Aerofilms Collection project news

The Aerofilms Collection contains lots of early aerial photographs of Britian. Many of these historic images are facinating and I'm looking forward to creating some great web pages using the images to compare places in Wales across time. These images will spark many memories I'm sure. 



The Royal Commission is developing a project with English Heritage and RCAHMS to make the Aerofilms Collection of aerial photography accessible by conserving it, cataloguing it and putting the images online.  If you would you like to be kept up-to-date with this project, please send an e-mail to aerofilms@english-heritage.org.uk asking to join the mailing list and we will occasionally send you news and information by e-mail.  Your e-mail address given in this way won't be used for any other purpose.
A colleague has shown me some facinating images of a huge ordnance factory just outside Bridgend that were taken just after the war, and a series of images of Cardiff Arms Park at different points in its life.  I have chosen a couple of Aerofilm images to upload here to give you a flavour of the collection.  
The first is Cardiff Docks, taken in 1925. Here you can see part of Bute Town (bottom left), including Bute Cresent, George Street and Louisa Street. The oval shaped basin is Bute West Dock Basin, connected to Bute West Dock via a lock. Bute East Dock Basin is more rectangular in shape and connected to East Bute Dock, again via a lock.  

 
The second is an image of Gresford Colliery, Wrexham. This photograph was taken just a month after the terrible disaster at the mine in September 1934 when an explosion and subsequent fire killed 266 miners. 

Digital Past 2010

Preparations for Digital Past 2010 are now in full swing. This years’ conference is being hosted by the National Museum Wales at its St Fagans site, near Cardiff. Papers, seminars and practical training sessions covering the latest technical survey and interpretation techniques are on offer to those working in the archaeology, museum and heritage interpretation sectors. To see a list of confirmed papers and seminars check the Events Diary on the Royal Commission website and to register for the conference visit the see3d website.

These 2 images are stills from the reconstruction animations created from the digital surveys of the Chirk and Pontcysyllte Aqueducts. The animations were built by Commission investigators and See3D to support the World Heritage Site status bid for the Llangollen Canal.

The videos below were made to accompany the Hidden Histories II TV series.

Reconstruction Animations from Hidden Histories II

1. The Bridge, a sculpture by Jonah Jones - an animated reconstruction.




2. A virtual tour of Vivan Slate Quarry.

Hidden Histories II

The Commission has again been caught up in the excitement of another Hidden Histories television series. This second series focuses on recent work of the Commission and the items on the origins of the Stonehenge bluestones and the recently discovered site in Ceredigion, possibly a Roman villa, have aroused much interest and debate. This is great: research and debate is what the study of the past is all about. If you haven't yet seen any of the new episodes you can watch them on the BBC iplayer .

Recently some Commission staff attended a conference in Bath hosted by English Heritage. We discussed ways of improving our public and specialist services in the chilly climate of tighter budgets. I was interested to hear about Scotland's Rural Past, a project launched in 2006 which is hosted by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). The project works with local communities to research, record and promote the vanishing settlements and landscapes of Scotland's rural past. If you are interested in setting up a project to explore the history of where you live, take a look at the project website and be inspired.

Swansea city centre in the 1970s

A colleague has just passed me this newly digitised image of Swansea city centre taken in 1970. It shows the then newly-constructed subway and roundabout, which have recently been filled in as part of the redevelopment of the city centre. The image comes from the Central Office of Information Collection in the NMRW. This image collection is being digitised at the moment.

Underpass as Roman amphitheatre with a clinical twist.

Here is a link to the online exhibiton celebrating Swansea's 40th birthday as a city. Thanks for the comment letting us know about this.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal

There are many fantastic images of the aqueduct on Coflein, the Royal Commission's online database of archaeological and architectural sites in Wales. Take a look.