The Great Pottery Throw Down judge Keith Brymer Jones has told how he and his partner are to marry in their north Wales chapel home after he proposed to her "on Welsh soil". Jones said he and actor Marj Hogarth, who are renovating a Grade II-listed chapel in Pwllheli, were on tour "and I just thought I ought to really propose to her on Welsh soil". He proposed during their show at the New Theatre in Cardiff, and "the idea is to get married in the main hall some time in May of next year".
The ceramicist also said there were a lot of derelict chapels across Wales and "we need to repurpose these buildings and give them a new lease of life". Jones has previously said he felt the move to Wales was like coming back to his "roots" as his parents were from Swansea and Cardiff. He said Wales had inspired him to get into ceramics, with his mum having had a passion for pottery too.
He told BBC Radio Wales that he remembered driving down Welsh country lanes in search of pottery when he was growing up. Jones and Hogarth, an actor, bought 163-year-old Capel Salem on the Llŷn Peninsula in 2022 and have been transforming it into their dream home, alongside a pottery studio and community space. Jones said he found Capel Salem while "trawling the internet" and he and Hogarth drove up to see it the following day and "fell in love with the place".
He said the Grade II-listed 8,500sq ft building was their "forever home" and in "quite a magical place" on the north Wales coast, with Pwllheli overlooking Eryri and Yr Wyddfa. "We've been living there for about a year and a half and we absolutely love it," he said, adding that the community in Pwllheli had been "absolutely amazing". Jones said they were now redoing the roof of the main chapel because they wanted to try to get it up and running as a multi-purpose exhibition and performance space by next year.
The couple are about half way through their renovations, which have included repurposing the Sunday school room as a pottery studio, and he said they hoped to recruit local apprentices to boost the local economy. The couple's ongoing renovations are being documented in Channel 4 show, Our Welsh Chapel Dream. Fitness became an addiction that left me anxious and sleep deprived Russell T Davies says he gets daily hate messages for supporting trans rights Babydoll singer gives Wales its first UK number one in 15 years
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