Stories about witches are found all over the world - during the 16th and 17th centuries a "witch craze" in Europe saw over 100,000 people, mainly women, accused of witchcraft and executed by secular government and the church.
Yet there were relatively few witch trials in Wales, with only five Welsh witches being executed for their supposed crimes. With great reliance placed on the power of the wise man or the wise woman, witchcraft in Wales had long been connected to healing.
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Strange as it may seem, there was little attempt at censorship during the First World War, the monitoring of mail from the trenches invariably being left to the officers in charge of the various units. Thanks to things like the many officers and other ranks came from the same towns, even the same villages, and Welsh soldiers often wrote home with stories of dreadful conditions and terrible battles.
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These days we live in a world of investigative journalism - much of it not very palatable. But back in the 1930s, when the term hadn't even been invented, one Welshman used his pen to expose what was, in effect, a holocaust of major proportions.
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The man in question was Gareth Jones, a young journalist from Barry, and the manmade disaster he wrote about was the famine in the Ukraine.
Gareth Jones reading. (Image provided by www.margaretcolley.co.uk)
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Looking for things to do this weekend? You could experience the thrill of an underground guided tour at Dolaucothi Goldmines in Carmarthenshire or fill your lungs with fresh sea air in the tiny harbour at Stackpole Quay - and it won't cost you a penny!
is giving everyone a bonus this spring by opening its doors for free this weekend on 20 - 21 March, 2010.
In Wales, the National Trust cares for 140 miles of coastline and vast swathes of beautiful countryside. Their properties range from workers' cottages toÌýstately homes, and from mines and mills to theatres and inns.
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Powis Castle, Welshpool.Ìý One of the properties offering free accessÌýthis weekend.
If you want to make the most of the 'bonus time' weekend and gain free access to National Trust properties, you will need to download a voucher from the Trust's website at .
Note - All pay for entry properties and countryside and coastal car parks that are normally open over Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 March will be participating in the Free Weekend offer. There will be a number of excluded properties - information can be found at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
Many people across the country have cause to be grateful to the youth clubs that provided - and still provide - activities and education, in the broadest sense, for young people. In later years many of these clubs were funded and run by local authorities but at the beginning of the 20th century the foundation of a boys' club movement in Wales gave youth care a decided boost.
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Ralph Hancock, born in Cardiff in the year 1893, was undoubtedly the Capability Brown of the domestic and city garden - and yet, these days, virtually nobody has heard of this Welsh gardening genius.
Sabatini Garden designed by Ralph Hancock
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On Sunday 12 March, 1950, a plane packed with jubilant Welsh rugby fans returning from Dublin crashed at Llandow, in the Vale of Glamorgan, claiming the lives of 80 people. At the time it was the world's worst air disaster.
Only three people survived the crash. On the 60th anniversary of the tragedy, Wales News Online has an interview with survivor , now 84, and a on the disaster.
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Tonight on Wales and the History of the World (Wednesday 10 March, 7.30pm, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One Wales), Eddie Butler focuses on the Welsh innovator behind the world's first sleeping bag.
Pryce Jones (1834 -1920) was a true entrepreneur. He's considered to be the father of mail order shopping. In the 1860s he produced the world's first mail order catalogue which took advantage of the expanding new railways and postal systems.
His marketing innovation made him a wealthy man with hundreds of thousands of customers, and a business that boasted Queen Victoria and other European Royals as customers. He built the Royal Welsh Warehouse, which still dominates the Newtown skyline, to house his worldwide mail order business.
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Nowhere in Wales is more than 60 miles from the sea. So it's hardly surprising that our history - and our coastline - is littered with stories about smugglers.
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Even now smugglers retain a romantic image. "I like a smuggler," said Charles Lamb, "he's the only honest thief." What he was railing against, of course, was the imposition of customs duties on essential products like salt and luxury goods such as brandy and tobacco - as was the irascible Dr Johnson who declared, "The only thing worse than a smuggler is the excise man who tries to catch him!"
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The financial crises of the past few years and, in particular, the near collapse of several banks and building societies undoubtedly rocked our social and economic world. But problems like that are nothing new, they have been with us for years.
These days when we think of banks we think of the big five, the major establishments that we see every day on the High Street. However, Britain - and Wales in particular - was once awash with small banks. Almost every town or village had its bank, local enterprises run and backed by local investors. These small banks - establishments like the Bala Bank of north Wales, Woods Bank of Cardiff or the Aberystwyth and Tregaron Bank - were invariably linked to the trade or economy of their area.
Bank note from the Aberystwyth & Tregaron Bank. It was known as 'Banc y Ddafad Ddu' or 'Bank of the Black Sheep'.
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This year the celebrates its 200th anniversary. Its editor, Cathryn Ings, is hoping to locate the very first edition, which was printed on 3 March 1810. Only about 1,000 copies were ever printed, so it would be a rare find indeed if one should come to light.
For 200 years the Carmarthen Journal has covered some of the most profound social and political changes in Wales as well as world events - including the Napoleonic wars and the Rebecca Riots.
Roy Noble will be talking to Cathryn Ings, editor of the Carmarthen Journal about the newspaper on Friday 3 March, from 2pm on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Wales.
Why should a 150-year old tin of carrots and a model of a guillotine hold a special place in the history of Wales? We asked Christina Macaulay, executive producer of Wales and the History of the World (which starts tonight, Wednesday 3 March, 7.30pm on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One Wales) how the production team set about selecting objects for this new four-part series.
Feather painted by Captain Will Nelson in 1898. One of Christina Macaulay's favourite objects from Wales and the History of the World.
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Did you know that the wheel - well the spare wheel - was the invention of two brothers from Llanelli? Or that the first ever passenger railways train was Welsh?
A new four-part history documentary, Wales and the History of the World begins tomorrow, Wednesday 3 March, 7.30pm on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One Wales. Presented by Eddie Butler, the former Welsh international rugby player turned broadcaster, the programme tells some remarkable stories of how Welsh creativity and invention has transformed the world.
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A quarter of a century ago, on March 3 1985 the miners' strike, one of the most acrimonious industrial disputes in Britain, came to an end. This clip from a ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales documentary Last Pit In The Rhondda shows the men of the Maerdy Colliery marching back to work after the year-long strike.
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| 09:31 UK time, Thursday, 25 March 2010
