In "Life Beneath the Arch", Charles Arch traces his life at Strata Florida Abbey Farm among the hills of Ceredigion. There, Cictercian monks in the twelfth century established a holy order that was centred on agriculture, and set an agrarian pattern followed by generations of farmers.
Much of Charles' early farming was a continuation of the monks' methods, including shepherding the upper slopes and depending on horse and water power. Farming before the coming of tractors, Wellington boots and television, he witnessed the effect of the Second World War that brought GIs with their tanks , guns and chewing gum to the abbey fields. He recalls the dreadful snow blizzards of 1947.
Charles later distinguished himself as a pioneer among Young Farmers' Clubs activities and was, for years, the chief Welsh-language commentator at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells.
This is both a poignant and humorous account of life spent beneath the shadow of the great arch of Strata Florida Abbey.
