Heritage

Current projects, news and events

Llansantffraed

St Ffraed's Church near Brecon has been chosen as one of the recording locations for award-winning composer Tim Pratt's new vocal compositions collection, inspired by the Welsh poet and physician, Henry Vaughan. Born in the parish of Llansantffraed in 1621, Vaughan's poetry was heavily inspired by the landscapes of the Usk Valley, and his works often allude to the relationship between the divine and the natural environment.

Following his death in 1695, Vaughan was buried under a simple flat tomb slab at the eastern end of the churchyard, and St Ffraed's continues draw pilgrims who want to see his grave and walk in the landscapes that he was so immersed in. When the war poet Siegfried Sassoon visited St Ffraed's in 1924, he was inspired to write 'At the Grave of Henry Vaughan' in which he describes Vaughan's unassuming resting place with the lines:

Above the voiceful windings of a river

An old green slab of simply graven stone

Shuns notice, overshadowed by a yew.

— Siegfried Sassoon, At the Grave of Henry Vaughan (1924)

Sassoon's poem is read every year at a special evensong service at St Ffraed's, where a wreath is also laid at the grave to celebrate Vaughan's life.