Latest news with #Laugharne
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Teen, 17, caught driving carelessly and without insurance
A 17-YEAR-OLD driver has been disqualified after admitting careless driving. The teenager – who cannot be named due to their age – was charged with two offences at Llanelli Magistrates' Court. They were accused of driving without due care and attention in Meidrim on April 22. The defendant was also accused of driving without a valid insurance policy on that date. The teenager, from the Laugharne area, pleaded guilty to both offences on July 29. They were sentenced to pay a £461 fine, £85 in costs, and a £26 surcharge, and was banned from driving for 55 days.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Gary Jones obituary
My friend Gary Jones, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 64, was a steelworker, socialist and local councillor. A perfect example of the Welsh working-class autodidact, Gary immersed himself in military history, read voraciously and, it seemed, always had pocketfuls of leftwing badges which he would hand out to anyone. Gary and I first met at the Laugharne Weekend festival in the town on which Dylan Thomas modelled 'Llaregggub' in Under Milk Wood. As there's no green room, the punters and performers mingle all weekend, and consequently the same people come each year. That's how we became friends, albeit just for a weekend a year, though you can fit a lifetime into an hour over a few pints in a Welsh pub. Born in Gwent, Gary was the eldest of the three children of Yvonne Hawkins, a shop assistant, and Robert Jones, a steelworker. His father wanted to call him Yuri Gagarin Jones, but was persuaded by a sober-minded registrar to name him after Gary Cooper instead. After Ebbw Vale grammar school, Gary joined his father in the local steelworks as a tinplater, remaining there until it closed in 2002, when he relocated with his family to Llangennech in Carmarthenshire to work at the Trostre steelworks until his retirement in 2019. Aged 15, Gary joined the Young Socialists, becoming a full member of the Labour party three years later, and remained one for the rest of his life. In Llangennech he embraced village life, being elected to the local community council, serving for a year as chair. He also represented Llangennech and Bryn on Carmarthenshire unitary council. During the 2024 general election (undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver), Gary earned brief notoriety at a hustings when he made a Nazi salute to a far-right Ukip candidate, Stan Robinson, after Robinson had expressed admiration for General Franco. Asked to leave, Gary then apologised to the security staff. Neither I nor any of Gary's many friends were remotely surprised or shocked. He was a passionate analyst of leftwing history, his Twitter handle being 'Poumista' after Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Poum), the anti-Stalinist socialist party George Orwell joined up with in the Spanish civil war. We last met at this year's festival. He gave me a badge. I gave him a book (I also portrayed him in several festival posters). He died seven weeks later, a prospect he spoke of with calm nobility. Gary is survived by his wife, Cara (nee Evans), a trainer for Carmarthenshire school staff on computer systems and data protection, now retired, whom he married in 1985, their daughters, Molly and Rowen, his sister, Dawn, and his brother, David.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘A gardener's dream itinerary': a tour of Carmarthenshire, the Garden of Wales
Driving the back roads of Carmarthenshire in spring, beneath broad oaks, over little stone bridges and along stretches of fertile woodland, windswept peatland and flowery meadows, I was reminded of the rudimentary treasure maps I loved drawing as a child. The ones composed of contrasting, caricatured environments spaced neatly within the concise contours of a fictional island, say, bearing labels like Wild Wood, Barren Bog and Misty Hills. Enticing though these untamed landscapes are, I'm in search of a different kind of bounty. Beyond its green, green hills, castles, beaches and historic market towns (not least Dylan Thomas's Laugharne), Carmarthenshire is also considered the Garden of Wales – which was news to me, despite family ties to the area. I've visited some of these botanical highlights over the years, such as Aberglasney Gardens for their tonal variety and the National Botanic Garden with its astounding glasshouse. But with ever more tempting places to eat, sleep and ramble within this corner of Wales, I've often thought of composing a gardener's dream itinerary: a handful of the county's best gardens, a forest walk, an inviting pub or two, and somewhere lovely to stay the night. This spring I finally got around to road testing it. The first thing to figure out was the all-important base from which to explore the county. Equidistant between the towns of Carmarthen and Llandeilo, forming the apex of a Carmarthenshire triangle, is the pretty village of Brechfa: a clutch of stone cottages, a community shop, pub and chapel below a forested hillside and beside the frothing River Cothi. It's also the home of Tŷ Mawr, a Grade II-listed country hotel and restaurant that prides itself on its dining, spacious rooms (Tŷ Mawr means big house), dog-friendliness and a location at once 'in the middle of nowhere yet close to everywhere'– which was certainly true for the purposes of my visit, with all waypoints little more than 20 minutes' drive away. Welcoming my wife and I at the end of our M4 slog from Hampshire was hotelier David, who with his partner, Gill, took the reins of Tŷ Mawr in 2022. After breakfast, there was a temptation to savour the hotel's own apple-blossomed garden and terrace, but our first location beckoned: Abergwili's Bishop's Park and Gardens. Now managed by the Tywi Gateway Trust, charitable investment has helped to rejuvenate this relic site on the outskirts of Carmarthen (also the home of the Carmarthenshire Museum), while the restored grounds encompass a planted woodland walk, a water meadow and lake, and specimen trees once the pride of the resident bishops, including monkey puzzles and dawn redwoods. At its heart is the Jenkinson Garden: a series of intensively gardened 19th century-themed beds, which head gardener Blue Barnes-Thomas infuses with vibrant plug-ins – tulips and crocuses for spring, umbels and sweet peas for summer. Walking me around the site, he explained the next steps in the renewal project, including renovating its 18th-century walled garden with new pathways, accessible greenhouses and heritage gooseberries. Lunch was at Wright's in Llanarthney. Owned and run by food writer Simon Wright, together with his wife, Maryann, it offers a chic, pared-down menu of elaborate flavours, and a lovely asparagus salad. If you sampled a glass too many of the robust house wine, the good news is that Aberglasney Gardens is only a stone's throw across the Tywi valley, its floral exuberance and plant diversity a kind of intoxication in itself. Much like Bishop's Park, Aberglasney is a story of successful regeneration: a crumbling mansion and a four-hectare (10-acre) garden painstakingly and beautifully resuscitated, opening to the public in 1999. Featuring alpine, kitchen and Elizabethan cloister gardens, meadows crammed with fritillaria and camassia, an indoor ninfarium and a walled garden reimagined by garden designer Penelope Hobhouse, the place is a genuine wonder. In 2011, Kew-trained head gardener Joseph Atkin was appointed to continue the garden's evolution, which saw Aberglasney develop into one of the finest formal gardens in the UK. A few years ago, Atkin hung up the trowel and opened a pub – The Plough – up the road in Felingwm, where you can find relaxed, wood-fired dining, Welsh ales and – if you're cheeky enough to ask – a little gardening advice on the side. On into the afternoon sun, which only intensified the lush profusion, and 'up country' to Llandysul, as no garden itinerary is complete without an independent plant nursery – and here lies one of the greats. Spanning 1.2 hectares of polytunnels, open stock yards and shopfront, Farmyard Nurseries is known for its eclectic, hardy plants, including an expansive collection of exquisite hellebores. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion But its best-kept secret is the woodland garden at the back. This is where nursery owner Richard Bramley and his team have let fancies run feral. Japanese maples and bright rhododendrons spill over narrow woodchip pathways, while drifts of spring ephemerals and shade-loving perennials (such as yellow comfrey and, indeed, many of the nursery's hellebores) spread out below the deciduous canopy. Buried within are further surprises: a wildlife pond and a Tolkienesque lath and plaster hut – a whimsical, after-hours project Richard told me was contrived as they went along. We left Farmyard Nurseries with a crate of the liquorice-scented agastache 'Blackadder' and a scarlet aquilegia I've long sought. If floral yearnings aren't satiated at this point in the day, on the way back to Brechfa, you could drop into Norwood Gardens and Tea Rooms, which offers a range of Mediterranean, woodland and bog plantings. But we were keen to get back in time for the three-course dinner at Tŷ Mawr, featuring butter bean cassoulet and braised hake. Our meal plans were almost scuppered, however, when our car broke down on the Llandysul to Brechfa road, high on the lofty peat moor above Tŷ Mawr. The dramatic remoteness of the location was actually quite comical – we couldn't have picked a more isolated spot for an alternator failure (here's a tip: if it sounds like something just fell out of your engine, reconsider crossing barren moorland). Owing to the kindness of a local mechanic, we were back at the hotel within an hour or so, leaning into a mushroom paté starter. A slower pace on day two allowed for a wander along one of Brechfa's many surrounding forestry trails, managed by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). We opted for the Keepers Riverside Trail, its abundance of pale pink cuckoo flowers leading down a misty, gorse-lit track into shafts of morning sunlight. There are numerous mountain bike and riding trails here also, though NRW are still working to reopen the Brechfa Forest Garden – an experimental forestry plot established in the late 1950s that now makes for an impressive coniferous arboretum – after storm damage. You can then take the road south, crossing the River Tywi once more, for the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Resist making straight for the Great Glasshouse perched at the top of the hill – the largest single-span glasshouse in the world. Instead, let that be the encore and take your time meandering up – via the daylily-lined lake and the deep herbaceous beds; the Japanese, walled, kitchen and boulder gardens; and the orchid-filled tropical house. And once in the vast glasshouse, enjoy the snaking pathways that lead through geographically themed zones displaying the likes of Australian banksia, South African protea and magnificent Macaronesian echium. The garden's progressive aspirations include reversing the decline of Welsh-native flora and getting every school child in Wales engaged with nature. A new cycle path, already partially opened, is due to be completed this autumn, connecting most of the locations mentioned here. Beginning at Bishop's Park and tracing a former railway track through the scenic Tywi valley, you can jump off for the botanic gardens, Wright's and Aberglasney, and do away with the car altogether. The trip was provided by Discover Carmarthenshire and Tŷ Mawr Hotel and Restaurant (doubles from £140 B&B). Lunch was hosted at Wright's
