The Angel Mountain Blog

  Red line:  the old Garfeth Road and the old farm lane leading to Cilwen.  Blue circles: cottage locations.  Green line: old edge of the common.  The cottages  on th e Garfeth Road are not named on the old maps -- so I have used the Isaf,  Ganol and Uchaf convention. The old trackway that runs up the side of the hill from the Cilgwyn clapper bridge towards Cnwc yr Hydd and Banc Du is so substantial that it might well have been the key roadway running southwards from Newport towards Haverfordwest.  Indeed, it looks that way from some of the oldest maps, which show this lane but not the other road that runs up past Ysgarwen and Cilgwyn Mawr to the junction with the Brynberian road.  This idea of "the old road" and "the new road" is supported by the fact that until quite recently the existing farm track leading to Cilwen did not exist at all; that farm was served by another farm track leading from near Cilgwyn Church and along through the woods...

We know that the Victorian church in Cilgwyn (now closed and used as a private residence) was built around 1880-84 as a replacement for an older church that was probably built around 1550, following the dissolution of religious orders. According to George Owen (1603) it was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin -- that was not at all unusual, although of course the "mother church" in Nevern was dedicated to our local saint, Brynach. But what of the even older church on the side of Banc Du? It's recorded on the 6" map as "Eglwys Fair" (Mary's Church or the Church of St Mary) but which Mary? Was it the Virgin, or Mary Magdalene? Vanya suggests that there might have been a Templar link in this area, and that they had a special affection for dedications to St Mary Magdalene...... George Owen tells us that in 1603 there were no less than 8 pilgrimage chapels in Nevern parish, at the following locations: Capel St Thomas, in Morfa quarter Capel St Ffraid (St Bride)...

Thanks to Marc, Vanya and others, we think we have tracked down the site of the medieval Church of St Mary the Virgin (Eglwys Fair), on the side of Banc Du at grid ref SN 07680 34746. This was probably the church where Henry Tudor worshipped after landing at Dale, on 8th August 1485, and marching northwards. According to legend, he stayed at Fagwr (or Fagwyr) Lwyd, while his followers camped on the plateau west of Cnwc yr Hydd summit. Afterwards, he continued with his growing army via Newport and Cardigan up to Aberystwyth and then on to the fateful Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The "lost church" is shown on the old maps as Eglwys Fair, but in the wrong place, to the west of the fence. It is actually below the old quarry shown on the satellite images, and although the piles of rubble / collapsed walls were still visible a century ago, now they are completely covered with turf. After a search, it has to be said that the signs of the old church are quite subtle. All we can se...

 Here are the links to the Bolinda web site, for the five Bolinda audiobooks published so far (MP3 versions): On Angel Mountain https://www.bolinda.com/uk/search/results.aspx?/2/7260BC15-92CE-4936-8E12-3FF3D4EB7ADC/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/4/Brian%20John House of Angels https://www.bolinda.com/uk/search/results.aspx?/2/7260BC15-92CE-4936-8E12-3FF3D4EB7ADC/1/3/1/1/1/1/1/4/Brian%20John Dark Angel https://www.bolinda.com/uk/search/results.aspx?/2/7260BC15-92CE-4936-8E12-3FF3D4EB7ADC/1/5/1/1/1/1/1/4/Brian%20John Rebecca and the Angels https://www.bolinda.com/uk/search/results.aspx?/2/7260BC15-92CE-4936-8E12-3FF3D4EB7ADC/1/7/1/1/1/1/1/4/Brian%20John Flying with Angels https://www.bolinda.com/uk/search/results.aspx?/2/7260BC15-92CE-4936-8E12-3FF3D4EB7ADC/1/9/1/1/1/1/1/4/Brian%20John

 A fabulous image of Whitesands, published on Facebook by Emyr Afan of Avanti Media.  Worth sharing!

On a Facebook group  page I have been discussing with Vanya Orr and others the fate of the “missing church” of St Mary the Virgin (Eglwys Fair) up on the mountainside near Banc Du, at the top of the Garfeth track that leads up from Cilgwyn. There is nothing there at the moment, apart from a name on some old maps. The problem is that it is easy to confuse it with the other St Mary’s Church, down in the valley in Cilgwyn, which is a Victorian building dating from 1880. It’s now a private residence,  having been deconsecrated some years ago. Before the Victorian rebuild there was a church there, but it was derelict. George Owen (1603) said that the church on this site was “consecrated within living memory” — which probably means around 1550. Before that, the church dedicated to St Mary seems to have been up on Banc Du. We don't know who built it, or when — but it was probably erected by a wealthy patron some time after the establishment of the Barony of Cemais.  It was...

I'm increasingly intrigued by these little buildings and enclosures on the edge of the common land in the Newport area. The top one is called Ty-Col, and is near the Bedd Morris standing stone to the west of Newport Pembs. The other is called Pen-lan-Oleu, and is to the north of Cnwc yr Hydd, near Tafarn y Bwlch. I assumed they were both "ty unnos" or "caban unnos" buildings originally, given their locations, and I guessed their date of construction to be around 1810. The latter one was still inhabited in the Second World War -- as was the building called Carningli Lodge, on the edge of the common near Carningli.  So I guessed that these ruins had survived as viable places of residence for 5 generations -- which is much longer than many of the "illegal" houses build on the edges of the commons in other parts of the UK. They are classic longhouse designs, with stable, cowshed and pigsty at one end of the row, and the human habitation at the other end. ...

 Grid Ref  SN 030 370.  This is one of the most interesting ruined houses on the edges of the common -- not far from the Parc Mawr tors, and reachable along the moorland track that leads westwards and then north-westwards from Bedd Morris.  I suppose that we had better assume that it dates from the early 1800's, like most of the "ty unnos" cottages on the fringes of the moorland -- but this one is more complex and more interesting than any of the others.  It has a very intriguing pattern of enclosures around it, and it is approached by a beautiful little lane flanked by massive stone walls.  This is a landscape littered with huge dolerite boulders, and the buildings are settled on top of some of the largest.   This is the closest approximation I have seen to a traditional Celtic longhouse, with five rooms in a row, with the dwelling house at the south end and with traces of a traditional "simnai fawr" and cwtch against the southern gable end.  At ...

  Idris Elba as John Wesley Jumbie?  Well, why not?  A nice little cameo for him.... . Jumbie is one of the key characters in “Conspiracy of Angels”. He makes a dramatic appearance, and at the end of the story he exits with a bullet in his heart. He’s a negro of vast stature, brutal and yet very intelligent — and a worthy adversary for Martha. He is a freed slave who was active in the anti-slavery movement until he spotted opportunities for extracting large sums of money from slave-owning families and from the owners of slave trading vessels. He lives in some luxury, with his own carriage and a considerable bodyguard. As his affected name might imply, he sees himself as a righteous man seeking to undo the unspeakable evils associated with slavery — and he becomes the leading member of a cult called The Sons of Obeah.   But then what starts as something designed to undermine evil becomes evil itself, as Jumbie and his friends embark upon kidnappings and mu...

Is Rhodri Meilir just the man to play Skiff? At the beginning of the tale Skiff is the roughest of the ruffians who control the local petty crime scene in Newport and the surrounding district. He is a friend of Will Owen, the tearaway (and rather intelligent) son of the Plas Ingli housekeeper. The two of them are involved in petty crime, extortion and blackmail, and the smuggling of contraband goods and wrecking activities whenever the opportunity comes along. Martha, like many other members of the gentry, is a good customer of theirs. In dealing with their enemies they stop short of serious bodily injuries and murder, but in their line of business things are occasionally brutal, and people do get hurt. One day Skiff is on the run from the customs officers while in possession of valuables from a local shipwreck, and he is saved by Martha from deportation and possible execution for grand larceny. Thereafter Skiff is in Martha’s debt, and he becomes her spymaster and protector. The...

William Thomas would do very well as Grandpa Isaa c Isaac is David’s grandfather, but at the beginning of the story he is still a relatively young man, 57 years old, having married at the age of eighteen. He is fit and active, and acts as David’s mentor in all things to do with the management of the estate. He should, of course, be Master of the estate himself, but he is penniless and homeless, having declared himself bankrupt after giving the whole estate to his son (and David’s father) William some years before the commencement of the story narrative. That was done to save the estate from passing by default to Squires Watkins, Rice and Howell as a consequence of a fraudulent mortgage arrangement.   Isaac quite enjoys being a pauper with no responsibilities, and after David’s death he becomes Martha’s fierce protector and mentor. He knows everything that goes on in the local community, and he is still a magistrate with a good knowledge of the law. His sympathies are ve...

Tom Rhys Harries might play David rather well...... David is almost too good to be true. As Martha’s first love and only husband, he figures prominently in the first two volumes of the saga, and then he is gone — murdered in cold blood during a Cnapan game on Traeth Mawr, Newport. But before his death he fathers Martha’s first four children and he is a devoted parent and a passionate husband — and Martha loves him dearly. But he is a man who is deeply traumatised by the fire that killed his parents and three of his siblings right at the beginning of the story — so we don’t know what he might have been like, were it not for that fateful event. Even worse, be blames himself for the fire, and will not be budged from that conviction no matter how hard Martha tries to reason with him. Of course, it was not his fault at all, but neither Martha nor David, nor the reader, knows that………. Martha is stronger than him, in spite of her wild swings of mood, and he knows it.  The young couple...

  Bolinda has released the cover for the next audiobook in the series -- in advance of publication on 1st April.  It sticks to the same theme as the previous five audiobooks, and pays homage to the story line, in which Martha (under an assumed name) goes off to Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil to do good works among the poor.  Since she is just as incorrigible as ever, she makes enemies of assorted poor people and some extremely rich ones as well, but somehow gets out more or less unscathed....... I tried to convince the cover designer that the background image did not look much like the old ironworks at Dowlais or Cyfartha, but once a designer has an image in mind, there is no shifting him or her.........  anyway, it is suitably "industrial" and makes a change from wilderness! After this one, only two to go!  Janine and Malk (the narrators) have been working very hard.