As part of the REACH (Residents Engaging in Arts, Culture and Heritage) project, we’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with groups from Innovate Trust and First Choice- two organisations supporting people with learning disabilities in Rhondda Cynon Taf and the Vale of Glamorgan. Over the past few months, we’ve come together for a series of creative workshops to connect with our local history and heritage through art and creativity.

Since starting REACH, we have held six museum-focussed workshops. We started off with a mindfulness walk around St Fagans National Museum of History. It gave us all a chance to slow down, notice our surroundings, and chat in a relaxed setting. It set a gentle and open tone, one that has carried through all the sessions since. 

One of the standout moments was a visit from our Principal Curator of Collection Development: LGBTQ+, Mark Etheridge. Mark shared powerful LGBTQ+ stories from the museum’s collections, which led to some thoughtful conversations. It gave the group space to reflect, ask questions and connect those stories to their own experiences. Rhys, one of the participants, said “The LGBTQ+ activity at St Fagans was important to me, after that I started to talk to people and be more open with the group about being gay”. Zac also added “this is for me, I’m gay so this is for me, look it’s cool”.

Inspired by objects from the museum, the group began creating their own artwork. Some people sketched out images and messages, while others designed T-shirts. What really stood out was the thoughtfulness behind each piece. Every design had meaning and reflected something real to the person who made it. According to Rhys, “Two of my favourite activities were the art lesson with Marion and designing a t-shirt about what being Welsh meant to me. I liked them because I liked sitting down with friends and support workers, just having fun and getting creative”.

Some of our more recent workshops focused Pride. Two of our Amgueddfa Cymru Producers led an engaging session about the history and significance of Pride, which sparked lots of curiosity and discussion. The group were tasked with creating bold, bright banners that could be carried in the parade. These sessions were full of enthusiasm, plenty of colours and a real sense of celebration. 

REACH is all about learning new skills and making new friendships. It is about telling unheard stories and strengthening and highlighting pride. It is about using the talents of local people to challenge the stigmas that their communities face. Hear what Eve, Health and Wellbeing Coordinator for First Choice, has to say: 

"Being part of the Wales REACH Project, I've loved seeing a core group form of people who are passionate about learning, sharing and creating. Wales REACH has provided the group with opportunities to try new things and form new friendships; some of these people may have never otherwise crossed paths despite their common interests. Their energy and enthusiasm has been infectious and it's been wonderful to join in with some of the sessions, hosted by kind and knowledgeable facilitators".

Keep an eye out for others upcoming blogs, showcasing the amazing work that’s been happening across all our participating communities. 

Wales REACH is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It is a partnership between thirteen organisations and is led by The Open University and Amgueddfa Cymru. It is funded with a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The current phase started in autumn 2024 and is scheduled to run until autumn 2026.

We’re having an eventful August at St Fagans! We’ve already explored the Celtic period and Medieval times and this week we are immersed in Tudor life! 

Until Friday this week you can book to take part in interactive sessions at St Teilo’s Church, where you’ll meet a Tudor guide who will introduce you to some of the customs and practices of the times. You’ll learn about Tudor life, handle replica objects from the collection, and gain an understanding of the significance of the Church’s intricately painted walls. Our aim is to create a fun learning experience for the whole family. Times, prices and booking information can be found here: Explore the Tudor Church

You can also join the Art Cart Corner, where we’re running drop-in craft activities Mondays-Fridays throughout August. This week you can further explore the Tudor period by creating your own Tudor roses, ruffs, swords, crowns, houses, stained glass effect windows and paper dolls! The Activities are £4 per child (accompanying adults craft for free!). You’ll be given a wristband allowing you to drop-in and out of the activity space as much as you like between 10:30 and 15:00. 

And the fun doesn’t end with the Tudors! Next week, we will be getting to know the Victorians! We’ll be running Meet the Victorian Teacher sessions, and our craft activities will be Victorian themed! We’ll be making peg dolls, Victorian houses, paper cup-and-ball games and thaumatropes along with other activity sheets and crafts. Find out more about what’s on at St Fagans and book your tickets here: What's On at St. Fagans National Museum of History

There are several Tudor and Victorian buildings to explore on site, you can learn more about these here: Historic Buildings | Museum Wales

We also have fun educational resources that you can access from home:  

Iron Age Wales: Daily Life of the Celts Resources

Age of the Princes

eBook: Victorian School in Wales

We hope to see you soon,

St Fagans Learning Team

Telling a story is a complicated process - especially a Museum story! 

Objects, information panels and websites do a good job of giving information and films are invaluable at setting context - but what we all want to know more about are the stories of the people who were there at the time.  And there's no better way of doing that  than by bringing them back to life! (sort of!)   

Rhian Cadwaladr - a popular local actor, has been telling 'stories' and creating 'characters' at the museum for over 25 years, and her latest creation, Margaret the Matron, has recently taken up residence at the Quarry Hospital in Llanberis as the Museum is temporarily closed for redevelopment. 

Margaret (or Gladys as she was more popularly known) was quite a character! An excellent nurse but also an excellent singer. She worked at the Hospiatl for many years and Rhian has meticulously researched her history so that she's able to answer all visitor questions that might come her way! 

Rhian first worked with the Museum back in the autumn of 1997 when she was asked to become a character in the Museum’s then newly restored Chief Engineer’s house.  Over the years she has portrayed various characters from the original Elizabeth, the Chief Engineer’s maid,  to Hanna the Chief Engineer’s wife and Anti Marged, who brings to life the 'washday' for local schoolchildren. 

As Hanna, Rhian would tell people all about her life in the Chief Engineer's House and the many objects in it  – from the beautiful willow pattern crockery on the dresser to the handmade rag rugs on the floor. She would also draw attention to the ubiquitous SALEM painting on the wall – a common find in many Welsh homes circa 1919 due to the brilliant advertising mechanisms of sunlight soap! 

During Christmas events at the Museum 'Hanna' was often surrounded by families helping her to make Victorian oranges – leaving a gorgeous festive aroma through the house.

Whilst families enjoy these activities, they are learning that these  are places where people lived. Hanna spends a lot of her time making fires to warm the house and cook the food. She makes the rag rugs on the floor and polishes the brasses that have been passed down from generation to generation. Her favourite possession is the slate fan made by her father to show his skill as a quarryman. 

“Bringing our history to life, not only to generations of Welsh people but to people from all over the world has been an honour,” said Rhian, who is originally from the village of Llanberis and whose grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather worked at Dinorwig quarry. 

"People are so willing to imagine that they have stepped back in time and are meeting a ghost from the past - though I must admit some people, who have not expected to see me there, can be a bit spooked to start with!"

Another character Rhian brought to life with local schoolchildren is 'Anti Marged'.  These sessions focused on the traditional washday – from intense scrubbing with carbolic soap to pushing clothes through the mangle to drying and ironing – all centred around a warm coal fire of course and all a far cry from the convenience of our electric washing machines, tumble dryers and electric irons today. School children are always gob-smacked by the fact that the whole thing takes so long compared to the modern-day set-up!  

Another actor who has worked at the museum for a number of years is Leisa Mererid. Leisa would regularly take on the role of a 1901 housewife struggling to cope with the hardships brought about by the Great Strike at Penrhyn Quarry in Bethesda a difficult story!  Based in 1901 Leisa’s Quarryman husband is on strike – during the Great Lockout of Penrhyn Quarry. She has little bread on the table and life is generally a struggle. Most prominent in the house where she ‘lives’ is a large conch shell which she and others who are married to men who are on strike, hoot through at the men who have decided to break the strike and go back to work. They are ‘bradwrs’ (traitors) but as the sign in Leisa’s window states “Nid oes Bradwr yn y ty hwn” (There are no traitors in this house!) 

In May 2022, the National Slate Museum celebrated its 50^th birthday and introduced a new character – ‘Wil the Fitter’ – a former engineering fitter at the Gilfach Ddu workshops. The script for this was written by Rhian...and in 2024 Gwyneth was created - a character who was based in the 1969 House of the Fron Haul Quarrymen's Houses.

This Summer, as the Museum is temporarily closed for redevelopment, Rhian takes on the role of yet another character - Margaret the Matron at the Quarry Hospital, located in the shadow of the Quarry but overlooking the beautiful Padarn Lake. Here she tells people about the type of injuries and illnesses that are treated at the Hospital, the Doctors who treat them, the type of work the Matron and other staff carry out day to day and just how progressive this amazing community Hospital is. There are many sad stories to be heard but it's also a story of innovation and of a community working together to provide an essential service for the Quarrymen and their families. 

Said Elen Roberts, head of National Slate Museum:

“Being a museum actor is a hard role to take on! The depth of knowledge they have to accumulate is huge because the questions that can be asked are extremely wide ranging – from basics such as how to tell if the iron is hot enough to more complicated issues such as the political events of the day. We’re incredibly lucky to have such talented actors as part of our museum family; they’ve added so much value and enjoyment to thousands of visitors’ experiences over the years.”

Siân Iles behind the scenes in our medieval collections storeroom

Hi Siân, tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Amgueddfa Cymru.

I grew up in Cardiff and trips to the Museum to view the archaeology displays at Cathays Park are a happy childhood memory for me. I was so excited to begin working at the Museum in 2008 when I joined as curatorial assistant of the medieval archaeology collections. I am now the Senior Curator responsible for this collection, which covers the period c. AD 500–1500. Prior to that I worked in an archaeology museum in Southampton, which was a wonderful experience working with material from many time periods. At Amgueddfa Cymru I love being part of a team of passionate and knowledgeable colleagues who all work hard to care for the many different aspects of the archaeology collections at Amgueddfa Cymru.

What does the responsibility of looking after our medieval collections entail on a day-to-day basis?

The role is a really varied one, which is a big part of what I love about my job! Some of my day-to-day tasks include the accessioning of archaeological materials, writing treasure and other specialist reports, answering enquiries from the public and facilitating volunteering projects focussing on our medieval archaeological collections. I also enjoy working on large projects including exhibitions.

Tell us a little about the objects and stories you’ve come across. Is there a particular object with a story that has stuck with you?

The joined tile from Neath Abbey, made from three cut pieces forming a single design.

I recently came across an odd discovery whilst working on a volunteer project to repackage and check the documentation of our medieval floor tiles. Amongst a group of tile from Neath Abbey was one was made up of three separate tiles of the same design that had been deliberately cut and stuck together. This isn’t something we would consider doing today but it gave us an interesting perspective into the curatorial practices of the past!

You mentioned our Treasure findings take up some of your time. Can you tell us more about our involvement with Treasure in Wales, and any exciting findings we have recently received?

17th-century vervel, or hawking ring, acquired by us via the Treasure process.

I’m part of a team at Amgueddfa Cymru who help administer the Treasure process in Wales. We offer advice to finders, coroners, local museums, and other interested parties on items of potential Treasure found in Wales. A large part of my treasure role is to research and write specialist reports for the medieval and post-medieval treasure cases, making recommendations to coroners who decide on whether an object or collections qualifies as Treasure.

Looking at all aspects, what do you wish our visitors knew about the work you do behind the scenes?

That the care we provide to the collections is active and continual. A key responsibility of the role of curator is provide a balance between providing access to collections with providing continued care to preserve them for future generations.

And finally, what’s your favourite piece in the Amgueddfa Cymru collection and why?

I find picking a favourite object very hard! I really enjoy working with all materials, but I particularly enjoy working with medieval ceramics – basically fragments of broken pottery and tile! I enjoy the variety of information you can glean from studying it about both the makers and the users. You can see a creative choice or moment (sometimes a fingerprint!) recorded in clay. A single action by a single person representing a single moment in time.

Sherds from 14th-century jugs found at Drybridge Park, Monmouth

Slipmats are an essential component for DJing when using vinyl. Even more so for Hip Hop DJs who also scratch or do 'turntablist’ tricks. Many, including Jaffa, found out early on that using the home hi-fi system to learn how to scratch might soon ruin your parents record collection. Rather than rubbing the vinyl against the rubber or plastic of the turntable, a slipmat allows you to move the record back and force gracefully without damage. For this reason alone it would make sense for us to include a pair of slipmats in the exhibition, but the fact that we have the first pair purchased by DJ Jaffa is a huge bonus for us.

If you’re not already engaged with the Hip Hop scene in Wales then you might not be familiar with the name, so here’s a little extra context for this particular item. As I go through some of Jaffa's history, it will relate to a few other pieces we have included in the exhibition. I’ll also explore more about the actual slipmats themselves.

Like many people in Wales and the rest of the UK, Jason Farrell, more widely known as Jaffa, first got a taste for Hip Hop after seeing the music video to Malcolm McLaren’s ‘Buffalo Gals’ which showcased graffiti, breaking, scratching and rapping from New York artists. He also remembers seeing snatches of the culture on the BBC 2 show ‘Entertainment USA’ in 1983.

It wasn’t the World Famous Supreme Team DJs that he tried to emulate from the video first though, it was the Rock Steady Crew breakers. He started practicing as often as he could, both at home and school, using any pictures or clips from the television that he could find. When the ‘breakdance’ craze hit its peak after films such as ‘Beat Street’ and ‘Breakdance The Movie’ in 1984 he was already advanced for the time and entered his first proper battle against a crew from Port Talbot in Cardiff city centre.

I don’t have the space to give you Jaffa’s whole history here, but this is integral to the next stage of his development because it was after battling a crew from Bristol that he became friendly with them all and started to spend his weekends hanging out across the bridge. He would go to Wild Bunch parties and witnessed the rise of the Bristol scene, noting how the future Massive Attack members approached the art of DJing.

But it was while hanging out at St Paul’s Carnival, watching his friend Dennis Murray performing turntable tricks on the Galaxy Affair sound system, that he realised he wanted to become a DJ himself. Dennis Murray incidentally would go on to become an important pioneer of the rave movement as DJ Easygroove.

The DJ at his local Whitchurch Youth Centre would occasionally allow him to play records and as I mentioned above, he developed a way to learn scratching on the home hi-fi system, using crude homemade slipmats made of cardboard. He had to learn mostly by ear, dissecting live audio recordings of the DMC Championships, where the world’s top turntablists would compete. However, when he got his first set of professional record decks in 1986 he was able to take his DJ skills to the next level.

Of course this meant buying a proper set of slipmats. He had already been purchasing records from the Spin-Offs record shop on Fulham Palace Road in Hammersmith, West London, mostly via mail order at the time. Spin-Offs was a shop opened by New York DJ Greg James, who had moved to London to help open The Embassy night club in 1978. Greg is widely credited as being the first DJ to bring the disco style of DJing - seamlessly mixing the records together - to the UK.

Spin-Offs was also known for selling the latest DJ equipment, so it was the perfect place to find the right slipmats. Jaffa remembers that it was DJ Richie Rich who served him that day. He was a well-respected DJ at the time with his own show on Kiss FM, back when it was a pirate radio station. He also had some underground Hip Hop and Hip House hits in the 80s and 90s and started the Gee Street record label.

I’m personally intrigued that these slipmats say Mixmaster on them. There would have only been a few DJs known for the name ‘Mixmaster’ at the time. Mix Master Mike had not yet joined the Beastie Boys or started his career. Mixmaster Spade was still only making underground tapes in Compton, California. The three that come to mind around 1986 would be: Mixmaster Morris with his Mongolian Hip Hop Show on London’s Network 21 pirate radio station; Mixmaster Ice of the New York group U.T.F.O; and Mixmaster Gee And The Turntable Orchestra from Long Beach who had a couple of underground hits on MCA Records. But I’m getting slightly off tangent here.

Jaffa locked himself in his room and practiced. Eventually he was coaxed out with his decks to set them up outside Rudi’s Donut store at the Capitol Centre end of Queen Street in Cardiff. Although there were some club DJs playing Hip Hop locally at the time, such as Paul Lyons in Lloyds, this is widely viewed as the first proper Hip Hop jam in the city. Jaffa brought along a microphone which was picked up by just one rapper from Gabalfa called Dike (pron. Dee-Kay).

After that there were regular Saturday afternoon Hip Hop jams at Grassroots youth centre. Jaffa would DJ and rappers such as Dike, Mello Dee (later known as 4Dee) and MC Eric (later known as Me-One) would jump on the mic. A crew formed around them called Hardrock Concept, made up of rappers, graffiti artists and Jaffa. This was a period where collectives were more prominent than individuals, but towards the end of the 80s Jaffa and Eric would break off from the rest and move to London. A major label deal with Jive Records followed and their tracks featured on the compilations Def Reggae and Word Four under the name Just The Duce. These are both in the exhibition as well.

Jaffa eventually returned to Cardiff and Eric went on to global chart success with Technotronic. During the early 90s many people left Hip Hop behind when the rave scene exploded, but Jaffa helped to keep the culture going through his work alongside 4Dee and his sister Berta Williams (RIP) with The Underdogs – a youth organisation based in St Mellons that was focussed around developing skills such as Hip Hop dance, rapping and DJing. He has remained a cornerstone of the scene here ever since and has been involved in countless projects from Rounda Records to groups such as Tystion, Manchild, Erban Poets and Kidz With Toyz – right up to Xenith today.

He once deejayed for 70 hours, breaking the UK record for longest set, but just missing the World Record by 4 hours. He supported Snoop Dogg on his UK tour and he still DJs every weekend. He hosts the show This That & The Third on the Paris based station Radio Raptz, showcasing countless releases from Welsh artists. He has featured on various releases across the world as both a DJ and producer, including The Yellow Album from The Simpsons (his scratches are on the track ‘The Ten Commandments of Bart’ which Dike co-wrote the lyrics for).

Jaffa has also been integral in putting this exhibition together and is the main face on our posters, so it seems fitting that we should focus on his slipmats here. Hopefully, now you can see why we are so excited to include them. Do revisit this blog as we look into other items you will find in Hip Hop: A Welsh Story.