St Beuno's and Rupert Davies

We had a very interesting find on our travels today. We set off towards the Lleyn Peninsular, going over the mountain from Bala to Trawsfynydd and somewhere en route, we came across a little village called Pistyll and a tiny chapel, whose sign proclaimed that it was called St Beuno's. I was aware of the Jesuit church and retreat centre of the same name near St Asaph, so I was curious to see this one, not Catholic but Church in Wales. We got out of the car, wandered through the little cemetery, where many of the gravestones were inscribed in welsh, and found the door of the chapel. I tried the handle, fully expecting it to be either locked or to open onto a derelict building but what a surprise! Inside was a fully furnished chapel, complete with a dressed altar, pews, font and even a visitor's book. As you can see from the weblink, it is kept decorated with herbs etc throughout the year, so the last time it was decorated would have been early August. Stepping into the chapel was like stepping into a moment frozen in time; it reminded me of Miss Haversham's house in 'Great Expectations' yet it seemed well cared for and not a bit neglected. Unfortunately, there was no-one around to talk to about it so we had to wait until
Outside in the cemetery, another surprise awaited us. We looked at some of the more recent gravestones and suddenly discovered Rupert Davies' grave. If you were born since the 1960's his name may not mean much to you, but for us, he symbolises the 60's TV series of Maigret in which he played the title role. Looking on the internet this evening, we discovered that he was also one of the voices on the puppet series 'Joe 90' which I didn't know before.
So, all in all, an interesting day out and to finish it off, there was a lovely rainbow on the way home.
To see today's photos, look at my Webshots album, Bala and Black Rock. There are a few photos of the chapel and cemetery there too.