Stories in Welsh Stone: Volume 1: The Secrets within 15 Welsh Graves [Hardcover]

In the book I explore the stories behind 15 headstones that sit quietly over nineteenth century graves. Silent they may be but these stones tell unusual and dramatic stories which we have a responsibility to preserve and remember. They deal with murder, sudden death, execution, human tragedy. They deal with passion, hatred, rivalry wrongful arrest, unsolved crimes, the vulnerability of young women. The book is about the things people do to other people.
The book has plenty of photographs and illustrations that try to bring these stories to life.. There are also directions and maps to show you how to find these unusual and neglected parts of our heritage in Wales.

I have tried to show how ordinary lives can take such unexpected and dramatic turns. How events can lead ordinary people into dramatic and unexpected situations. This is where true history lies. Not with huge national issues but with real people facing real dilemmas, not that much different from our own.

It was the grave of Margaret Williams that started this book. Her stone has stood there in Cadoxton for so many years, an enduring reminder of a violent death. But he passion and the outrage that led to its creation have now faded. Today it is a curiosity, nothing more. Once a tragedy, now forgotten.
Yet that stone represents a story that once meant so much and in uncovering its tale, others have emerged.Stories of murder, starvation, accidents, betrayal. Lives ended in extraordinary moments. Such stories are ther all around us, if only we look.
The stones themselves may be silent but the stories that brought the people to lie beneath them still speak to us. These gravestones are not just curiosities. They represent past lives and tell stories we should not forget. We owe to those involved to remember what happened.

I was brought up in Sheffield and went to Leicester University where I met my wife Liz. I became a teacher of English and after teaching in Gateway Sixth Form College for a number of years we moved to Swansea where we have remained ever since. I was Head of English in Dillwyn Llewelyn Comprehensive School before becoming Deputy Head Teacher of Cefn Hengoed Community School in 1991. I have been there ever since.
We have three daughters, a son, two grandsons and one grand daughter.
I have written for the educational press for a while and I have written a number of books on Dyspraxia.
I have also written "How to be a Successful Deputy Head" and a study guide to the Poetry of Seamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke. However, the discovery of Margaret William's remarkable headstone in Cadoxton in Neath set me off on an entirely new and unexpected journey...

The Story of Jane Lewis, Tonyrefail, 1862

Let us start at the very end of the
story with this poignant epitaph
on a neglected, fallen gravestone in
Tonyrefail.
In memory of Jane, daughter of ISAAC
and SELINA LEWIS late of Tyn Coed in
the parish of Llanillid who, on the Lord's
Day December 2nd 1862 probably fell
by cruel hand on Ty'n Tyle farm in the
parish of Ystradfodwg: aged 23 years and
though her blood is hither-to unavenged
attention is directed to the day when
light will have shon on the mysterious
occurrence and guilt will be accorded its
just reward. A daughter murdered. How Isaac
and Selina must have prayed for
justice. This is a story that begins,
as it often does, with an unmarried
woman out alone. A cold dark afternoon
near Tyntila in the Rhondda. An afternoon
that ended in a death that is still shrouded
in mystery. Never really solved. Always
questioned. The death of Jane Lewis.
About half a mile above the village of
Gellidawel in the Rhondda valley there was
Tyntila farm. It was on the steep slope of
Penrhys mountain. The farm was occupied
by Thomas and Maria Williams with their
six children and, more importantly, by three
servants. David Morgan was 15 years old,
Thomas Edmunds was 26 and Jane Lewis, the
niece of Maria, was 22.
On this Sunday afternoon Thomas
Williams went off with his brother to visit
a neighbouring farm before going to the
Nebo Chapel in Heol Fach for the evening
service. Maria stayed behind to look after the
children. Edmunds left later on, also for the
same chapel. Then Jane left half an hour later.
She too was going to the Nebo Chapel. There
she had arranged to meet her `sweetheart'
also called Thomas Williams, although he
was known locally as Thomas Screens.
There you have it. All the important
characters in this unhappy tale. The
chronology of everyone's comings and goings
confirmed by Maria who didn't go anywhere.
Despite this, the sequence of events has
never been fully untangled. Yes, murders
are sometimes committed by strangers, but
in most cases the victim knows their killer,
often intimately. Was this murder any
different? No one ever felt that there was any
need to look for anyone else in connection
with Jane's death.
When Uncle Thomas returned home
he told Maria that he hadn't seen Jane at
the service. Then Tom Screens turned up,
worried that she wasn't there. His concern
was that she had found another boyfriend.
Perhaps significantly, he had come to the
farm the long way round. There were two
possible routes and he took the longer one.
He also went away on that route too. Initially
there was little concern for her, since they
believed that she might have gone to a tea
party in Gellidawel. But when she still
didn't return Uncle Thomas and Edmunds
took a lantern and went out to look for her.
They didn't have to go very far. They first
examined the outhouses and then dropped
down towards Gellidawel along the shortest
route. They soon found Jane, less than 200
yards from the house, close to a stile.
They immediately ran off to get the
constable, Richard Wise, and a doctor,
though there was no help that the latter
could have offered. Her throat had been
slashed open with a razor. There were three
separate wounds.
At the Inquest PC Wise reported:
`I found a razor with blood on it
2 feet 7 inches from the body. A
brooch untouched by her blood
was 4 feet 1 inch from the body. A
bonnet, ribbon and collar were 5
feet 6 inches from the body. There
was blood on the bonnet and the
ribbon. I noticed that the collar
was cut in two and quite saturated
with blood. The string of the
bonnet was cut through.'
There was no sign of any struggle. The
most logical explanation would be that
she was attacked from behind. There is a
contemporary report claiming that parts
of her fingers were found attached to the
razor, suggesting obviously that she had
tried to fight off an attacker. However, the
information that I write here comes from
police reports and there is no suggestion of
this significant detail in anything that they
write. Apart from huge trauma to the neck,
every other part of her appeared intact.
The razor had been identified. It belonged
to Edmunds and was missing from its usual
place on top of a cupboard back at the farm.
It had been there on Sunday morning.
This was a vital piece of evidence. It
reduced the possible suspects to a very small
group indeed, unless there was some sort of
highly elaborate conspiracy involving two
razors.
Then, of course there was the postmortem
evidence that suddenly produced
more crucial evidence and a possible motive.
Jane Lewis was 10 weeks pregnant.
Now you can see how things had started
to stack up. You can see where the finger was
pointing.