Wheels in Wales Ian Smith, 17 September 2019 When you come into the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, there are usually around 2,000 artefacts for you to see, but this makes up only small fraction of our collection! Even though we refresh parts of the museum periodically there are many objects which never make it to the display stage. Why do you collect them then? I hear you ask. There are many reasons why something might not be on display. Curators collect things that are important to our heritage and very often these things are in poor condition, so an artefact might need a lot of expensive conservation work before it can be presented to the public. When we collect objects our first priority is to preserve them and stop any deterioration to their condition. Restoration for exhibitions or display takes a back seat until finance can be found for projects – especially large objects like cars and buses. In the Industry Collection of the National Museum of Wales there are many different forms of transport and each one has to have a strong connection to Wales – by manufacture, inventor or usage. The ones not on display are kept at Nantgarw, near Cardiff, until their turn comes. From helicopters to horse-drawn hearses and electric cars to steam rollers, the National Collection Centre in Nantgarw sometimes resembles a child’s toy box – but on a grand scale! Delicate objects are stored in acid-free boxes or specially made crates, but how do you store a bus or helicopter? Of course they can’t be kept in boxes, but are lined up like a supermarket car park and are arranged quite randomly as size and shape dictate. There is access to the stores for group visits by appointment, where you will see that some of the vehicles look quite dilapidated whilst they await the magic touch of our conservation team. Meanwhile, back at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea one can still see quite a variety of transportation and in our Networks Gallery is the story of transport links in Wales. This gallery has a host of models of vehicles of all kinds and large digital displays of how the transport networks have grown – from sheep drovers’ pathways to the M4. Just outside ‘Networks’ can be found a ‘sociable tricycle’ from the 1880s and a Benz ‘Duc’ motorcar first registered in Monmouthshire in 1904. The sociable was exactly that with a side-by-side arrangement of seats and was a special favourite of courting couples! The Benz was owned by a Dr Cropper of Chepstow who kept it until 1910 when he donated it to the Science Museum. It was taken into the care of the National Museum of Wales in 1911 and once fully restored took part in a number of London-to-Brighton rallies. Hanging overhead is one of the star attractions of the museum. The ‘Robin Goch’ or ‘Red Robin’ has a strong claim to be the first aeroplane to fly in Wales. It was built by Charles Horace Watkins, an amateur airman, around 1908. I has a wooden structure braced with piano wire. The cockpit looks distinctly home-made, including a kitchen chair for the pilot’s seat and simple household objects for instruments. Indeed, Charles navigated by using an egg timer – he would turn the timer over, fly straight ahead until the sand ran out then turn 90 degrees and fly ahead again and repeat the turn twice more so that he ended up back where he started! To help him judge his height when landing two pieces of weighted string one 20’ and one 10’ long were hung on the underside so when the first weight touched ground he knew he was at 20’ and when the second at 10’. Not everything in this section is over one hundred years old. You’ll find two examples of the Sinclair C5, one for display and one for use by the public to sit in and get the feel for it. On high days and holidays (and weather permitting) this model is used in our garden and any visitor can try it out. The C5 is pedal-powered with battery backup for hills or if the driver became tired. With a top speed of around 15 mph the C5 was produced secretly in 1985 at the Merthyr Hoover factory. It was so secret that a tunnel was built under the road between the factories to keep prying eyes from discovering the design. Different component manufacturers only saw their plans, not the whole car. It was launched with wide public expectation but proved a flop as it was deemed too small to be safely driven in heavy traffic. A brilliant concept and years ahead of its time, it might yet make a comeback one day when cycle paths are more widespread We have many vehicles brought in for temporary exhibitions and displays. In recent years these have included a caravan and a number of boats and quite a few concept electric vehicles, but one of my favourite vehicles is actually a child’s toy car. In our ‘Made in Wales’ Gallery is the Austin J40, a blue pedal car made in Bargoed in 1959. In 1947 Parliament passed an act that recognised that many miners who were suffering from pneumoconiosis (coal dust in the lungs) could no longer work underground. So it was proposed that new factories be set up to provide lighter cleaner work to employ these men. The Austin factory at Bargoed was just one of these. The factory, which opened in 1949, stopped making the little cars in 1971 but between those dates about 36,700 were produced! All the museums in the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales family have free entry. Visiting to the National Collections Centre in Nantgarw is by appointment only; contact them on (029) 2057 3560 for availability.
Fire in the Mill Mark Lucas, 9 July 2019 In 1900, the Dre-fach Felindre area was home to 52 mills in full production. During World War One the Welsh woollen industry was employed in the war effort producing blankets and uniforms for the armed forces. Welsh grey homespun known as Brethyn Llwyd uniforms were commissioned by the War Office to give a nationalistic distinction to the new recruits of the new Welsh Army Corps formed during the war. After the war 12 million yards of surplus flannel was sold on the open market by the government at ridiculously low prices, forcing woollen manufactures to also cut their prices. Flannel shirts, for example, sold at 52s 6d a dozen in 1916; by 1923 the price had dropped to 38 shillings. The woollen manufactures of west Wales failed to meet the changing conditions after the war, with some still producing inferior Angola as they had done in war time. Most of the manufacturers still concentrated on the production of flannel for shirts, vests and drovers, but demand for underwear flannel fell rapidly with the introduction of knitted underwear produced by the hosiery manufactures of the East Midlands, Scotland and the north of England. On 11 July 1919 Cambrian Mills caught fire and the three-storey mill south building was destroyed. At the time of the fire the Mill manager, John Davies, was on holiday in Llanwrtyd Wells with his family. His daughter Nesta Morgan remembers her father receiving a telegram at the hotel, but he was unable to read it as it was in English. A passing gentleman read the telegram telling him that part of the mill had been destroyed by fire. Her father was very upset and contacted David Lewis immediately to ask if he should come home; David Lewis responded that he should not but rather return the next day as planned. David Lewis on the left of the photograph with the moustache and hat in the remains of Cambrian Mills David Lewis used the insurance money to rebuild the mill only two storeys high, but considerably longer in length. Rebuilt Cambrian Mills Rebuilt Cambrian Mills Cracked glass in Mill North from the heat of the fire in Mill South that is still visible at the National Wool Museum The fire in Cambrian Mills was the first of 7 suspicious fires in mills in Dre-fach and the surrounding area, including mills at Frondeg and Meiros owned by David Lewis’s brothers Daniel and John Lewis respectively. Not all mills were rebuilt after the fire, however insurance companies were becoming suspicious that the fires were not accidents and insisted that the mills were rebuilt. Meiros was rebuilt in red bricks with the insurance monies paid in instalments as work was carried out. Rebuilt Meiros Mill Another 21 factories closed in Dre-fach Felindre and the surrounding area in the post-war period. ‘[Mill owners who made vast profits from war contracts] made no attempt to set their mills on a sound financial basis, content to bank the money or buy seaside cottages’ Geraint Jenkins 1967, the Welsh Woollen Industry, p. 278 Dyffryn Mill 29/6/1923 Frondeg Mill 7/2/1924 Aberbanc Mill 1926 Ogof Mill 1927 Other Mills destroyed by fire: Meiros in the 1920s Llwynhelyg Mill 1927 Llainffald Mill 1920s Mills closed in Drefach Felindre and the surrounding area: Babel 1925 Cilwendeg 1928 Cwm-ty-mawr 1920 Glyn Mills 1930 Llwynbedw 1920 Pant-glas 1922 Spring Gardens 1925 Bach-y-gwyddil 1923 Cwm-gilfach 1923 Drefach 1923 Green Meadow 1928 Nant-y-bargoed 1925 Penwalk 1928 Ty Main 1923 Cawdor 1924 Cwm-pen-graig 1922 Felin-fach 1924 Henfryn 1920 Pandy 1920 Siop Pensarn 1921 Tower Hill 1925
The Prince of Wales Investiture chair Mark Lucas, 3 July 2019 This chair was designed by Lord Snowdon for the investiture of Prince Charles on 1 July 1969. 4,600 of these chairs were made for seating guests inside Caernarfon Castle. The chair was used by Iorwerth Howells, director of education for Carmarthenshire, who was invited to the investiture as one of the representatives for that county. The frame is made from steamed beech and the seat and back of preformed plywood veneered with olive ash. The whole is stained vermilion and sealed with a clear acid catalyst lacquer. The chairs were made at Remploy factories in Treforest and Wrexham. The investiture of Prince Charles on 1 July 1969 at Caernarfon Castle The fabric is made from Welsh red flannel made by David Lewis Limited of Cambrian Mills in Drefach Felindre, now home to the National Wool Museum. 2,650 yards of cloth were produced at 18/- per yard. The Prince of Wales’s feathers were embossed in gold leaf by the Ferndale Book Company. After the ceremony the chairs were offered for sale at £12.00 each. Invited guests had first refusal and the remaining chairs were sold to the public. The original sample sent to the department of works for checking
Cymru Yfory Jennifer Evans, 5 June 2019 The Investiture of the Prince of the Wales at Caernarfon Castle made 1969 a particularly exciting year in Wales. And an exhibition held at National Museum Cardiff reflected the patriotic fervour of the investiture with the wonder and excitement of the first humans on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission with Cymru Yfory – Wales Tomorrow. It was held in the Main Hall and was the museum’s official contribution towards the celebrations of Investiture Year. As the forward in the catalogue put it: "If a National Museum chooses to open its doors to contributions from the designer’s studio, the market place, the planner’s office or the research laboratory, no precedent is necessary. The Victoria & Albert Museum did these things excitedly in 1946 in the exhibition, Britain can make it . We saw then, after many drab years, a splash of enterprise and colour and an unexpected promise for the future. For its main contribution to the year of the Investiture and of Croeso ’69 [a year long campaign to promote Welsh tourism and business built around the Investiture], the NMW has chosen deliberately to look beyond its ordinary boundaries and also to look into the future. It has invited contributions from organisations of all sorts and the brief has been simple: that the ideas presented should be imaginative and for the future. They are not promises; they may not even be pleasant, but at least they refer to aspects of a possible future…" Stands and ceiling display [with the General Post Office stand to the left] The exhibition represented a major break with the traditions of the Museum; it was showing that it had an interest not only in the past, but in the life of the community in the present and the future. The whole of the Main Hall was used – isolated from the rest of the Museum by hanging drapes and a magnificent inflated plastic ceiling. For the first time professional designers were commissioned to design and plan the exhibition; Alan Taylor (Senior Designer, BBC Wales TV) and John Wright (Principal of Newport College of Art) co-ordinated the design of exhibits contributed by over twenty organisations. The results were spectacular, an immediate surprise to every visitor who had known the Main Hall as a dignified setting for classical sculpture. The range and imagination of the stands on display at this 1969 exhibition were vast; they included ideas and plans for the Cardiff of the future, for the valleys, for the Severn Estuary and for housing and schools. Some were realistic but most were fantastical and frivolous – especially exhibits illustrating clothing, furniture and domestic habits of the future. A major contributor was General Industrial Plastics Limited, manufacturers and designers of plastic products who made the magnificent inflated ceiling display, pieces of air filled furniture and the plastic carrier bag provided with the official catalogue. Cardiff College of Art, the National Coal Board, the City of Cardiff, the General Post Office and British Rail also contributed stands. As part of the fun atmosphere, a spoof contributor named Kumro Kemicals Corporation was created. The catalogue states they were established in 1999 (bear in mind this event took place in 1969!) and that their products were “the result of the most intensive research programme ever undertaken by any corporation in the Western Hemisphere…” As part of their contribution, Kumro produced sealed envelopes bearing the following message, DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 1999 – and the Library still holds one of these that remains unopened! When publishing images, copyright issues need to be considered and a number of these photographs are stamped on the reverse with either Hylton Warner & Co Ltd or Giovanni Gemin (Whitchurch Road, Cardiff). Internet searches brought up a little information on Hylton Warner but nothing current and no information at all was found concerning Giovanni Gemin. Therefore, a notice was placed on the Photo Archive News website requesting communication from anyone who might be familiar with these two photographers. After some time, we were contacted by the son of Giovanni Gemin. Award-winning author Giancarlo Gemin was kind enough to grant permission to publish the photographs and also tell us the following about his father: "He was an industrial and commercial photographer based in Cardiff from 1961. He worked regularly for BBC Wales, and was one of the official photographers at the investiture of the Prince of Wales. He was awarded the Chartered Institute of Incorporated Photographers (AIIP) and an Associate of Master Photographers (AMPA)". Models standing beneath the clear plastic ceiling installation As well as items of ephemera such as the official catalogue, carrier bag, stickers etc. we are fortunate to hold two volumes of comments books. These are a fascinating record of visitors’ thoughts and the majority are very positive but, not everyone appreciated looking to the future instead of a classical past and to end this post, here are just a few that have made us smile: BW, Rhwibina – "Awful" RM, Rhondda – "Not as good as the British Museum" MB, Cheltenham – "Baffled!" MD, Durham – "I prefer the face of OLD WALES proud and noble not false and plastic" CS, Cardiff – "Needs dusting" L, Cardiff – "Rubbish, waste of good museum space!" TO, County Cork – "TRASH" Inflatable ceiling display in process of construction We also recently made contact with Drake Educational Associates who purchased Hylton Warner along with copyright of all their photographs a number of years ago. We thank them also for allowing us to use the images in this article.
Owain Glyndŵr and a timber from Sycharth Dafydd Wiliam, 15 September 2017 On 16 September, 617 years years ago, Owain Glyndŵr was proclaimed Prince of Wales by his followers at his court in Glyndyfrdwy. His rebellion between 1400 and 1409 was the last of many attempts to free Wales from the shackles of English rule. His home was Sycharth, an 11th century motte and bailey castle in Llansilin, Denbighshire. The poet Iolo Goch writing before the rebellion said that it contained nine grand halls all roofed in slate, and called it the ‘fairest timber court’. The estate featured fish ponds, an orchard, vineyard, horses, deer, peacocks, and his staff only drank the finest Oswestry ale. Having found Sycharth empty, on May 1403 it was burned to the ground by Henry of Monmouth (later to become Henry V). After that, his forces burned Glyndyfrdwy too.In 1927 Alderman Edward Hughes from Wrexham wrote to Sir Cyril Fox, head of the newly opened National Museum of Wales. In his letter he noted that about 30 years previously the agent for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn (the then owner of Sycharth) was draining the moat and found a substantial oak timber. This was carefully removed and taken to Llangedwyn Hall by Lady Williams-Wynn for safe keeping. In 1924 Alderman Hughes asked Lady Williams-Wynn if he could use the beam in the new Memorial Hall being built in Llansilin. The great oak beam was too long for its intended use as a window lintel and a section was cut off the end, with great difficulty. Alderman Hughes donated this remaining section to the Museum.The timber was recently cleaned and photographed ready for display at the National Eisteddfod in Abergavenny. There was no sign of burning on the timber as one would expect, but it may have formed part of a bridge over the moat that was not subject to burning. It is 50cm tall, and 27cm x 36cm in thickness (20” x 11” x 14”). The substantial mortice cut into it is 27cm tall, and 14cm in width (11” x 6”).The display garnered some interest, and Richard Suggett from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales contacted me with more information. Some years after the construction of Llansilin Hall the south-westerly facing beam was removed due to rot, and placed in a skip. It was rescued by Mr Dick Hughes, a local garage owner, and was later presented back to the hall. The timber is now displayed in a glass case, but is only 75cm in length.Archaeological investigations have revealed the presence of an 18m (43’) hall at Sycharth, but not the nine mentioned by Iolo Goch. If we want to support the claim that the timber formed part of Sycharth, the next step would be to try and date both portions scientifically. However, not all timbers are suitable for dating by dendrochronology, and others like this one, may be too fragile to date through invasive methods such as core sampling.Our recent work has involved gleaning as much information as we can through non-invasive methods such as the simple act of observation. We looked at the timber in raking light which highlighted different marks on its surface. This supplied us with a greater understanding of its use between felling and its accession into our collections in 1931. These include the saw-cuts at either end, one of which is crooked and is likely to be the cut that ruined three saws around 1924 when the timber was reduced in length to fit into the unfinished Llansilin Hall.We have also carefully cleaned one of the saw-cuts to highlight the growth-rings of the tree. Having counted these rings we see that the timber was around 200 years old when felled. Our next step is to date the timber by comparing the exposed pattern of growth rings to a master chronology.
