Blog | Museum Wales

Free investigation pack for schools!

Danielle Cowell, 22 July 2011

Get out of the classroom! Join the 1000’s of school scientists taking part in this exciting investigation.

For more details visit: www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbs

To take part complete the on-line application form and return to danielle.cowell@museumwales.ac.uk by the 31 July 2011

Publish date: 22 July 2011

Tagged with: Learning Spring Bulbs

Special Event Tomorrow: Behind the Scenes with the Acts of Union

Sara Huws, 21 July 2011

Tomorrow, you are invited to come and join us for unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the most important document in Welsh legal history: The Acts of Union.

Parts of the document have left London for the first time since 1536, and are on display in our 'Making History 1500-1700' exhibition. They have been recalled from their recess, and will be going back to the Parliamentary archives soon. In light of this, we are calling an emergency debate of our own!

Figures from Welsh life will be leading the afternoon, including:

Suzy Davies

- Conservative AM for South Wales West, Shadow Minister for Welsh Language and Culture

Mark Drakeford

- Labour AM for Cardiff West

Dafydd Ellis Thomas

- Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor-Meirionydd, Chair of the Assembly Commission

Vaughan Hughes- Commentator and Broadcaster
Nia Powell
- Lecturer in Welsh History, University of Bangor
Baroness Jenny Randerson
- Welsh Liberal Democrat Member of the House of Lords
Eirug Salisbury
- Bard and Commentator
Rev John Walters
- Vicar of St Teilo's Church, Pontarddulais

We'll be exploring the role of the Acts of Union in the 21st Century, as well as the controversies they still raise. You're welcome to join us, as the day winds its way around many of Museum Wales' most iconic spaces - including St Teilo's Church at St Fagans: National History Museum.

Period music, light refreshments, after-hours access, simultaneous translation and a chance to explore the Act of Union up close are included, free of charge.

Meet at National Museum Cardiff foyer at 1.50pm tomorrow, as the afternoon session will take place in the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre at 2pm.

This will be followed by a trip to St Fagans to see the document 'in the flesh', and to look at contemporary objects from our 'Making History' exhibition. A discussion will be held in St Teilo's Church, looking at the broader European context of life in Wales under Henry VIII.

Please call Heledd Fychan on (029) 20 57 3268 to reserve a place, as they are limited.

You will need to provide your own transport to St Fagans for the 'behind the scenes' session. Buses Nos 32 and 322 depart from Stand D2 in the City Centre, to St Fagans at regular intervals.

Publish date: 21 July 2011

Tagged with: St Teilo’s Church

The Llanvaches Roman coin hoard

Detail of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-38)

One of the finest hoards of silver coins from Roman Britain in the second century A.D. came to light in 2006 near Llanvaches, Newport.

The hoard of 599 silver denarii were discovered hidden in a locally made cooking pot. They are now on displayed at the National Roman Legion Museum.

Llanvaches lies between the fortress of the second Augustan legion at Caerleon and the local tribal capital, Venta Silurum, at Caerwent.

The 599 silver denarii, which show various Roman Emperors such as Hadrian and Nero, date back to around AD160 and were declared treasure in July 2007.

Denarius, or Denarii (plural) are perhaps the best-known Roman coin. It gives us the 'd' of our old £-s-d system. At the time it was about a day's pay, whether civilian (think of the parable of the vineyard in the Bible) or for a Roman legionary soldier. In itself, therefore, the denarius was a valuable coin.

Six hundred denarii would represent a very large sum - how long might it take one of us to save two years' gross wages?

Please click on the thumbnails below to browse through a selection of coins from the hoard.

The Llanvaches coin hoard

Forgery of Hadrian - reverse copies a coin of Trajan

Pietas offering at an altar [Diva Faustina I]

Pax (peace) setting fire to weapons [Trajan]

Sow and piglets [Vespasian] - refers to foundation myth

Antoninus Pius (138-61); Hadrian's second adopted successor

Liberalitas - the emperor's generosity [Hadrian]

Italia - another province personified [Antoninus Pius]

L. Aelius (136-8); appointed Hadrian's successor, but died first

Faustina II, daughter of Antoninus Pius, wife of Marcus

Faustina I, wife of Antoninus (d.141); commemorative issue ('Diva')

Priestly implements [Marcus Aurelius Caesar]

Marcus Aurelius as Caesar under A Pius (139-61)

Aegyptos - one of many provinces personified on Hadrian's coins

Aequitas ('fair dealing') or Moneta (the mint) [Antoninus Pius]

Fides publica: the 'good faith' of the state (!) [Hadrian]

Moneta - personifies the mint and the coinage [Hadrian]

Adventus ('arrival') - Hadrian greeted by Roma

Diana, goddess of hunting and fertility [Hadrian]

Roma - goddess/personification of the city [Hadrian]

Hadrian as <em>gubernator</em> (steersman) of the World

Oceanus, the river round the earth, personified [Hadrian]

Hadrian adopted as Trajan's heir [Hadrian]

Trajan's Column, Rome - still standing today

The province of Arabia personified, with camel [Trajan]

Trophy of arms and captured Dacian [Trajan]

Via Traiana, a new road in southern Italy [Trajan]

Hercules, wearing lionskin and holding a club [Trajan]

Julia Titi, daughter of Titus and lover of Domitian

Wolf with Romulus and Remus [Domitian Caesar]

Judaea - suppression of the Jewish Revolt [Vespasian]

Vespasian (69-79), former commander of Legio II Augusta

Heads

Detail of Pagasus from one of the Roman denarii

Unlike our modern coinage - which has few designs and only one ruler - the Roman imperial currency of the second century was full of variety: Llanvaches contains coins of 12 emperors and four of their wives or girlfriends.

Tails

There were many dozens of reverse designs - forming a sort of chronicle of imperial aims, values and achievements (for those who had the inclination, or indeed the literacy, to understand them). They include: history and myth, the emperor and his achievements, the army, the empire, the Roman deities, and many abstract concepts personified; even, the natural world.

So here's our chance to get up close and personal with Roman rulers, their wives and girlfriends and the messages of some of the outstanding coins in the hoard.

The broader context

Llanvaches appears to represent saved money (rather than a sum taken from circulation at one time) - so does it relate to the compulsory and additional voluntary savings that a Roman soldier might make? Or to the savings based on a lifetime of commerce at the nearby town of Caerwent? Either way, military pay was hugely importance for the circulation of new coinage; eight hoards of the time of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-61) are known from Wales, of which Llanvaches is by far the biggest.

Publish date: 15 July 2011

Tagged with: Ancient Wales Coins, Money, Medals & Awards Excavation & Discovery The Romans

St Fagans Collections Manager - FIRST BLOG!

Dylan Jones, 1 July 2011

My name is Dylan Jones and I am the Collections Manager at St Fagans:National History Museum. Apart from being responsible for the documentation at St Fagans I also look after the fishing and hunting collection which will be the main focus of my first blog. It will cover the work / preparation for the fishing weekend at St Fagans later on this month.

Follow the blog as I finalise details for the weekend which will include Karl Chattington, Coracle maker from the Cynon Valley, lave netsmen of the Severn estuary demonstrating their unique fishing skills and Hywel Morgan giving a demonstration on fly fishing. For the first time around the Netshouse we will also be preparing and cooking fish. I hasten to add it will not be me cooking!

Karl is no stranger to St Fagans and over the years he has been a popular attraction on site demonstrating his coracling skills on the ponds at Easter and in the summer months. Karl was part of the Welsh contingent that attended the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC in 2009. It was at this particular festival Karl constructed a Tywi coracle within two weeks of the festival – no mean achievement considering the lack of tools / weather conditions. Karl’s exploits at the festival can be read in a later blog.

I have already received some good news a few weeks ago with Martin Morgan, Secretary of the Blackrock Lave Net Fishermen Association confirming the presence of the fishermen at the festival. Good news indeed as the netsmen are very popular and informative. Beside showing the lave net Martin and his brother Richard will also bring with them fishing traps known as putchers and a putt which were once used on the Severn estuary until quite recently. Keep reading the blog to learn more about these hardy and unique fishermen.

Follow me on Twitter @CollectionsSF

Publish date: 1 July 2011

Tagged with: Collectors & Collections

Pithead Baths

All prevailing coal-dust

Before pithead baths became widely available, most coal miners, already exhausted from a day's work had little choice but to travel home from work still filthy with coal dust. Their clothing was often soaking with sweat and mine water and they were at risk from contracting pneumonia, bronchitis or rheumatism. Once home they had the task of removing as much of the dirt as possible in a tin bath in front of the fire.

The women of the house were usually responsible for the heating of water for the miner's bath and the cleaning and drying of his clothes. In addition it was a constant battle to clean the house from the all-prevailing coal dust. This was never ending and back breaking work and exhaustion and physical strain often led to serious health problems, leading in some cases to premature births and miscarriages.

It took considerable lobbying by social reformers, working under the banner of the 'Pithead Baths Movement', to convince the Government, mine owners and even some of the miners and their wives, that pithead baths were needed. From the initial campaigns of the 1890s it was a long, hard struggle to the establishment in 1926 of a special fund for the building of baths under the auspices of the Miners' Welfare Committee.

Social Reform

Pithead baths had been in use in Belgium, France and Germany since the 1880s. In 1913, a delegation was sent by David Davies, the proprietor of the Ocean Coal Company and an advocate of social reform, to see these European baths. This visit led to the building of the first Welsh baths at Deep Navigation Colliery, Treharris, in 1916. The success of the Deep Navigation baths played a key part in the propaganda campaign by those who wished to see pithead baths at every Welsh colliery.

In 1919 the British Government established a Royal Commission, (the 'Sankey Commission'), to investigate social and living conditions in the coalfields. As a result a 'Miners' Welfare Fund' was set up to '... improve the social well being, recreation, and condition of living of workers in or about coal mines.' This fund gained its income through a levy of a penny on every ton of coal mined. The fund was used for various purposes including the provision of playing fields, swimming pools, libraries, and institutes. From 1926, an additional levy was raised specifically to fund a baths building programme.

Modern Architectural style

During the period the Miners' Welfare Fund was in existence, from 1921 to 1952, over 400 pithead baths were built in Britain. The Miners' Welfare Committee's own architects' department established the most cost-effective way of constructing, equipping and operating baths buildings. By the 1930s, a 'house style' had developed, based on the 'International Modern Movement' of architectural design.

Baths stood out amongst other colliery buildings with their flat roofs, clean lines and the plentiful use of glass to give a natural light and airy feel. Some baths, such as the one at Big Pit, were rendered white which, even today, makes it a prominent landmark on the hillside. The limited resources available to the Miners' Welfare Committee meant that many Welsh collieries were not provided with baths until the 1950s. After the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947 the provision of pithead baths became the responsibility of the National Coal Board.

Publish date: 30 June 2011

Tagged with: Coal, Iron & Slate History Industry - Workshop of the World Mining & Extraction The Museum at Work

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