WHEN giants with a taste for elephant flesh and drinking rivers used to rule Abergavenny, it was a radically different place. There was no Waitrose, and Castle Meadows was the cabbage patch of a high-ranking giant named Blor.

The Blorenge is, of course, named after Blor. Translated from the old giant tongue, ‘enge’ means throne. Hence the name, Blor’s Throne. From his mountaintop vantage point, Blor would survey his kingdom with tears in his eyes. Not because he suffered from depression, but because he really wanted to live by the sea.

Blor and the other giants have long since disappeared into myth and memory, but his throne remains - imperial and commanding.

The above may or may not be all that factual, but it’s sometimes nice to give a tweaker’s perspective on an old picture.

Now, (yawn), here comes the cold, hard facts!

The photo in question was taken in 1937 when the railway bridge was still in existence, and Llanfoist Cemetery had only been in place for a little over 40 years. Look how empty it looks!

The cemetery was officially opened in 1894, and it was not all smooth running.

The Chronicle reported that it was common at first for funeral parties to arrive and the grave still hadn’t been dug.

The reporter wrote, “Last week, a very painful circumstance attended an interment at the cemetery. The funeral party arrived to find that the grave had not been prepared and that the digging of it had not even commenced. After a delay of about two hours, the solemn ceremony was proceeded with, ‘It is said that this is not the first occasion on which a delay has occurred recently.’”

The railway bridge in the picture is no more. It was pulled down in 1963 and exported to Malaya of all places.

That tree by the entrance to Castle Meadows is also no longer there, but such is life!