Collections Online

Six-stringed instrument, oblong in shape and possessing a flat back, sides and soundboard, with the body and soundbox, as well as the main frame, being fashioned from a single piece of wood. A fingerboard divides a rectangular opening at one end while two holes can be seen in the soundboard. Although complete there is a line of blocked off tuning pin holes slightly offset from the current set.

Conservation work on this crwth has uncovered a hidden aperture beneath the overhanging fingerboard. On further inspection, this seems to travel up the full length of the neck. X-rays of the instrument revealed a tapering, very purposeful cavity extending the full length of the fingerboard. The effect of this void reduces the surface area available for the fingerboard to adhere to the neck. Consequently, it would have been much more difficult to construct than had a solid, flat surface been used - which would have better adhered to the neck upper surface.

The crwth is one of the oldest traditional instruments. We know there was a crwth competition in the first ever eisteddfod in 1176. It became popular at country dances about 400 years ago until it was displaced by the fiddle. Today, players such as Cass Meurig have revived it.

This is an early Welsh stringed instrument, which was played with a bow. There are only two other crwths like this in Britain.