For the first time, this year we’ve taken part in  several workshops at the National Museum in Cardiff. Two discrete groups of Year 7 pupils with additional learning needs from our two sites have enjoyed and benefited from the wealth of resources at hand at the museum as well as the expertise of the workshop leaders.

Initially, I downloaded the resources available on the website that can be used for self-led visits to all of the National Museum of Wales sites. Some of these we’ve used already, the Maths package for use at Big Pit was really good.

The process of booking the workshops was simple, via email with confirmation of dates sent immediately. To give the children an introduction to the museum in Cardiff, we used the self-led Natural History booklet for our first visit. This encouraged them to explore the museum for themselves and discover the exhibits on show whilst fact-finding and recording information. Their reaction when entering the museum for the first-time was priceless - ”Wow, awesome!!”.

The first workshop we took part in was a stand-alone Art workshop led by Catrin. Following a short tour around the artwork on display, the children were then supported in creating their own exhibits using materials supplied by the museum. At the end, the children chose where to place their creations in the gallery.

Over the next couple of months, we then took part in a series of Science workshops led by Grace Todd: Discover!, Dinosaur Detectives, Skulls, Teeth & Bones and Minibeasts. These workshops really are ‘hands-on’, and give learners the opportunity to see, hold and examine items for themselves – ordinarily out of bounds.

So many areas of learning were covered during these workshops. For example, the Skulls, Teeth & Bones workshop enabled the pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding of the body and the role and function of the bones. Also, how different animals are adapted to the habitat in which they live and the food upon which they feed. The Minibeasts workshop also tied in with learning undertaken in school on adaptation. We looked closely at camouflage and also at classification of minibeasts.

It was great being able to access these workshops through the medium of Welsh and also at a level suitable for the age and ability of these young learners. They also developed their communication skills through the constant discussion and encouragement to contribute.

The final workshop enabled the pupils to have the freedom to search through hundreds of items - natural and man-made artifacts – in order to choose one each for a class exhibition.  The pupils enjoyed measuring, weighing, drawing and describing these and then verbally present and promote their chosen item in front of the whole group.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from these workshops combined with the overall experience of visiting the capital city. So, a big thank you. We’ll be back! 😊

Education Booking Information

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 11^th 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.

Throughout 2017 the Museum has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Oakdale Workmen’s Institute with a variety of projects, all aimed at bringing the building alive again. One of these projects has involved cataloguing the books housed in the Institute’s Library.

When the building opened in 1917, the Circulating Library operated out of the Book Room (which is now the ladies lavatories), it wasn’t until 1932 that it was relocated into the current room, due to outgrowing its space.

The Book Committee was responsible for choosing and purchasing the books, and they purchased a wide variety of different subjects. There is a note in the Committee Minutes that in 1918 a book of “questionable character” was to be burned, but not before the Committee had been allowed to read it, if they so desired!

The rules for using the Library allowed for one book per member for 14 days, although in 1928 that was increased to two, so as to allow members to choose a book for their wives. And, in 1933 they decided to set up a children’s section in the Library.

The Library was well used, the minutes record the poor state of repair of the book stock due to overuse, at one point 300 to 500 books were being loaned each month. However, the Library was closed and the books dispersed when a branch of the County Library opened in 1967.

The Institute then closed entirely in 1987, before being relocated to St Fagans, where it was rebuilt and reopened to the public in 1995. At this time many other Workmen’s Institutes donated items from their buildings, and now the Library holds a mix of books from across many of those areas.

A keen group of volunteers came together to in May 2017, to start working on writing out book record cards. These would then be housed alphabetically in wooden drawers, allowing visitors to browse through the contents of the library shelves, much as original users of the Institute’s Library would have done.

As we copied out the details of each book, one by one, we had the opportunity to discuss the wide range of material available to the Institute’s members. The collection included technical manuals, classic works, poetry, sermons and bible stories, mysteries, thrillers and adventure stories, and political works.

The mystery and adventure novels certainly seemed the most popular, judging by the amount of date stamps in the front. However, probably the really popular books didn’t survive, as the wear and tear on them would have been the greatest.

We found many books in the library with the distinctive red covers of the Left Book Club, a publishing group founded by Victor Gollancz in 1936, with the aim to “help in the struggle for world peace and against fascism”. It offered members a monthly book choice, and the Book Committee at Oakdale joined in 1937.

We also found a number of books which had been part of the Boots Booklovers Library, an initiative that many of us hadn’t heard of before. From 1899 till 1966 Boots ran a subscription based lending library out of their chemist branches, at one point more than 400 branches across the UK were participating in the scheme. Many of the books had a distinctive green badge, identifying them as part of the Boots Library, and were probably donated after the closure of the branches.

A large collection of books that came originally from the Nantymoel Workmen’s Hall, donated by a father in 1952 in remembrance of his son. They were copies of the 100 Best Books collection from Sir John Lubbock's choice of books. This was a list originally compiled in 1886, after a speech given at the Working-Men’s College in London, on the best books for self-education.

We admired how attractive some of the books looked, with stunning illustrations or cover designs. There were a number dating from the 1930s, published by Gwasg Aberystwyth which had very striking designs, including a copy of Y crefftwr yng Nghymru (The craftsman in Wales) by Iorwerth C. Peate, founder of St Fagans National Museum of History!

The Bronze Age is full of different types of objects.

The discovery of metal about 3500 years ago meant new objects could be made or redesigned.

One such object is the axe. For thousands of years people across the world had been making axes out of stone. Bronze Age axeheads were then made out of metal in different shapes and sizes.

By the Late Bronze Age (1100-800 BC), axes were made with sockets, which allowed for the insertion of a wooden haft/handle. Often they had loops to secure the haft with binding, such as leather strips.

In South Wales, a specific form of axe seems to have been very popular and has been named the ‘South Wales axe’.

These axes have thick, flat socket mouths and a loop on one side. They are often heavy and poorly made. There are three raised ‘ribs’ on both faces of the axe. These are sometimes parallel and sometimes converging.

Hundreds of these axes have been found buried in Wales, either on their own or in large hoards of objects. Sometimes they are complete and sometimes they are broken; the reasons for this are uncertain.

An example has recently been found in the Trevithen Hoard, Torfaen, and is currently on display at Pontypool Museum.

South Wales axes have also been found across England, and as far away as northern France.

This implies these products were traded and exchanged over long distances.

The function of these axes is unclear. These axes may have been left in a rough condition because they were used in agricultural activities, such as cutting roots and breaking plough soil.

Whatever the reason they appear to have formed an important part of the Late Bronze Age in South Wales. As more are discovered, archaeologists will continue to gain insights into these objects.

Last week saw the 50^th anniversary and the 18^th conference of ICOM-CC (Committee on Conservation), the largest of the committees of ICOM (International Council of Museums). ICOM-CC has almost 3,000 members worldwide from every branch of the museum and conservation profession. In addition to their day job of preserving the world's history and culture, these members also promote the conservation of cultural and historic works. I was able to attend thanks to generous support by the Anna Plowden Trust.

The conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was enormous: more than one thousand conservators headed the call to report and debate. While Copenhagen is an amazing city there was not much time to explore it, what with 5 parallel sessions and hundreds of talks to listen to during a packed conference programme. I would like to pick out and share just a few of my personal highlights.

The data generated during collections monitoring in museums can be explored sometimes beyond their original intention. Cristina Daron and Matija Strlic from University College London explained how unexpected patterns can be discovered by analysis of existing data sets. For example, they discovered a clear link between damage to archival objects and use of these objects in a reading room. This sort of data mining produces results that cannot be captured by experimental studies, but which can be used to improve decision making.

On the theme of data, I co-presented a talk with my colleague Jane Henderson from Cardiff University on new ways of presenting conservation data; you can find a copy of the paper here. Our suggestion is to present results not simply in the all too ubiquitous bar charts and line graphs, but to use more meaningful visualisations that are easier to interpret and send the correct message to the receiver. This will help make quicker and better decisions and ultimately improve the care of collections.

Conservation of cultural heritage involves a lot of risk assessments – there is so much to do that we try to figure out as objectively as possible where the most urgent need for resources is. Alice Cannon from Museum Victoria, Australia, explained how the deterioration of an object does not always mean a loss. Hence, when attempting to judge value loss, judgments must be made by experts from different fields. The potential value loss of an object needs to be considered when undertaking a risk assessment that might want to predict the estimated deterioration of that object in, say, 100 years.

Every museum has a store (or several), hence storage is a subject close to the heart for most people in the sector. Lise Raeder Knudsen from Conservation Centre Vejle, Denmark, summarised almost 30 years of experience of building low energy collection stores in Denmark. The main principle of such stores is high thermal and hydric inertia. The Danish cultural sector has proven that such stores can have both lower construction and running costs, while at the same time producing a stable environment suitable for the long-term storage of cultural collections. One issue currently still undergoing research is the potential problem of indoor pollutants which may accumulate if there is insufficient fresh air supply.

Likewise, training is an issue that keeps resurfacing in conservation as in other disciplines. Alice Boccia Paterakis introduced the Interdisciplinary Training of Archaeologists and Archaeological Conservators Initiative (ITAACI) programme from the USA, where archaeologists and conservators are being brought together to work jointly and raise awareness of each other’s needs. The training theme also carried through to the poster sessions, where Monika Harter from London informed us how the British Museum, with some clever planning, had used succession planning to train two conservators for the price of one. This included the passing on of hard-to-come-by expert knowledge from one generation to the next.

My final highlight is Jonathan Ashley-Smith’s analogy of coffee shops to explain why, in his opinion, conservation needs a new approach to ethics. He explained that a new, bespoke, code of ethics would use a variety of ingredients to design something that suits each of the various and diverse disciplines that make up cultural heritage conservation. The internet would provide the ideal tool to publish a bespoke code of ethics, as well as conservation intentions, proposals and records all in one place and, ideally, in Wikis. Jonathan’s talk created more debate and Twitter traffic than any other talk and I suspect his idea will keep being discussed.

The conference programme was rounded off by various specialist working group meetings, technical visits, opportunities to see Copenhagen’s museums and social events. A packed week with countless inspiring conversations with colleagues from all over the world. Not always without controversy of course – some ideas out there are interesting but perhaps require further scrutiny. Perhaps a topic for a future blog or paper.

Find out more about Care of Collections at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales here and follow us on Twitter.