13-14-34_MFDNPT1(9)
An Honourable Estate
Some more wedding photos – and another speech. Photos are all from the online album – lots more at http://www.wedpics.com/album/GI4TGNZWGIZQ . Here we are in the porch the amazing bus that Sean’s dad arranged to get us into Cardiff Rachel … Continued
The Excellent Mystery
According to the old Prayer Book, marriage is ‘an honourable estate, instituted of God … and therefore is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.’ Of … Continued
Graduation day
Something a bit more cheerful – some lovely photos of our last graduation day. Here’s the sports hall as the graduands process in. With Kerry, Justin and Dominic in the Board Room after. Team photo with Nathan practising for next … Continued
Weep, weep, o Walsingham
In the wracks of Walsingham Whom should I choose But the Queen of Walsingham to be my guide and muse. Then, thou Prince of Walsingham, Grant me to frame Bitter plaints to rue thy wrong, Bitter woe for thy name. … Continued
Penrhys – the meadow on the nose of the forest
First post on the new (renamed) site – there wasn’t enough room for all the blog posts and photos on the web site. So the wonderful Sarah Chong is going to reorganise my blogs, keep this one for the Cistercian … Continued
Some Trust In Chariots
We are still having fun with the wall paintings at Llancarfan. The most recent phase of conservation work has revealed (what we suspected would be there), facing the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy. The last two, … Continued
Knowing where you live
It is just a bit disconcerting to realise that you can live somewhere for getting on for 40 years and not know everything about it. First there was the little house in the big woods: walking through the top of … Continued
Penrhys – Ton Pentre (again)
I’ve now had another look at the ridge above Penrhys with Ceri and Ron from Rhondda Cynon Taf. Main aim was to look at the blocked section of path around SS 972 955, just above Pleasant View. We walked up … Continued
The Cross of Destiny
Sometimes it’s the things that everyone knows that turn out to be the most puzzling – and also the most illuminating. A couple of years ago we had an interesting discussion on the medieval-religion Jiscmail list (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion) about the Croes … Continued
Kensal Green
I’ve wanted to get here for years – ever since I saw it over the wall from a bus. Houses of the dead Modern mausolea at the northern end this one designed by William Burges for a friend a bit … Continued
Grave London
Mostly photos for the next few blogs – a wonderful week in London spent mostly in https://heritagetortoise.files.wordpress.comyards, with a meeting of the Church Monuments Society for light relief. Old St Pancras: the Hardy Tree this lovely little angel on a … Continued
Cross bones
Where to go on a Sunday morning in London? It was International Women’s Day (what? A whole day just for us – just so the blokes can be all blokey on the other 364 – oh, never mind, be grateful … Continued
Medieval Trelech
In the summer of 2003 the Gwent County History Association went to Trelech to look at Ray Howell’s excavations there. The late great Mike Anthony spoke very convincingly on his ideas on the layout of the medieval borough and subsequently … Continued
Grosmont: borough and village street
We had some epic days out with the Gwent County History Association. In 2004 a day school on the history of Grosmont was followed by a tour of the ‘village’ . Grosmont should probably be called a village now, but … Continued
Devauden and the Vedw
Another treasure from the newsletter archive of the Gwent County History Association. This is a contribution from Ann Wareham about the Vedw villages where she lives: that unique Gwent borderland, neither entirely English nor entirely Welsh but entirely magical. Aspects … Continued
Post-Reformation wall paintings
Sometimes it’s the early stuff that’s exciting, the earlier the better – but just occasionally it’s the more recent stuff that’s unusual and more interesting. On a visit to Llancarfan with George Ferzoco I was ever so excited to spot … Continued
The Abergavenny Pax
More from the newsletter archive of the Gwent County History Association. An insight into medieval piety Since this was written, the Abergavenny Pax and the Kemeys Inferior crucifix have been moved to our National History Museum at St Fagans. The … Continued
Llangwm School
Continuing with extracts from the newsletter archive of the Gwent County History Association: Children of the Parish Gwent historians owe a great deal to the Rev. William Price of Llangwm, the late nineteenth-century clergyman who was responsible for restoring Llangwm … Continued
The Politics of the Royal Bed
… or ‘the politics of The Royal Bed’ – this being the title of Sion Eirian’s English-language adaptation of the Saunders Lewis play Siwan. Yes, it’s a play that puts the female perspective centre stage; yes it’s a good part … Continued
On leaving memories behind
I now have my mother’s ashes in a neat little box on my bookshelf, between Ralph Griffiths’s Principality of Wales in the Later Middle Ages and the skull of a medieval nun from Cambridge. It’s a very small box to … Continued
‘The Disaster of our Estate’: Anthony Kitchin and the diocese of Llandaff
Persevering with the rescuing of articles from the Gwent County History Association’s Newsletter: this is roughly the text of a lecture to the Friends of Llandaff Cathedral based on my article ‘The Cloister and the Hearth: Anthony Kitchin and Hugh … Continued
How my grandmother chose her husband
Things do come in threes. Once there was a king and he had three daughters. There was an ewe had three lambs and one of them was black. There was a beautiful young woman and she had three suitors. Reading … Continued
The dying of the light
If you teach death and commemoration, it’s a very strange experience caring for someone through the end of life. My mother – 99, brain like a steel trap but everything physical is failing – has decided to move to palliative … Continued
Llancarfan – the post-medieval texts
Epic day at Llancarfan yesterday with Christina Welch of Winchester University and Ian Fell. Main purpose of visit was to look in detail at the cadaver in Death and the Gallant but I also photographed the post-Reformation texts. Here’s Ian’s … Continued
Good Friday, riding westward
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit For their first mover, and are whirld by it. Hence is’t, that I am carryed towards the West This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East. The Good Friday walk … Continued
Llangybi: several generations of wall paintings
Our annual field trip up the Usk to Llangybi: we can get there, look at the medieval wall paintings and the holy well and get back within a 2-hour lecture. This year, the church was more than usually mysterious in … Continued
Off the Celtic Stones Trail
Well, the attempt to find another way over Stormy Down was a complete bust – so what follows is a rant about (a) Fly-tipping (b) Motorcycle scrambling (c) Blocked footpaths The first problem was that the road from Tythegston to … Continued
“Celtic Stones”
Having got the Galilee Project all wrapped up, Gareth Kiddie and the Llanilltud PCC are now working on a trail from Llandaff to Margam, linking the sites of some of our major collections of early medieval inscribed stones. The route … Continued
Back on the heritage trail …
One fine day a fortnight ago – so we went out with Laleston Community Council, Bridgend CBC’s footpaths maintenance officer and Chris Jones-Jenkins who is doing the reconstruction illustrations, for another look at the proposed Merthyr Mawr and Laleston Stones … Continued
The Holy Rood of Llangynwyd
Llangynwyd is probably most famous now as the burial place of Ann Thomas, the ‘Maid of Cefn Ydfa’, and her poet lover wil Hopcyn. (More about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Maddocks ). But in the Middle Ages it was famous as the … Continued
Caerleon Campus History Lectures 2014
University of South Wales (Caerleon Campus) History Public Seminar Programme Spring 2014 Wednesdays, 6pm A chance to share in some of the recent research from the History team at Caerleon: the lectures will be followed by informal discussion Wednesday,29 January … Continued
Laleston to Parc Slip
Well, we always knew this would be the tricky bit of the route. We actually started doing it backwards from Parc Slip so Steve could park there and walk round the reserve while Cara and I went on. It started … Continued
Heritage trails (again)
The road goes ever on … The trial round Laleston and Merthyr Mawr seems pretty much sorted. Bridgend CBC are keen to have a trail going north to Llangynwyd. Since the route round Laleston is themed around the pilgrimage route … Continued
Laleston Stones Trail
Laleston and Merthyr Mawr are planning a loop off the Wales Coast Path featuring their collection of Celtic crosses, later carvings and other heritage attractions. Yesterday the sun shone and it seemed like a good day for a walk … … Continued
Cathays Cemetery – ‘how green a place it is’
I take my Art & Death group to Cathays every year (it’s my idea of a day off because Steve actually does the leading). Here we are listening to him (all the photos are Andrew Brown’s). Cathays Cemetery was Wales’s … Continued
Faith tourism, faith in tourism?
‘All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and pilgrims on earth’ (Hebrews 11: 13) The … Continued
Pontypool – not quite what you expect of a Valleys town
Excellent MA field trip to Pontypool, led by Steve. For the full description, go to http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/welshstoneforum/newsletter/ and click on newsletter 7. Meanwhile, here are some photos: at the Gorsedd stones heading intrepidly past the cows to the Folly tower (actually … Continued
#smokingisnottheonlyrubbish
Why are we so mucky in south Wales? As Steve and I work our way round Wales looking at tomb carvings and interesting bits of building stone, we are tasked by our daughter to photograph smoking-related litter. She works for … Continued
If the past is a foreign country, should you get its geography right?
Hilary Mantel says that if you want to write historical novels and you include facts you should make sure that those facts are right. Jim Crace, whose novel Harvest has made it to the Booker longlist, thinks otherwise: ‘I’m not … Continued
Rise up Women who Weren’t Born Yesterday (again)
Does my 30 seconds of fame on Countryfile qualify me to speak about the problems of academic women in the media? Of course, if you are a female academic of a Certain Age, you aren’t cutting it in the media … Continued
#smokingisrubbish
Actually ON the coast path at Strumble Head …
Inhabiting the past
Off to the National History Museum at St Fagans, ostensibly to talk about the Welsh background to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. My plan was to challenge some traditional ideas about Cromwell and the Acts of Union and to look at … Continued
Heritagising dissent
Michael Heseltine – flak jacket wearer, Tory leadership challenger, hero of the Westland Helicopter affair – seems to be turning into a sort of Dear Old Man. My university has just given him an honorary doctorate. When I got over … Continued
St Teilo’s Church – the writing on the wall
Another lovely afternoon, this time at the National History Museum in St Fagan’s watching the conservators paint the texts under the re-created wall paintings. Their experience must be something like that of the original painters: they are painting texts mainly … Continued
The Llanilltud Fawr (Llantwit Major) Galilee Project – nearly there!
If heritage trails test the breadth of your historical knowledge, historical recreations test the depth – you find out what you don’t know about your own research field. Today’s fun job was a meeting in the National Museum in Cardiff … Continued
Sir Henry Sidney and the Three Bears
Heritage footpath projects are full of traps for the unwary. Footpaths tend to slice across time, so you need a huge range of historical expertise. Then you need to be able to summarise all that knowledge in a few words … Continued
The Women’s Race for Life
Well, the tortoise and hare thing didn’t work, but we had fun anyway. About 2,000 women running, jogging and walking 5 km around the park in Cwmbran to raise money to fight cancer. We like the Cwmbran Race for Life … Continued
Early Medieval Inscribed Stones
I have the final volume of Nancy Edwards’ Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones to review. Of course, it’s brilliant, the illustrations are magnificent – what can I say? I have to think of something a little bit critical (not … Continued
Cardiff’s Martyr’s Memorial
The Heritage Tortoise … prowling round the heritage of Wales and the wider world, strolling through the undergrowth, peering up at stone carvings, eating the odd dandelion leaf … Mary Beard has been tweeting about Cambridge,s Martyr’s Memorial, which is … Continued