Author: Graham Loveluck-Edwards

I am a British historian, author, columnist and broadcaster living and working in the Vale of Glamorgan on the South Wales coast. I am fascinated by history and my blog is full of stories I find worth sharing as I uncover them.
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More than just a Great Escape – The history of Island Farm in Bridgend

We have just had a very significant anniversary in Bridgend which many local people may be forgiven for not having noticed. But it is a remarkable story that bears repeating until everyone is aware of it.

It was 10th March 1945, and the world was in the closing stages of its second World War. Earlier in the day, the people of Bridgend, much like those everywhere else in Britain, were glued to the evening news on their ‘wirelesses’. Reports were coming in that the last remaining German forces west of the Rhine had retreated. They must have been jubilant and gone to their beds with a spring in their step. The horrors of war would have seemed far away. Surely the war is now nearly over?

In the bigger scheme of things, these thoughts would have been quite justified. But events were to unfold that very night that would give the people of Bridgend one last fright.

The lead story on the midnight news must have had people shocked to their cores. 70 German prisoners of war had broken out of Island Farm Prisoner of War camp in Bridgend. The single biggest breakout of German POWs of the entire war in Britain. Soldiers and Police were being drafted in from surrounding areas to try and track them all down. People were warned to stay indoors and keep their windows and doors bolted shut.

Eventually all 70 had been rounded up. Most seemed to see the escape as just some high jinks as 23 of them only went as far as the dunes in Merthyr Mawr before stopping to set up a camp. A couple more were altogether more adventurous. They stole a doctor’s car in Bridgend but without the keys they had trouble starting it. Then some off duty soldiers came across them. The escaped German POWs convinced the soldiers that they were Scandinavian engineers working in Bridgend and persuaded the soldiers to give them a push. With a wave as they disappeared into the distance, they drove the stolen car until it ran out of fuel in Gloucestershire. They then boarded a train that took them to within a few miles of Birmingham where they got off and hid in a bush near an airfield to plan their next move. They potentially could have made a ‘home run’ if it were not for a curious herd of cows who surrounded the bush to investigate who their new neighbours were. The farmer raised the alarm, and the last remaining fugitives were captured.

There is a small group of volunteers who are determined to keep this story and all the other history wrapped up in the Island Farm camp alive. They call themselves the Hut 9 Island Farm Preservation Society and they are custodians of the last remaining hut on the camp. The one from which the Germans tunnelled out and that tunnel by the way, 78 years later, is still very much intact. German engineering you see – there’s nothing like it.

In most people’s minds, Island Fam Camp is synonymous only with just one event. But as momentous as it was, there is a lot more than that to discover.

Island Farm Camp was originally planned as a dormitory for the ladies working in the vast munitions factory in Bridgend during WWII. At its hight employing over 40,000 people (mostly women) from all over South Wales. This was the biggest factory in the UK at the time.

In the run up to D-Day it was commandeered by the US army to house American Infantrymen. And after D-Day, when German soldiers started to be captured in their thousands it was needed to hold prisoners of war.

In this video I talk to Brett Exton from the Hut 9 (Island Farm) Preservation Society. We look at the background and the fall out from the largest break out of German Prisoners of War ever on British soil when the eyes of the nation was on South Wales.

We look at how the camp came into being and its full life cycle in four very different phases. Including the period immediately after the war when it was used as a holding bay for top German brass awaiting trial at Nuremberg.

We also take a look at the work being done today to keep the history alive and to give members of the public the opportunity to visit the camp and see what life was like for those who lived there.

I hope you enjoy this video. And if you do, please subscribe to this channel and share on social media.

Written, produced and hosted by Graham Loveluck-Edwards for Bro Radio.

The history of Island Farm explored
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King Edward II flees to Glamorgan | The Legends of Morien and Cadrawd explored.

I have always been fascinated by the various legends about that most unpopular of Kings of England; Edward II. Hated by the English for losing Scotland at the battle of Bannockburn, hated by the Welsh for being the first English man appointed to the office of Prince of Wales. Hated by the French for the treatment of his wife Isabella (the she wolf of France) and hated by the Barons for pretty much everything.

Recently the legend about him being murdered by having a red hot poker shoved up his bottom reached a whole new audience when the actor Danny Dyer (of Eastenders fame) appeared on BBC TV’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ and discovered he was descended from one of the King’s illegitimate children. But there are loads more legends about him and many of them are set in our little corner of Wales, here in Glamorgan as this is where he hid, with his lover/favourite Hugh Le Despenser (Earl of Glamorgan) from the army of his vengeful wife.

So I have made a film about them.

With the help of some experts in their field we unpick the truth from the stories to piece together Edwards final months of freedom in 1326 and his probable murder in 1327.

You can watch it here 👇

Despite the fact that the king himself kept a journal we have very little accurate, contemporary account of the events leading up to his capture in Llantrisant. But we do have a couple of spectacular legends that fill in some of the gaps.

The one we focus on was published in full in the South Wales Daily News on 29th August 1899 by a man from the hilltop village of Llangynwyd near Maesetg who called himself Ap Cadrawd. He claimed that he had uncovered a genuine historical account written by a bard called Morien which told the full story.

The narrative of the article was that Edward II and his lover Hugh Le Despenser had fled London and sought refuge in Neath Abbey. There they persuaded the Abbot of Neath to plea on their behalf but in doing so, he inadvertently gave away where they were hiding.  So, they fled again and attempted to find their way to Despenser’s Castle in Caerphilly but knowing there were soldiers looking for them everywhere they had to stay away from busy roads and big towns where they could easily be spotted. Thus, they ended up in Llangynwyd as it lies on the Glamorgan Ridgeway (which you may remember me writing about previously). The ancient road that runs from Margam to Caerphilly through that very parish.

Ap Cadrawd writes “while in hiding from his enemies at Gaily Lenor Fawr… in order to keep up his character as a Welsh peasant, Edward accepted employment as a thresher of corn at the farm where he was afforded temporary shelter from the fury of Isabella and Mortimer, the farmer meanwhile keeping watch for suspicious characters in the locality- should any such characters appear the fugitive King hid himself in the branches of an oak tree near by, after- wards known as “Cadair Edward”, whence he saw on several occasions bauds of soldiers in search of him…”

The legend then concludes with something of a bombshell;

“in Bridgend a contemporary brought to light another interesting find. This find places beyond a shadow of doubt the truth of one at least of Morien’s statements. An inscribed stone is said to be the find which sets forth the fact that Edward II did really and actually come to the farm of Gelly Lenor Fawr. After centuries we are told that the stone has been revealed by the hand of Nature herself by the blowing down of the old tree”

Obviously, this story has a lot of over tones of the one about Charles I hiding in the Royal Oak. However, there is one inescapable fact in all of this. There genuinely is a stone. You need to work quite hard to find it these days, but here is a picture of it.

The Cadair Edward stone at Llangynwyd as described in Morien's legend

Does the presence of this stone actually prove anything? And what of the one at Pant-Y-Brad in Llantrisant which comes to us courtesy of the same legend?

The King Edward's capture stone at Pant-Y-Brad near Tonyrefail and Llantrisant comemorating Morien's legend.

We take a look at both of them in depth and talk about the likely truth in the film. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but don’t hold your breath…

If you are interested in the legends and folklore of Glamorgan then how can I not promote any of my many books on the subject. They are available from my website at discounted prices you won’t find in the bookshops or on Amazon. For more information pop along to my online bookshop on this link.

I am indebted to the various history societies who supported me with making of this film and especially the co-operation of The Berkeley Castle Estate.

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The Welsh pub that invented Pancake Day

Ever wondered why we make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday? Because the practice might all originate from a tradition started at an old pub in North Wales. The Groes Inn, in Ty’N-Y-Groes near Conwy. This lovely old pub on the pilgrimage route to the shrine at St Winifred’s Well has many claims. Not least of which is a copy of its first licence to trade dated 1537. This means it can prove that it has been trading as an inn for longer than any other pub in Wales.

It is also (possibly) the birthplace of the tradition of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

Before we get carried away, let’s just examine the alternative theory too.

I am sure at some point or another we have all been guilted into making pancakes for our children because that’s what their friends’ parents are doing. It’s only fitting really: guilt is a big part of Shrove Tuesday. The word ‘shrove’ comes from an old Saxon word ‘shriven’, which means ‘absolved of sins’. Early Saxon Christians would make sure that they had confessed to all their sins on Shrove Tuesday so they could enter the holy fast of Lent free from the burden of guilt.

There is a theory that the flat bell chimed to draw people to confession on Shrove Tuesday was nicknamed ‘the pancake bell’, and many think this is the origin of the pancake day tradition.

But this being Wales, we obviously have an alternative theory that suggests it was all our idea first. And it begins near Conwy with an amateur historian called Stan Wicklen.

Shrove Tuesday is known in Welsh as ‘Dydd Mawrth Ynyd’, which means ‘the day of the martyr Ynyd’, a sixth-century Welsh saint. The name this pub goes by, the ‘Groes’, is actually an abbreviation of its proper name ‘Groesynyd’, which translates as ‘Ynyd’s cross’. In other words, the inn had the patronage of the saint whose festival day was Shrove Tuesday. This meant that the inn had a special tradition and celebration of their own, to mark their namesake’s day. It involved playing tricks and practical jokes on visitors and passers-by, as well as the eating of Welsh cakes and other ‘pan cakes’ and pastries. And that, in Stan Wicklen’s opinion, is where the tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday started.

As you know, I love an old story with an ancient pub at its heart. Regardless of how true it is likely to be. Maybe we should substitute the bottle of maple syrup on the pancake day table with a bottle of ‘cwrw da’ (Welsh for good beer).

This information is taken from ‘Historic Pubs of Wales’ by Graham Loveluck-Edwards. A book full of the quirky back stories of Wales’ oldest and most interesting pubs. For more information visit our online bookshop.

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St Dwynwen the Patron Saint of Lovers in Wales and Welsh bardic romance

The 25th January is the feast day of a 6th century Welsh saint called St Dwynwen. She is the patron saint of Welsh lovers and her own story is suitably romantic.

But who was St Dwynwen? Why is she the patron saint of lovers in Wales? What is her story? Where did that story originate? And more importantly how romantic are the Welsh?

In the video below from the History on your doorstep series we answer these and many other questions. We talk about her fascinating family tree being one of 36 children born of a family full of Kings and Queens and Saints. One of the saintly tribes of Wales. Her father King Brychan (also known as St Brychan) her sister St Gwladys, her nephew St Cadoc, founder of the Clas monastery in Llancarfan and the saint which Cadoxton in Barry is named after.

We also look at the bardic tradition in Wales and some wonderful romantic Welsh stories. Starting with the medieval romantic stories of the Mabinogion like Colhuwch and Olwen and Pwyll and Rhiannon in the first branch. We look at trends in tales of Welsh lovers and the techniques used by bards to bring them to life and look at them in the context of stories from Glamorgan. We also examine what makes them quite different from Romantic stories from ancient Greek folklore and other parts of Europe.

Specifically we look at the folklore behind the naming of the Captains Wife pub in Sully, and the better known romantic stories of the Maid of Cefn Ydfa and the Maid of Sker.

This video is a discussion between historian, author and broadcaster Graham Loveluck-Edwards and the history blogger Claire Miles (AKA Hisdoryan). First broadcast on Bro Radio on Monday 23rd January 2023. We explore the role of the bards in Wales, common themes in Welsh romantic folklore, the creative devices used by the bards to make their stories more credible and engaging.

For further reading on the themes and topics explored in this video I have written several books on local legends and folklore. More information available at https://grahamloveluckedwards.com/shop/

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Old photos of the great houses, mansions and castles of the Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend taken between 1890 and 1955

Here is my latest VLOG. It’s a compilation of vintage photographs of some of Glamorgan’s most significant residences. Taken before they got knocked down or converted into hotels, golf courses, flats or schools.

Have you ever scrolled through Rightmove or Zoopla with the filters set at over a million pounds? Well if you were to have done the price equivalent of that (allowing for inflation)  in the early 20th century these are the pictures of the dream homes you would have found in the counties of Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan on the South Wales coast. 

I have trawled through the archives of old photos and postcards for early photographs of castles, country estates, mansions, manor houses, baronial courts, great houses, town houses and quaint thatched cottages from the many villages that surround towns like Cowbridge, Bridgend, Pontyclun, Llantrisant, Llantwit Major and Cardiff. In their day they were described as ‘gentleman’s residences’ or ‘country piles’ and they were the homes of some of the oldest and most famous aristocratic families in Glamorgan. The county set. Families names like Carnes, Nichols, Lewis, Boothby, Edmondes, Picton-Tuberville. Even a maharaja!

Many of the houses in this video are now lost to us. Either in ruins or completely demolished. The most famous example being Dunraven Castle. Others have been split up into smaller houses or flats like Crossways House. Some are now hotels like Miskin Manor or golf clubs like Wenvoe Castle. In the case of St Donats Castle one is now a university college.

This video shows them in their prime, when they were in their hey day.

So if you like a bit of nostalgia, old photographs, vintage or period living, big posh houses, South Wales history or anything related, you will love this. And maybe, you actually live in one of these places. Let me know if you do.

I hope you enjoy it. Just click the play button below. There is no commentary but there is some soothing copyright free music.

If you are interested in the history of the Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan area you might be interested in my books on the subject. Volumes 1 & 2 of ‘Legends and Folklore from Barry, Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan’ are out now and available from Amazon and all good bookshops. Or you can buy both volumes at a discounted prices direct from me. Just click here for more information.

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A traditional Welsh Christmas

Christmas and New Year celebrations have changed a lot in Wales down the centuries. In this video history blogger Claire Miles (who writes the Hisdoryan blog) and history author & broadcaster Graham Loveluck-Edwards talk about the sort of Christmases our ancestors would have recognised. 

We take a whistle stop tour of all things Christmassy from Welsh history. The customs and traditions people observed. Things like;

Toasting the Ox on Christmas Eve

Wassailing 

The Aderyn Pig

The bird with the grey beak

The Plygain

A Tudor Christmas dinner

Calenig

The Mari Llwyd

First Footing

Hunting the wren

When Christmas was banned

The origins of Father Christmas

The very first Eisteddfod

The Abergavenny Christmas Massacre

We also look at some amazing Christmas stories like  Mallt-y-Nos’, Megan’ the Gwrach-Y-Rhibyn of St Donats and the sitings of the Cwn Annwn in the Vale at this time of year.

We also cover a whole host of ancient Welsh superstitions based around the festive period. Things that would bring you good and bad luck, ways to find love, to be sure of a good harvest and those ever fearsome portents of doom. To be fair most of them are predictors of death, but Some of them will have you laughing hysterically.

We really hope you enjoy this video. And if you do, feel free to share it on social media. But remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel as well. This programme was originally recorded for broadcast on Bro Radio. Click to play the video. First broadcast on Bro Radio.

Read more about Welsh festivals and traditions in my books.

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The swan ladies of Glamorgan

In Welsh folklore, there is no shortage of people able to morph into other forms. A flick through the pages of The Mabinogion can confirm that. There’s the story of Bloden- wedd, who transformed into an owl; Delilah, who transformed into an eagle; and Gilvaethy, who first turned into a deer, then a hog, then a wolf and finally back into a human.

Todays blog is about a more specific trend in Glamorgan folklore from later history. Stories about swans able to transform themselves at will into beautiful girls. I suppose given the delicate, porcelain like features, pure driven snow white complexion, long necks, demure bowed heads and overall glamour of your common or garden swan its probably not that surprising. But it isn’t something you commonly observe so frequently in the folklore of other areas.

These stories not only capitalise on the Welsh tradition for people taking the form of animals and vice versa to achieve a goal, they are also in that hopeless romantic genre so popular especially in the 19th century. A genre where people lose the love of their lives and die shortly afterwards of a broken heart. Or at the very least go mad.

Here are a couple which though unrelated, have a definite thread.

The first is set in the village of Candleston which used to lie between Merthyr Mawr and Tythegston, but these days has been lost to the sand dunes. It was a thriving community in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries which makes it a little easier to date when this story originates from. Probably not co-incidental that this was also a time when it was very fashionable for the castles and great houses of the landed gentry to have a resident Welsh bard come along and stay for a few months, to write stories and songs. These would have been primarily for entertainment, and there were bragging rights to be had from who had the best bard. The stuff they would write would ostensibly be based on stories from history and would usually feature a celebrated descendant of the paying lord doing something tremendously brave or chivalrous. However, sometimes, their output like in this example, would have been purely for their entertainment value.

In this tale, a Candleston inn keeper’s wife had a reputation for keeping a string of lovers behind her husband’s back. What my mother would have described as being “a bit of a girl”. A wizard, seeking to punish her for her propensities, transformed her into a swan. Despite her indiscretions, the inn keeper loved his wife dearly and begged the wizard to turn her back. He refused, saying that she would turn back into human form in a year, by which time she would have learned the value of monogamy.

The inn keeper tied a blue ribbon to one of her wings, so that when she was swimming with the other swans in the estuary of the Ogmore river, he would know his beloved wife from the others. But one day, when she made advances on a male swan, his partner fought her off, and in the struggle that ensued, the ribbon was lost.

When all the swans flew south away, he watched them departing, unable to stop them, or even to spot his wife amongst them to bid her farewell. He never found out where she had flown to, or whether she turned back to her previous human form. They were never united again.

But if the innkeeper had come to hear a certain other local tale, then his story might have had a different ending. This might be total coincidence, but I think I might know where his wife got to.

There is quite a well-known local story about a farmer on Gower, although in some tellings it is set on Barry Island. This was back in the sixteenth century, when the island was still physically detached from the mainland, before it had houses or fun fairs, and the whole island was farmland.

While working in a field above Whitmore Bay, he saw a beautiful swan alighting among the rocks. There she laid aside her feathers and wings, turned herself into a beautiful maiden and bathed in the waters. After a time she put back on her trappings of a swan and flew away.

The amazed farmer watched this repeated on several occasions. Then one day he lay in wait for the swan, and as soon as she was transformed and enjoying the water, he snuck to the water’s edge, seized her swan garments and hid them. When eventually she rose from her bathe, she spied the farmer. Unable to recast herself as a swan, she asked him if he knew where her garments were. He claimed ignorance.

He offered instead to fetch her some clothes from his mother’s house, to save her dignity. This he did, and they walked along the beach together while he consoled her for the loss of her wings. As time passed, they got to know each other, fell in love and got married. For three years all was well. Then one day, by chance, he happened to leave open the oak chest where he had hidden her wings. Spotting them, she was enraged at the deception. However, over the years she had grown to love her husband, so striving to forgive him she said nothing about her discovery.

But having seen the wings, now all she could think about was the freedom of the skies and the life she had once lived. Then the day came when she heard her flock flying overhead. She could resist the call no more. She went back to the chest and put on her wings.

The farmer returned home from work that day to see his beautiful swan-like wife, her wings outstretched, slowly flying into the sunset. Her voice could be heard plaintively crying, ‘Farewell.’ The farmer so bitterly lamented his loss that he pined away and within a few months had died.

There is another version of this story, in which a man from Cadoxton and his friend from Rhoose find another two swan-ladies on Barry Island. Like the farmer, they marry these ladies, taking them back to their homes. However the Cadoxton swan-lady gets run over by a cart (being a swan she was unaware of the dangers of road traffic), while the one in Rhoose re-discovers her wings and takes to the skies. A nice detail of this version is that, after the swan ladies are gone, the two husbands are left to raise their children alone, and they all have conspicuously long necks.

This story was first published in my regular column in the Glamorgan Star. I have compiled these articles into a second book on the subject of local history, folklore and legend called ‘More legends and folklore from Barry, Bridgend and the Vale’. It retails for £12.99 and is available from Amazon, all good book shops or from my own website at a discounted price on this link. It would make a great Christmas present for anyone interested in Glamorgan’s colourful past.

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What happened to the lost regiments of the Vale of Glamorgan? 

There used to be four Welsh regiments whose numbers included numerous volunteers from the Vale of Glamorgan.

In the video below, I am joined by local military historian Mike Davies. In this month of remembrance (November 2022) we discuss the three local army regiments that carried the lions share of local volunteers. The Barry & Penarth divisions of The Royal Engineers and Garrison Artillery and The Glamorgan Yeomanry based in Cowbridge and Bridgend.

We look at where the volunteers came from, who they were, where they lived and what they did when they weren’t volunteering. We look at their roles and duties as soldiers and their contribution to the World Wars.

We also look at the stories of a handful of men from Barry, Penarth, Llantwit Major, Rhoose, Cowbridge and Tythegston who saw action. Some who made it home and some who did not. 

Finally we answer the obvious question of what happened to these old regiments.

Watch this video about the regiments of volunteers from Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan

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Barry Island – Land of myths and legends

If you have only ever briefly visited Barry Island or your only point of reference to it is Gavin and Stacy, this video might make your eyes pop out of your head.

Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan may be famous for Butlins holiday camp, the beach, the funfair and the arcades. But did you know it is supposedly the site of multiple miracles?

In the 6th or 7th century a monk called Baruc who was originally from Ireland, was a disciple of St Cadoc and was based at the ‘Clas’ Celtic Christian monastery at Llancarfan. He like countless monks before him, was using Barry Island as a retreat but events were to unfold here which would lead to a miracle and the canonisation of St Baruc.

This little known story led to Barry Island being the destination of countless pilgrims for the best part of 1,000 years. All eager to drink the waters of the holy well, claimed to have miraculous healing properties. Barry Island was the ‘Lourdes’ of the Vale of Glamorgan. Yet today very little remains to remind us of this. A few metres of crumbling masonry and a sign and that is about it.

In this latest video I tell the story of St Baruc, his legend, his miracle and his legacy.

I also cover a fun bit of folklore. A story published in 1909 but possibly dating back to the 17th century about two men. One from Rhoose and one from Cadoxton who spot two swans landing on a beach at Barry Island which turned into the women of their dreams.

I hope you enjoy it. If you want to watch more videos like this I have a YouTube channel full of them at https://youtube.com/user/grahamloveluck

If the written word is more your thing, both these stories are lifted from my latest book entitled ‘More legends and folklore from Barry, Bridgend and the Vale’. It is the second volume of such stories and is available at a discounted price from my online store. Just follow the link.

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The hanged man and the lady at Ogmore

We have some truly wild stories from our history here in South Wales. And this one is right up there.

Arguably the most spectacular story from Welsh medieval history is that of William Cragh and Lady Mary de Brouize. It amazes me how few people seem to have heard of it. These people were superstars in their day and in 1320 they put places like Candleston, Merthyr Mawr, Ogmore, Ewenny and Bridgend on the map.

But who were they? what was their amazing story? Why were they so famous? Why did they visit some really out of the way places in our area on their pilgrimage to Hereford? And why is that pilgrimage known as both The Hanged Man Pilgrimage and St Thomas Way?

The story begins with the backdrop of war. A Welsh rebellion against the Norman land owners and a raid on a Castle which ends in the capture of an enigmatic figure. But when attempts to execute him go spectacularly wrong, stories of a miracle spread throughout the known world. Even the pope got involved. But how does any of that concern Ogmore Castle?

In this video from the ‘History from the Vale of Glamorgan’ series I piece the whole story together and based on my own research, share with you my theory on why they came here.

I also share with you a theory that Ogmore Castle might be on the site of a place which was sacred to our ancient pagan ancestors. A place dedicated to the goddess Bridget. Drawing on things like near by place names such as St Brides, the ever present symbol of the pelican which lent its name to the local pub, and of course legends of ‘a white lady’ in the area. Bridget was the original white lady. In fact that is why when ladies put on a white wedding dress, they are described as ‘brides’.

Strap your selves in folks because this one is a real roller coaster. Click below to watch the video in full. Subtitles are available. Just click the CC button at the top of your screen.

If you would like more information on the story in this video, it is covered in more detail in my new book MORE LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE FROM BARRY BRIDGEND AND THE VALE available from Amazon, all good book shops and my own website at https://grahamloveluckedwards.com/product/more-legends-and-folklore-from-barry-bridgend-and-the-vale/