Nestled in the Margam Forest of South Wales, Hafod Grange was once the summer grazing area for stock kept by the Cistercian monks of Margam Abbey. Today the company named for the Grange makes its paperweights in workshops located in the renovated tithe barn, which dates to the 14th century.

Hafod Grange paperweights were born in 1968, when Barry Needham was challenged by a friend to encapsulate the ephemeral puff of a dandelion clock. He accomplished the task and went on to make more as a form of therapy for muscular dystrophy. After his death, the designs were refined by his brother, Alan, with the goal of building a business “to create the unusual, bordering on the impossible.”