Season's Greetings​

Snowdon – a winter scene taken by the Royal Commission’s aerial photographer, Dr Toby Driver.

Season's Greetings​ and a Happy New Year

Thank you for your support during 2014

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National Monuments Record of Wales Archives and Library Bulletin - November 2014

Welcome to the latest monthly edition of the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW) Archives and Library Bulletin which lists all newly catalogued material. http://www.rcahmw.gov.uk/HI/ENG/Our+Services/Donate+Records/Recent+Acquisitions/. The archival items, library books and journal articles are all available to view in our public reading room. The full archive catalogue is available on Coflein and contains digital copies of many of the items listed.

Our Library and reading room is open:
Monday – Friday 09.30 – 16.00, Wednesday 10.30 – 16.30.

Tachwedd ~ November 2014

Archif ~ Archives

Abbey Tintern Furnace Excavation Archive: Ref. No. ATFE
Archive relating to an excavation at Abbey Tintern Furnace directed by John Pickin, 1979-1981.

Archaeological Reports/Evaluations (non Trust) Ref. No. AENT39_09
EAS Client Report 2014/03 and associated records relating to Prys Mawr, Llanuwchllyn produced by Engineering Archaeological Services Ltd, Aug 2014.

Investigators' Digital Photography
Photo surveys for the following sites were added to this collection:
Drill Hall Aberystwyth (Ref: DS2014_489)

Drill Hall, Aberystwyth.
NPRN: 402566 , DS2014_489_004, C597145

• Memorial Hall, Tregaron (Ref: DS2014_485)
• 21 sites in and around the town of Chirk
• 20 sites in and around the town of Hay-on-Wye

Drill Hall, Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye.
NPRN: 420572, DS2014_452_002, C596467

• Welsh Highland Railway (Ref: DS2014_434)
• Snowdon Mountain Railway (Ref: DS2014_474 & DS2014_477 )
• Cambrian Coast Line Railway (Ref: DS2014_435)
• St Helen’s Road Railway Tunnel (Ref: DS2014_436)
• DeWinton Foundry, Caernarfon (Ref: DS2014_458)
• Snowdon Mill, Caernarfon (Ref: DS2014_473)
• Millstone, Whitchurch (Ref: DS2014_485)
• Nantgarw Colliery Monument (Ref: DS2014_486)
• Glamorganshire Canal (Ref: DS2014_484)
• Garreg-fawr ironstone and copper mines, Betws Garmon (Ref: DS2014_475)
• Porthmadog Harbour (Ref: DS2014_476)
• Bridge abutments and railway embankment, Cwm Clydach Railway (Ref: DS2007_010)

Railway bed and rock cutting from the southeast a short distance north of Pont y Lon.
NPRN: 405517, DS2007_008_001, C596407

• All Saints’ Church, Cwm Ffrwd-Oer (Ref: DS2014_294)

Mothers Union banner, All Saints’ Church, Cwm Ffrwd-Oer.
NPRN: 12946, DS2014_294_017, C596450

NMR Site Files – B/W Photos
Images of inscribed stones from 11 sites including:

• St Michael’s church, Llanfihangel-ar-arth
• Ogmore Castle
• St Padarn’s church, Llanbadarn Fawr

Photo surveys of 11 coastal sites in Pembrokeshire including:

• St Brides Bay
• Whitesands Bay
• Tenby
• Stack rocks
• Newgale Bridge

Photo survey of Bremia Llanio Roman Fort carried out in 1973


Cambrian Archaeological Projects Archive
Piercefields Walks Archive (Ref: CAM2004/23_169)

Islwyn Jones Chapel Collection
Photo surveys of the following chapels were added to this collection:

• Shiloh Chapel , Pentre 13884
• Bethania CM chapel, Tonypandy 13970
• Llidiadnennog Welsh Independent chapel, Llanybydder 6599

Llyfrau ~ Books
Barber, Chris (ed.). 1989. Hando’s Gwent Vol. 2, Abergavenny: Blorenge Books.
Brabham, Peter. 2013. Barry: The History of the Yard and its Locomotives, Surrey: Oxford Publishing Co.
Bebb, Richard. 2009. The Bardic Chair / Y Gadair Farddol, Carmarthenshire: Saer Books.
Daniel, Glyn. 1981. A Short History of Archaeology, London: Thames and Hudson.
Edey, Maitland A. 1979. Lost World of the Aegean, Netherlands: Time-Life Books Inc.
Evans, Gareth. 2014. The History of Ruthin, Rhuthun: Ruthin History Society.
Flaherty, Thomas H. 1993. Lost Civilizations: Wonderous Realms of the Aegeon, Virginia: The Time Inc. Book Company.
Gaunt, Peter. 1991. A Nation under Siege: The Civil War in Wales 1642-48, London: HMSO.
Geertz, Clifford. 1993. The Interpretation of Cultures, London: Fontana Press.
Grant, Michael. 1989. The Classical Greeks, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Hood, Sinclair. 1971. The Minoans: Crete in the Bronze Age, London: Thames and Hudson.
James, Heather (ed.). 1991. Sir Gâr: Studies in Carmarthenshire History: Essays in Memory of W. H. Morris and M. C. S. Evans. Monograph Series Vol. 4. Carmarthen: Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society.

Cyfnodolion ~ Journals
Britannia vol. 45 (2014)
Conservation Bulletin no. 73 (Winter 2014)
Current Archaeology no. 297 (December 2014)
Heritage Counts 2014
Landscapes vol. 15 no. 2 (November 2014)
Medieval Archaeology vol. 58 (2014)
Meisgyn and Glynrhondda Local History Research vol. VIII no. 2 (July 2014)
Pembrokeshire Life (November 2014)
Pen Cambria no. 27 (Winter 2014)
Planet no. 216 (Winter 2014)
Update Standards (November 2014)
Welsh Mines Society Newsletter no. 71 (Autumn 2014)

Cylchgronau Gwasanaeth Ymwybyddiaeth Gyfredol ~ Journals Current Awareness
Conservation Bulletin no. 73, p. 34: ‘Britain from Above’ [about the joint English Heritage, RCAHMS and RCAHMW project involving the Aerofilms collection]

Landscapes vol. 15 no. 2, p. 181: Montgomeryshire Past and Present from the Air and Radnorshire from Above by Chris Musson reviewed by Paul Stamper

Medieval Archaeology vol. 58, p. 270: ‘Bayvil in Cemais: An Early Medieval Assembly Site in South-West Wales?’ by Rhiannon Comeau

Pembrokeshire Life, p. 4: ‘Booting out the witches’ by Sue Lloyd [article about the apotropaic practice of concealing shoes inside chimneys and walls, and a cache of such shoes being discovered at Templeton Farm]; p. 26: ‘Photo focus’ [about drone aerial photography and its use by Cadw and other heritage and tourism bodies]

Pen Cambria no. 27, p. 41: ‘Virtual Chapels in Wales’ [about the virtual museum of Welsh nonconformity developed by RCAHMW and the Welsh Religious Buildings Trust]


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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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