St. Mary’s Church, Trefriw

Today we are talking about St Mary’s Church in Trefriw. Llanrhychwyn was also patronized and supported by Llywelyn Fawr. Why did he build another one? That’s the story we’re telling today, and it’s pretty simple, really. This area already had Llanrhychwyn, one of the oldest churches in all Wales, founded by St. Rhychwyn in the 6th century. We talked about it earlier in this season of videos. Llywelyn Fawr, who was the Prince of Wales, had many homes but came sometimes to his hunting lodge near Trefriw and in the early days always worshipped at the church at Llanrhychwyn. But, as anyone who has visited can’t help but notice, it’s quite a hike. Joan found the uphill walk to the church, followed by a steep descent, tiring. To please her, Llywelyn had St. Mary’s built at the bottom of the Read more…

If you were David, a time-traveling Prince of Wales . . .

My After Cilmeri series follows a family (two teenagers and a mom) who travel in time back to the Middle Ages.  One passage in Prince of Time prompted me think about all those products we buy here.  How many–were we to take them back with us to the Middle Ages–would truly prove useful?    Like David in the book, imagine walking into a pharmacy with a backpack and trying to decide with which items to fill it, if that was all you could take back in time.   David focuses primarily on medicines like antibiotics, antibiotic cream, and antihistimines.  Somewhere I read that we’ve lost more knowledge in the last 2000 years than we’ve gained, and while I don’t think that’s necessarily true, medieval people did have pharmaceuticals.  Many herbal remedies can be very effective.  Some of what they used even resemble what we have today.  Read more…