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LONDON (Reuters) - British police raided an English country pub this week in search of a stolen wooden relic believed by some to be the Holy Grail - a cup from which, according to the Bible, Jesus is said to have drunk at his final meal before crucifixion.

Digitized from the LP shown above, "Dylan Thomas Reading Volume 1," issued on the Caedmon label in 1964, catalogue number TC 1002. Recorded February 22, 1952 at Steinway Hall in New York.

Author Adam Ardrey claims that instead of the romantic English king of legend who lived at Camelot – which is often said to be Tintagel in Cornwall or in Wales – Arthur was actually Arthur Mac Aedan, the sixth-century son of an ancient King of Scotland, whose Camelot was a marsh in Argyll. He also suggests that Arthur pulled the sword Excalibur from a stone at Dunadd near Kilmartin, died near Falkirk and was buried on the Hebridean island of Iona, which he declares to be Avalon. Ardrey, an amateur historian who works as an advocate in Edinburgh and previously...

Archaeologist Steve Burrow made the discovery after reading a book by Sir Norman Lockyear published almost 100 years ago... Sir Norman - the man who discovered helium - had travelled to the site, otherwise known as the Hill of Black Grove, and measured the alignment of the sun at Easter... "I came across this reference in a book dating back to 1908 but nobody had checked it, nobody had gone and verified it in person," he said... Mr Burrow, a curator of Neolithic archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, delayed his book by a year to test the theory....

The Eiffel Tower is "frustratingly overcrowded and overpriced" while Stonehenge is "just a load of old rocks" according to a report which has named the top ten most disappointing tourist spots. The Eiffel Tower topped the blacklist The Louvre's Mona Lisa and New York's Times Square also have difficulty enticing tourists to rush back, the survey reveals. Even Egypt's great pyramids, the eighth wonder of the world, made the list of underwhelming and overrated attractions, because of the oppressive heat and the persistent hawkers. But top of the list was Paris's famous tower, which almost a quarter of the 1,000...

A geology team has contradicted claims that bluestones were dug by Bronze Age man from a west Wales quarry and carried 240 miles to build Stonehenge. In a new twist, Open University geologists say the stones were in fact moved to Salisbury Plain by glaciers. Last year archaeologists said the stones came from the Preseli Hills. Recent research in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology suggests the stones were ripped from the ground and moved by glaciers during the Ice Age. Geologists from the Open University first claimed in 1991 that the bluestones at one of Britain's best-known historic landmarks had...

Archaeologists figure out mystery of Stonehenge bluestones Jun 24 2005 Staff Reporter, Western Mail ARCHAEOLOGISTS have solved one of the greatest mysteries of Stonehenge - the exact spot from where its huge stones were quarried. A team has pinpointed the precise place in Wales from where the bluestones were removed in about 2500 BC. It found the small crag-edged enclosure at one of the highest points of the 1,008ft high Carn Menyn mountain in Pembrokeshire's Preseli Hills. The enclosure is just over one acre in size but, according to team leader Professor Tim Darvill, it provides a veritable "Aladdin's Cave"...

16 November 2006 Stonehenge ‘No Place for the Dead’, Says BU Expert Professor Timothy Darvill, Head of the Archaeology Group at Bournemouth University, has breathed new life into the controversy surrounding the origins of Stonehenge by publishing a theory which suggests that the ancient monument was a source and centre for healing and not a place for the dead as believed by many previous scholars. After publication of his new book on the subject - Stonehenge: The Biography of a Landscape (Tempus Publishing) - Professor Darvill also makes a case for revellers who travel to be near the ancient monument...

The tomb for the original builders of Stonehenge could have been unearthed by an excavation at a site in Wales.The Carn Menyn site in the Preseli Hills is where the bluestones used to construct the first stone phase of the henge were quarried in 2300BC. Organic material from the site will be radiocarbon dated, but it is thought any remains have already been removed. Archaeologists believe this could prove a conclusive link between the site and Stonehenge. The remains of a ceremonial monument were found with a bank that appears to have a pair of standing stones embedded in it....

Stonehenge was a site for sore eyes in 2300BC By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 2:48am GMT 27/11/2006 Stonehenge was the Lourdes of its day, to which diseased and injured ancient Britons flocked seeking cures for their ailments, according to a new theory. For most of the 20th century archaeologists have debated what motivated primitive humans to go to the immense effort of transporting giant stones 240 miles from south Wales to erect Britain's most significant prehistoric monument. Druids gather at Stonehenge for sunrise on the summer solstice. A new book suggests the gathering should take place in December...

Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge. It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument. But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson. The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire. For nine months Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University collected and identified...

One of the mysteries of Stonehenge is how some of its stones were brought from Pembrokeshire in Wales to Wiltshire. Photograph: I Capture Photography/Alamy For almost a century archaeologists have been braving the wind and rain on an exposed Welsh hillside in an attempt to solve one of the key mysteries of Stonehenge. But new research about to be published suggests that over the decades they may have been chipping away at the wrong rocky outcrop on the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. The work in the hills is a crucial element in the understanding of Stonehenge because it is generally...

<p>For centuries Stonehenge has mystified and enraptured archaeologists and visitors.</p> <p>So maybe it is not surprising that another monumental wonder from prehistory has been overlooked for so long – even though it is just a mile away.</p> <p>Experts have discovered an 'extraordinary' line of giant stones that dates back more than 4,500 years.</p>

An archaeologists analysis on how the construction of megalithic monuments in Atlantic Europe are not restricted to a single purpose, nor how they reflect one aspect of the community that built them... well-rounded evidence for practical and symbolic components of the early agricultural lifestyle within the Neolithic. Depictions in the architecture of these structures explore complex symbolism and the socio-ritual interactions where monuments offer places for gatherings... Megalithic monuments of Atlantic Europe have long attracted attention from those who are interested in the early past of mankind. The word megalith originates from the Greek, meaning ‘great stone’ and is used...

The study, published in the current issue of the journal Antiquity, indicates that two quarries in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire, in southwest Wales, are the source of Stonehenge’s bluestones. Carbon dating revealed such stones were dug out at least 500 years before Stonehenge was built — suggesting they were first used in a local monument that was later dismantled and dragged off to England. The very large standing stones at Stonehenge are sarsen, a local sandstone. The smaller ones, known as bluestones, consist of volcanic and igneous rocks, the most common of which are called dolerite and rhyolite. Geologists...

Liam Dutton, a meteorologist in the United Kingdom, shocked viewers earlier this week. Their surprise was not because of a forecast, but rather his ability to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch correctly live on air. The tongue-twisting Welsh village has online guides on how to pronounce the name and apparently has the longest specific single-word .com domain name in the world. However, Dutton’s impressive display of vocal dexterity may have really put it on the map.

Angry parents sending death threats on social media to their children's teachers, shocking survey reveals [ Full title ]. Parents are sending death threats to their children's teachers on social media, a shocking new survey has revealed. Three out of four teachers in in the U.K. have said parents’ behavior toward them has become more obnoxious in the last five years. The poll of 796 teachers in England and Wales also revealed that the parents of younger pupils tend to be more verbally aggressive to teachers. And teachers have been subjected to nasty comments about their appearance, weight and sexuality...

Update on new law on smoking in cars and other vehicles with someone under 18. From 1 October 2015 it will be illegal to smoke in a car (or other vehicles) with anyone under 18 present. The law is changing to protect children and young people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Both the driver and the smoker could be fined £50. The law applies to every driver in England and Wales, including those aged 17 and those with a provisional driving licence. The law does not apply if the driver is 17 years old and is on their own...

Picadilly (UK, 1929) Direced by E.A. Dupont. Cast: Anna Mae Wong, Jameson Thomas, Gilda Gray, Charles Laughton, Cyril Ritchard, Hannah Jones. "Just before making his talkie directorial debut with Atlantic, director E.A. DuPont dashed off the silent "backstage" drama Piccadilly. By the time the film was released in 1929, talking pictures had taken a firm hold of the British film industry, obliging DuPont to reshoot much of the picture with dialogue... Feeling threatened by Shosho, Mabel heads to her rival's apartment with blood in her eye. A shot rings out, Shosho falls dead, and Mabel is accused of murder...

Cardigan Council bosses have been struggling to find £22,500 needed to repair the four pay-and-display machines in the Welsh town's main carpark - much to the delight of shopkeepers who have reported a rush of shoppers enjoying hours of free parking. The vandalism has accidentally exposed the fact that parking meters, far from generating revenue for a town, appear to cripple trade and kill town centres. Locals and visitors to the picturesque town with a Norman castle have been thronging the town which had previously seen a dearth of shoppers due to having to pay for a limited amount of...