Tag: Strata Florida Abbey

  • How to make an icon

    How to make an icon

    The three of us were talking, as we strolled along the front at Porthcawl the other day, about modern icons.  J. had just been for a return visit to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, so the Angel of the North in Gateshead soon came up in the conversation.  Antony Gormley’s great weathered steel figure is over twenty-five years old,…

  • Stephen W. Williams, engineer, architect, archaeologist

    Stephen W. Williams, engineer, architect, archaeologist

    His name’s been familiar to me for years, but it’s only in recent months that I’ve got to know him better.  In May this year I happened to stay the night in Penralley House, his home in Rhayader, and earlier in our walk up the Wye we passed Bryn Wern, a country house he designed…

  • At Strata Florida: Gerald’s vision of male beauty

    At Strata Florida: Gerald’s vision of male beauty

    I’ve been reading the account written by Gerald of Wales of the tour he made, on horseback and on foot, around the perimeter of Wales in the year 1188.  The manuscript – there are actually three versions – is usually called the Itinerary through Wales, and it’s the earliest account of a long journey in…