‘Six degrees of separation is the theory that any person on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.’
On the way from St Davids to Middle Mill we stopped at Whitchurch and took a short walk north along a footpath into the flat, open countryside spreading west to Carn Llidi and Penberry. We hadn’t gone far when we came to a wide stretch of concrete running north west – lines of weeds showed it had been poured in sections. This was not just some hardstanding for a farmer, but a remnant of something more significant: a fragment of the apron round the runways at RAF St Davids. The airfield opened in the late summer of 1943, for RAF Coastal Command.
Finding this unregarded historical trace gave an unexpected insight into the recent past of this remote part of Wales. More unexpected was the discovery that I, who have spent my life 300 miles to the east, am only three degrees of separation from a surveyor, who came here in those grim days to help build the airfield.