In the 1850s, George Lloyd and his blind father, John, eked out an existence at Graig Fawr, (just under an acre of land with a small cottage) part of Y Graig, now an abandoned community, on the banks of Llanwenath Hill near Abergavenny. 

The family had kept a few animals on the property for which they had not, in living memory, paid rent to anyone, and believed they were entitled to live there. No action was taken for example against John’s mother, Gwenllian, when she had refused to pay rents thirty years earlier.

In August 1855, Sir Joseph Bailey, Ironmaster of Glanusk - one of the wealthiest men in the country - and Rev. Richard Davies of Cwrt y Gollen, the Archdeacon of Brecon Cathedral, asserted their ownership of Y Graig and brought a case of trespass against the Lloyds. They won and the judge imposed damages of forty shillings on the Lloyds. 

Clearly unable to pay the debt, soon afterwards the Lloyds were detained as Prisoners of Debt in the gaol at Monmouth. Records indicate that on 16 April 1860 John Lloyd, then aged about 67, had been there for over four years. There is no evidence of them ever regaining their freedom.