French pottery in medieval Wales 4 May 2007 Saintonge jug from Kidwelly Castle, Carmarthenshire. Elaborately decorated vessel found in Cardiff. 23.8cm (9.5 inches) tall. Jug found in the well at Castell-y-Bere, Gwynedd. 20.5cm (8.1 inches) tall. During the Middle Ages, several regions of France exported pottery to Britain - notably northern France, Normandy and the Ardennes. Most of the French pottery found in Wales came from the Saintonge area of south-west France. The trade in pottery from the Saintonge area to Britain began early in the 13th-century and lasted for about 500 years. At the start of this period the English ruled neighbouring Gascony, and many of the vessels that have been found in Wales probably made their way to Britain from the ports of La Rochelle and Bordeaux as part of mixed cargoes (wine being the most important commodity). Pottery from the Saintonge area was made from a fine clay that was well suited to the throwing of light, thin-walled shapes such as those seen here. The clay also had a low iron content, which meant that, when fired, it produced a vessel with a white or buff fabric. The first example illustrated here was found in a midden at Kidwelly Castle (Carmarthenshire) during excavations in the 1930s. It appeared to have been thrown away along with several plainer vessels and is decorated with a vine scroll motif typical of Saintonge jugs. It was probably produced between 1275 and 1320. This elegantly decorated vessel illustrates the great skill of the Saintonge potters. It is 25cm (9.8 inches) tall and in places its walls are only 2.4mm (0.1 inches) thick. In these years Kidwelly Castle passed from the ownership of the de Chaworth family, who greatly improved its defences, to William de Valence and then to the House of Lancaster. These later owners set about improving the castle's accommodation. This jug may have been used to pour wine in the Great Hall for one of these English owners or their guests, though such jugs may also have held water. Saintonge pottery is known from many other sites in Wales, including Cardiff and Castell-y-Bere in Gwynedd. For the most part the ware has been found at coastal sites - locations more easily controlled by the English, or more accessible to their traders - though occasionally it has been found in remote upland sites. Cardiff jug: This jug was discovered during work in Cardiff High Street in 1893. Its decoration includes birds, masks, and heraldic shields - all are common features on jugs from the Saintonge potteries. Castell-y-Bere jug: Castell-y-Bere was only occupied by the English from 1284-1294. Given the frequency with which Saintonge pottery is found at other castles occupied by the English in Wales, it seems likely that the jug dates from this period. While such pots may not even have been greatly valued by their owners, when viewed alongside vessels of silver, bronze or brass they survive as examples of great craftsmanship and illustrate links between Wales and the wider European world during the Middle Ages. Background Reading 'Kidwelly Castle, Carmarthenshire; including a survey of the polychrome pottery found there and elsewhere in Britain', by C. Fox and C. A. R. Radford. In Archaeologia vol. 83, p93-138 (1933). 'Medieval finds from Castell-y-Bere, Merioneth' by L. A. S. Butler. In Archaeologia Cambrensis vol. 123, p78-112 (1974). Medieval pottery and metal-ware in Wales by J. M. Lewis. Published by the National Museum of Wales (1978).
From Blitz to Prefab - How the Second World War altered housing in Wales 26 April 2007 The living room.
Heroic rescue for man dangling from girder 50 meters high 23 April 2007 Edward Medal for bravery James Dally, wearing the Edward Medal. From the Great Western Railway Magazine, September 1915. In October 1914 James Dally saved a colleague from a 52m fall from a viaduct. He was awarded the Edward Medal for his bravery. On 28 October 1914, the Crumlin viaduct, near Newport, south Wales, was being painted by using a staging of planks timber supports. Around 5:00 pm, one of the supports broke, and the foreman, Mr Skevington, fell 52m (175 feet) to his death into the goods yard below. The second man, Thomas Bond, just managed to grip onto the main bridge structure in time, but was left dangling in mid air... Heroic rescue The Crumlin Viaduct. The location of the rescue is marked with a red dot. Bridgeman James Dally, of Crumlin, was nearby, supervising the operation. He immediately crawled out from the gangway on to the diagonal bracings - which were a mere eight centimetres wide: "I asked him to swing his legs in an upward direction, so as to get them around the stretcher, if possible. This he succeeded in doing. I then got hold of Bond's legs; & told him to move one hand at a time & by that means he was drawn nearer to the gangway & when he was near enough I got a better hold of him, & eventually landed him safely on the gangway." According to the London Gazette, "The man would probably have lost his life had it not been for the courage and presence of mind shown by Dally." Bond himself had no doubts: "I was suspended in the air; but if Mr Dally had not been on the gangway at the time, & taken the action he did I could not have saved myself... I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mr Dally, for had it not been for the encouragement he gave me, & the prompt effort he made, I would have undoubtedly met the same fate as Mr Skevington." Acts of courage in other industries James Dally's Edward Medal, Industry, Second Class (bronze), front view. In the event, Dally was awarded the Edward Medal, which he received from King George V on 12 July 1916. This medal had been created in 1907 to reward "heroic acts performed by miners and quarrymen" and in 1909 its award was extended to acts of courage in other industries. The Crumlin Viaduct was 512m (1,680 feet) long and rose some 60m (200 feet) above the valley of the Ebbw. The viaduct was opened on 1 June 1857 and by 1863 was part of the Great Western Railway network; it was demolished in 1965-66. Background Reading For Those in Peril, by Edward Besly. Published by the National Museums & Galleries of Wales (2004). Gallantry: its public recognition and reward in peace and war at home and abroad by A. Wilson and J. H. F. McEwen. Published by Oxford University Press (1939).
Cardiff – Coal and Shipping Metropolis of the World 18 April 2007 Cardiff: the pre-industrial port. Two sloops lying in the River Taff, as portrayed by Paul Sandby in 1776. Cardiff: the industrial port. An aerial view showing the completed dock system about 1948. A typical Cardiff tramp steamer - the SS Pontwen, built in 1914. The age of depression. Laid-up ships in Cardiff docks about 1930. Cardiff: the port transformed. Modern retail developments now stand where Cardiff once exported coal to the world. Second Marquess of Bute In 1862, 2 million tonnes of coal were exported from Cardiff Docks ; by 1913, this had risen to nearly 11 million. This was the heyday of the coal industry before the depression of the 1930s. Cardiff was the boom town of late Victorian Britain. For a few years before the First World War, the tonnage of cargo handled at the port outstripped that of either London or Liverpool. Yet in the late 18th century, Cardiff's trade was all transported by two small sloops sailing to Bristol on alternative days. So what had led to this transformation? It was the growth of the iron industry in the South Wales Valleys that caused Cardiff to develop a port. In 1794, the Glamorganshire Canal was completed, linking Cardiff with Merthyr, and in 1798 a basin was built, connecting this canal to the sea. Cardiff's foremost landowner, the 2nd Marquess of Bute, built West Bute Dock in 1839. Two years later, the Taff Vale Railway was opened. Coal overtakes Iron From the 1850s, coal began to replace iron as the industrial foundation of south Wales. South Wales steam coal was what oil is today, with yearly exports reaching 2 million tonnes as early as 1862. A further dock, the East Bute, was opened in 1859, but following the death of the 2nd Marquess in 1848, the Bute Estate trustees were over-cautious and reluctant to invest in new dock facilities. Coal exports reach 9 million tonnes Frustration at the lack of development at Cardiff led to rival docks being opened at Penarth in 1865 and Barry in 1889. These developments eventually spurred Cardiff into action, with the opening of the Roath Dock in 1887, and the Queen Alexandra Dock in 1907. By then, coal exports from Cardiff totalled nearly 9 million tonnes per annum, much of it exported by locally-owned tramp steamers. Tramp steamers and steamships Cardiff's first steamship was the little Llandaff of 1865, and she was the first of a fleet of steamships that grew rapidly in the late 19th century. By 1910, there were some 250 tramp steamers owned at Cardiff. Each day, the owners would meet to arrange cargoes of coal for their ships in the opulent Coal Exchange in Mount Stuart Square. The coal export industry reached its peak in 1913, when 10.7 million tonnes of coal were exported from the port. First World War After the First World War, there was a significant increase in shipping in Cardiff, with 122 shipping companies in business in 1920. The boom proved short-lived, however; oil was growing in importance as a maritime fuel, and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles soon flooded Europe with cheap German coal. By 1932, in the depths of the depression, coal exports had fallen to below 5 million tonnes and dozens of locally owned ships were laid-up. It was an era of depression from which Cardiff never really recovered, and despite intense activity at the port during the Second World War, coal exports continued to decline, finally ceasing altogether in 1964. Modern day Cardiff Today, the port of Cardiff presents a very different picture from that existing a century ago. The waterfront has been totally transformed. Exclusive flats now stand where coal hoists once stood, and the rough and ready sailortown pubs have been replaced by sedate bistros. Only two docks, the Roath and the Queen Alexandra, remain in use, and just two shipping companies remain. There is still some trade in timber, oil, and containers, but the days when the port was packed with tramp steamers, shrouded in coal dust as they loaded the 'black diamonds' of the valleys of south Wales, will never be seen again. Background Reading Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute, by John Davies. Published by University of Wales Press (1981). Cardiff Shipowners, by J. Geraint Jenkins and David Jenkins. Published by the National Museums & Galleries of Wales (1986). Coal Metropolis: Cardiff, 1970-1914, by Martin Daunton. Published by Leicester University Press (1977).
Welsh slate discovered hundreds of miles from the quarries of North Wales 18 April 2007 The slate pillar fence at Bisham (Windsor and Maidenhead). Approximately 150m (164 yards) of this fence survives, although local residents remember it as once being significantly longer. The pillars of Bisham's fence typically extend about 180cm (5.9 feet) above ground level and must have a further 40cm (1.3 feet) or so below the ground. Each pillar is some 20cm (7.9 inches) in width and 3.5cm (1.4 inches) thick. How did a slate pillar fence come to be built in the Thames Valley, 300km away from the slate quarries of north-west Wales? Slate pillar fences became common in north-west Wales from the middle of the 19th century. In 1861, the Penryhn Quarry at Bethesda, Gwynedd - one of the largest slate quarries in the world at that time - produced around 9,000 individual pillars. These pillars consisted of poor quality blue slate, typically about 150cm (4.9 feet) tall. They were used to mark fields, gardens, railways lines and roads, with their simple construction being particularly well-suited to the harsh weather experienced by upland areas. Despite their use around Wales's slate quarries, slate pillar fences are rarely found further a field. The discovery of a slate pillar fence at Temple House (now demolished) at Bisham, Maidenhead, is therefore extremely unusual. The bluish-purple colouring of the slate makes it certain that it was quarried in north-west Wales, probably at Penrhyn Quarry. This raises the question of how a slate pillar fence came to be built almost 300km (186 miles) away from the source of the stone? Temple House was built around 1790 for Thomas Williams, who owned the nearby Temple Mill copper works. Thomas Williams (1737-1802) was from north Wales originally and became the leading figure of the British copper industry. Williams employed the architect, Samuel Wyatt, to develop the Temple Mill copper works, and it is likely that Samuel also built Temple House. Samuel Wyatt had very close links with the owners of the Penrhyn slate quarry. In 1782 he refurbished a building for Richard Pennant (later Lord Penrhyn), and in 1786 his brother became the general manager of the Penrhyn estate. This relationship ensured Samuel a regular supply of slates for his own business activities. In return, Samuel promoted the use of slate in the London area, using it for shelves, cisterns, lavatory-seats, window-sills and as a wall covering, as well as for roofing. If the Temple House slate pillars had been supplied by Samuel Wyatt, their transport to Bisham could have been relatively simple. Even before the construction of a tramway from Penrhyn Quarry to the coast in 1801, there existed an efficient network of roads linking the quarry to the sea at Port Penrhyn. From Port Penrhyn a fleet of vessels carried slate around the coast of the British Isles. The Wyatt family had an owning interest in many of these vessels. From London the cargo could be navigated up the Thames by barge. There is therefore a great deal of circumstantial evidence linking the Bisham slate pillar fence with Samuel Wyatt and Penrhyn Quarry, and dating its construction to around 1790. But one aspect of the pillars' manufacture raises doubts about this. Some of the larger support pillars were clearly cut with circular saws - a technique which was not certainly used before 1805 and only became common from 1840. One suggestion which unites these two strands of evidence is the possibility that the original fence was erected about 1790, but it had suffered from subsidence in the soft soil around Bisham. The result might have been a second order for Welsh slate around 1840 to rectify the problem. The fence at Temple House may show evidence of the links between two of Wales's great industrialists, the copper magnate Thomas Williams and Richard Pennant of Penrhyn slate quarry, through the architect Samuel Wyatt. Both shared a common heritage, so what would have been more natural than for Thomas Williams and his architect to display the potential of Welsh slate beside his copper works at Temple Mill? Background Reading The Wyatts: an architectural dynasty by John Martin Robinson. Published by Oxford University Press (1979). 'Copper and Slate: Thomas Williams' Slate Pillar Fence at Bisham', by Dafydd Roberts. In The Marlow Historian, vol. 3, p16-21 (2003).
