Vivian Slate Quarry, Llanberis, North Wales - Royal Commission Animation

An animation with sub-titles, reconstructing the history and work of Vivian slate quarry which formed part of the extensive Dinorwic group of quarries. It opened in 1869 during the boom years of the slate industry when Wales dominated the world markets.

Royal Commission YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RCAHMWales

If you would like to purchase a high-resolution copy of the animation or have any other enquiries regarding the work of the Royal Commission, or the collections held in the National Monuments Record of Wales, please contact:

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales,

Plas Crug,

Aberystwyth,

SY23 1NJ

Tel: +44(0)1970 621200

Website: www.rcahmw.gov.uk

E-mail: nmr.wales@rcahmw.gov.uk

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Commission’s Animation Film shown in Tokyo

On 14 June 2014 the Commission’s animation of workers housing and associated church, chapel and public house, at the World Heritage site in Blaenavon, was shown to an audience of more than 200 people at an international conference in Tokyo.

The conference celebrated the great achievement of the rapid industrialisation that followed the ending of Japan’s 200-year policy of self-imposed isolation from 1639.  This had been effectively ended when the American Pacific Fleet under Admiral Perry had entered Nagasaki harbour in 1853.  There was an immediate recognition by some Japanese that they had to acquire western technical knowledge if they were to survive as an independent nation. Five young Japanese from leading families in local clans subsequently visited London, their tutor had been executed for leaving Japan without being given the ruling shogun’s permission.

The Briton, Thomas Glover of the Jardine Matheson Bank, eventually arrived in Nagasaki to participate in the business partnerships that were developing to modernise Japan. On the way he helped the local clans depose the retrograde shogun.

Glover’s house and most of the other sites that form a World Heritage bid, which shows the first large-scale transfer of modern technology from a western to an eastern country, are in the Nagasaki area.  There was a large technical and business input from Britain into these processes.

A main adviser of the present World Heritage bid was the late Stuart Smith, a former Welsh Royal Commissioner who died in May, and who was my predecessor as Secretary of the International Committee on the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH). TICCIH are advisors to the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and UNESCO, on industrial World Heritage sites.

The Welsh Royal Commission has become an expert and valued advisors on the preparation of World Heritage bids in Wales, having spent two, then six years, preparing the successful Blaenavon and Pontcysyllte World Heritage nominations respectively. It led the 2009 Pontcysyllte bid and is preparing the present slate industry bid, for which it is preparing further animations.

A previous interpretation film of the building of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has been shown in China at a consultation on international canal studies, during the preparation for World Heritage status of the 1000 miles long Grand Canal of China, which was inscribed in June this year.

The government and authorities in both Japan and China have been funding advice co-ordinated by both TICCIH & ICOMOS from across the world; two members of staff from Historic Scotland were also present in Tokyo.

The value placed on this co-operation is shown by the fact that over 1500 people attended the conference reception in Tokyo at which the Japanese Prime Minister and several of his Cabinet were present.
 
The Blaenavon and Pontcysyllte Animations can be viewed on the Royal Commission’s site on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZUg94GMp3s and www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqeCu6jd9W0  respectively, and are also shown in the World Heritage Interpretation Centres at both sites.

Stephen Hughes, TICCIH Secretary.


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The Atlanterra Project I: the Development of Interpretative Animation & International Slate Studies

The development and international diffusion of innovatory survey and presentation techniques was one of the objectives of the four year Atlanterra: Green Mines Project which was brought to a conclusion in the early months of 2014.  The Project Partners also laid the foundations for international studies of the building-stone and slate industries.

The first four months of 2014 saw the culmination of a four year project that examined the valorisation of the mining heritage and laid the foundations for World Heritage Studies of the Building-stone and slate industries. It examined the mining heritage from both a geological and archaeological/historical viewpoint and explored how to showcase this heritage using the application of new digital technologies. As a result The Royal Commission recently won the first Peter Neaverson Award for Digital Innovation given by the British Association for Industrial Archaeology for its animation of world’s largest early/mid 19th century copper works - Hafod Copperworks in Swansea, south Wales, U.K. which can be viewed online at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y8DAXaMihc. Other industrial archaeological interpretative animation films can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/RCAHMWales .

The two surviving engine sheds and rolling machinery at the Hafod Copper Works site. Crown Copyright: RCAHMW

Utilising a wealth of survey carried out by the RCAHMW and their in-house expertise in industrial archaeology, combined with historic images from the West Glamorgan Record Office and Swansea Museum, the animation recreates the detail of buildings, machinery and processes on the site as well as a sense of the highly industrial nature of the Lower Swansea Valley in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The establishment of authenticity by analytical survey must underpin both the conservation and presentation of internationally important industrial archaeology sites as discussed in Stephen Hughes, 2011 ‘Authenticity and Conservation in World Heritage’ in ICOMOS  China, Wuxi Forum on the Conservation of China’s Cultural Heritage, Conservation of Heritage Canals: Material for Academic Exchanges (ICOMOS China, Wuxi, 2011), 9-13.

Stills from the animation. Crown Copyright: RCAHMW

The Atlanterra: Green Mines II European Inter-regional Project was formed in February 2010 by a group of geological, archaeological, tourism and regeneration organisations from France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Wales led by the municipality of Noyant-la-Gravoyère. An understanding of historic mining fields can only be achieved by a determination of their geological structure considered together with their archaeological remains. Cosequently the project partners have included the Instituto Geologico y Minero de España (IGME), the Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia of Portugal (LNEG) and the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI). The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) has led on the archaeological objectives that included the demonstration and diffusion of digital and laser-scanning techniques.

Some 19 project blogs, describing the survey work undertaken, some based on the former centre of the world slate industry in the mountains of north Wales were posted here at http://heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.com/  including  ‘2011/10/atlanterra-project-business-meeting.html’ , ‘2010/10/survey-at-maenofferen-slate-quarry.html’ and ‘2010/8/periant-arbrofol-codi-cwch-camlas.html’ [i.e. looking for an 18th century canal boat lift]. The slate industry was identified as being of international importance in S. R. Hughes, D. Gwyn & J. Alfrey,  2010, ‘Wales in the Industrial and Modern Period (Post 1750), Review of the Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales, 7pp.’ at http://www.archaeoleg.org.uk/pdf/reviewdocs/industrialreview.pdf.

Laser-scanning of a significant site such as that carried-out in the Vivian Slate Quarry, part of one of the world’s biggest nineteenth-century mountain terraced slate quarries of Dinorwig, Llanberis, north Wales can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1Gf1LY2Ms. These laser-scans of large industrial landscapes can simply be used to produce on-line ‘fly-throughs’ and seem to have an almost magical other-worldly feel that draws new audiences to go and explore these sites for themselves. The Royal Commission also commissioned an equally attractive scan of an underground mine-pumping waterwheel in a lead mine in mid Wales which can be viewed online at http://welshminestrust.org/ystrad-einion.

This work helped inspire our Atlanterra project partners to produce their own ‘fly-through’ films.  One has just been produced by the Copper Coast Geopark in County Waterford in Ireland of the conserved copper mine engine-houses on the cliff at Tankardstown and can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcqZfnXcJjk. Another has a fly-through of the remaining dry underground tunnels and mineral formations in the mine. This includes a 3D digital representation of all the levels, shafts and tunnels ever worked in the mine constructed from the historical mine plans archive held by the Geological Survey of Ireland. This can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1w1sBfbN1s. The tours also encourage cultural tourism from the Copper Coast Geopark Centre (http://www.coppercoastgeopark.com) where they can be viewed on-site.

The digital and laser surveys have helped produce high quality results upon which animators can build 3D models conveying reliable information to cultural tourists. The Royal Commission’s initial animation of the building of the World Heritage Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in north Wales available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqeCu6jd9W0, produced in 2009, lacked a sound track. The Hafod Copper Works animation has soundtracks in the English and Welsh languages http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2jH8D_0iV0 and as well as being available on youtube these animations are shown at the Pontcysyllte World Heritage Visitor Centre, the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea and by the Swansea Riverboat Trust. The Hafod Animation also has character animations of copper-workers.

The Geological Survey of Ireland subsequently produced a visualisation of the copper-ore dressing-floors at Knockmahon and the Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia of Portugal has produced an animation of historical conical-shaped copper-roasting structures in use as part of the Teleiras mining process at Aljustrel.

The design and distribution of workers’ housing and settlements were also compared as part of the Atlanterra Project (online database of workers housing in Wales is available as part of ‘Coflein’ at www.coflein.gov.uk). In Wales animations of the key 1790s ironworkers ‘Bunkers Row’ Houses & institutional buildings at Blaenavon World Heritage Site (south Wales) was produced and can be viewed online in English at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZUg94GMp3s and in the Welsh-language at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIV21l-Mw1Q. Both films are now shown on-site at the World Heritage Centre in Blaenavon. The animations show clearly how urban ideas of designing ‘back-to-back’ houses from the English west Midlands were imported to rural south Wales with the influx of both capital and key workers to the region. They also show how the iron workers built their own protestant Welsh-language chapels in the Italianate style to distinguish them from the gothic English-language Anglican churches provided by the ironmasters. The international background to this has been discussed in S. R. Hughes, 2010, ‘Attitudes to Religion, Education, and Status in Worker Settlements: The Architectural and Archaeological Evidence from Wales’, in M. C. Beaudry & J. Symonds (Ed.), Interpreting the Early Modern World: Transatlantic Perspectives (Springer, New York, in series C.E. Orser (Ed.) Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology, 2010), 197-225.  The international context has been expanded upon in Stephen Hughes, 2011 ‘The Architecture of Nonconformist Christian Religion and National Identity’ in P. Bellamy & Guarin Montpetit (Ed.), Religion: Beliefs, Theories and Societal Effects, (Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2011), 1-33 (2011).

International exchanges and visits to key slate-quarrying and mining sites were held during two international conferences held as part of the Atlanterra Project in 2012: at Plas Tan-y-Bwlch in north Wales (in conjunction with ICOMOS-UK) and at Nantes in France. Papers from the latter conference are available in Atlanterra, ‘Valorisation du Patrimoine Minier’ Actes du Colloque18 et 19 Septembre 2012, Nantes (Noyant-la-Gravoyère, 2013).

Animations of two of the major slate-quarrying and mining sites at Maenofferen Blaenau Ffestiniog and Vivian’s Quarry at the Dinorwig slate-quarrying complex have been produced as part of the Atlanterra Project and will be available at http://www.youtube.com/user/RCAHMWales. An animation of the railway inclined-planes at the Vivian’s Slate Quarry is already available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUUAfQOnDnk.

During discussions with partner organisations it was decided that previous animations of sites such as the Hafod Copper Works lacked photographs showing the present state of the works. The latest slate animations address this deficiency by including both terrestrial and aerial photographs of the sites and landscapes. They also use an alternative narrative methodology by using sub-titles rather than spoken narratives.

In 2012 the Atlanterra project also sponsored the Royal Commission’s annual international conference on digital innovation Digital Past (details at www.rcahmw.gov.uk). Part of the output of that conference was the Atlanterra sponsored booklet Rhannu Ein Gorffennol Digidol: Sharing Our Digital Past (RCAHMW, Aberystwyth, 2012) to give guidance on current digital innovations and their use. Much of this is available online at: http://www.slideshare.net/trompet/sharing-our-digital-past-digital-innovation-at-the-royal-commission-1-of-2. One very useful survey tool is aerial laser-scanning (also used by GSI in a Maritime context to detect wrecks as well as undersea deposits) which is explained at: http://www.rcahmw.gov.uk/HI/ENG/Publications/Digital+Reports/Processing+and+Working+with+LiDAR+Data+in+ArcGIS%3A+A+Practical+Guide+for+Archaeologists.

By Stephen Hughes.
Projects Director, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales & TICCIH Secretary

Further Reading:

• The Atlanterra Project II: Slate Studies
  23 Apr 2014
  The Atlanterra project has also led to cultural tourism and heritage maps and guides of a number of mining fields including the Mapa de Patrimonia Minero de Galicia, (IGME, Madrid, 2013) and the Slate quarrying & mining sites ...

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Top Award For Royal Commission’s 3D Animation Of Copper Industry

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales’ use of computer reconstruction and animation to explain complex industrial archaeological sites has been recognised by an award from the Association of Industrial Archaeology (AIA).

The Hafod Copper Works animation, created in conjunction with Ceredigion–based visualisation company ThinkPlay, was carried out as part of the ESRC–funded project, The Global and Local Worlds of Welsh Copper. A focal part of the project was to enhance understanding of the Hafod Copper Works, at its height the largest copper–smelting works in the world, but which, since its closure in 1980, has largely disappeared. A particularly important aspect of the site is the Musgrave engine which powered the rolling mills, the only surviving insitu engine of its type. 

The two surviving engine sheds and rolling machinery at the Hafod Copper Works site. Crown Copyright: RCAHMW

Utilising a wealth of survey carried out by the Royal Commission and our in-house expertise, combined with historic images from the West Glamorgan Record Office and Swansea Museum, the animation recreates the detail of buildings, machinery and processes on the site with a sense of the highly industrial nature of the Lower Swansea Valley in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
 

Stills from the animation. Crown Copyright: RCAHMW

As well as being a key part of the major The Global and Local Worlds of Welsh Copper temporary exhibition at the National Waterfront Museum (NWM), the animation has been used in an episode of Time Team, and is an integral part of the Swansea Community Boat experience. It has been shown in countries from France to China, as well as winning the acclaim of the American Society for Industrial Archaeology who have commended the film to their members. The animation is now on permanent display at the NWM.

While the Royal Commission has long been known for using informed 2D cutaway drawings and reconstructions in such books as the ground-breaking Houses of the Welsh Countryside, in recent years it has lead the way in the use of digital technologies in interpreting complex sites across Wales. The granting of the Peter Neaverson Award recognises the impact that this work has had on developing the interpretation, dissemination and conservation of our industrial heritage and archaeology. Examples of all RCAHMW animations can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/RCAHMWales/videos.

The Hafod Copper Works animation was funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)as part of The Global and Local Worlds of Welsh Copper, led by Swansea University and the European–funded Atlanterra project.

The first Award for Digital Innovation has been made to the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales for their animation of the Swansea copper industry. Stephen Hughes received the Award from AIA President Marilyn Palmer at the Association’s Conference Dinner on board HMS Unicorn in Dundee.

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Royal Welsh Show - 2011 - Find Out More About The Work Of Royal Commission

Bardsey Island 3D landscape

This week come and visit us at the Royal Welsh Show and find out more about the work of Royal Commission and meet the staff. Our exhibition this year includes many fascinating and unique images from our national archive and many are drawn from this year's Royal Welsh host county, Caernarfonshire. Some illustrate our specialist work on the slate industry and chapels, and others our successful ongoing partnerships with other bodies. Come and learn how to access our online information facility Coflein and discover the archaeology of your farm or view images of your local area. Staff will be on-hand all day to answer your questions. 

At 2pm on Tuesday, Royal Commission 3D-landscape expert Tom Pert will be giving a talk entitled "Casgliad y Werin Cymru/People's Collection Wales- creating Wales in a website". This will focus on the huge array of digital 3D images, created through new technology and now available for everyone to view through the People's Collection Wales www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk . Everyone is welcome, so do please do come along and meet us all.

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Old Beaupre, Vale of Glamorgan - Architecture 3D Visualisation Fly Through Animation

Video animation of Old Beaupre, St Hilary, Vale of Glamorgan

Old Beaupre, St Hilary, Vale of Glamorgan

This medieval manor-house of about 1300 was modified during the Tudor period and is home to a magnificently carved Renaissance porch that shows the influence of Italian design on Welsh architecture. It is now in the guardianship of Cadw.

The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manor-house is substantial, arranged around three courts covering a large area. The main approach is marked by the impressive gatehouse of about 1586, formerly crenellated and dated, which still retains fluted Ionic pilasters and the Bassett coat of arms with the motto ‘Gwell anghay na chwillydd’ (Better death than dishonour).

The south hall range is entered from the inner court by a full-height, three-storey, late Renaissance porch dated 1600, which is comparable to the ‘frontispiece’ of other Elizabethan/Jacobean prodigy houses such as Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. Frontispiece is a particularly appropriate term as the porch resembles the illustrated, rather architectural, frontispieces of books printed at this time. The porch displays good knowledge of the classical orders with Doric capitals to the ground floor, Ionic to the first and Corinthian to the second floor.

Despite its grand beginnings Old Beaupre had descended the social scale from manorhouse to farmhouse by 1709, and it later fell into dereliction. Today it stands largely roofless and floorless and without easy access. A small fragment of decorative plasterwork in the roofed section of the south-east range depicts a large Tudor rose and lion rampant. The substantial great hall with armorial shields and fireplace remains in the south range as a reminder of departed glory.

Glamorgan Inventory, Vol. IV, Part 1: The Greater Houses, 46-63.


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Castell y Fewpyr, Bro Morgannwg - Plu 3D Ddelweddu Pensaernïaeth Trwy Animeiddio

Fideo animeiddio o Castell y Fewpyr, Saint Hilari, Bro Morgannwg

Castell y Fewpyr, Saint Hilari, Bro Morgannwg

Codwyd y maenordy canoloesol hwn tua 1300 a’i addasu yn ystod cyfnod y Tuduriaid. Ynddo cewch gyntedd wedi’i gerfi o’n wych yn null y Dadeni ac sy’n dangos dylanwad cynlluniau o’r Eidal ar bensaernïaeth Cymru. Mae yng ngwarcheidiaeth Cadw erbyn hyn.

Codwyd y maenordy sylweddol hwn yn yr unfed ganrif ar bymtheg a’r ganrif ddilynol ac mae wedi’i drefnu o amgylch tri chwrt helaeth. Deuir ato drwy borthdy trawiadol a godwyd tua 1586. Arferai hwnnw fod yn grenelog ac fe ddangosai ddyddiad. Mae pilastrau Ïonaidd ffliwtiog ac arfbais teulu Bassett a’u harwyddair ‘Gwell anghay na chwillydd’ yno o hyd.

Fe eir i mewn i adeilad neuadd y de o’r cwrt mewnol drwy gyntedd trillawr a maint-llawn yn null y Dadeni hwyr. Y dyddiad arno yw 1600. Gellir ei gymharu ag ‘wynebddalen’ tai rhyfeddol eraill o’r cyfnod Elisabethaidd/Jacobeaidd fel Kirby Hall yn Sir Northampton. Mae wynebddalen yn derm arbennig o briodol am fod y cyntedd yn ymdebygu i’r wynebddalennau darluniedig, a braidd yn bensaernïol, a geid yn y llyfrau a gâi eu hargraffu ar y pryd. Mae’r cyntedd yn cyfleu gwybodaeth dda o’r drefn glasurol: mae iddo bennau colofnau Dorig ar y llawr isaf, rhai Ïonaidd ar y cyntaf ac yna rai Corinthaidd ar yr ail lawr.

Er gwaetha’i wreiddiau uchelwrol, yr oedd Castell y Fewpyr wedi llithro i lawr y raddfa gymdeithasol o faenordy i ffermdy erbyn 1709 ac yn ddiweddarach aeth â’i ben iddo. Heddiw, nid erys fawr o’r to na’r llawr ac nid yw’n hawdd ei gyrraedd. Ar ddarn bach o waith plastr addurniadol yn y rhan dde-ddwyreiniol sydd â tho arno darlunnir rhosyn Tuduraidd mawr a llew ar ei sefyll. Ac yn adeilad y de mae’r neuadd fawr sylweddol a’r lle tân ynddi yn tystio i’r gogoniant a fu.

Inventory Morgannwg, Cyf. IV, Rhan 1: The Greater Houses, 46-63.


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Plasauduon, Powys - Plu 3D Ddelweddu Pensaernïaeth Trwy Animeiddio

Plasauduon, Carno, Powys

Mae Plasauduon yn nodweddiadol o’r math o dai a geid yn Nyffryn Hafren yn yr ail ganrif ar bymtheg – tai ac iddynt fframiau coed cymesur ynghyd â chynteddau deulawr canolog a thrawiadol a agorai i lobi wrth ochr y lle tân canolog. Ffurf yw honno sy’n creu dwy ystafell gytbwys ar y llawr gwaelod a’r llawr cyntaf; yma, mae’r neuadd ar y dde a’r parlwr ar y chwith, ac ystafelloedd gwely uwch eu pennau. Codwyd Plasauduon tua 1660 ac efallai i’r adain gefn ddiweddarach ddisodli fframwaith cynharach. Mae’r tŷ mewn cyfl wr rhyfeddol o dda.
    Er gosod ffenestri newydd yn lle’r mwyafrif o’r hen rai yn yr ugeinfed ganrif, ni fu fawr o newid ar weddill y nodweddion pensaernïol gwreiddiol ac mae hynny’n ddymunol iawn oherwydd i’r tŷ gael ei adeiladu tua chanol yr ail ganrif ar bymtheg, cyfnod o addurno mawr ar dai o’r fath. Ceir ffurf bigfain ddwbl (‘bwa ciwpid’) i’r mwyafrif o bennau’r drysau, mae’r cyntedd â’i seddau gosodedig a chelfi gwreiddiol y drws yn hyfryd, ac mae trawstiau nenfwd addurnol y parlwr wedi cadw eu plastr gwreiddiol. Y peth mwyaf trawiadol o’r cyfan yw’r llawr o gerrig palmant yn y neuadd; mae’r patrwm addurnol arno’n nodweddiadol o Sir Drefaldwyn.
    Mae’n debyg bod arddangos cyfoeth drwy gyfrwng pensaernïaeth allanol a mewnol y cartref hwn yn bwysig i’r ffermwr dosbarth-canol a’i hadeiladodd. Mae dau dalcen y prif adeilad wedi’u hestyn ddwywaith ar swmerau mowldiedig ac ‘estyll draig’ yn gynheiliaid iddynt wrth y corneli. Credir weithiau fod y llawr cyntaf a’r ail mewn adeiladau trefol yn yr Oesoedd Canol yn estyn allan i greu rhagor o ofod uwchlaw strydoedd poblog, ond yng nghefn gwlad rhaid mai mater o ffasiwn ydoedd ef – ac yn sicr mae’r effaith yn apelio at y llygad. Mae tai fel Plasauduon yn rhoi cymaint o fwynhad oherwydd bod yr addurno arnynt yn deillio o ffurf eu hadeiladwaith ac nid o ryw chwaeth fympwyol.

Houses of the Welsh Countryside, ffigur 140.

Cydnabyddiaeth:
Diolch i Fflic a See3D.

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Plasauduon, Powys - Architecture 3D Visualisation Fly Through Animation

Plasauduon, Carno, Powys

Plasauduon is typical of the seventeenth-century ‘Severn Valley’ type – symmetrical timber-framed houses distinguished by impressive, central, storeyed porches opening into a lobby at the side of the central fireplace. This form creates two balanced rooms to the ground and first floor; in this case the hall on the right and parlour on the left, and there are bedchambers over. Built around 1660, with a later rear wing that is possibly a rebuild of an earlier structure, Plasauduon is remarkably well preserved.
    Although most of the windows have been replaced in the twentieth century, virtually all of the other original architectural features are intact. This is fortunate as the house dates from the midseventeenth century when such houses were particularly well supplied with decorative detail. Most of the door-heads are cut in a double ogee (‘cupid’s bow’) shape, the porch with its fitted seats and original door furniture is delightful, and the decorative ceiling beams in the parlour retain their original plaster. Most impressive of all is the pitched stone floor in the hall, which has a decorative pattern typical of Montgomeryshire.
    Display of wealth through the external and internal architecture appears to have been significant for the middle-class farmer who built this home. Both gable ends of the main range are twice jettied on moulded bressumers, with ‘dragon beams’ providing support at the corners. It is sometimes considered that medieval urban buildings were jettied to create more space above crowded streets, but here in the countryside it must have been a display of fashion – and the effect is certainly pleasing to the eye. What makes houses like Plasauduon so satisfying is that their decoration is the result of their structural form and not some whimsical application.

Houses of the Welsh Countryside, fig. 140.

Acknowledgement:
Thanks are due to Fflic and See3D.

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Tŷ -mawr, Sir Gaernarfon - 3D Fly Delweddu Trwy Animeiddio

Tŷ-mawr, Wybrnant, Penmachno, Sir Gaernarfon

Er bod cwm afon Wybrnant heddiw’n teimlo mor anghysbell ag y gellir bod yng Nghymru, yn yr unfed ganrif ar bymtheg yr oedd ar brif ffordd y porthmyn o Lŷn i Ddolwyddelan ac ymlaen i’r marchnadoedd gwartheg dros y ffin. Ac er ei fod yn enwog fel man geni William Morgan (y cyntaf i gyfi eithu’r cyfan o’r Beibl i’r Gymraeg) ym 1545, mae’r tŷ lawn mor bwysig fel enghraifft o Dŷ Eryri o’r unfed ganrif ar bymtheg sydd wedi’i ddiogelu a’i adfer yn gelfydd. Mae ei enw’n awgrymu nad fferm gyffredin mohono yn ei ddydd a chredir iddo fod yn gartref i deulu o ffermwyr cyfoethog.
    Yr hyn sy’n ddiddorol yma yw i hen neuadd (o gyfnod William Morgan) gael ei haddasu i greu adeilad sydd, yn allanol beth bynnag, yn dilyn patrwm clasurol ‘tŷ Eryri’. Mae hynny’n dangos apêl fawr y math newydd o dŷ deulawr a gâi ei godi’n lleol gan y dosbarthiadau canol; cai tai a fodolai eisoes, hyd yn oed, eu haddasu i gyd-fynd â’r ffasiwn ddiweddaraf.
    Ychydig sy’n weddill o’r neuadd gynnar heblaw am ddau ddarn o nenfforch yn wal y dwyrain a’r rhan isaf o waith maen. Ailwampiwyd y neuadd yn niwedd yr unfed ganrif ar bymtheg neu, o bosibl, tua dechrau’r ganrif wedyn. Dilynai’r cynllun newydd batrwm tŷ Eryri gan osod lleoedd tân yn waliau’r talcenni yn hytrach nag yng nghanol y tŷ, fel y digwyddai’n gyffredin bryd hynny ar y gororau. Nid oes iddo risiau cerrig yn y wal, sef nodwedd a welir o hyd mewn rhai o’r tai cyfagos ym Mhenmachno, ac mae’n fwy na thebyg mai grisiau ysgol a ddefnyddid i gyrraedd y siambrau newydd ar y llawr cyntaf.
    Adferodd yr Ymddiriedolaeth Genedlaethol y tŷ ym 1988 i ddathlu pedwarcanmlwyddiant cyfieithu’r Beibl. Cafwyd gwared ar lawer o’r newidiadau o’r bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg a’r ugeinfed ganrif er mwyn creu’r tu mewn syml a welir heddiw.

Peter Smith, Arweinlyfr yr Ymddiriedolaeth Genedlaethol i Dŷ Mawr.

Cartrefi Cefn Gwlad Cymru
Gan Richard Suggett, Greg Stevenson, 2010

Cydnabyddiaeth:
Diolch i Fflic a See3D.

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Tŷ -mawr, Caernarfonshire - 3D Visualisation Fly Through Animation

Tŷ-mawr, Wybrnant, Penmachno, Caernarfonshire

The Wybrnant valley feels as remote as it is possible to get in Wales today, yet in the sixteenth century it was on a main drovers’ road from Llŷn through Dolwyddelan and on to the cattle markets across the border. Famous as the birthplace in 1545 of William Morgan (the first translator of the whole Bible into Welsh), it is equally important as a well-preserved and restored sixteenth-century Snowdonian House. The name (Tŷ-mawr or ‘Great House’) suggests that this was no ordinary farm in its day. It is considered to have been home to a wealthy farming family.
    What is interesting here is that a former hall (from William Morgan’s time) was modified to create a building that externally at least follows the classic ‘Snowdonian house’ pattern. This shows the strong appeal of the new kind of storeyed house that was being built locally by the middle classes, and that even existing homes were modified to conform to the latest fashion.
    Little remains of the early hall aside from two cruck fragments in the east wall and the lower section of stonework, and the hall was remodelled in the later sixteenth century or possibly early seventeenth century. The new plan followed the Snowdonian house pattern with fireplaces in the gable-end walls rather than in the middle of the house, as was then common on the Welsh borders. It lacks a stone mural stair, a feature still seen in some of the neighbouring properties in Penmachno, and a ladder stair was probably used to reach the new first-floor chambers. The National Trust restored the property in 1988 to mark the fourth centenary of the Welsh Bible, stripping out many nineteenth- and twentieth-century alterations and creating the simple interior seen today.

Peter Smith, National Trust Guide to Tŷ-mawr.

Houses of the Welsh Countryside
By Richard Suggett, Greg Stevenson, 2010

Acknowledgement:
Thanks are due to Fflic and See3D.

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