[image error] On each New Year's Eve a celebrity 'mystery runner' lays a wreath on the grave of Guto Nyth Bran in the churchyard of St Gwynno's, Llanwonno, before lighting a flaming torch and running with it to the village of Mountain Ash where races are then held to see in the coming year. They trace their origins to an extraordinary man whose story goes back almost 300 years.

Guto Nyth Bran was born Griffith Morgan in the Rhondda valley in 1700. As the son of a sheep farmer he spent much of his childhood ...