Big Pit Tapestry on Display from 1 May

Big Pit Tapestry. Copyright: Mad Mountain Stitchers

The incredible tapestry of Big Pit, Blaenavon, cleverly created last year by the Mad Mountain Stitchers and reported by the Heritage of Wales blog in September will be on display for public viewing at Big Pit from the 1 May, 2013. Using a number of different and highly-creative materials and techniques, Margitta Davis, Ann Notley, Penny Turnbull, Milli Stein and Jan Winstanley took two years to ingeniously create this wonderful tapestry using images drawn from the National Monuments Record of Wales and in particularly pictures from the extensive John Cornwell collection.

  

Left: Connecting tunnel between Pit Bottom and River Arch. NPRN 433 (John Cornwell Collection)
Right: Nineteenth-century workings in Coity Pits. NPRN 433 (John Cornwell Collection)

The National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW) holds the national collection of information about the historic environment of Wales from the earliest times to the present day. It includes almost 2,000,000 photographs, over 125,000 drawings, over 32,000 archived maps, and over 530,000 pages of text and reports. An increasing amount of this material is available on Coflein, our on-line database. In addition the Royal Commission welcomes enquiries about its collections and offers a free public enquiry service.

Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

First Tramroad Bridge in Wales, and One of the Oldest in the World

Kymer’s Canal and the Pwll-y-Llygod Tramroad Bridge

Survey in progress at the Pwll-y-Llygoed Tramroad Bridge.
©Crown Copyright. NPRN 43100, DS2013_139_001

Kymer’s Canal is the oldest purpose-built canal in Wales and was constructed by Thomas Kymer between 1766-8. The canal ran for 4.8 kilometres and transported goods from a series of anthracite collieries and limestone quarries situated along the valley of the Gwendraeth Fawr, to a quay at Kidwelly. At Pwll-y-Llygod, which marked the terminus of the canal, a tramroad linked from Carway Colliery. This tramroad crosses the river adjacent to the canal, and the bridge carrying it has recently been the focus of work for the Royal Commission. An important scheduled monument this is the oldest tramroad bridge in Wales and one of the oldest in the World.

Following a request from Cadw, Royal Commission Investigators have been undertaking a detailed survey of the bridge. The structure has suffered damage from recent floods and to help inform repairs it was essential that a detailed survey was undertaken. Using laser scanning and total station technology an accurate three-dimensional record of the bridge has been captured. The data, together with the resulting plans and elevations, will now be archived within the National Monuments Record of Wales. 

Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales