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A tombstone to confound the devil.

In a churchyard in Monmouth stands one of the most curious tombstones in the county. And one so unique that it was given Grade II listed status in 2005. As you might expect with such a memorial, it and the man it commemorates, have quite a backstory. It concerns one man’s obsession with outsmarting the devil.

His name was John Renie and he was born in Monmouth in 1799 and worked as a painter and decorator in the town until he died in 1832. He was known to be one of the town’s more eccentric characters and nothing exemplified this more than a plan he hatched to try and ease his own passage to heaven on the event of his inevitable death. The plan was simple. He wanted his gravestone to be so confusing to read, that if the devil were to ever come looking for his soul, he would not be able to work out where his body was buried. Thus allowing Renie’s soul to slip past the devil, straight to the gates of heaven.

He became concerned that he would not be able to trust any local stone mason with this job. Either because he considered them incapable of pulling off his complex instructions, or worse, that they may reveal the secret of it to Satan himself. So to make sure the job was done properly he did the engraving himself. He dedicated years to getting it right. The end result is this fascinating and intricate, stone engraved ‘acrostic puzzle’.

It contains 285 very delicately carved letters in rows and columns. To be able to read the inscription you need to begin at a letter ‘H’ in the centre of the puzzle and follow the letters in any direction. Mathematicians who have studied the stone report that there are 32,032 different ways to read the words “Here lies John Renie”. It is quite an incredible achievement.

If the devil were not yet confused enough by John Renie’s endeavours, there is one final obstacle he might encounter if he was sufficiently determined to find his soul. And It is one Renie himself could not have foreseen but would no doubt have been absolutely delighted with. Put simply, the chances are, he probably isn’t even buried here at all!

In 1851, there was a rash of unexplained deaths amongst the residents of Whitecross Street in Monmouth. The street which runs along the edge of the churchyard at St Mary’s Priory Church, where this tombstone can be found. There were also reports of a terrible stench emanating from the raised area of the churchyard. The bodies and bones of the people buried there had become exposed by ground movement and weathering. All the exposed bodies had to be reinterred else where in the graveyard, but it was an impossible job to know who was who so they just did the best they could.

If this story is not already weird enough, the church council at the time decided to wade in with their own contribution. They felt that the churchyard looked over cluttered with memorials and headstones so a decision was taken to clear them all away as part of this work, to create a park. Only a small handful of stones now remain which have been laid out in accordance with the paths rather than where people are actually buried.

The end result. John Renie’s body could be anywhere. As could his soul.

If you want to see more of this tombstone and the yard of St Mary’s Priory Church in Monmouth, as well as other stories concerning the Devil in Monmouthshire I have made this YouTube video on the subject. Just click on the link below to watch in full. And while you are there, please subscribe to my channel.

If you would like to read more Monmouthshire related folklore, you might enjoy the blog and video available on this link. It is all about the scars of the reformation to be seen to this day at The Robin Hood in Monmouth and the White Harte in Llangybi between Usk and Caerleon. And if you like ancient Welsh myths, folklore and legends in general, then you may also be interested in the books I have written on the subject available to buy on this link. or my YouTube channel which is packed with loads of videos on the subject. Just visit https://youtube.com/GrahamLoveluck.

The tombstone of John Rennie in Monmouth
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The Glamorgan Witches

As we are in the shadow of Halloween, it seems only right that we should look at some famous witch
stories from Glamorgan. Especially as we have some real belters. Arguably our most famous local Witch is the Mallt-y-Nos. She is described in some texts as a witch in others as a ghostly apparition but she is quite unique to the counties of South Wales. She filled the hearts of all who saw her with fear. Another witchlike creature in Glamorgan folklore is the Gwrach- Y-Rhibin. Her phenomenon has been described by many sources across the centuries. My favourite,
a book entitled British Goblins, published in 1880. It has this to say:

“A monstrous Welsh spirit in the shape of a hideously ugly woman whose appearance is typically
with unkempt hair and wizened, withered arms with leathery wings, long black teeth, and pale
corpse-like features. She approaches the window of a person about to die by night and calls their
name or travels invisibly beside them and utters her cry when they approach a stream or crossroads.
She is sometimes depicted as washing her hands there”.


An altogether more conventional witch story though, concerns a lady who used to live at a cottage
which once stood in Cliff Wood on the edge what is today, Porthkerry Park. Its ruins are still there to
be seen. There is a fabulous old legend inspired by her. It involved a lovesick aristocrat and his manipulative servant.

The young man was naive in the ways of love. He wrote poems and letters to the object of his
desires, but she just rebuffed him. Sensing an opportunity, his servant told him of the famous witch
who lived in the woods in Porthkerry. And how she could make the young man a love potion to win
his girl over for a Guinea. Worth about £1.05 now but a lot of money back then. He agreed and followed him into the woods.


They met the witch of Porthkerry, and she made the potion and gave it to the gentleman. As
gentlemen of this era would never carry money, it was always left to the servant to pay for things
from his master’s coffers. But seeing how old and frail the witch was, this unscrupulous man thought
he’d pocket the money for himself and refused to pay her.


Angered by the deception she cast a spell over the two of them uttering ‘May these men never leave
these woods. The two men only got as far as the edge of the woods before turning into two trees.
The master tall and elegant turned into a yew tree. The servant became a twisted and gnarled
hornbeam tree. Both trees are still there and the path they took from the cottage to the edge of the
woods has ever since been known as Lovers Lane.


Now, as much as this story is more than likely absolute bunkum – Here’s the thing. There really was
a lady who lived at this cottage who was widely believed to be a witch. Her name was Ann Jenkins.
Also known as Ann Ddu and she was a provider of potions and remedies. There is written account
that she was inspected for witch marks by the Cowbridge magistrates. There is no record of the
outcome. Were they able to prove that she was in league with the devil? Probably not. Official
records register Ann Jenkins as being buried in the yard at the church of St Nicholas in Barry. If she
had been proven to be in league with the devil she would never have been allowed to be buried in
the yard of a Christian church.

If you want to know more about these stories, they are the subject of my latest YouTube video. Also, they are discussed in more detail in my books about Glamorgan folklore available to buy on this link.

You can also ‘listen again’ to my radio show on Bro Radio where I also interviewed a modern day witch for her take on them.

Watch my latest video about the Witches of Glamorgan
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The legend of the white lady of West Orchard

This is a really tragic, old legend from St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. The back story of an oft reported aparation of a white lady ghost in a field near West Orchard Castle. With a lot of historical context.

We hear about the second crusades, the De Clare family, the Berkerolles family, the Umphraville family, and of course the local castles at the heart of the drama.

The general gist of the story is Jasper Berkerolles of West Orchard Castle marries very well, but always harbours doubts that he is punching above his weight. And when he has to go to war he becomes consumed with jealously that she is having infidelities with his neighbour. When he returns home he is so tormented he condemns her to a gruesome death.

I wrote about this story in my second book on local legends: More legends and folklore from Barry, Bridgend and the Vale.

Telling the story at the place where it is set adds quite an element of drama. Enjoy. And please subscribe to my channel to enjoy more in the future.

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The Wreckers of Dunraven

One of my all time favourite Welsh legends this.

Dunraven Castle used to stand on the Glamorgan coast of the Bristol Channel. Not far from Bridgend on the Heritage Coast by Southerndown beach. It has a fascinating history dating back to the Iron Age but nothing is more spectacular about this place than this legend. It is the story of the wreckers of Dunraven. The Lord of the Manor; Walter Vaughan saw his life fall apart when two of his children and his wife died prematurely. He turned to drink and gambling and squandered his fortune away. Then, when at his lowest ebb he turned for help to a henchman, a local pirate, smuggler and wrecker called Matt of the Iron-Hand who had a score to settle with his new partner in crime.

Together, they terrorised sea farers in the Bristol Channel in the sixteenth century.

They would tie lanterns to the sheep grazing on the cliff tops to mimic the lights of Newton, to lure ships onto the jagged teeth of Tuskar Rock. It kept the scavenging, coastal-living folk of the Vale of Glamorgan in a plentiful supply of plunder, washed up on their beaches from the wreckage of numerous merchant ships.

In this video I tell the best-known version of the legend. It deals with grief, greed, avarice and the final tragic outcome when all these things are allowed to come together.

I also answer the obvious question; is this a true story? What sources do we have for it? And where does Iolo Morgannwg fit into all this?

This was all filmed on location at Dunraven Castle on a cold but clear day.

If you want to read more about this story, I wrote about it in my book ‘Legends and Folklore of Bridgend and the Vale’. Also now available for Kindle Download.

In this video I tell the story of Walter Vaughan, the Wrecker of Dunraven and examine the likely truth of this story.
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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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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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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.