Llantrisant Old Town Tours: Inspiring the Writer Within
AD – press trip
On Saturday we spent the day in our old home of Llantrisant with a guided tour from Dean Powell. These Llantrisant Old Town Tours are rumoured to be full of intrigue and gritty detail, so we were excited to take part!
Llantrisant Old Town Tours: Inspiring the Writer Within
We arrived on the Castle Green just before 3pm and met with Dean and other lovely bloggers. It was fab to be back in the gorgeous old town, the views and stunning scenery always blow my mind and it always feels like I’m on holiday whenever I visit as well as when we lived there!
We started off at the castle, learning about its history and the modern day upkeeping of the overgrown ivy and grass – goats! Yes, every year two goats take care of the castle ruin’s upkeep and they are soooooo cute!
Dean then walked us over to the churchyard and talked through the church and Swan Street; this was absolutely fascinating and there were some gruesome tales to be told! The history was fascinating and it really made us see our old home in a different light indeed…
After this we walked to the Bull Ring, discovered why it has this name and heard a little bit of history about the charming William Price.
The tour was very interesting, and as a writer, I left feeling quite inspired to write a little bit of historical fiction! This made me think about the ways in which we can use these kind of tours and create poems, stories, novels and more from these kind of cultural events…
How to Use Historical Tours to Inspire Writing
Here are some of my tips to use if you want to write creatively after attending a historical tour…
- Pick one element of the tour that really stood out to you. Write down all the words that come to mind about the story you want to tell and begin piecing them together as a poem or short story.
- Choose a character from the past and write their story. Really get into their head and imagine what it would have been like to have lived their life.
- Choose a historical moment (an execution, the plague etc) and write about how this time looked. Really focus on the vibe, the scenery, smells and textures and write it all down.
- Imagine you’re thrown back in time to a place described to you at the tour. What did it feel like to be there? What did you do? Who did you meet?
- Choose a photo from the day and write about it.
- Close your eyes whilst on the tour and think about what you can hear and smell, make a note of this. Open your eyes and write down all the things you can see. Write a story set in this time and place.
There are so many ways to use historical tours to inspire your writing, and you might end up developing your work into a collection of poems, short stories or a full length novel!
As for the Llantrisant Tour, it was fantastic and Dean was so incredibly passionate about Llantrisant and life in the old town, it was so inspiring. He also runs ghost tours for the more daring, and I’ve heard amazing things about these tours (I’m planning to book one soon!). You can find out more about our day in Llantrisant over on Rebel Tribe and check out the Llantrisant News Page.
Have you been on one of Dean’s guided tours in Llantrisant? What’s your favourite thing about them?
