Author Archives: Chris

Debunking Myths About Crafty Dog Towers

In my recent article on the history of Crafty Dog Towers I commented on the large mound at the end of the croquet lawn and said that it was the remains of a motte from a motte and bailey castle. This created a bit of a fuss, and I had three replies from various quarters regarding the accuracy of my assertion. I was flabbergasted as I had never had my assertion criticised before.

One comment was from Dr J.K. Twiggley, of Swanseashire University (retired), who pointed to an article in the Swanseashire Historical Review Volume XXVI, 1928, in which Sir Mortimer Walker ( the well-known wireless archaeologist so popular on the BBC Home Service in the 1950’s) mentions a small dig he carried out on the side of the mound at the request of Colonel Mervyn Crafty-Dog in 1920. Sir Mortimer found the remains of a Roman bath-house, complete with three ancient loofers, a tin duck, a copper towel-rail and early shower fitting. It was the tiles, apparently, that gave it away as being Roman. By day 3 of the dig Sir Mortimer had changed his mind and decided that it was more likely to be a spoil heap from when the house was renovated by Laurence “Have a Bash” Brown (the less well known cousin of Lancelot “Capability” Brown) and the new water closets put in the north tower range in the 1790’s. I have read a copy of the article on-line and it does make interesting reading.

The second e-mail was from Cledwyn Griffith, amateur archaeologist and badger wrangler from north of Pontardawe. He has a firm idea that the mound was only a few centuries old and was indeed a spoil heap, but from the jam mines sunk in the park in the late medieval period. This might have accounted for the bits of pipe and tiles found by Sir Mortimer, being from an early shower-room for the miners when they emerged covered in thick jam from the bell-pit before they went home. I did ask him whether they would have had such sophisticated plumbing in the 1540’s, but he was adamant that that’s what the mound is.

The final suggestion was from a well-known local mystic, and member of the not-quite-flat-earth-but-with-big-lumps-on-it society, Ephraim Flump. He is a bit of an eccentric soul, given to walking backwards on Thursdays, and only wearing orange socks (no, he wears all his clothes, but the only colour socks he wears are orange), though he is pleasant enough. He is of the opinion that the mound is in fact a landing pad for extra-terrestrials, a sort of parking space for flying saucers. He is convinced that little grey men came from across the galaxy just to sample the rare grapefruit jam that exuded from the spring in the lower meadow (this spring has dried up long since). He even pointed out the small circle of indentations which he said were the marks of the feet of the spaceship (Sir Mortimer said these were the post holes of a round house, which I am more likely to believe).

I was surprised that my little article had created such a stir. No-one has ever been interested in my little article before, a bit like my assertion.

History of Crafty Dog Towers: A Family Legacy

People ask me how old Crafty Dog Towers actually is. On the far end of the croquet lawn is a small mound of earth; it is the base of a motte and bailey castle built by one of the local Welsh lords, possibly one of our distant ancestors. The first Crafty d’Og was Geoffrey who first appears in the 1300’s after the fall of the last Welsh Princes. It is said that he married one of the Welsh noble families or maybe was one of the Welsh lords who’d reinvented himself. He built the first stone castle – or a tower house really – which he named after himself Crafty d’Og tower. His ancestors despite siding with Owain Glyndwr survived and even built a proper fortified manor house with towers at each corner and a moat.

The thick stone walls were punched full of nice big windows in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when the family lived a more relaxed lifestyle, and then during the English Civil War the Parliamentary forces knocked it about a bit and we lost most of the battlements and towers. When Dafydd Jones (Inigo’s cousin) came to see Major Cuthbert Crafty-Dog in the 1690’s to redesign the house he had pretty much of a blank canvas. He kept parts of the ancient house deep inside the east and west wings.

We laugh when people occasionally ask us whether we live in a castle – of course not! It can’t be a castle if it hasn’t any battlements! The gardens were redesigned by Cedric Crafty-Dog in the 1890’s when he tried to apply some of Gertrude Jekyll’s ideas. We have kept the walled garden with its orangery and greenhouses, and 3 compost heaps (well, Grout has to have somewhere to grow his exotic plants).

The croquet lawn was where in the past the local yeomanry used to practice their drill. They were quite a famous regiment – the 1st Crafty Dog Foot and Lancer. Why lancer? This was because General James “Mad-Dog” Crafty-Dog liked the idea of a brigade of lancers but they could only find one in the old armoury in the East wing so it was a Foot and Lance regiment (just as well, as they only had one horse anyway). They were very different times, and the regiment fought in the zulu wars (fought is a bit of an exaggeration as they got lost on their way to Rorke’s Drift and spent six weeks in a large hotel outside Port Elizabeth until they were thrown out for running up a huge drinks bill), then the Boer War, and finally the regiment went to France in 1915. Under Colonel Mervyn Crafty-Dog, VC, MC, DSO and Order of the Golden Teaspoon, they fought at the Somme, and Paschendaale.

The regiment was wound up after WW I and the banners now hang forlornly in the Great Hall. Mrs Grainger hates them as once a year we have to get a set of long ladders and a trapeze in order for her to be able to give the banners a shake and a dust.

Cabbages and Bowling: A Day at Crafty Dog Towers

As if the sherry trifle wasn’t enough to keep Cook entertained, the afternoon took a rather unexpected turn. Down on the croquet lawn, a most unusual spectacle was unfolding. Cook had enlisted young Pendle, the lazy gardener’s lad, in a game that could only be described as cabbages and bowls.

The croquet lawn, usually reserved for more genteel pursuits, was now the setting for a makeshift bowling alley. The cabbages, freshly harvested from the kitchen garden, were being skillfully rolled towards an improvised set of pins made from empty gin bottles. Cook, with a stern look of concentration on her face, took careful aim before launching a particularly robust cabbage down the lane. Her throw was met with an enthusiastic cheer from the gathered kitchen staff, who had abandoned their duties to become impromptu spectators.

Pendle, typically noted for his leisurely approach to gardening, seemed unusually animated. He lined up his cabbage with exaggerated precision, much to the amusement of the onlookers, and sent it careening towards the pins with surprising agility. The resulting crash of bottles elicited a wave of applause and laughter, ringing through the otherwise tranquil grounds of Crafty Dog Towers.

The game continued, each round punctuated by jovial banter and good-natured ribbing. Cook, despite her earlier irritability, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself, her earlier gruff demeanour melting away in the camaraderie of the moment. Even the kitchen cat, having evidently decided that the coast was clear, crept back to observe the proceedings from a safe distance.

As the sun began to dip towards the horizon, the makeshift bowling match drew to a close, leaving behind a trail of cabbage leaves and empty bottles. The kitchen staff, in high spirits, returned to their posts, and Cook, with a satisfied smile, headed back towards her domain. It seemed that, for once, the sherry trifle would have to wait.

The Unforgettable Arrival of that Lazy Gardener’s Lad Pendle

I can remember the day that we first met our lazy Gardener’s Lad, Pendle. We had advertised in the horticultural magazines for the post of Gardener’s Lad, a vacancy that had been caused by Stan, the previous Lad, being dismissed for being caught selling cauliflowers and turnips from the gardens in a barrow at the local market. It also later transpired that this Lad had, as well as the veg, flogged off a couple of statues from around the parkland, one of them being the Henry Moore that had been on the lawn in front of the house. We thought it had gone off for a clean but when sorting out his room we found a receipt from Tommy “Fingers” Jones (the local fence for stolen goods). Like Stan the Gardener’s Lad, he too wasn’t the sharpest trowel in the garden, in that “Fingers” issued receipts for those stolen goods. The local constabulary were only too delighted to pay “Fingers” a visit, where they managed to recover the statue and return it to us a few months later only slightly the worse for wear.

There were three candidates for the Gardener’s Lad job, all of varying experience. First was Tom Spearfitt, who had worked at Kew Gardens for a number of years but had gained little experience of dealing with the gentry; next came Richard Ponsonby-Badgeworth, who’d trained on the Frummly Estate in Yorkshire (a lively chap, great at growing rhubarb and liquorish and keeping the bowels at Frummly Manor regular), and then there was this final young lad. I still remember him loping into the room; he was nearly six feet tall, with a head of bright ginger hair that refused to be contained by the rather small cloth cap that sat even more reluctantly, nay precariously, on his tall, thin head. He was ruddy cheeked, and bore what could only be described as a startled but mischievous grin. Lady Crafty-Dog whispered to me that she thought he looked like a well-known brand of long-lasting battery. His name was Pendulous Sedge, and he hailed from the border counties of England and Wales.

His gardening boots were a bit large for his feet, his trousers too short for his legs, and his tweed jacket bulged here and there with what turned out to be pork pies and cheddar and pickle sandwiches his Mum had given him for the train journey here and back. Pendle’s father had been gardener at one of the vicarages near Shrewsbury and then in Worcester before running off to sea and leaving his Mum and his six siblings. In spite of this, he had been studying horticulture at evening class and getting practical experience working in local gardens, for what little he could to supplement the family purse. His young brothers and sisters were also in service in local houses but Pendle wanted to go further afield.

He said that he had read about Crafty Dog Towers and the Gardens in an article in the Countryman & Fisherman’s Compendium, and that he liked the look of the parterres and walled garden in the photos. He had especially liked the Head Gardener’s ideas for the redevelopment of the former cabbage and broccoli beds. Grout (who was on the interview panel, naturally) was quite taken with this, and they bounced a few ideas across the table to each other, like a sort of horticultural table-tennis. We knew from that moment that this long thin streak of gardening staff was the right person for us. Lady Penelope especially liked him, and of course her view counted most of all.

As Lady Crafty-Dog and I called the other two candidates into the drawing room to break them the bad news (and give them a shilling each towards their train journeys home), Grout took young Pendle literally under his arm (or as far as he could reach) to show him round his future work area. Pendle used the telephone in the drawing room to ring the public house near his Mum to ask whether they could let her know that he had got the job and was going to stay. We kitted him out with spare pyjamas and night cap etc. so that he could stay that evening with Mr and Mrs Grout in the Gardener’s Cottage until we could sort out some accommodation with the house staff here at the Towers. There was Stan’s old room which we were in the middle of rewiring as the chandelier, light fittings, bulbs, sockets and copper cable had seemed to have inexplicably disappeared. And the inside door handle. And the paper off one wall.

To be honest, having Pendle stay at the Gardener’s cottage was a good thing, as Mrs Grout now had someone to fuss about and molly-coddle. We’d never appreciated how much she missed her two sons who were now working abroad, and only came home once or twice a year. She seemed to have had twenty years wiped off her, she looked so hale and happy.

Grout came to see me at the end of Pendle’s first week and asked whether the arrangement could be made permanent, his reason being that staying at the cottage meant that Pendle was closer to his place of work but as he spoke we both knew what he really meant. As it was, we couldn’t get a decent new light fitting for Stan’s room, and as for sourcing a Grindling Gibbons hand-carved and gilded doorhandle, the less said the better.

Grout and I’d talked a lot about his wife’s health and the noted improvement in her demeanour as we drove to the wayside halt on the branch line just beyond Crafty Dog Towers where the South Wales Railway company would drop off any goods destined for us. There we collected Pendle’s heavy metal trunk, full of his belongings from his former home. I must say, the young lad did have a tear in his eye as he opened the crate when we got it back to the cottage. I thought it might have been a touch of melancholic nostalgia, though Lady Penelope said that it was most likely due to the rather large number of industrial-size moth-balls lurking in the clothes inside!

Pendle, the Gardener’s Lad, and Mr Grout, the Head Gardener, hit it off from the very start. I walked down to the walled gardens a few weeks after he had started and was surprised to see a sign on the potting shed door saying “Do Not Disturb – Staff Meeting”. I knocked on the door, and coughed politely, before going inside. There’d been a frantic scraping of chairs on the flagstone floor, and the sound of rustling papers and drawers being shut as I opened the green wooden door that led into the old potting shed.

One side of the desk sat Grout, facing the door, with Pendle facing him, his back to me. They both smiled sheepishly, like two naughty schoolboys who’d been caught out. I knew that Grout was up to one of his plans, and I later realised that Pendle was just as canny. On the blackboard there was a chalk drawing of what looked like a plate of spilt spaghetti. I could make out the word “furnace”. Pendle turned a bit pink as he stammered that this was a design for a new heating system for the greenhouses. Grout took over, explaining that this was indeed a prototype for new heating system for the greenhouses, which was to be trialled on a small scale for greenhouse 1 and the small potting shed behind the one we were in now. It would not only keep the staff quarters and greenhouse warm but would help extend the growing season for pineapples, the lemon and orange trees and maybe even a banana palm or two. I told them I thought this was a capital idea, and asked what resources they might need.

Pendle and Grout looked at each other, then Grout scribbled some things down on a sheet of paper from his desk and passed it to me. I was puzzled at first by the seemingly vast amount of copper pipe and various joints, as well as the large copper boiler and water tank he wanted. “Oh yes,” Pendle assured me, “We’ll need a good sized water tank for the still.”

I didn’t quite catch what he said. “Still? Still what?”

Grout looked furtively at Pendle (or rather, I thought he did) and said, “He means we still need a water tank.”

I nodded, “Ah yes, of course, you still need a water tank for the heating water. Of course.” I knew a bit about central heating. It wouldn’t work without a reserve tank of water – I’m not stupid, you know.

Grout smiled, “He’s a sharp lad, young Pendle!”

I had to agree. They showed me the plans in more detail and, well, to be honest, they were all Greek to me. Reservoir tank, cooling water, heating boiler, condenser and the collection tank. I queried why there was a collection tank.

“Ah, that’s an emergency tank to collect any dripping water in case of leaks.” Pendle pointed to where there was a tap and bottle drawn on the diagram. “We can collect any drips and….put them back in so nothing is wasted.” “We can run it on old vegetable waste, such as beetroot, and herbs and such like. It doesn’t smell as bad as normal smoke and steam, it’s more like a garden pot-pourri,” the Head Gardener was very excited about the idea. Not being one to stifle their enthusiasm and desire to set up this new heating plant which I was told would be of massive benefit to the gardens I just bade them a good day and went off to order the various pieces of pipework and ironmongery for them. They were going to make such a great team – I could tell.

Sir Humphrey Crafty D’Og: A Ghostly Tale of Misadventure

Sir Humphrey’s Ghostly Head

In the annals of the peculiar and preposterous, very few tales stand out quite like that of Sir Humphrey Crafty D’Og, a ghost no longer entrapped by earthly concerns, though eternally vexed by the antics of his own disjointed body. You see, Sir Humphrey was not your ordinary spectre. While most ghosts in Swanseashire were content with wailing in the night or rattling chains, Sir Humphrey had a unique issue — his body had a penchant for wandering off without him.

This tale started one damp and dismal autumn evening. The villagers had long since retreated to the warmth of their firesides, leaving the old manor house cloaked in mist and mystery. Sir Humphrey, who had met his untimely demise in the 17th century, was restlessly floating about the manor, recounting tales of his valiant Cavalier days to the mice that scurried by. His head, a noble visage crowned with flowing locks and an impressive moustache, hovered sombrely in the dim light. He made his way slowly through the rear wall and to where the east tower had once stood, where he had waited for Cromwell to take his surrender. He sighed; he was always so disappointed when he got here, as the tower had long gone, and he was instead in the car park, by the waste recycling area.

Suddenly, a peculiar though familiar sensation gripped him. Where was his body? He glanced down—well, at least as well as a head can glance without the assistance of a neck—and discovered, to his dismay, that his finely attired form had indeed vanished. His body, a proud figure in velvet doublet, breeches, and holding a plume-adorned hat, had apparently decided that the confines of the manor no longer suited its sense of adventure. It was at this point that gravity proved that it even applied to the bodily challenged, and his head drifted to the floor, coming to rest amongst the recycling bins – in between “Glass & Tins” and “Mixed Plastics” to be exact.

“Oh, not again,” Sir Humphrey sighed, his voice drifting softly across the empty car park. “Body, wherever have you wandered off to this time?”

It was not the first instance of such an occurrence. The disembodied knight had often lost track of his bodily form, which had an uncanny ability to slip away unnoticed. With a resolve born of years of spectral wanderings, Sir Humphrey would set out on his quest, gliding through the manor’s corridors with the grace of one well accustomed to his ethereal state. However, having no legs coupled with his realisation that he had no legs, meant that this time his head just had to sit there (so to speak) and wait for the wandering torso to amble back to pick him up. This often took some time…

At quaint yet spooky Crafty Dog Towers, which had more secrets than a magician’s hat, there was, fortunately, a kitchen maid named Blodwen. Blodwen was known for her fiery red hair, her penchant for gossip, and her uncanny ability to bake the fluffiest scones in all of England and Wales (under Cook’s direction, of course). This crisp autumn evening, while the wind whistled through the ancient trees and the moon cast eerie shadows on the cobblestone yard, Blodwen found herself on a quest. She had been tasked with taking out the recycling—a menial job, but one that she took in stride.

As she approached the recycling bins, humming a tune that her grandmother used to sing, Blodwen heard a voice. It was a deep, melancholic voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Startled, she dropped the recycling bin lid with a clang and listened closely.

“Excuse me young lady,” the voice groaned. “Umm – I’m down here.”

Blodwen peered around the bins and nearly jumped out of her skin. There, on the ground, nestled among the bins, was a ghostly head, hovering a few inches above the ground, its expression one of profound confusion and mild irritation. From the family portraits in the Great Hall she realised that the head belonged to none other than Sir Humphrey Crafty D’Og, a long-dead Cavalier known for his wit, charm, and occasional bouts of absent-mindedness. His kindly face was as forlorn as a rainy day, his hair and pointy beard reminiscent of Charles I, his ghostly head flickering like a candle in the wind.

“Good evening,” the head said with a slight bow, or at least as much of a bow as a head without a body two inches above the car park could manage. “I seem to have found myself in a bit of a predicament.”

Blodwen, after recovering from her initial shock, managed to stammer out a response. “S-sir Humphrey? Is that really you?”

“Indeed it is,” replied Sir Humphrey, his ghostly features retaining the gentlemanly demeanour he had been renowned for in life. “It appears I have misplaced my body. Might I trouble you for some assistance in locating it?”

Blodwen, ever the compassionate soul, agreed to help the spectral head in its quest. Carrying Sir Humphrey’s head carefully in her arms, she and her ghostly companion set off to search the yard and outbuildings of Crafty Dog Towers. The night was still and eerily quiet, save for the occasional hoot of an owl or the rustle of leaves in the gentle breeze.

Their first stop was the old stable, now used as a storage shed. They scoured the place from top to bottom, moving dusty boxes and rusty tools, but found no sign of a wandering ghostly body.

“Perhaps the body has wandered off inside Crafty D’Og Towers?” Sir Humphrey suggested, his voice a blend of hope and mild frustration.

The search moved to the great hall, where the other family portraits of long-deceased ancestors watched with a mixture of bemusement and sympathy. Sir Humphrey floated in Blodwen’s arms past the tapestry-lined walls, calling out in a voice that was both chiding and imploring.

“Body! Come now, this tomfoolery must cease. We have important ghostly matters to attend to.” Blodwen tried to get him to call out more quietly, for fear of waking up the rest of the household who were either abed or attending to their duties around the rest of the house.

However, the hall remained silent, save for the occasional creak of the floorboards and the distant hoot of an owl in the gardens.

They ventured next to the library, a room that had once been his sanctuary of knowledge and leisure. Here, amidst dusty tomes and forgotten scrolls, he had often pondered the great mysteries of life—and the hereafter. But the only response to his calls was the rustle of parchment and the flicker of candlelight. And the distant snore of Mr & Mrs Crafty Dog in their room on the floor above.

“Curse these spectral whims,” Sir Humphrey muttered, frustration beginning to seep into his otherwise dignified disposition. “Body, if you do not return forthwith, I shall have no choice but to…to…” Blodwen looked down at him.

He paused, for the threat seemed rather hollow, given his current predicament. Had he had his shoulders with him, he would have shrugged.

The search continued through the drawing room, the dining hall, and even the wine cellar, where Sir Humphrey had to fend off the temptation to linger amidst the ghostly remnants of fine vintages past. Yet, his body remained elusive.

Finally, as dawn began to break, casting a pale light over the estate, the duo made their way to the kitchen garden. It was there, among the rows of herbs and vegetables, that they spotted it—Sir Humphrey’s body, aimlessly wandering and occasionally stopping to blindly inspect a cabbage or rare shrub.

“There it is!” Blodwen exclaimed, relief washing over her as she hurried towards the wayward body.

“Ah, splendid!” Sir Humphrey’s head declared. “Would you be so kind as to reunite me with my tiresome torso?”

With great care, Blodwen positioned the head atop the body. There was a faint shimmer, a brief moment of disorientation, and then Sir Humphrey was whole once more. He straightened up, brushed some imaginary dust from his ghostly attire, and offered Blodwen a gracious bow.

“My dear Blodwen,” he began, his voice filled with gratitude, “you have performed a most noble service. I am indebted to you.”

Blodwen smiled, her heart warmed by the spectral gentleman’s words. “It was my pleasure, Sir Humphrey. I’m just glad to see you back in one piece.” She curtsied to the grateful knight.

With that, the ghostly cavalier took his leave, drifting off into the early morning mist, leaving Blodwen with a story she would recount for years to come—a tale of humour, mystery, and the unlikeliest of friendships forged under the autumn moonlight.

More about John Rupert Jones, Welsh Entrepreneur & Adventurer – His Parents

Welsh jam,welsh inventors,welsh art,Welsh jam,Welsh chutney,Welsh canals,Welsh mining,Welsh Jam mines,Welsh humour,Wales,Welsh history — Dafydd Jones and Glenys in their worskshop/studio in the 1860’s. From an old ambrotype.

After posting the extract about John Rupert Jones from the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, I can add a few more facts about his family and life.

His father Dafydd Jones was a miner who worked the Graigola No 3 seam, which was accessed from the north-east of the current Mond Works. It was mostly a seam of industrial grade strawberry jam, with some outcrops of blackberry. The blackberry was particularly prized as it required little refining, and was much sought after by the military, especially the Royal Navy. It was naturally high in vitamin C and was a great aid in the battle against scurvy.

Dafydd was badly injured in a back-flow of strawberry jam which almost overwhelmed him and his team, but he managed to get them to safety, with the help of Myfanwy, one of the pit ponies (now immortalised by a metal statue beside the canal in Clydach). The local chapel raised funds to pay for his medical treatment after the accident, and he turned his hand to mechanical inventing instead. He was the first person to successfully invent a device for turning bottled jams and marmalades so that the rind didn’t settle at the top. With his friend Emrys Thomas, they copyrighted the “Automatic Preserve Turner” which meant that he never had to go down the dark and sticky Jam mines ever again.

His wife, Glenys Joseph, was a semi-professional arm-wrestler and barge painter. They met in the Copperman’s Arms in Landore one night when they bumped into each other and she spilt some of JRJ’s pint. What could have been a heated argument was smoothed over by his suave and diplomatic tongue, and the fact that he could see the victory notches cut into the leg of her favourite chair. There was also the way the gaslight flickered of her two gold front teeth, that gave her that certain charm.

They were married in Seion Newydd in Morriston, within sight of the copper and tinplate works that were making pans for cooking and tins for storing and distributing the jams and marmalades they worked on.

Glenys made a real name for herself in the fabulous designs she drew and painted on the jam and chutney barges in the drydock in Coed Gwilym. It has been said that it was her use of clashing bright colours that led to the phrase “Gaudy Welsh” design, later applied to pottery. Some panels from one of her barges (said to be “Florence Puw”, a barge named after her own grandmother) are on exhibition in the Louvre in Paris, and two framed portraits from the side of another barge were acquired by George V for the Royal Collection.

A Day Out: Gwennie and the Lazy Gardener

Gwennie had an exciting day today. We asked if any of the Gardens staff were available to go for a walk with her and Mr Grout suggested that Pendle was at a loose end and could do with the exercise. Gwen has a bit of a soft spot for that lazy Gardener’s Lad, who often pops around to see her lunchtimes, and I have caught him sharing his corned-beef and brown sauce sandwiches with her on the bench by the scullery door. He really knows the way to a little greyhounds heart is through her stomach!

So off they went, Gwen trotting happily beside Pendle as they meandered through the flower gardens. Such vibrant blooms as had survived the recent storms seemed to nod in approval as they passed, with Gwen occasionally pausing to sniff an especially fragrant rose or to chase a weather-resilient butterfly. Pendle, with his laid-back demeanour, matched her pace perfectly, occasionally stopping to let her investigate an intriguing scent or rustling leaf. They wandered down winding paths, past the lilac bushes and the rainwater-heavy hydrangeas, enjoying the tranquil beauty of the winter garden. It was a perfect little adventure, just the two of them, soaking in the serenity and each other’s company.

As their delightful afternoon stroll drew to a close, Pendle and Gwen found themselves meandering past Home Farm. Perched on the old stone wall sat Lucien, known as “Lucky,” the infamous farm cat. Lucky was a formidable sight, with his stark white fur, a single piercing eye, matched by an eye patch that made hom look like a pirate, and impressively large claws. His presence was as intimidating as his appearance, and he ruled the farmyard with an iron paw.

Lucky fixed Gwen with a menacing glare, his single eye narrowing ominously. Gwen, sensing the tension, quickened her steps, trying to avoid any confrontation with the growling cat. Pendle, too, kept his distance, knowing well the reputation of the gangster-like feline. All the animals on the farm feared Lucky, and even Pendle, with his easy-going nature, gave him a wide berth.

Once they were safely out of Lucky’s sight, both Gwen and Pendle let out sighs of relief. They continued their journey back to the gardens and the kitchen, where they had begun their adventure. The sense of serenity returned as they left the menacing presence of the farmyard behind, and they carried on, enjoying the last moments of their walk together.

A Humorous Look at a Welsh Adventurer’s Life

A Humorous Tale of a Great Welsh Adventurer, who very nearly made it big.

After my recent photo of the llama, taken in the hills locally, here is a piece from the “Dictionary of Welsh Biography” about John Rupert Jones, the adventurer and businessman who first brought these South American ungulates to South Wales.

“Jones, John Rupert, (1830 – 1902), Postman, brush salesman, ship owner & entrepreneur, b. at Glais, nr Swansea, 3rd July 1830, son of Dafydd, and Mary Lewis. Father was a jam miner, and mother a quilt-maker. Went to school in Pontardawe, before getting a job as a postman in 1846. In 1849 he m. Glenys Joseph of Landore, and had four children by 1855. To supplement his income, he became a door to door brush seller, but was sacked by the postal service when he combined his letter delivery with the brush sales.

When door-knocking around Swansea docks he got Shanghai’d onto a ship taking coal and marmalade between Swansea and Weston Super Mare. He was a popular and successful member of the crew, and was First Mate within 6 months. The crew mutinied off Flat Holm but Jones managed to subdue them, for which the ship’s owners made him Captain of the sister ship. He then sailed ships between Swansea, Carmarthen and Haverfordwest, where he began to hear stories about the opportunities for settlers in the jam, chutney and marmalade rich lands of South America. Renting his own ship, he started trading coal and jam with Buenos Aires, which changed to taking Welsh settlers in the early 1860’s. In order to bring back a saleable cargo, Jones set up a trade of coal and emigres to Argentina, bringing back llamas, alpacas and guanacos to use for wool in Wales.

In 1880 he purchased a woollen mill in Clydach, Swanseashire, where he began manufacturing scarves and clothing from the llama wool. This proved to be lucrative, and shares in his company (The Aberclydach Exotic Wool Company) sky-rocketed, making him a millionaire within 3 years. Local sheep farmers grew resentful, and in 1885 the mill was attacked by a group called “The Grandchildren of Rebecca” who destroyed the machinery and set free the 300 llamas in the pens on the local hill-farms.

Faced with an economic disaster, Jones then hastily established a series of llama trains to deliver mail across the Welsh Hills. He was also approached by a number of Jam and Chutney Mine Owners, especially in the Amman Valley, to see if they could break the rail embargo and transfer preserves across the hills (the GWR was asking a high-tariff for jams, chutneys and marmalades, in favour of the jam mines they owned themselves). This also proved successful in the short-term until a llama train overturned on Mynydd Gelliwastad and the hungry llamas ate the mail soaked in spilt strawberry jam. From that day on the llamas developed a taste for preserves, and another of Jones’ sidelines failed.

By 1900 the llama trains had ceased and Jones was working as a cockle seller on Morriston Cross. He died of shellfish food poisoning in July 1902, and was buried alongside his wife in Moriah Chapel churchyard, Treboeth, Swansea. There can still be seen the stone effigy of a llama that stands over his grave.

Llama,llama statue,Welsh hero,welsh pirate,pirates grave,Welsh jam,Welsh history,Welsh humour,welsh entrepreneur, — Photo of the Grave at Moriah, taken in the 1970s

Arch. Camb., 1936,; South Wales Evening Post, Swansea, July 17, 1902 Obituary; Kelly’s Business Directory for Swanseashire, 1880, 1885, 1900; W.Ambrose, “The Woollen Industry in South Wales, 1800-1900, Camden Books, Cardiff 1968, p. 96-98; R. Morgan, “Cardiff Docks and the Jam Trade, Treharris Press, Pontypridd, 1998, p.5-6, 23, 27, 62; D. Jenkins, “The Grandsons of Rebecca – industrial unrest in the West Wales Valleys, Swanseashire University Press, 2011, p.37-58; M.P. Pryce, “JR Jones – Welsh Pirate or Entrepreneur?”, University of Detroit PhD Dissertation, 2015;”

Vegetarian Safe Jams

There’s No Gelatine in Our Jams!

Strawberry Jam,scones and jam,jam and scones,Devon tea,Cornish tea,scones and clotted cream,jam and clotted cream,Strawberry tea,Strawberries,Strawberry jams,Strawberry preserves, — Crafty Dog Strawberry Jam with Fruit Scone or two!

Do our jams and marmalades contain gelatine? No, they most certainly do not!

A common question we are asked at Markets is whether our products are suitable for vegetarians, as people think jams and marmalades are set with gelatine. This not the case – our Jams and Marmalades are actually set with pectin, which is made from apple skins, and is a natural product.

When people refer to a jam as a “jelly”, in the UK that means that it has had all the pips and fruit bits filtered before jarring up to make it a clear jam. It should still be made with pectin. (Crafty Dog Cymru don’t currently make a Jam Jelly).

If in doubt, read the label, or ask the producer.

Fraudulent Endeavours: The Chutney Bubble of 1820s South Wales

(Professor Crafty d’Og’s article on the the scandal of the Amman & Gwendraeth Valley Chutney Enterprise, with a surprising link to the settlement of Welsh Patagonia)

The Amman Valley Bubble (The Chutney that never was)

Chutneys are always today considered to be an introduction from the great Indian sub-continent – they were indeed being imported from there in large quantities by the early nineteenth century, any gaps in the ships being filled up with leaf tea. This lack of a local chutney was largely due to the great difficulty in reaching the Welsh chutney seams which, at over 200 feet, were too deep to safely reach with existing technology [1] . British chutneys had long been extracted from the small bell-pits of the south-east of England but this had been of the Piccalilli variety[2]. Though Kent chutney was popular, it was not universally so. The demand for chutneys led to their import from the far east (even further east than East Anglia), but because of the long sea journeys that involved[3], there was a desire for a home-grown chutney, so to speak. There had been some Welsh chutney mining during the late eighteenth century as the beds of mango of the Amman valley had been exploited due to their closeness to the surface. It’s popularity and scarcity led to its early demise, and the trade was blighted by the Amman Valley Bubble scandal of the 1820’s.

The scandal (in reality, a tremendous fraud) began when rumours of a great find of an easily accessible hot chutney (supposedly a chilli one) spread like hot butter across Wales. Almost immediately a company emerged, the Amman and Gwendraeth Valley Chutney Enterprise, who proposed to exploit the outcrop (so near the surface, they said, that it was dripping into a local stream). They issued shares in this rich chutney seam, the price of which rocketed as everyone wanted a slice of the chutney pie (excuse the mixed metaphors). The company bought a stretch of the foothills of the Black Mountain (paid for in shares) and had even started clearing trees and scrub for a tramroad that was to take the chutney in wagons to the coast. The day before the ground was due to be broken to open a tunnel for a drift mine, the samples of chutney that had gone to be assayed in Cardiff were discovered to be merely a jam mixed with peppers[4]. The telegraph lines went berserk as messages flew back from Cardiff about the worthless so-called chutney. Customs officers sped to the site and arrived in Glanamman only to find the mine buildings abandoned. The owners had taken all their money from the bank in Ammanford (still then known as Cross Inn) that morning and had fled.

There followed a desperate chase across Carmarthenshire, horse-borne customs officers racing after two stage coaches of Amman and Gwendraeth Valley Chutney Enterprise “managers”. They nearly caught up with them at Llandybie but were held up by a drover taking sheep to Llandeilo market. The ship (called ‘The Golden Duck’) with the fraudsters on board was just leaving Kidwelly docks as the customs men arrived at the waterside, only to watch them sailing into the sunset with the shareholders money. The shares which so many people had bought were worth absolutely nothing. As can be imagined, the reputation of the Amman Valley chutney industry was tainted for many years and held up its development, to the great advantage of the Jam and Marmalade magnates who bought up huge parts of the valley for next to nothing[5].

It is alleged that the ship with the fraudsters on board landed in South America, and that it was one of them that sold land rights in the Chubut Valley in Patagonia to fellow Welshmen who arrived later in the century in search of a better life[6]. They had been told by this fraudster that not only was the land rich with honey, but with jam and marmalade too. Another of these fraudsters (he preferred to be called an entrepreneur) tried to establish a trade taking Welsh emigres to Patagonia, then filling the ship up with lamas to take back to Wales. It was only partly successful.

It would not be until the 1850’s when new technology and the fading of the scandal into distant memory allowed for the expansion of the Amman Valley chutney industry, with the problems inherent in that.

[1] There had been some attempts to make 200 feet long ladders, notably by David Thomas, known as “Dai the Saw”, but there were problems finding trees tall enough, and then the difficulty in 2 men walking a 200 foot ladder along the turnpike roads without encountering the odd speeding wayward carriage (“Engineering and Carpentry of the South Wales Valleys”, E.V. Jones; Swanseashire University Press, 1986, p 28-35

[2] Notably round Sevenoaks, named after a “Stephen Nokes” who founded the village in the early 1250’s to provide housing and processing space for the 12 bell pits around the area (, “The Kent Jamboree”, Professor H. Higgins, Kent Free Press, 1953, p 15-64

[3] The introduction of the Chutney Cutter (much like their cousin the Tea Cutter) was not for another half a century. This would have cut the journey time drastically, and was another of the causes of the later slump in Welsh chutney production. “Money, Power and Preserves; The Growth of the Amman Valley Chutney Lords”, J.C. Thomas, Carmarthenshire Historian, XXVII, July 1958

[4] See “The Cambrian Daily”, 14 July 1828, Swansea, for a front page article on the discovery, as well as testimony of residents of Glanamman, and of Kidwelly who saw the later flight of the fraudsters.

[5] “Money, Power and Preserves; The Growth of the Amman Valley Chutney Lords”, J.C. Thomas, Carmarthenshire Historian, XXVII, July 1958

[6] Evan Meredith, an émigré from Merthyr Tydful, wrote in his memoirs of meeting a “very nice man, if a bit swarthy, of our own old country and tongue” at a bar in Buenos Aires who told him about the wonderful lush grass, and flowing streams of Patagonia that reminded him of his native Carmarthenshire. He had also spoken about being able to put your hands in the soil and pull out handfuls of fresh marmalade, that needed very little processing. Naturally Evan took him at his word and bought the deeds to 20 acres of what turned out to be pampas. Fine for cattle but not for preserves. “From Porth to Puerto Madryn; My Life in Patagonia”, translated by D.C. Jones, Carmarthenshire Historian, XXXIX, August 1967