Press Releases

St Fagans: National History Museum, Retirement of Ray Smith, Senior Carpenter

 
 
 
Press Release
31.07.08

St Fagans: National History Museum.  Retirement of Ray Smith, Senior Carpenter.

After more than 28 years at St. Fagans: National History Museum, on Friday 1 August, senior carpenter Ray Smith is retiring.

Instantly recognisable with his tall build, beaming smile and broad Radnorshire accent, Ray has become a great favourite with the hundreds of thousands of visitors that pass through the Museum gates every year.  His regular TV and radio appearances have also made him something of a local celebrity. 

Ray is a Radnorshire lad, and is proud to be so.  He comes from a family of country craftsmen, his father was a stonemason and there were carpenters on his mother’s side. 

Ray left school at fifteen to work for a local carpenter and eventually helped to set up the Hereford Cider Museum.  In 1980, Ray joined the Museum at St. Fagans, and his craftsmanship is evident on many of the open-air museum’s buildings; he was responsible not only for the on-going repairs and maintenance to the re-erected buildings but also dismantling and documenting the buildings in the first place.

Ray’s true labour of love is St. Teilo’s Church, a medieval church that was moved from Pontarddulais in West Wales and opened at the Cardiff museum by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams in October 2007.  In St. Teilo’s we can see what Ray has achieved, he personally selected standing oaks from his beloved Radnorshire to be felled and used for the church’s rafters and screens.  A combination of his own craft skills, his personal research into church carpentry in Wales and England, and a lot of practise, has resulted in the intricately carved screens and woodwork that can be seen at the church today.

Gerallt Nash, buildings curator said:

“In true medieval tradition, Ray has carved his name in Latin on the rood loft at St. Teilo’s church, but Ray left his mark in more than one way on the Museum and staff and visitors alike will miss him greatly.”

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales operates seven national museums across Wales. These are National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans: National History Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon, Big Pit: National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, National Wool Museum, Drefach and the National Slate Museum, Llanberis.

ENDS
 
NOTES TO EDITORS
 
For press information and high resolution photographs please contact, Iwan Llwyd, Communications Officer.
Call: (029) 2057 3486 / 07920 027 054
Email: iwan.llwyd@museumwales.ac.uk  
Visit: www.museumwales.ac.uk  

* Entry to St. Fagans: National History Museum is free, thanks to the support of the Welsh Assembly Government.