Collections & Research

We had a very positive meeting with the book's designer before Christmas at St Fagans. She's come up with some lovely ideas, it makes a big difference when you've seen something and you then have a set of images and visual themes you can relate to. The design manages to convey a sense of the crafts, skills and techniques behind the whole project, which is something I really want the book to convey.

We're still looking for exactly the right image for the cover though. We decided, although it might seem a bit unimaginative, to use a picture of the exterior of the Church. For all the amazing images we've got of the interiors, especially of course the wall paintings, I really believe that the audience for this book will be looking for a book with a picture of the church on it - sounds obvious I suppose! The book covers many things including art, archaeology and architecture, but in the end it's primarily about the story of St Teilo's Church. So that's the message the cover will convey. Plus, the building itself is now so recognisable, its shape is almost iconic.

I think one of the features that draw people to the Church is the contrast between the simple, white, almost humble-looking exterior and the riot of colour and images inside.

As soon as I've got images of the sample spreads I'll publish them here - it would be very interesting to know what people think of them!

I'm working on a book about the fantastic St Teilo's Church at St Fagans. Been really looking forward to this one, it's a lovely story and there's a wealth of fab images - unlike usually, when I have to scrabble around for some decent stuff. I thought we'd be much further on than we are mind, I really expected to be up to my ears in proofs by now. I sort of know why we're further behind than I'd planned, just can't quite explain. Or I could, but it still probably wouldn't make much sense. Plus, designers work in different ways, and this one likes to take a lot of time 'up front' working on the design concept, then when that's agreed we crack on with the proofreading fairly quickly. I suppose I'm more comfortable with spending the bulk of the time at the proofreading stage, especially with a fairly text-heavy book like this one. Still, we always manage to end up with a book on time. I should be designing the marketing plan by now, but I'm still getting the images together and finishing the copy - things like indexes, the glossary, that kind of thing. And I haven't written any of the image captions yet, which I decided would be quite long, narrative style, so that we don't have to cram absolutely everything into the main copy.

Having to work within a financial year is odd too - not at all the way publishing works. I could get really quite anxious about this if I let myself. I just have to concentrate on how good the book's going to look, and having a high-profile launch, with a popular speaker, where everybody buys a copy of the book, which will get great reviews...

In our favour is the fact that the Church is already incredibly popular and has had a lot of good press. The whole re-erection project at St Fagans has built up a swell of good will, and the Church has its own loyal following - a sort of fan-base! All that's keeping me going at the moment, but I know things are going to get pretty intense over the next couple of months.

Albany Primary school visited Llanmaes in July and brought with them an uplifting and colourful response to the findings at the archaeological dig. The children explored the possibility of the spiritual significance of what may have been taking place thousands of years ago at this sacred site. Our archaeologists found evidence of what seems to be ceremonial activity at the site in Llanmaes. There also seems to be evidence of artefacts left by visitors from far away lands. Could Llanmaes have been a spiritual centre thousands of years ago? The children of Albany Primary school certainly thought so.

Thanks to the kindness of the local church the pupils of Albany Primary school were able to design and then take part in a non-denominational spiritual ceremony at the local church in Llanmaes.

They wrote affirmations of thanks and praise in recognition of the wonder of life. The children felt that this may have been the type of things that were being celebrated thousands of years ago in Llanmaes. Prayers and affirmations of thanks and praise were left at the altar as can be seen in the film. 

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Ysgol Pwll Coch visited the National Museum in Cathays last spring. The pupils looked at the new Origins gallery and in particular the Bronze Age and Iron Age displays. The cauldron was the centre piece and they created music and poetry in response to ideas about cauldron festivals.

This was followed up by a visit to Llanmaes and the archaeological dig where cauldron festivals may have taken place thousands of years ago. The same pupils used drama, dance and music to create their very own cauldron ceremony. The teachers and pupils were thrilled with the exciting learning opportunities this project presented to them. They also had lots and lots of fun doing it as you can tell from their two films and the Spooky Cauldron music they composed!

The first film shows their spooky cauldron dancing to their spooky cauldron music. In the second film they composed a march of the mochyn (pig). This was in response to the fact that the archaeologists had found lots of pig bones on the site at Llanmaes. Who knows perhaps the march of the mochyn was also being performed thousands of years ago! 

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Machen Primary school also visited the National museum in spring last year and followed up this visit with a trip to the archaeological dig at Llanmaes. The children focussed on the importance of cauldrons in the Bronze and Iron Ages. They learnt about the possible ceremony that may have taken place at Llanmaes involving the ceremonial tearing of cauldrons. This inspired them to re-create their own cauldron tearing ceremony. Poetry, music and the actions/movements of the ceremony itself were designed by the children. Then a sacred cauldron tearing ceremony took place on the very same spot where it may have taken place thousands of years ago.  One word kept being spoken by the children to describe their experiences: "Awesome!".