Volunteer Blog: Lavandula Heaven Luciana Skidmore, Volunteer , 26 September 2019 August is the most fragrant month here in St. Fagans gardens as we just finished trimming back and harvesting our lavender shrubs. We prune them at this time of the year to remove old flowers and give them a chance to grow new foliage before the Autumn/Winter months.A well known favourite the lavender has a unique and distinguishable fragrance that is grown for ornamental, aromatic, medicinal and culinary purposes. They are sun loving plants and require a well drained soil.Lavender is such a versatile plant suiting different garden styles and pleasing the most varied tastes. In St. Fagans you can find hundreds of plants of different species. You will see them in our herb garden, surrounding the fountain in the Dutch Garden, dotted amongst perennials in flower borders, as lavender hedges by the greenhouse and complimenting the romantic style of the Rosery. A true aromatic heaven!Lavandula is a genus of 47 known species, here you can find the well known Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, the beautiful white flowers of the Lavandula x intermedia ‘Edelweiss’ and one of my favourites the Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso’. This particular species is a hybrid cross between the Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) and the Lavandula latifolia (Portuguese lavender). They are larger, more robust and have longer stalks with bluish purple flower heads making them perfect for cut flowers.Lavender is also a wonderful culinary ingredient. Most varieties can be used in cooking, however the Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’ is more widely used. They taste great in cakes, scones, jams and as a tea. Add 1 tsp. of dried lavender flowers to a cup of water, let it steep for 10 minutes and enjoy! It’s perfect for calming the mind and helping you drift into dreamland.When harvested most of our flowers are dried in our potting shed and used to create lavender bags, beautiful dried flower arrangements and other products that can be seasonally found in the Museum store. We also use them in our historic buildings as decoration and inside mattresses to repel insects as they would have done years ago.
Celebrating 10 years of Taking Part: William’s Story William Tregaskes, 20 September 2019 Amgueddfa Cymru helped direct me to a career in heritage by drawing my attention to the possibility of a career in museums at a “career speed dating” event. I would go on to volunteer with National Museum Cardiff, whilst studying.Volunteering as part of the museum’s preventive conservation team, we carried out a wide range of tasks from repackaging lichen, to carefully carrying jade, cleaning paintings currently on display all the while talking to the public about the importance of preventive conservation and promoting part of the Museum traditionally shielded from view. It could be just a few people or what seemed like hundreds of school children, every day brought a different experience.Volunteering brought the reality of the sector and a chance to learn new skills and experiences which were invaluable to my understanding of what museums are and who they are for; fulfilling my personal reasons for volunteering.The volunteer programme was flexible, reflecting my own needs not just its own. The programme allowed me to develop as I wanted and when it came time to end my time volunteering with Amgueddfa Cymru it was natural. I had succeeded in what I wanted to achieve, and I was supported to continue my development beyond the museum, not expected to stay when it was no longer practical.I will always remember having the opportunity to be part of the preventive conservation team, I am sure the team will not forget my Elmer the Elephant style shirt, immortalised in many presentation slides and pull up banners (see photos). I now work for the Cynon Valley Museum as a Museum Co-ordinator and advocate for museums through EMP Wales (Emerging Museum Professionals) and FOH. Follow me on twitter: @TregaskesW @FoHMuseums @EMPCymru @cynonvalleymus
Oakdale Volunteer Blog: Alexa vs the Pianola Experience Marie and Cheryl, 19 September 2019 Move over Alexa, Ada the pianola’s back!‘Alexa, play me a song by the Beatles! Alexa what about something by One Direction! Alexa, play something classical! Beethoven or Mozart. Alexa, Alexa, Alexa you are the must have gadget of the 21st century - but Alexa you don't always get it right?!This is where I Ada, the Pianola comes in. Let’s travel back over a hundred years in time from 2019 to 1919 when I was in my heyday and see how I performed. I am the first truly musical piano-playing device in the world. Listen to my specifications. They are quite impressive if I say so myself. I was designed and first made by Edwin Scott Votey in his workshop in Detroit in 1895. So even one hundred years ago I had already been around for nearly twenty five years.‘What can you do?’ I hear you ask.Well I can play any number of tunes you request…. Music hall songs, Christmas carols, nocturnes by Chopin to name but a few, and I make no mistakes! I do need a human to work the pedals and load the music scrolls. My sound is generated by the pianolist's feet, and controlled in pitch by a perforated music roll. When my pedals are pressed, I send air up through holes in a roll of paper to press my keys and hey presto I am in action. Sit back and enjoy my performance. With my help, anyone can make music.‘So you don’t operate alone? ‘you ask.Well neither do you Alexa, as far as I can see. You need wi-fi, monthly fees, speakers and human instructors.I was around throughout the 20th century. But will you still be operating in 2119? Who remembers music cassettes and floppy disks now?Who can tell? Who knows? But I think I am ageless. I can go on for ever. Want to check me out for yourself?If so, you will find me in the Oakdale Workmen’s Institute on the top floor in the grand ballroom. Pop in on a Wednesday morning and my volunteers Cheryl and Marie will show you the works. Before too long you too will be singing my praises.
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.
Runner Beans, Cabbages and Coleslaw: Family cooking and gardening courses at St Fagans National Museum of History Loveday Williams, Senior Learning, Participation and Interpretation Officer , 17 September 2019 This August we welcomed families from Taff Housing Association in Canton and Herbert Thompson Primary School in Ely (SHEP, the ‘Food and Fun’ School Holiday Enrichment Programme) to St Fagans to join us for a new family cooking and gardening course, as part of the targeted family learning programme supporting the Fusion initiative and our commitments under the Well Being of Future Generations Act. The programme was developed and delivered in partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Widening Access department and First Campus. Families enjoyed a hands on experience, learning about growing, harvesting and cooking their own healthy food using produce gathered from the St Fagans gardens.This was a new venture for us, and after working out how best to set up a “pop up” kitchen in one of our learning studios’ and sourcing all the equipment we would need, we were good to go.The gardens at St Fagans are full of wonderful produce at this time of year – fruit, vegetables and herbs – lots of which are specialist heritage varieties. By enlarge crops are saved and seeds harvested to re plant the following year, as part of ongoing research into heritage varieties. However, the families who took part were lucky enough to spend time exploring the gardens with Juliet Hodgkiss, Senior Gardening Conservator. She showed them around so they could learn about growing and producing food, before harvesting some of the lovely produce on offer to use later in the kitchen. Runner beans, cabbages, shallots and herbs were all gathered and taken back to the class room.When they returned to the kitchen, Dean Way, lecturer in Hospitality Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University was on hand to take the families through the process of creating a lovely meal, using the produce they had harvested. Here’s what the talented groups cooked, closely following the recipes created by Dean:Fennel & Cabbage Slaw½ small cabbage shredded1 fennel bulb, cut into quarters and grated1 White Onion, thinly sliced50g Yoghurt1 Tb Spoon of White Wine Vinegar1 Tb Spoon of Caster SugarSalt & Pepper to TasteMethod Half the Cabbage – Half Again and remove the Stalk. Then with a sharp knife thinly cut down into strips (shred down finely) Cut the fennel bulb into quarters and remove the stalk – then grate on the largest edge of a grater Peel and thinly slice a white onion Place all the vegetables in a bowl, then toss well. Stir in the yoghurt, vinegar and sugar to coat the salad, then season with lots of black pepper and a little salt. Any leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to two/three days. Serve with boiled eggs. Runner Bean & Tomato Salsa3 Runner Beans1 glove of garlic, very finely chopped1 medium red onion, very finely chopped1 large beef tomato, very finely chopped½ Lemon, juiced1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander1/2 teaspoon chilli powder3 pinches of salt and pepper1/2 teaspoon cumin4 Tb spoon of Rapeseed Oil Method Peel and finely cut the runner beans and blanch in boiling water for two minutes. Place in bowl of very cold water until chilled and remove. Crush one garlic bulb and finely chop Thinly dice one red onion Thinly chop up one large beef tomato Cut one lemon in half Roughly Chop up a small handful of Coriander Place all the vegetables in a bowl, and then toss well. Stir in ALL ingredients and squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the mix. Following the practical cooking session Dean took the groups through some eye opening and interesting information on healthy eating, taking a close up look at the food we eat and the levels of saturated fats and sugars hidden in so much of it! Look out for the helpful traffic light labels on the front of food packaging which will help you “see at a glance whether a food is high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) in fat, saturated fat, sugars or salt”. (NHS online: reference intakes explained)As this was a pilot we were all very pleased with how the first courses went. Both groups enjoyed their time at St Fagans and shared some lovely feedback with us. Here’s a couple of the highlights:“Excellent course, really enjoyed it!” (parent)“The course is very educational and we all enjoyed it.” (child)“I think it’s a very good and educational course. Something that appeals to both adults and children and starts children thinking about food choices from a very young age.” (parent)“We got to taste the herbs as we picked them. I really liked the mint- it tasted like chewing gum. In the supermarket herbs are mainly dried and in packets so you can’t smell or touch them.” (child)“The kids have told me they want to start growing vegetables in their Nan’s garden - I’ve never seen them eat veggies so fast!” (parent)When asked what the top three things they had enjoyed about the course were, the families said:“Learning how to slice vegetables, trying new foods, cooking with my Mum.” (child)“Making fresh food with my daughter, gaining a better understanding of healthy eating and picking fresh veg.” (parent)“Picking vegetables, cooking and understanding history.” (child)“Learning all about the fat and sugar intake.” (child)Now we’ve tested the water, so to speak, we’re looking forward to developing further opportunities next summer. Thanks to all the families for taking part and the partners for helping to make it happen.
