He said a colleague told him the nature of the calls, and that “apparently we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave”.
“I said ‘Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?’
“I said ‘he’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious what are you talking about?’
“[The colleague] said ‘no it’s very, very serious’.”
Ludlam said he then discussed with planners “exactly how to reroute the cable so we wouldn’t go anywhere close to Dobby’s grave”.
He added: “A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going [ahead] and Dobby’s happy.”
The Bronze Age remains the cable went close to were mentioned in Pembrokeshire council planning documents, external about the power link.
It said archaeological trenches dug near the route of the underground cable “contained the rim of an inverted pottery vessel whose fabric suggests a Bronze Age collared urn circa 1700-1500BC, typically associated with human burial”.
The cable diversion is not the first time Dobby’s grave has been saved.
In 2022 the National Trust agreed it could remain in place following a consultation, but urged visitors not to leave souvenirs.
Fans were asked not to leave socks on the mock grave, made of pebbles with messages written on them, because the beach was environmentally sensitive.
