Local people making their corner of rural Britain unique
This week
Saturday 1st September 2007
Helen Mark travels to the mouth of the River Towy in Carmarthenshire; the longest river in Wales.
The area Helen visits this week has been an inspiration to many artists and writers, including Dylan Thomas. The village in "Under Milk Wood" was written about the township of Laugharne, which sits on the estuary where the Towy mingles with the rivers Taf and Gwendraeth before joining the sea. Helen also visits Ginst Point, where artist Marianne Haycock enjoys the bleakness and solitude, and compares it to her homeland of Denmark. But it's not all arts-related: the Towy is a working river, the last place in the country where coracles and nets are still used in the traditional way for catching fish. Helen meets Raymond Rees, the last coracle-maker in a family line which can be traced back to when records began. She also learns about the patient art of angling; fishing guide Gethin Thomas has the "sane disregard for haste" his namesake Dylan wrote about.
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