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Friday 20 December 2013

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year





AP_2013_0094
Winter landscape near Llandrindod Wells captured by the Royal Commission in 2013.

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Friday 13 December 2013

News from our Community Archaeologists: The CAER Heritage Project





Kimberly and I have been extremely busy over the past few weeks so we thought it was time to update you on some of our recent activities.

We have been working with the CAER Heritage Project (Caerau and Ely Rediscovering Heritage Project) in West Cardiff.  Archaeologists from Cardiff University are working with Ely and Caerau Communities First, local residents and schools to explore the history and archaeology of the area.  The project runs all kinds of activities, and we were fortunate enough to be involved with a guided walk around the magnificent Caerau Iron Age hillfort, which forms the focus of many of the activities.
Guided walk led by Oliver Davies of Cardiff University showing the community archaeologists and members of the local community around the hill fort.
Kimberly and I also helped with the CAER project exhibition and I helped out on the day with the stand at the Peace75 Festival held at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff to celebrate its 75th anniversary.  This was a great event, I spoke with lots of people about the project, asking them to consider the debate about whether hillforts were places where people came together to show their community identities or whether they were defensive structures, and I had a fun time designing Iron Age tribal symbols with children, and writing ‘postcards to the Iron Age’ asking what life was like back then.

Sarahjayne explaining about the CAER project.
Sarahjayne working with children to create Iron Age tribal symbols and ‘postcards to the past’
As part of our time with the project we also attended the Engage Conference  in Bristol, which was focussed on public engagement and partnerships.  Here we helped facilitate a workshop on the creation of funding bids.  Our placement with the Commission has provided us with many training opportunities and I have recently completed courses on project planning and ‘building effective relationships’.

Engage Conference
There are also lots more activities to report, including a session I set up for the Young Archaeologists Club in Swansea with Swansea Metal Detecting Club, who came to talk about responsible metal detecting and how this works within Archaeology.
 
Sarahjayne with Mike Davies and members of YAC looking at Mike’s collection and asking lots of questions!
The Young Archaeologists learning how to use metal detectors
Finally, we have been organising a workshop event for Pembrokeshire College Welsh Baccalaureate students as part of our joint shipwrecks project with CADW on the Charles Holmes and the Great Gale of 1859. This is due to take place in January, and we will let you know how it goes.

By S. Clements


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Friday 6 December 2013

Royal Charter Voyage Journal of Reverend Charles Hodge – where is it now?





Diary
Searching the newspaper accounts relating to the loss of the Royal Charter during the storm of 25-26th October 1859, we’ve come across an article quoting from the journal of a Nottinghamshire parson who travelled home from Melbourne on board the ill-fated vessel.

Storm map
We created an item on The People’s Collection Wales for the Great Gale of 1859 collection featuring the journal and have received a comment asking if there is a full transcription. This has led us to try and find out where it might be now.

Rev Hodge’s diary was found washed up on shore and extracts from it were published in the Pontypool Free Press and Aberystwyth Observer to encourage his relatives to come forward. The newspaper article says that the diary is five inches in length by three in breadth; and contained many interesting facts relative to the ship, incidents on board and items of news from Melbourne. There was even a prayer for safe passage on his journey on the Royal Charter.  Inside the front cover, it was inscribed ‘Rev. C. Hodge, East Retford, Notts., England.’

Interestingly, the Hodge family featured on one of the BBC’s ‘Who do you think you are?’ programmes in 2010. TV gardening expert Monty Don found that Charles Hodge was his great-great -grandfather. Hodge was born at Stogumber, Somerset, in 1812 and had 11 children by his wife Anne.  After the death of one of their infants, Anne made a decision to travel alone to New Zealand to stay with distant relatives. It was an extraordinarily brave for a lone woman. Perhaps worn down by childbearing, Anne saw an opportunity to escape by acquiring vast tracks of land in Australia and New Zealand, and offering them to clergymen willing to emigrate. Anne may have viewed herself as the family’s pioneering settler. She returned for a period and appears to have been reconciled with her husband. Then, leaving 5 of their children behind and taking 4 of their sons with them, the couple emigrated in 1856. Charles was returning home as a result of an edict from his bishop after two years absence in 1859. His journal reveals that he was still torn between the relatively secure life of an English country parson and the prospect of having to carve out a new life down under.

Our research has found out that there is a portrait and a memorial to Charles Hodge in Clarborough Church, Nottinghamshire, and two letters from Charles Hodge to his diocese in the University of Nottingham Archives (Doc refs: Wr C 355-6).

However, the Journal itself continues to elude us.

Are you a descendant of one of Charles and Anne’s nine children? Has the journal survived the years tucked away amongst family papers?

We would love to hear from you in Wales...

Follow this link to the ‘Great Storm of 1859’ collection on People’s Collection Wales to find out more about the ships, the people and coastal communities affected by the hurricane:
http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Collection/1515-the-great-storm-of-1859
http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Item/59543-shipping-losses-during-royal-charter-gale
http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Item/60311-great-storm-1859-aberystwyth-harbour-inquiry
http://www.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/Item/59818-west-wall-of-st-brynachs-church

By S. Clements and D. Groom


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Tuesday 3 December 2013

Nurturing the Next Generation of Skilled Researchers






The Royal Commission will be one of the organisations benefitting from a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to support postgraduate training and research.

We were part of a bid by the South, West and Wales Consortium of eight universities (including Aberystwyth and Cardiff, and others with a strong record in archaeology and history research). The bid has been successful, and £14.2 million has been awarded. This will support around 200 doctoral studentships over five years starting from the next academic year, and will allow for innovative postgraduate support through the development of broader skills, and experience in working outside academia through industry and international placements.

Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive of the AHRC, states: “This is an important step forward in delivering the best possible training and support for postgraduate students in the arts and humanities, and in developing a collaborative approach which pools expertise and expands horizons for postgraduate researchers. We are delighted at how the sector, and partners beyond the sector, have responded, and we look forward to working closely with them to support the next generation.”

The Commission will be involved in offering work experience and training for postgraduate students in our areas of expertise. In the next year, we will be considering how we might develop important opportunities for collaborative research projects and how they might best fit with our work, and the National Monuments Record.

To find out more about this funding, visit the AHRC website.

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