What I Did During Lockdown

If you've read the recent blog post I wrote for Juliet Greenwood you'll already know how I spent lockdown - and it didn't involve baking banana bread! Cooking, cleaning, and food shopping for a houseful of people (like every one else!) didn't leave much time for writing but I've finished the edits for my most recent book You Make it Feel Like Christmas and I'm now a third of the way into a sequel to Trust Me I Lie. (You can read more about these books here).

One thing that helped keep me sane during lockdown was my evening walks with my family. We were lucky enough move to a village on the Wales/Cheshire border two years ago but hadn't had the time to explore. Unable to go further than five miles from our home, we now had plenty of opportunity to explore!

We started by checking out the footpaths we knew about. They often led to the strangest places. Some we hadn't even known existed. I thought this path would take us to the local school, instead it was a back route into the churchyard, complete with fairy tale lychgate.

Although we knew the church was there, we hadn't appreciated how huge the graveyard was or how old some of the graves were.

We found the grave of a soldier who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade (living to be 88!), a row of war graves commemorating the pilots who died during training at the local airfield, and lots and lots of bluebells.

I got into the habit of taking my phone with me. I tried to take a photo each day and post it on Instagram. I went through a phase of taking moody shots of sunsets through trees

and found that by playing around with camera angles, I could make them look gothic.

We chose a different walk each evening and, as we became fitter, joined the walks together until we were doing a two-mile walk every evening. My favourite (obviously) was to the local castle.

Because there were hardly any people or traffic about, we saw a lot more of the local wildlife

and discovered a pond where we got to know all the geese (Canada and Greylag) and watched their offspring grow up. (This is why my Instagram feed was full of blurry photos of goslings.)

It turns out that our village is almost entirely surrounded by farmland and is one of the few places in this area that grows barley. (Yes, I did have to Google that. I'm such a city girl I had to Google that it was barley!)

As well as the goslings, we found lambs (who wouldn't stay still long enough for me to focus the camera) 

and curious cows who were happy to pose.

With the change in the weather, I'm still walking but taking less photos. There are only so many pictures of grey skies and blurry goslings that anyone wants to see! I've walked every footpath around my village (once accidentally ending up back at my house when I thought I was going somewhere else). I've learnt all the history and watched the goslings grow up - and fly away.

I've photographed the spring flowers in the hedgerows (and learnt their names!) and when I look back at my Instagram it's like flicking through a diary - with lots of good times to counteract the bad ones. So I'm going to keep walking, taking photos, and enjoying nature, and every day being thankful and very grateful for all that I have, and all that I was too busy to slow down and appreciate before.

A Visit to Llanrwst (or, the Missing Prince and the Empty Coffin)

Llanrwst is an old market town close to where I live. I've often driven through it, mainly on my way to somewhere else, and although Gwydir Castle and Tu Hwnt I'r Bont are two of my favourite places, I've never really stopped to explore. So last weekend, when the 'kids' were home for the holidays, we decided to stop for a longer visit.

Pont Fawr and Tu Hwnt I'r Bont

The view of Llanrwst everyone always recognises is the famous Pont Fawr bridge and the tearooms beside it. The photo above was taken on Saturday and it was pouring with rain, as you can probably tell. Here's one I took a couple of years back, which might make it a little more recognisable!

Tu Hwnt I'r Bont

Pont Fawr was originally built in 1636 and is attributed to Inigo Jones. The Tu Hwnt I'r Bont Tearooms beside it were originally a 17th century courthouse - and they serve the best scones ever! (I've previously blogged about Tu Hwnt I'r Bont here.)

Inside Tu Hwnt I'r Bont

Fortified against the weather by coffee and scones, we walked around the town and ended up in Church Street beside the Almshouses. These were built in 1610 by Sir John Wynn of Gwydir Castle, originally to 'shelter twelve poor men', but by the 18th century women were allowed to live here too. The last resident moved out in the 1970s and the buildings became derelict until being restored in 2000.

The Almshouses (on the right)

From the Almshouses we passed beneath an archway into the the graveyard of St Grwst Church, which is right beside the River Conwy. St Grwst was a holy man who lived in the area in the 6th century.  The church was built in the late 1400s but burned down during the Wars of the Roses (in revenge for Denbigh Castle being set on fire), before being rebuilt. The Gwydir Chapel was added onto the side by Richard Wynn of Gwydir Castle - see the crenellated roof. Like the bridge, it is also thought to have been designed by Inigo Jones.  

The Church of St Grwst

Inside the church, the nave and chancel are divided by a medieval rood screen, complete with musician's loft, which is almost as old as the church. This was taken from Maenan Abbey after the dissolution of the monasteries. Apologies for the poor quality photo - my camera isn't great and it was a bit dark. You'll have to take my word that it was amazing!

The Rood Screen

One of the reasons I was so keen to visit this church was that the Gwydir Chapel contains a stone sarcophagus that supposedly once held the body of Llywelyn the Great (Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd). Llywelyn had originally  been buried at Aberconwy Abbey in 1240, but when King Edward I built Conwy Castle the Abbey was forced to move to Maenan in the Conwy Valley. The legend says that the monks took Llywelyn's remains with them to the new abbey. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, the now empty sarcophagus ended up in the possession of the Wynn family before being moved to the Gwydir Chapel.

Llywelyn's Sarcophagus

Beside the sarcophagus is a stone effigy of a knight. This is thought to be Howell ap Coetmor, who died in 1538. He was a commander of longbowmen under Edward, the Black Prince, at the Battle of Poitiers. He was the first recorded owner of the nearby Gwydir Castle, later sold to the Wynn family, who also have many monuments on the walls of the chapel.

Howell ap Coetmor's effigy

Monument to the Wynn family

Related Posts:

A Grave Obsession: The Church of St Mary's and All Saints, Conwy

Castles and Cream Teas: (Includes Gwydir Castle, Llanrwst)

Beyond the Bridge: Tu Hwnt I'r Bont Tearooms


Links:

St Gwrst Church
Tu Hwnt I'r Bont Tearooms
Gwydir Castle

When in Paris ...

In which I visit Paris - and still end up in a bookstore and a graveyard... 

I try not to talk about personal stuff on social media, so let's just say 2016 was not a great year for us and leave it at that. By the time it got to December, my husband and I decided we needed a holiday! Holiday destinations in December are pretty limited, but then we had the great idea to combine a visit to Disneyland Paris, where we'd taken the kids when they were (much!) younger, with a trip to the city of Paris.

My daughter and me - halfway up the Eiffel Tower!

We held a family conference about the 'must see' places to visit. We all voted for the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to go to the Louvre. I was not so bothered about the inside, I just wanted to see the glass pyramid that always features in all the movies. Or as my husband put it, 'You want to visit the Louvre because you once saw it in a Tom Hanks film?' My other vote was for Shakespeare and Company, a very famous bookshop close to Notre-Dame. Fortunately, because it was close to Notre-Dame, and my daughter also cast her vote for it, it was added to the list. My daughter also had a hankering to visit the Catacombs - basically one giant, underground ossuary, but none of us quite fancied being so close to real, er, 'live' bones, so we compromised by visiting Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889 as part of the Exposition Universelle, to celebrate 100 years of the Revolution. You can buy tickets in advance, online, or just queue up on the day, which is what we did. It was the middle of December and we only waited in line for about 20 minutes. There is also a very good app for smart phones, which acts like a guidebook with lots of facts. We bought tickets for the 1st and 2nd floor, which was cheaper than going right to the top and quite high enough for us! And we took the glass elevator rather than the stairs - there is one in each pillar. Even though it was a misty day, there were great views of Paris. Definitely recommended!

You don't need me to tell you
what this is, do you?

I'd first visited Paris on a school trip, so one of the places I wanted to see again was Notre-Dame. We didn't go inside, just admired it from the outside - it's pretty impressive, as you can see! It's a gothic cathedral dating back to the 12th century, and was one of the first buildings to use flying buttresses (arched exterior supports) after cracks appeared in the walls.

Notre-Dame, cunningly angled to cut
the tourists' heads off

Shakespeare and Company is a quirky bookshop I'd first come across on Pinterest. It's an English language bookstore on the banks of the River Seine, just around the corner from Notre-Dame. Built in the early 1600s, the building was originally a monastery but opened as a bookstore in 1951 by an American, George Whitman. In 1964, the name was changed to Shakespeare and Company on the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth, and also in honour of another bookseller George admired,  Sylvia Beach, who had opened the first Shakespeare and Company in 1919.

Me!
(And my husband, wondering why I'm blocking the door)

I could have spent all day in that bookshop! There are several little rooms, all leading off each other, overflowing bookshelves from floor to ceiling, exposed brickwork and wooden beams, and signs saying things like 'You can find Agatha Christie under the stairs'. But you'll have to take my word for that because, understandably, they don't allow photos of the interior and my memory's not great! I bought my son a copy of The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu and my daughter a copy of In Search of Lost Time (vol 6) by Marcel Proust, because she's mad on him (more of that later!). Each book was stamped with the bookshop logo and came with a bookmark. What did I buy for me? I managed to restrain myself and settled for one of their tote bags (although I don't think George would have been impressed!).

Shopping!

We had lunch and then headed to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where my daughter was keen to visit Marcel Proust's grave. The cemetery is absolutely huge, like a mini village, complete with little cobbled streets lined with trees. It is essential to have a map, which can be bought at one of the gates or surrounding kiosks. Unfortunately, when we arrived there were none available, probably because it was the middle of December! We got around this by using a smartphone to photograph one of the large maps by the entrance, along with a key to all the 'famous' graves. If you do this, make sure your photograph is not blurred before you set off or you will get lost!

Marcel Proust's grave

The cemetery is named after Pere Francois de la Chaise (1624-1709) (the confessor to King Louis XIV), who lived in a house on the site. The property was bought by the city in 1804 and the grounds turned into a cemetery. Napoleon, who had been declared Emperor three days previously, declared that 'Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion'. Unfortunately, because the cemetery was situated so far from the city and had not been blessed by the church, it attracted few funerals. To encourage the purchase of burial plots, the administrators arranged for the remains of Jean de La Fontaine and Moliere to be re-interred here; suddenly everyone wanted to be buried alongside the rich and famous. Today there are over 1 million bodies buried, as well as very moving memorials to the victims of the Holocaust and both world wars.

One of the 'streets' at
the Pere Lachaise Cemetery

But the cemetery is mostly famous for being 'home' to celebrities, including Honore de Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Bizet, Frederic Chopin, Colette, Isadora Duncan, Marcel Marceau, Yves Montand, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein and Oscar Wilde. It is sweet to see the fresh flowers and little notes that their fans have left at some of the graves. Not so sweet to see how some of the graves have been scrawled over with lipstick and felt tip pen. Oscar Wilde's grave has now been encased in glass - so his 'fans' write on that instead. Jim Morrison's grave has been so vandalised over the years, apparently it now has its own guard.

Oscar Wilde's grave

Most of the tombs are built like mini-mausoleums, with a door at the front, although the bodies (usually more than one) are buried beneath the ground. The idea is the mourner would go inside to pray and leave flowers on one of the shelves inside. The cemetery is definitely worth a visit, not just to see the famous graves. But if you do go, allow a good couple of hours and make sure you have a map!

Time to go home ...

Links:

The Eiffel Tower (official website)
Notre-Dame (official website)

Shakespeare and Company (bookshop) (official website)

Related Posts:

A Writer's Holiday (in which I visit Italy)
A Grave Obsession (why I love churchyards)
More Ramblings About Tombs (in which I visit an ancient Welsh burial chamber)


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A Walk on the Wild* Side & The Lonely Knight

In which I actually leave the house ...

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to stop working weekends and explore the surrounding countryside instead. I live in North Wales; it's one of the most beautiful places in the world; do I even need an excuse?

* This is as wild as I like to get ...

One of my favourite walks is along the River Llugwy in Betws-y-Coed. It's not too strenuous and there are plenty of coffee shops in the village. Betws-y-Coed Community Council have built a wooden walkway between the trees, suitable for wheelchairs and prams, as well as for when the route becomes too muddy underfoot. (You can tell I'm a townie). It's a very short walk (yup, townie), lasting about half an hour, but the scenery is beautiful. It is also possible to carry on walking alongside the river to the Miners' Bridge.

Here's a photo of the River Llugwy, taken from the walkway. I'm fascinated by the effect of light on water, and I'm always trying to photograph it - not terribly successfully.

Once you've walked past the walkway, some of the path is made up with these slabs of stone:

I loved these moss-covered boulders and had several tries at photographing them:

The River Llugwy, taken from the Miners' Bridge: 

As the name suggests, the bridge was used by the miners on their way to work in the Gwydyr Forest. It is unusual in that it is built at a steep incline.

The Miners' Bridge

I think my favourite bridge is the Sappers' Bridge, on the other side of the village. It's a suspension footbridge and was built by the Royal Engineers in 1930 to replace an earlier bridge which had been swept away. It crosses the River Conwy beside St Michael's Old Church - and is disconcertingly bouncy to walk on.
 

The Sappers' Bridge
looking towards St Michael's Church

The Sappers' Bridge
looking towards the A470

The River Conwy
taken from the Sappers' Bridge

The name Betws-y-Coed means 'prayer house in the woods' and is thought to refer to St Michael's Old Church, which was built in the 14th century and is the oldest building in the village.

St Michael's Old Church
taken from the Sappers' Bridge

St Michael's Old Church
(The yew trees are well over 500 years old)

Although the church was made redundant in 1873, with the building of St Mary's Church on the main road, it is still consecrated and holds a service on St Michael's Day (29th September) and a candlelit service at Christmas.

Interior of St Michael's Old Church

The church has been beautifully restored and is definitely worth a visit. The font dates from the 13th century (older than the church), and the Tudor linen fold panelling of the oak pulpit is believed to have come from Gwydir Castle at Llanrwst. But what caught my attention was the stone effigy of a knight - the kind more usually seen on top of a chest tomb. The Latin inscription says: 'Here lies Gruffydd son of Dafydd the Red: Lamb of God have mercy upon me'. So who was Gruffydd, and why is he lying here all on his own?

The effigy of
Gruffydd ap Dafydd Goch

Helpfully, there's a poster on the wall above him explaining his story. It says that he lived locally at Fedw Deg, that he fought under the Black Prince (son of Edward III) at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and that he died sometime around 1370-80.

Because he's all on his own, I had imagined him to be a single man but apparently he was married to a lady named Margaret. His effigy shows him wearing the armour of a knight and he is armed with a sword and dagger. His feet rest on a lion, meaning he died in battle, and his coat of arms was a chevron with two oak leaves - the design is shown both on his belt buckle and his tunic. His head rests on a helmet topped with a bird holding an oak leaf in its beak. Unfortunately at some time in the past Gruffydd's helmet has been trimmed to fit the niche where it now rests.

There is a theory that he was descended from the princes of Gwynedd. His father was thought to be the illegitimate son of Dafydd, Lord of Denbigh, who was the brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (Llywelyn the Last), but no one can be sure.

How did his effigy end up in this tiny church? Well, the clue is in the date of his death. Given how important he was locally, and that the church was rebuilt at the same time, it is not unreasonable to conclude he was the original patron.

So, not such a lonely knight after all.



Recommended Coffee Shop:

The Alpine Coffee Shop and Gallery

Sources and Links:

The St Michael's Old Church guidebook, written by Lorna Scharer
St Michael's Old Church
Photos: Mine!

Related posts:

Castles, Ghosts...and Knights in Murky Armour
Castles and Cream Teas
Beyond the Bridge
More Ramblings About Tombs

Never miss a post! See that little box in the left-hand column, near the top, that says 'Follow by Email'? If you add your email address, you'll receive my latest blog post almost as soon as I've written it.

More Ramblings About Tombs

There was one day last week when I really thought spring was on its way. The temperature hit double figures and the sun came out - woohoo! Unfortunately the next day Wales reset to factory settings ...

It doesn't always rain - honest!

When the sun is shining there is no place more beautiful than Wales. When it's pouring with rain there's no place more beautiful than Wales either, it's just a bit harder to appreciate it.

I've recently moved from Anglesey back to the mainland and I'm desperate for the good weather to arrive so I can explore my new surroundings. I used to live in a very rural village, where we could just step outside and go for the most glorious walks down lots of little country lanes - completely deserted apart from the occasional tractor or lost sheep.

One of our favourites walks was to an ancient burial chamber called Bryn Celli Ddu, which means 'the mound in the dark grove'. It does look like something a hobbit might have lived in, but it's located in the middle of a field with barely a tree in sight. OK, so a burial chamber is perhaps not the jolliest place for an outing, but you already know I'm weird eccentric, and it's certainly very unusual.

Bryn Celli Ddu (front)

Bryn Celli Ddu started off as a henge (a Neolithic earthwork) in 3000 BC, with a stone circle surrounded by a ditch and a bank - although now only the ditch remains. Cremated human remains were found at the base of some of these stones, suggesting an altar of some kind. A thousand years later the site was deliberately destroyed. Some of the standing stones were knocked over, some were smashed completely. It was around this time the passage grave was built inside the ditch, to align with the rising summer solstice sun. The burial chamber would have been larger than it is now, sealed off and entirely enclosed.

Tomb Entrance -
a short, narrow passage
leading to the burial chamber

Inside the burial chamber is a very smooth, rounded stone, shaped like a pillar. It's been suggested that this a petrified tree trunk. Outside the back wall of the mound is a replica of one of the original standing stones, which is covered in squiggly carvings. It was found buried inside but has since been placed in what is assumed to have been its correct position. The original carved stone is now in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

Bryn Celli Ddu (back)
with standing stone just visible on the left

The tomb was originally discovered by a famer looking for 'useful stone' around the end of the 17th century. Apparently he was slightly freaked out by what he found, but still tempted to dig further at the thought of finding treasure. (Sadly, there was none). The site was not properly excavated until 1928, before being reconstructed into what can be seen today.

Inside the burial chamber

Links:

Bryn Celli Ddu is maintained by Cadw: Website

Related posts:

A Grave Obsession