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A Visit to Wells: 5th July 2023 |
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coach trip saw over forty
Friends taking advantage of a fine summer’s day to visit the city of
Wells and with it with
the chance to see the famous Cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace. |
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They are natural springs fed by water from the Mendips and allow a succession of ponds to be created but also go on to feed the moat surrounding the palace, as well as providing the water supply for the medieval town along gutters which still exist today. The provided a tranquil area of flowers and shrubs with the cathedral. as an imposing backdrop. In the moat two swans accompanied by their cygnets glided across the water. On the wall of the gatehouse is a bell which they can ring when they wish to be fed. The practice dates from the 1870s when their ancestors were taught by the daughter of Bishop Harvey.
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| Wells Cathedral: Nave vaulting with the nineteeth century Persian Tree of Life design Photo: Diane Davies | Wells cathedral: sculpture of a lizard on
one of the pillars Photo: Diane Davies |
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After
lunch it was time to visit the Cathedral and I was
lucky enough to be in time for the afternoon guided tour.
Seeing the interior, I was
again impressed by
the great sicissor arches that are at the centre of the cathedral; they
look
striking modern but are in fact a novel medieval solution to the
subsidence of
the central tower as it was being built.
This time, I was also struck by the decorations to
the roof of the nave;
though nineteenth century they are based on one of the few surviving
fragments
of medieval painting that could be interpreted and represent a Persian
Tree of
Life. Also
fascinating were the stone
carvings around the pillars, either telling stories or simply
showing-off the
masons skill. At
four o’clock we were
taken to see the astronomical clock strike the hour.
This is the second oldest working clock in
Britain (the oldest is in Salisbury Cathedral but so not so
spectacular,
according to our guide). On
the hour two
joisting knights go round the top of the clock whilst to one side a man
chimes
the hour by kicking two bells with his feet - quite a
sight. |
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| Then
there was just enough time to visit the Vicars Close, whilst
passing on the way an Anthony Gormley sculpture inhabiting one of the
niches on
the outside wall for medieval stone sculptures, so looking somewhat
incongruous. The
Close was built in the fourteenth century
to house members of the choir and the oldest continuously inhabited
street in
Europe. It is a
striking row of
stone-built terrace houses that stretch up to a small chapel at the top
end. So many thanks to Heather Graves and Len Metcalfe for organising such an interesting day out. Diane Davies |
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Visit to Kelmscott Manor and Stow-on-the-Wold: 7th June 2023 |
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The
Friends’ June
coach trip was to the
Cotswolds, visiting Kelmscott Manor in the morning and Stow-in-the-Wold
in the
afternoon.
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Kelmscott Manor is famous for being the summer home of William Morris, a multi-faceted artist, a visionary writer and a political radical. A few weeks earlier there had been a Friends talk, in National Museum Cardiff on William Morris by Stella Grace Williams, which had proved immensely popular, so it was no surprise to find that the trip was sold-out. |
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Kelmscott Manor was
originally built during
the seventeenth century, first as a farmhouse and then extended into a
manor
house as its owners, the Turner family, rose up the social ladder. Morris began to rent the house in 1871 in partnership with his friend, Dante Gabrielli Rossetti for whom Jane Morris (Morris’s wife) was his muse and lover but that’s another story. Morris was looking for a summer residence for his wife and their two girls. Jane Morris continued to live there and she acquired the house in 1913 just before she died. It then passed to their daughter, May, who lived there until her death in 1938. In 1962, it was acquired by the Society of Antiquaries of London who carried out extensive restoration work during the sixties and then again much more recently, having received £4.3 million lottery grant in 2018. |
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the opportunity to
appreciate not just the wide range of William Morris’s interests but
also a
Jacobean house with its original furniture and tapestries as well as
objects
produced by his family and friends, including many paintings by
Rossetti
featuring Jane. Whilst the house contains furniture and other objects specifically intended for it, there are also many that were originally to be found in the Red House, Bexlyheath built in 1859. This was designed by William Morris and his friend Phillip Webb as a home after his marriage to Jane Burden and where they lived until 1866. So, walking through the rooms of Kelmscott one gets a flavour of the wide range of interests of the Morris’s and their friends. |
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What
caught my eye were the
wallpaper and furnishings, which incorporate many of Morris’s iconic
designs,
such as Strawberry
Thief,
inspired by thrushes stealing fruit
from the Kelmscott kitchen garden, and Willow
Bough,
again
inspired by the garden. It
was also fascinating
to see sixteenth century herbal books whose woodcuts of plants also
inspired
many of his designs. I
was also taken by
a quilt designed by May Morris and embroidered by Jane Morris featuring
representations of the house and the nearby River Thames.
Then I came across
original prints by
Albrecht Dürer, including one of Melancholia,
perhaps his most
famous engraving. Among the other items that struck
me was
a camphorwood box decorated by Rossetti as a wedding present
for William and Jane Morris and what I took to be a pair of
ornate
metal peacock firescreens.
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Leaving the
house
gave a chance to visit
the St George’s Church, where all four (husband, wife and both
children) are
buried. The church
itself is also full
of medieval interest: from uncovered wall paintings to some original
fifteenth-century
stained glass showing an image of St George.
Then after lunch we set off for Stow-in-the-Wold, which made its money originally from sheep but now from tourists but it was nice to visit the church and indulge in coffee and cake before the journey home.. |
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Visit to Oxford: 19th April 2023 |
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A trip to Oxford is
the traditional
start of the Friends coach trips and this year proved no exception. It was very encouraging to
see an almost-full
coach. The Oxford
trip is a very relaxed
affair in that people can do whatever they like once Oxford has been
reached
for there is much to see and do.
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However,
like many of the others I was
looking forward to seeing a special exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum
of Art
and Archaeology entitled Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth
and Reality.
The exhibition title comes from the legend of the Minatour, half-man and half-bull, that figures in a complex set of myths that involve Daedalus, his son Icarus, Theseus who killed the Minatour and Ariadne who helped him. The labyrinth was believed to be at Knossos, the ancient centre of the Minoan civilisation that existed on Crete. The exhibition sets out the history of the excavations which were originally started by Minos Kalokairinos, a Cretan businessman and scholar, at the end of the nineteenth century. He found evidence of the palace at Knossos lying under what appeared to be a small hill but the excavations were taken over by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who was Keeper of Archaeology at the Ashmolean in the early 1900s. He popularised the site by imposing his own interpretation on what he found and through his partial restoration of the palace complex. |
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I was able to visit the site in 2009,so the photographs of the site show it as it was then. It is huge and very impressive but distinguishing the Minoan remains from Evans’s restoration was extremely tricky, so it was fascinating to see it all set out in historical context. Excavations continue to this day and the exhibition shows finds from these those carried out since my visit. |
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The exhibition also looks at the idea of the labyrinth, which has fascinated human-beings throughout the centuries and the myths that have grown around the idea; even today we all enjoy trying to navigate a complex maze. The myths that grew up around the one at Knossos have echoes in many aspects of the Minoan civilisation. The palace complex is labyrinthine in its construction, the Minoans celebrated the bull in ritual bull-leaping contests and their decorative designs featured the eight tentacles of octopuses that were arranged into complex patterns in their artworks as well as frescos with dolphins and griffins. |
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After a break for lunch and a stroll around Oxford I returned to the Ashmolean to spent what was left of the afternoon looking at the art collection. It is a wide-ranging collection ranging from the early Italian Renaissance to the contemporary. I would just like to mention two works with a Welsh connection. The first was Rooftops in Naples by Thomas Jones, the same rooftops viewed from his studio that feature in the postcard sized view in National Museum Cardiff, one of my favourite works in the Museum. This one though was simpler but in a striking letterbox format which gave it a modern feel. The other was a work by Gwen John, The Convalescent, one of eleven works she created featuring the subject over a period of nearly twenty years. It is a painting concerned with shapes and colours rather than the depiction of an individual, so in a way has parallels with Thomas Jones’s image in its preoccupation with form rather than content. Many thanks to Dorn Swaffield for organising the trip and giving me the chance to once again explore the Ashmolean. Diane Davies |
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Thomas Henry Thomas and the Founding of the Museum |
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The National Museum is celebrating the fact that it is 100 years since it opened its doors to the public. Kristine Chapman has written a blog about this event, entitled, Opening of the National Museum Oct 1922. The Friends also have their Oriel magazine and copies are placed on our website. You can find a copy of an article about Thomas Henry Thomas known as T. H. Thomas who was a founding father of the National Museum. You will find it in the March edition of 2014. |
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The
campaign for a National Museum for Wales was part of the
flowering of Welsh cultural nationalism which took place before the
First World
War. Traditionally
Museums collected,
preserved and shared collections but were particularly important in
establishing identity of national states such as Wales. Scotland and Ireland had
founded national
museums in 1854 and 1877 but Wales had to wait until 1907. Thomas was important in getting a National Museum for Wales located in Cardiff. Thomas never saw this completed structure which was officially opened by King George V in 1927. The National Museum of Wales had been founded in 1905, with its royal charter granted in 1907. Part of the bid for Cardiff to obtain the National Museum for Wales included the gift of the Cardiff Museum Collection. So Cardiff lost its local museum and gained a national one. The Cardiff Museum collection was formally handed over in 1912. In fact many of the artefacts and specimens had been collected by Thomas. Thomas was there to celebrate these occasions in 1907 and 1912 and he also helped oversee the design. There were lions on the roof but he insisted that other effigies were added and of course insisted on dragons. |
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By the time the new building opened Thomas had long departed this world. The last years of his life were difficult. Thomas was a pacifist and despaired of the war. He was increasingly ill with heart disease and died in his sleep like his father, the President of the Baptist College at Pontypool, in 1915. |
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| Visit
to Tyntesfield: 5th
October 2022 |
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The Friends’ coach trip to Tyntesfield took place on a very blustery and showery autumnal day. After an introduction to the house and gardens plus coffee in the Visitors Centre, we were allowed to go our own ways to explore both the house and the extensive gardens. |
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The
house is primarily known for being
built in the Gothic revival and externally replete with crenelations,
spires
and turrets. For
those of us who love
the medieval fantasies built by William Burges for the Bute family in
Cardiff,
it was a delight to explore. The site dates back to Tudor times but the house was originally Georgian; it was adapted and added to by William Gibbs as a home for himself, his wife and his seven children in the 1860s. . |
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His family
had business connections in Spain
and South America and he made his money by importing guano from islands
off the
coast of Peru for use as fertiliser, having secured a monopoly for its
export
to Britain. The
work there was mainly carried
out by Chinese indentured labourers who worked in conditions of near
slavery. The
profits from the trade made William Gibbs
the richest non-aristocrat in Britain.
The Gibbs family were Tracterians, an Anglican movement bordering on Catholicism. For Tracterians like Gibbs, the Gothic style was an architectural expression of Christian ideals and the architect he chose, John Norton, was strongly influenced by the high priest of the Gothic revival, William Pugin (of Houses of Parliament fame). No expense was spared in recreating a medieval atmosphere in a late nineteenth century Victorian country house. |
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The house even has its own Gothic chapel,
which
I entered by climbing up a spiral staircase to be greeted by
gothic-style stained
glass windows, including a rose window. Medieval features abound everywhere with ornate wood panelling, or rich tapestries or stained glass in the windows. William Gibbs’s motto, “en dios mi ampero y esperanza” (Spanish for “in God my refuge and hope”), was ubiquitous as a decorative feature. Spanish because he was born in 1790 in Madrid and was educated both in Spain and England. |
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With the death of
the last of the line, the
house and much of the contents were sold to the National Trust in 2002. One of the most important
art works, a Madonna
and Child with John the Baptist by Giovanni Bellini
was given to the
nation in lieu of death duties and originally went to Bristol Museum. However, it is now on loan and to
the NT and
is on display it its original setting.
By the time I finished exploring the house, the rain appeared to have stopped so I took the opportunity to explore the gardens. Not only were there formal gardens full of purple verbena but also extensive woodland beginning to show their autumnal colours to wander through. |
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All-in-all
a fascinating visit and I
want to thank Heather Graves and Len Metcalfe for organising the visit
and successfully
solving problems caused by the day being one chosen for a national rail
strike.
Diane Davies |
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Visit to
National Collections Centre: 21st
September 2022
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I always
feel that a Friends’ visit to
the national Collections Centre in Nantgarw is a bit like a ‘Lucky-Dip’
that introduces
me to the unknown or unexpected and the fascinating stories behind
them.
Although I have now been a number of times on
these trips, I am always amazed by the range of artefacts that are held
there
and in awe of the knowledge of the staff who show us around and talk
about what we
are seeing.
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As usual,
we were divided into three
smaller groups for the tour. My group’s
first stop was in an area holding some of the art collection created by
miners
or relating to mining. Ceri Thompson showed
us a small selection of the works and entertainingly related the
stories behind
them. Of particular interest were a
collection of striking drawing (mainly in pastel and crayon) of William
John
Davies, known as ‘Chopper’. He was
working at Six Bells colliery in 1960 when an explosion killed
forty-five men.
He would have been among the dead but had worked overtime the night
before and
so had taken the day off. He produced
many works based on his experiences underground and donated over three
hundred
of his works to the Museum.
Then Ceri showed us some of the Museum’s collection of Illuminated Addresses, used to honour individuals from the mining community. Their style and appearance gave them the feel of illuminated manuscripts – it was a case of appearance transcending content. |
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John James and Mark
Lewis then showed us
items in the transport section. These
included three Gilbern cars from the early 1970s and are the only cars to be completely
manufactured in
Wales – you can read about them in an article in Oriel
(see Oriel,
October 2021, p.21). John
James also
showed us some of the boats in the collection.
The Moelfre lifeboat that was involved in a dramatic
resecue of the
coast of Anglesey in 1947. Then
he
talked about the preservation of two much older rowing boats: one discovered in Llyn
Padarn and dating from
Tudor times and another found in the mud at Pill, near Newport, and
dating from
the 11th century.
Mark Lewis then explained about the restoration work he was doing on parts of an engine from a car that set the world land-speed record in 1926 on Pendine Sands. It was driven by John Perry-Thomas, who was killed a year later trying to regain the record with the same car. The remains of the car were buried in the sands at Pendine but were dug-up in 1969. The restored car will be displayed at a planned Museum of Speed in Pendine. |
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Our third
visit was to the conservation area
where Lisa Charles told us about the challenges of conserving items
relating to
the Aberfan disaster. Since the
publicity over the alarm clock (see Oriel, April
2022, p.30), many
more people have come forward to offer items to the Museum.
One of the most important is a school exercise book which contains an essay written a few years later by a survivor of the disaster who wrote about her experiences of being in the Pantglas Junior School that day. Also very poignant were memorabilia of a wedding held just two weeks previously where one of the young bridesmaids was a pupil at the school and was killed in the disaster. |
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Once
again thanks
must go to Roger Gagg
for organising the trip. Well
worth
booking if you see another one advertised as a future event. Diane Davies |
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Visit to Gloucester
Cathedral and Highnam
Court: 6th July 2022
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On a gloriously
sunny July
morning a
full coach of Friends set off to visit Gloucester Cathedral and Highnam
Court. Both have
strong musical
connections and so
we were fortunate to have, as one of the party, Geraint Lewis, an
eminent
musicologist and composer. On
the way to Gloucester, he explained how
Vaughan Williams was connected with Gloucester especially through his
connection
to the Three Choirs Festival, a link that started with the first
performance of
his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
at the
cathedral in 1910. He
then went on to
mention the connection of
Highnam Court with music; it was where Hubert Parry grew up and later
lived. Indeed, it
is said that Jerusalem,
his most famous work, was composed one morning in its music room.
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For the
visit of
Gloucester Cathedral, we
were split up into three groups for a guided tour. It is an
amazing space with a Norman nave
with rounded pillars and Romanesque arches at one end to the airy
Perpendicular
style at the east end, which consists of one impressive window behind
the high
altar filled with medieval stained glass celebrating the medieval
social hierarchy with
God at the top. I was also struck by
modern stained glass designed by Thomas Denny, a Gloucestershire
artist, which is
to be found in the Thomas Chapel and also a chapel commemorating the
composers
Gerald Finzi and Ivor Gurney.
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The
Cathedral is the
burial place of
Edward II who was brutally murdered at nearby Berkley Castle and has an
ornate medieval
shrine dedicated to him which, before the Reformation was a popular
pilgrimage destination. In addition, there is the tomb of
Robert
Curthose,
the eldest son of William the Conqueror.
I enjoy quirky misericords and here they have ones showing dragons
fighting, two people playing football and an elephant (complete with
horses’
hooves!). I also admired the cloisters
with their fan vaulting which surround a garden in full flower – an
ideal place
to rest and recuperate.
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After lunch
we moved
on to Highnam Court
built in 1658 to a design by one of the pupils of Inigo Jones. In 1838 it was bought by
Thomas Gaudier Parry. He
was an artist and musician and, indeed
some of his work can be seen in one of the chapels in the Cathedral. His son was Hubert Parry
who also lived there. However,
during the twentieth century the
house and gardens went to wrack and ruin.
The present owner, Roger Head, bough the place in
the
1990s and since
then has devoted time and money to restoring both the house and gardens.
The house
is normally
closed to visitors
but we were given an unexpected opportunity to see four of its rooms. All had been faithfully
restored back to what
was known from documentary evidence.
Afterwards we had a chance to explore the extensive
gardens in the
summer sunshine before tea and cake in the Orangery.
For me, one of the highlights of the grounds
were not the flowers and tress but the wooden sculptures created from
dead trees
by David Bytheway, a Shropshire-based, chain-saw sculptor.
They could be found and admired around every
corner.
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| Diane Davies |
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Visit
to
Aberglasney
House and Gardens: 12th May 2022
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The second
coach trip
of the
year was to
Aberglasney House and Gardens near Llandeilo.
It
was very encouraging to discover that it was a full
coach that set off
from Cardiff in bright Spring sunshine – though I have to confess that
Carmarthenshire seemed to be ignoring the fact that Spring had arrived.
After
refreshments in
the
house, we were
treated to a guided tour of some of the key features of the gardens and
learn
about the wide variety of garden types that can be seen at Aberglasney. It was also an opportunity
to learn about the
history of the place which after flourishing from medieval times
gradually fell
into wrack and ruin in the second half of the twentieth century. Then in 1995 it was taken
over by the
Aberglasney Restoration Trust who started the task of creating the
gardens that
can be seen today.
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The
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Photo:
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The
tour was led by Dave Hand who, apart from Joseph Atkin, the Head
Gardener, is
the only full-time gardener at Aberglasney.
Otherwise,
the work there is
carried out by three student gardeners and a host of volunteers. We started in the Cloister
Garden which dates
back to the Elizabethan/Jacobean times and which is important as being
the only
example of its type in Britain. It
has a
series of patterned walkways and its sheltered aspect was intended to
allow tender
plants to be kept there such as the orange trees that decorate the area
today. The origins
of this garden could
date back to
the thirteenth century as a
silver Long Cross Penny dating from the reign of Edward I
was found during archaeological excavations on the site.
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| The Pool Garden Photo: Diane Davies | The Friends on their tour through the Stream Garden Photo: Diane Davies | ||||
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From there
we moved
to the
two walled
gardens. The upper
one was created by
the garden designer and writer, Penelope Hobhouse and shows her love of
Tuscan
gardens and variety of colour combinations.
The
lower one is used as a kitchen garden and is bordered
with apple
trees trained in a variety of ways.
From
there we moved past the Pool Garden into more woodland areas before
returning
to the house for lunch via a wisteria covered walkway.
This has only recently been created and it
will be future generations that enjoy its full glory.
However nearby wisteria gave off a heady perfume
to give a foretaste of what will come.
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After lunch came
the chance
to explore
other areas of the house and gardens.
In
total there are about twenty different sorts of garden styles that can
be seen
at Aberglasney and at this time of year the Asiatic Garden was in full
splendour.
The house has been extensively renovated by the Trust over the years but one section that was in a particularly ruinous state was given a glass atrium and planted with sun tropical and exotic species including a wide variety of rare and unusual orchids. Its name, Ninfarium, derives from the garden at Ninfa near Rome who owners, the Caetani family gave financial support to the poet Dylan Thomas. |
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| After
leaving
Aberglasney
there was the
chance to spend a bit of time in Llandeilo and many of us used the
opportunity
to have afternoon tea to fortify us before the return to Cardiff. Finally, many thanks must
go to Margaret Lewis
for organising such a successful day out. Diane Davies Editor's Note: A longer version of this post focussing on the history of the house and gardens is planned for the October edition of Oriel. |
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It
is just over two years since the Friends last visited Oxford and it
became the
final visit made by the Friends before the 2020 lockdown. It is fitting
therefore that this year’s April 13th visit was the first day trip
organized by
the Friends since the lockdown. All
our
Friends’ visits are organized by committee members of the Board of
Trustees and
Dorn Swaffield was the organizer on this occasion. |
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On
an overcast, rather dull morning, thirty-one intrepid travellers set
forth from
the Museum steps and the Wild Gardens in Roath.
The
format for the visit is usually the same with the
put-down and pick-up
spot being the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford city centre. From
there we make our diverse ways. Pissarro, who was born in 1830, was the oldest of the Impressionists and literally became a father figure to some of them, notably Cezanne and Gauguin. With Gauguin, he encouraged him to pursue art as a career but it was for his kindness and sympathy towards Cezanne that he is best remembered. In the case of Cezanne he made a major impact encouraging him to work ‘en plein’ air using looser brushstrokes and there are old photographs existing showing the pair side by side painting together. At the end of his life Cezanne described Pissarro as being “a father to me.” |
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The Ashmolean exhibition cleverly displayed their works together and in one case showed the same scene painted by them. His relationship with Monet, Sisley, Degas, and Van Gogh all informed his creativity and again the curation of the exhibition displayed works by these artists showing the influences at work flowing between them.
Through his son Lucien, also an artist, Pissarro became interested in pointillism and befriended Seurat and Signac and for a time painted in this style as well. The laborious technique meant that fewer paintings were produced and so Pissaro’s income fell and he reverted to painting freer landscapes, impressionistic in style.
I was struck by the obvious scholarship which forged this exhibition. From the choice of artists, the brilliant descriptions hanging besides the pictures, the exhibition catalogue – it was so informative. All-in-all, an artistic triumph for the Ashmolean. |
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The
writer of this Blog, who had done a little homework before the trip on
the
treasures of the Ashmolean, decided to try to find King
Alfred’s Jewel - an
artifact which is often shown on historical programmes on TV. Coming
face to face, as it were, with the intricacy and beauty of the jewel
itself was
awesome, particularly when one considers the workshop tools available
at that
time. Together
with seeing some other wonderful pictures from the permanent collection
the day
came to a close after the requisite and essential visit to the shop and
coffee
shop! Everyone was
on time for the
coach, which was noticeably quieter on the way back than on the way out
as our
legs recovered and we all in our different ways reflected on the visual
treats
which we had experienced. Trix Pryce |
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| A
Visit to National
Museum Cardiff: Part 2 (Swaps
and new acquisitions) |
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The second exhibition to open in October was Swaps, which consists of photographs from the David Hurn Collection. This second exhibition featuring the collection comprises photographs that David Hurn had received from fellow members of Magnum Photo, the photo-journalism collective, plus some of his own photographs taken in Wales. The subject matter varied enormously (so much that there was a warning on the door that some people might find some images offensive). Three images have stuck in my memory. The first is one by Bill Brandt of a miner in Northumberland having his tea whilst his wife looks on - it is the expression of the wife that caught my attention, hard but full of resignation at the same time. The second was of Henri Matisse in old age, cutting out a shape for one of his famous collages, taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The third was one by David Hurn himself; it was taken on a wet day on the Mynydd Eppynt Army Range and is a view of two sheep sheltering inside a sentry box standing side-by-side and looking out as if on sentry duty. From there I wandered across to the permanent collection to have a first look at the two Paula Rego pastels acquired last year and being shown for the first time. The form part of a sequence representing the Life Cycle of the Virgin Mary and featured in an article in the April 2021 edition of Oriel. Then I made my way to the Faces of Wales gallery in the hope of seeing the painting that has replaced the portrait of Thomas Picton that used to hang there, only to discover that the gallery still remains closed. So, I was denied the opportunity of seeing a very striking painting by Albert Houthuesen (1903-1979) - a life size portrait of of William Lloyd, a hedger and ditcher. However, from the image shown it looks a far more arresting work than the standard man-in-uniform that was Picton's portrait. Hopefully, access to that section will soon be permitted and I can see the picture in the flesh, so to speak. |
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From there, I found myself passing through the gallery devoted to the Impressionists to one that is devoted to newly acquired works. Here I was able to see a work by Magdalene Odundo (1950- ). Those Friends who came on the trip to Northumbria and Durham in 2019 may remember a visit to The Hepworth Wakefield – as well as the permanent Hepworth collection there was a special exhibition devoted to the ceramics of Magdalene Odundo. I had never seen any of her work before and was immediately entranced by the shapes and patterns of the pottery she created So, it is wonderful to know that the Museum has acquired one of her pieces. Asymmetric 1 It is a terracotta bowl/vase in black and orange, the two colours being the result of multiple firings done in a way that gives an unpredictable finish to the piece. |
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| Also
on display in the room
were two oil
paintings by Mary Lloyd Jones (1934- ), one, Ysgyrn
from
2018 and
the other, Pwerdy Ceunant from
2019. They are
large landscapes bordering on
abstract. I have
long been an admirer of
her work and it was good to see that the Museum has finally acquired
two of her
works on canvas. So all-in-all a very enjoyable morning and a reminder that there is so much to see in the art section of National Museum Cardiff. Diane Davies |
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| A Visit to
National
Museum Cardiff: Part 1 (The
Rules of Art?) |
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Recently I took the opportunity to visit National Museum Museum to see what was on show. What I have been inspired to say about the visit is going to be more than a blog’s worth so this blog is going to be in two parts. This first part concentrates on the recently opened The Rules of Art? exhibition. |
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The exhibition occupies five of the gallery spaces and is loosely based on the traditional five genres of painting. In the first room was a painting that, previously, I had only been able to admire from afar. This was Spring by Maximillian Lenz, a huge work that used to hang at the top of the stairs leading to the permanent art collection before it was banished to the stores. Now I could see it close up and admire the details. You can read about Lenz and the painting in an article by Ilse Fisher-Hayes in the February 2013 edition of the Friends’ magazine. |
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 Maximilian Lenz (1860-1948), Spring (Oil on canvas, 174cm x 366cm, c.1904) © Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales |
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| I was
pleased to see that a large proportion
of the works on display were by women artists.
Some
were known to me such as Man Rock
by
Brenda Chamberlain. Again,
you can read
more about her and the
painting in an article I wrote for the October
2010 edition of
the magazine
(gosh was it so long ago!). Then
there was
Clare Woods' Hill of Hurdles, a
striking representation
of a
detailed landscape in bold swirling acrylic colours.
New to me was a beautiful Victorian genre
scene by Emily Mary Osborne entitled For the Last
Time. |
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Then, Richard Wilson’s Cadair Idris, which is on loan for the exhibition, is paired with Bedwyr Williams’s video installation, Tyrrau Mawr, where a modern high-rise city has been built on the slopes of the mountain and you can follow the change in light over twenty-four hours. I remember seeing Tyrrau for the first time at an Artes Mundi exhibition when it was installed in a darkened room and provided an immersive experience that bowled me over. In this exhibition it is on a large TV screen but still fascinating to see. |
Visit
to
Fourteen Locks Canal
Centre: Wednesday
14th July 2021
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| We are now in the
middle of
July and the
prospect of easing of the restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic
comes ever
closer. So, it is
time to think about the
restarting day visits to places of interest for Friends. Which meant that, on a
warm and sunny day, a
dozen or so Friends took part in a trial visit to the Fourteen Locks
Canal
Centre to the north of Newport. Thanks
must
go to Christabel Hutchings for organising the vest and leading a walk
to look
at the fourteen locks that give the Centre its name.
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With
coach trips
still not an
option we
all travelled independently to the Centre which houses a café, a small
museum,
displays of local art and a meeting room.
Next
to it is the pound for the topmost lock which is now
an attractive
water feature complete with a dragonfly sculpture and ducks guiding
their
goslings across the water in the hope of a free meals.
From the Centre, Christabel led us down the flight of locks known as the Cefn Flight which is the most impressive section of the Crumlin arm of the Monmouthshire Canal. During the walk Christabel outlined the history of the canal and why the locks are so significant. |
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These locks are part of the Crumlin arm of the Monmouthshire Canal. The other arm is the Pontypool Canal which finishes at Pontnewynydd where it links to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal. So, in its heyday the canal system connected Newport to Crumlin and Brecon and transported coal and iron, with bricks being the third most significant commodity. The man behind the canals was Thomas Dadford Junior (1760-1801). Work started in 1792 in Crumlin and by 1794 the canal had reached Abercarn. The next two years saw the completion of the canal, including the fourteen locks of the Cefn Flight (lock numbers 8 to 21). These consist of four pairs of locks, a set of triple locks and a single one. Dadford died just
forty
years-old
whilst
working on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal.
The
network was finally completed in 1812.
In
1880 the canal system was taken over by
Great Western Railways ensuring that commercial carrying on the canal
ceased.
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| Friends
investigating one of the restored locks |
The
lockkeeper's
cottage |
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The Cefn Flight is an impressive engineering feat as the fourteen locks are required to produce one of the steepest rises for a flight of locks in Britain. In just 800 metres they raise the level of the canal by 50 metres. In order to do this the locks are linked to a series of pounds, ponds, sluices and weirs that control the water supply. Over the years the both arms of the canal fell into disuse and roads were built across it making it navigable only for short sections. In 1969 work began on preserving the Monmouthshire Canal and in 2003 restoration work of the Cefn Flight at the top end began after Heritage Lottery Funding. This enabled work to be completed on the four locks at the top of the flight which completed in 2011. |
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Thomas Jones, Buildings in Naples |
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The
April 2021 edition of Oriel,
the Friends magazine, has news about the acquisition of two early oil
sketches
by the eighteenth-century Welsh painter, Thomas Jones. That
reminded me that one of my favourite
paintings in National Museum Cardiff is an oil sketch by him entitled Buildings
in Naples.
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Thomas
Jones, Buildings
in Naples
(Oil on
paper, 14cm x 22cm,1782)
© Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales |
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It
was painted when he
was staying in Naples and it shows a view of Naples from the roof
terrace of
his lodgings. The
view though is
obscured by the façade of a building opposite painted in minute detail. The work has a modern
abstract feel with its
repeating squares and rectangles created by the buildings themselves
and the
windows and doors they contain with only the clouds and the skyline
breaking-up
the geometrical regularity. Then
there
is the minimalistic colour palette of just blues, greys and brown. Yet it also has an
emotional impact through a
feeling of impermanence that comes from the imperfections and
discolouration of
the buildings decaying over time and the fleetingness of the clouds. Only the spires of the
churches suggest the
hope of something else. So
much packed
into a painting not much bigger than a postcard.
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Thomas
Jones was
born in Trefonnen, Llandrindod in 1742 and grew up on the estate of
Pencerrig in
Radnorshire. He was
a pupil
of Richard
Wilson and, after he left the Wilson’s studio in 1765, he
began to
develop
his career as a painter of landscapes and mythological subjects in
London. In
1796 he went to study in Italy. At
first,
he stayed in Rome but then in 1780 he moved to Naples due to a lack of
success
with obtaining commissions in Rome.
In
Naples he lived simply in lodgings and it was from those lodgings that
he
painted a number of oil sketches of the buildings he could see around
him. On his return
to London in 1783 he
tried unsuccessfully
to establish himself as a painter but in 1787 he unexpectedly inherited
Pencerrig
and this meant that he was able to spend the rest of his life there as
a
gentleman painter. He
died there in 1803.
Today, he is recognised as one of the most innovative artists of the eighteenth century, with a deeply personal vision and these oil sketches, which would have painted purely for his own satisfaction, have become to be seen as more and more significant in the appreciation of his work. Hopefully we may soon hear good news about the reopening of the various Museum sites and I am certainly looking forward to the chance to see once more Buildings in Naples but also the possibility of seeing these two recently-acquired sketches. Diane Davies |
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Becoming Richard Burton: At
National Museum Cardiff
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I
was
invited
to the preview of this splendid exhibition on the afternoon of Saturday
21st
November. It tells the story of the
international star of stage and screen from his birth in 1925 in
Pontrydyfen
near port Talbot in the Afan Valley to his death in Céligny in
Switzerland in
1984. The exhibition takes you on a journey in chronological order through his life. His mother died when he was two and he was looked after by his elder sister Cecilia (Cis.) and her husband Elfed. He was the twelfth of thirteen children. He had been born Richard Jenkins but became Richard Burton at the age of fourteen when Phillip Burton his talented teacher became his legal guardian. There are fascinating insights into his life all the way through the exhibition in part due to the artefacts such as his diaries, papers, and personal objects on loan from Swansea Museum’s Richard Burton Archives, many of which are on display to the public for the first time. His wife Sally Burton has also shared her personal collection of artefacts connected with him. |
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His first
experiences of acting were influenced by Phillip Burton – first at
school, then
Oxford, at the Royal Shakespeare company after which the acting world
was his
oyster. Innumerable
films followed. We
see the various stages of his acting career
through videos, posters and impressive costumes that he and Elizabeth
Taylor
wore in the 1963 epic, Cleopatra.
He is perhaps
famous not just for his acting skills but his hard living and excessive
drinking and his two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor and of course for
the
diamond he bought her. There’s a video where she shows it off to the
good people
of Pontrydyfen who don’t look that impressed. |
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| Two views of the Exhibition
© Amgueddfa
Cymru/National Museum Wales |
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But there is more to Richard Burton the man behind the headlines. He was a global celebrity but also a family man; a generous man to family and friends; an avid book reader – some of his book collection is displayed in the exhibition and despite his jet-setting lifestyle he always remembered Wales and his Welshness and even called his house in Switzerland Le Pays de Galles. Gwen Williams |
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A
Visit to St Woolos Cathedral, Newport
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| Since March
the Covid pandemic has meant that Friends’
events, such as talks and visits, have had to be put on hold.
Recently things
have begun to change and new
ways of thinking have already led to a virtual talks programme courtesy
of Zoom. The same sense of reimagining is
now being applied
to Friends’ visits. A few days ago, on a
dull late-November day, I was one of nine guinea pigs who went on a
visit to
Newport’s Cathedral, St Woolos. Of course, we had
to travel
independently, wear
our masks and maintain social distance but the chance to get out and
visit a, for
me a little-known, Cathedral was an opportunity not to be missed. |
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| St Woolos is a
very young Cathedral having achieved that status in 1949. However, its origins go
back to the earliest
days of Christianity in Wales. A
wattle
and daub church is reputed to have been founded by Gwynllwy (Woolos is
an English
corruption of his name) around 500AD on this striking hill-top site
overlooking
the Severn Estuary and the mouth of the River Usk.
This was replaced by a stone structure in the
ninth century. Around
1050 this church was
destroyed by pirates but a few decades later the Normans constructed a
new
church with an imposing entrance.
This
entrance became an internal archway when the ruins of the older church
were
rebuilt in the thirteenth century as a chapel at the western end of the
church. |
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Outside is a plaque to those who died on 4th November 1839 when soldiers fired on Chartists congregating outside the Westgate Hotel in Newport. They are buried in unmarked graves somewhere in the churchyard possibly in part of the site that was lost in the building of Clifton Road. As a keen walker, I was also struck by a sculpture of two white-painted decorated boots entitled In Their Footsteps situated near the entrance from Clifton Road. I have now found out that they are part of a series of ceramic shoes made from the clay mud of the Usk which were created by Richard Parry, George Gumisiriza, Ned Heywood and Dylan Moore. A sequence of them lead down from the Cathedral to Westgate Square and commemorate the Chartist march on Newport. |
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| After the visit
there was the opportunity to visit a café in Belle Vue Park to have a
morning
coffee in their open seating area.
Many
thanks to Christabel Hutchings for organising the visit and carefully
making all
the arrangements necessary to meet current requirements for such an
excursion. I look
forward to a time when
this opportunity
can be offered more widely to Friends, as part of a revived events
programme. Diane Davies |
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Saint
Fagans and the Lonely
Planet
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The
Lonely Planet has just published its latest guide
for
travellers all
over the world. It
has named south Wales
tourist spots among the world’s most unmissable travel locations. St Fagans National Museum of History is among seven of Wales’ top attractions and also one of thirty-four of the UK’s best travel experiences to enable it to be put on to Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travel List. With thirty-four UK experiences, it makes the UK home to more of the world’s best experiences than any other country. It showers praise on St Fagans, which is 437th in the world by saying: “For a lesson in Welshness, St Fagans provides a microcosm of life in Wales like no other. Boring history lesson this is not. In this living museum of more than forty original buildings, you can sneak inside still smoke scented 16th century farmhouses, time travel through miners’ cottages, marvel at an ancient church moved here stone by stone and behold the reconstructed 12th century court of Welsh titan Llewellyn the Great. The display is anchored by a medieval castle worthy of its eclectic dominion.” You might notice a few of the facts need to be checked in this flowery prose! |
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| Rhyd-y-car:
the
terrace of miners's cottages through the ages |
St Teilo's
Church |
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Among the other Welsh locations listed as top travel destinations are the Wales Coastal Path, Portmeirion, the Festiniog Railway and St. David’s Cathedral. Worldwide the locations include Petra in Jordan. the Galapagos Islands, the Yellowstone National Park, USA and the Temples of Angkor, Cambodia. That’s some competition! So, a brilliant achievement for our own St Fagans National History Museum and all on our own doorstep. What’s more, even under the Government Covid regulations it’s open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays but book first. So, go and revel in their success and enjoy. Gwen Williams Gwen Williams is Chair, Friends of National Museum Wales |
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Up
and running and roaring
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It’s all
very well
organised – in through the
main front door – greeted by Museum staff checking our names – turn
right – up
the stairs and you look around the wonderful collection of ceramics and
porcelain most of which was left to the Museum by one
man, the Breconshire
banker Wilfred de Winton. Between
1917
and 1929 he gave more than three thousand objects, representing all the
significant eighteenth-century European factories. There
is also a fabulous collection of Meissen
and a Sévres ice cream pail which seems a little overlarge and over
embellished
to hold such large quantities of that delectation. Three
Picasso jugs also caught my eye with
unusual decoration but that would inevitably be expected.
You
can
walk the full circle of the gallery before being directed into the art
galleries to see the Botticelli, Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate. It
was donated to the Museum by
Gwendoline Davies in 1952 and has always been something of a mystery. New evidence suggests the
painting did in fact
come from Botticelli’s studio, and that he himself was responsible for
some of
it. Of
course the
painting was made famous by
featuring in the
BBC’s Britain’s
Lost
Masterpieces on
13th November 2019. |
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This
gallery takes you past some amazing pieces of silver - some
having a religious function, some a domestic function and some purely
decorative. I
attended evening classes
in silversmithing for over ten years and therefore truly appreciate the
skill
that has gone into all of these pieces.
Now
back through the Welsh landscape gallery - this gallery is
dedicated to artists’ responses to the landscape of Wales. The display puts artists
from different eras
side by side to show how places have inspired them in different ways. The
landscape throughout
the whole of
Wales has obviously been an inspiration to them all and I find those
interpretations, particularly of 20th Century painters like Ceri
Richards,
particularly fascinating.
Back
to the ground floor and through Natural History to our
beloved Woolly Mammoth and baby. The
refurbishment was sponsored by the Friends of the Museum. S/he can lift his/her head
up high when you
approach and roar with the best of them. The
darkness has been lightened and even the
baby mammoth moves his head and I’m sure I saw him wink! |
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The Museum was relatively quiet but as lockdown is lifted I know it will return to it’s former glory. It certainly gave us a good experience. Well done to all those who made it possible. Gwen
Williams |
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Visit
to St Fagans National Museum of History 28th July 2020
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| The St
Fagans
site opens to the public again on the 4th August but Friends and
Patrons were
given the opportunity to have a preview on Tuesday.
It
was
a chance for Amgueddfa Cymru to test the new rules that have to be
applied in regard
to the opening of a public space during the Covid-19 pandemic. So I happily volunteered
to be a guinea pig. |
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| Wildflowers
at a
woodland margin |
The
parterre adjacent
to St Fagans Castle |
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It was wonderful, but somewhat eerie, to feel at times that I had the place to myself. I felt as if I was wandering through a Gorgio de Chirico painting. What I enjoyed most of all was the chance to explore the flora and fauna of the St Fagans site both in the woodland areas and in formal gardens surrounding the castle. Around the woodland areas wild flowers were growing in profusion and, although the birds and butterflies did not readily pose so that I could photograph them, I am convinced I did see a green woodpecker. |
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I also came across a couple of pigs at the enclosure next to Hendre-wen Barn. They seemed very pleased to see me, rushing over to greet me with excited grunts. I tried moving around the enclosure in order to get a nicely composed picture of the two of them but all they did was follow me - very frustrating. Further on I thought I spotted some further animals, a group of sheep under the trees. I took a carefully composed picture of them as they obligingly stood still for me and only afterwards did the penny drop that they were wooden statues. |
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By the time I reached the more formal gardens surrounding the castle, the sun had truly broken through the clouds and the insects were out in profusion gathering pollen and nectar. The gardens looked glorious in the summer sunshine and I took photograph after photograph trying to get the perfect picture of a bee or other insect on one of the many blooms or trying to capture the beauty of the various parts of the gardens. |
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| The rose
garden |
Terraces
reflected in
the lake |
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So over two hours had passed in no time. It was lovely to celebrate the first tentative steps towards a new normality and to remember that there is so much more to enjoy at St Fagans site than visiting the historic houses and the galleries. So now I am looking forward to the reopening of National Museum Cardiff planned for Thursday 27th August. |
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A Virtual Tour of Sudbrook (Part 2: The Chapel) |
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| Editor’s note: The second part of a virtual visit to Sudbrook by Mark Lewis (Senior Curator, Roman National Legion Museum). As before just click on the links in blue. | |||||
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The
Coflein record for Sudbrook Holy Trinity Church
contains
Revd. C.H.A. Porter Collection images, including drawings from Octavius
Morgan
and Thomas Wakeman's Notes on Ecclesiastical Remains at
Runston,
Sudbrook, Dinham and Llanbedr (1858) published by
the (then)
Monmouthshire and
Caerleon Antiquarian Association.
The
illustrations were by John Edward Lee (founder of the Association),
with the
plan and mouldings executed by F. J. Mitchell.
The
Association hoped to "rescue
from oblivion (and possibly in some measure by the interest thus
excited, from
destruction also), remains of buildings either little known or likely
to go to
decay." They state that the "Bell-cot
…is so entirely
shrouded
with ivy, that it is hardly to be discovered". The 1887 lithograph of the chapel on page 3 of Thomas A. Walker’s The Severn Tunnel: Its Construction and Difficulties, 1872-1887’ (1890: 4) is clearly derived from the Shropshire Museums Service sketch but the lithographer misinterpreted the bell-cote arches as round-headed rather than pointed). National Museum Wales preserves a drawing of the chapel by Sarah Ormerod. Revd. Dr David H. Williams published a detailed history of Sudbrook, including the chapel, in The Monmouthshire Antiquary, Volume 3, pages 20-28 (1971). Dilapidation of the chapel during the first half of the eighteenth century appears to have been followed by roof removal or collapse, perhaps around 1750. William Coxe (1801) appears to have found verbal accounts credible of burials, and divine services within the chapel, "within the memory of several persons now living". ‘Picturesque’ lithographic prints by Revd J. Gardner (1793), Sir Richard Colt Hoare (dating to autumn 1798 or spring or autumn 1799) in William Coxe's Historical Tour through Monmouthshire (1801), and by Henry Gastineau , published in 1830, seem to support a then-relatively recent abandonment of the building, for they show it unroofed and overgrown, but with little apparent loss or erosion of stonework. |
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It is
estimated
that slow deterioration and collapse of the bell-cote occurred during
the 1980s
and 1990s resulting in the ultimate fall of the bell-cote arches to the
floor
of the nave and chancel beneath, where they could be clearly seen in
2015.
Limited
excavations within the chapel, and outside, were undertaken by G-GAT
and they
are published by S.H. Sell et al in Studia Celtica in 2001.
For a ‘non-virtual’ Sudbrook visit, post-lockdown, see a leaflet for Trails through the Ages: Sudbrook and Portskewett. |
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| Mark Lewis MSc, PhD, FSA | |||||
A Virtual Tour of Sudbrook (Part 1) |
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| Editor’s note: Spring 2020 has seen an historical ‘lockdown’, preventing travel beyond the necessary and meetings as groups. Mark Lewis (Senior Curator, Roman National Legion Museum) has suggested an online ‘virtual visit’ as a stopgap until better times return and an actual visit can be arranged. To go on your tour and explore each site just click on the links in blue. | |||||
| A
photographic
and historical overview for Sudbrook may be accessed through the
RCAHMW’s Coflein. |
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Situated at the end of a no-through road, but on the Wales Coastal Path, Sudbrook is archaeologically rewarding, offering the visitor an impressive Iron Age fort, a ruined medieval church and the well-preserved workers’ village for the construction of the Severn Railway Tunnel, with its majestic pump house and fan house. An outbreak of smallpox in Chepstow in 1883 led to the construction of a Fever Hospital set back, socially distanced, from the village, opposite Sea View Terrace, and in line with the post office at the end of Post Office Row on the site of the later paper mill (and near the site of the medieval water grist mill and mill pond, shown as the ‘Olde Mill’ on John Aram’s 1777 map, all now gone. The Fever Hospital had four wards with en-suite toilets, a surgery, kitchen, scullery, laundry and mortuary. Sadly, Sudbrook’s most impressive communal building, its Mission Hall which seated 1,000 people, also no longer stands, but its magnificent pipe organ was preserved at Christ Church, Aberbeeg, until its closure in 2012. Shropshire Museums Service preserves very fine late-19th century sketches of the exterior and interior of Sudbrook’s Mission Hall, showing the seating, pulpit and three-towered organ. The sketchbook also records Holy Trinity Church at the time. Sadly, Shropshire Museums Service’s ‘Darwin Country’ website catalogue is currently offline, but the images still feature in Google images searches . Careful inspection of the front walls of some of the workers’ houses reveals impressions of planks of wood in concrete beneath exterior paint. These ten houses were the amongst the first concrete-built houses in Britain (1882-4). The beam of one of the six great Cornish beam engines that, from its construction, pumped water from the Great Spring out of the Tunnel workings may still be seen, not in Sudbrook, but in the grounds of Swansea Museum. |
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| Mark Lewis
MSc, PhD,
FSA |
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In 1723 artist John
Wootton (1682-1764) created a painting entitled Lamprey
(a
Racehorse). The
painting is
currently on loan to
The
National Trust, Tredegar House (1). A race horse was an
important acquisition but
in the corner of the painting stands a black servant. Such
servants had a decorative role in 18th
century Britain as they were seen as exotic and something to be
displayed.
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The records reveal that he was a servant of some status. In 1732, materials for Girolamo's livery cost £3 2s and the cost of making his coat, waistcoat and leather breeches was 17s. Both were considerable sums and his annual wage of £5 was a typical amount at that time for upper servants. He was a trusted servant as in 1725 he was paid expenses for his coach hire for transporting Mrs Jenny and two clarinets to London. In 1729 he received expenses for travelling to Gloucestershire with the horses. Possibly he had special responsibility for horses as he appears with the racehorse Lamprey and is leading another horse. There was another black servant boy at Tredegar House, ‘David the black’ , for whom shoes were bought in 1724 (2). Girolamo served under two owners on the Tredegar Estate. Firstly, Sir William Morgan (1700-1731) and then his eldest son, also named William Morgan (1725-1763). |
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When
Girolamo appeared in the
painting in 1723 it was before the abolition of slavery in Britain and
the
British Empire in 1833. His annual wage
of £5 a year gave him status and suggests freedom but legally his
status in
Britain was questionable. In the last
quarter of the 18th century almost one million enslaved Africans in the
British
Caribbean worked on plantations and there were nearly 20,000 black
servants in
London (3). The
Yorke-Talbot Ruling of 1729 clearly stated that slaves from the West
Indies in
Britain were not free. In 1772 there
was a further ruling that 'no master
ever was
allowed here
(England) to take
a slave by force to be sold abroad because he deserted from his service’.
Many British slaves thought that the
ruling
emancipated slaves living in Britain but this was not the case and
slave owners
continued shipping runaway slaves back to the colonies and black slaves
were
still being bought and sold in England. In
1785, a ruling stated that 'black
slaves in
Britain were not
entitled to be
paid for their labour' unless
free (4).
There
are questions to
answer and we know so little about him. Was
he a free? Why did he have an Italian
name? Did he come from Italy originally
or did he obtain the name in Britain? Did
his Italian name preclude him form the Yorke-Talbot Ruling of 1729?
Was he alive in 1772 when the Somerset ruling
became law. Also how did he come to be a
servant at Tredegar House? We
will probably never know the answer to
these questions although after lockdown access to more records might
produce some
clarification.
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| Christabel Hutchings and Anne Dunton | |||
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References 1.
There is
an identical
painting held by the Yale Center for British Art which is signed by
John
Wootton and dated 1723.
3. British Library: African writers and Black thought in 18th century Britain. See also Paul Edwards, The History of Black People in Britain in History Today, Volume 31, Issue 9, September 1981.
4. See: National Archives, The Somerset Case. |
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| Editor's Note:
a longer
version of this blog can be found on the Blog
of the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association |
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Volunteering
at Amgueddfa Cymru
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After
retiring from fulltime work in 2012 I needed something to fill my time,
but I
wanted to make sure it was something that really interested me, but was
not
related to my former career in Education.
We
are lucky in our area to be close to some excellent museums, some of
which are
part of the National Museum of Wales. The
main museum in Cathays Park, Cardiff has always been a favourite of
mine and I
was pleased to find out that they had a volunteer programme that was
very
active and wide-ranging and, while it is an advantage to be Welsh
speaking,
there are many volunteer activities that do not require it.
Applicants apply formally for the programme and then after being accepted they apply separately for the individual volunteer posts. |
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I
was first accepted for the group run by Dr. Peter Webster, which was
cataloguing Roman Samian pottery. We
meet for six weeks each Spring and Autumn, alternating our meetings
between the
National Roman Legionary Museum in Caerleon and the National Museum
Cardiff. We look at each piece of Samian pottery and
identify its purpose, the potter who made it and where and when it was
made. We have research documents to help us and we
can look at the design of the decoration and the potters’ marks and use
these
to decide on the provenance of each piece.
It has
given me
additional skills and appreciation of the Romans, and it
is very exciting to see the thumbprint of a potter from nearly 2000
years ago
on the pots we are investigating. This
group is hoping to be able to meet again in October.
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Another
volunteering activity of mine is the Craft group. We
meet at the Volunteer Hub at St Fagans National
Museum of History and produce items needed by the Museum. To begin with we made rag
rugs for the
cottages of Rhyd-y-car. The
original
rugs held by the museum couldn’t be used as they would get damaged, so
they
asked us to make replacement rugs to put in the cottages. Some of us had made such
rugs before: I
remember my invalid uncle making these and showing me how to thread the
rags
through the hessian backing. We
were
careful to make the rugs as authentic as possible. We
used old sacks as the base and only used natural
fabrics. The group meets one day a month and so took some time to
complete the
rugs. |
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Since then we made costumes for schools having their live-in experiences at Llys Llewellyn, bunting to use at various celebrations in the different Museum sites, lavender bags from surplus lavender grown in the museum gardens and, at present, we are costuming a model as a tip girl to accompany the exhibition at Big Pit Museum, which will happen as soon as the situation is resolved. During the closure of the museum we are carrying on with our work. We have come to a temporary halt with the tip girl as we’ve gone as far as we can with the materials we have. We have taken on projects supporting the NHS: making scrubs, masks and ear protectors for staff. Others who are less skilful (like me) are knitting squares for the Blanket of Hope project for the National Wool Museum in Drefach Felindre. |
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We
have a Craft WhatsApp group to keep in touch, and regularly have
meetings via
Zoom, and once a month we have a Zoom meeting with David, our Volunteer
Coordinator.
So, in spite of the Museum’s closure we
are still volunteering and finding it very rewarding.
Marjorie Sheen |
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I want to start with a confession. Throughout my life I have always been a collector. Like many young boys I loved collecting things – stamps, coins, badges to name but a few – but most of these phases did not last very long. Then as I became older my interests changed to other things, many associated with putting together a home. I would rummage around antique shops with great enthusiasm looking for the next bargain. |
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However, in my
twenties I began
to
collect antiquarian books, especially books on the history and culture
of
Wales. This love
has remained with me
ever since. Fortunately,
as a result of
my work at the WJEC, I visited London and other major English cities,
as well
as travelling the length and breadth of Wales regularly. After
meetings I would call into the local
secondhand bookshops to see what was on offer. The
joy of collecting is the hoping finding that
special and possibly rare book. The
price asked for a book was not always dependent on its rarity. Indeed, I sometimes came to
the conclusion
that very few people, apart from myself, were actually interesting in
buying
the books I was interested in! In many ways, the 1970s to the early 1990s were a ‘golden age’ for book collectors when many libraries were sold off. It was a period when many old libraries in places in the grand houses, theological colleges and workingman institutes closed. It was also a time when virtually every town had its own secondhand bookshop, with the price of a book determined by the seller’s guess and often on the basis of what price he or she had asked for a similar book in the past. The perspective buyer could pick up real bargains too, particularly for books on obscure subjects. There was invariably a haggling over the price before the book was bought. |
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May the collecting and collectors long continue! Richard Carter |
However,
this world disappeared with
the coming of the internet. The
first
port of call for any prospective buyer is to check its availability and
price
on-line.
Collecting
books can also have its
challenges. Apart
from the obvious one
of shortage of bookshelf space, there is always the matter of finding
the time
to read the books bought. I’m afraid my ‘must find time to read that
book’ is
still as long as ever. There
is also the question of what to do with
the books when you no longer wish to keep them. In a word the ‘stuff’
problem.
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| Editors Note: To learn more about the the
Amgueddfa
Cymru's special collections of books click here. |
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An Early Neanderthal
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When I visited the ‘Wales Is’ Gallery before lockdown I was moved by this model of a Neanderthal boy. I thought about the fact that their species became extinct. I decided to find out a bit more about him. I looked in Discovered in Time: Treasures from Early Wales, ed. Mark Redknap (National Museum Wales, 2011) page 10. Part of his Neanderthal jaw was found in Pontnewydd Cave in Denbighshire, North East Wales along with other bones. The representation of the Neanderthal boy is based on his tooth fossil and his teeth date to 230,000 years ago. The teeth from the bottom jaw were a permanent molar and a milk tooth which gave an age of eight or nine. How the archaeologist knew it was from a boy I do not know. Do you? The little boy’s lower jaw was one of nineteen Neanderthal fossils discovered in Pontnewydd Cave and he was an early type of Neanderthal. Tools were also found in the cave and show they were skilled tool makers. 230,000 years ago, the climate was deteriorating and the environment that the boy would have been living in was an open steppe. Most of us possess 2% Neanderthal DNA which is an amazing thought. This is because Neanderthals lived alongside early modern humans for at least part of their existence. Archaeological evidence shows that some Neanderthals looked after their sick and buried their dead, which suggests they were social and compassionate beings. I am quite happy that I might have 2% of their DNA because in this way they have survived and it also stimulates us to want to know more about them. |
Photo
taken by C. Hutchings on a visit with the Friends
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To see the tools they created click tools.
Christabel Hutchings |
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The
Tombstone of Tadia
Vallaunius
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This
tombstone is on display in the National Roman Legion Museum and it is a
favourite of mine because it relates to a woman who had reached the age
of 65
and it was put up by her ‘devoted daughter’ Tadia Exuperata. The term ‘devoted’ shows a
strong family link
that was based on Isca Legionary Fortress and the ‘canabae’ or civil
settlement
that surrounded it. This
photo is one of
mine and I have brightened the original so that it is easier to read
the
inscription.
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Inscription
Translation
© Christabel Hutchings and by permission of Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales |
The
tombstone (RIB 369) is the tombstone of Tadia Vallaunius and also
commemorates
her son Tadius Exuperatus who died in a war ‘on the German Expedition'.
He seems to
have been the son of a
legionary
soldier from Caerleon and a local lady, Tadia Vallaunius. Vallaunius is a Celtic name
and although this
'us' ending is masculine in Latin, it can also be found in Celtic
feminine
names. Tadia has a female Latin ending and Tadius a male
Latin
ending. The son
appears to have followed
his father
into the army and was posted to Germany, where unfortunately he died. The precise nature of the German
expedition is
unknown.
The tombstone was discovered in 1849 at Pil Bach Farm on the road leading out of Caerleon towards Bulmore. The tombstone was eventually displayed in the newly constructed museum built by Caerleon Antiquarian Association in 1850. It is wonderful to think that after all these years it is still on the same site but in a newly constructed museum built by National Museum Wales who took over responsibility for the original Museum building from the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association in 1930. D(is) M(anibus) suggests a second century date for the tombstone. In Roman times there were compulsory deductions from soldiers’ pay into a burial club. Since money was deducted for their own memorial, soldiers often wanted the same provision to be available to members of their family and that seems to be the case here. Up to the Second Century most were cremated and the remains placed in a pot or glass bottle but after this date inhumation became the dominant rite. The stone would have been upright not flat on the ground and the style of the lettering is similar to some other inscriptions in the Caerleon collection. |
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| NOTE: RIB plus a number
relates to
the Roman
Inscriptions of Britain database. To while away hours click
on the
name in blue and you will see a list of inscriptions relating to
Caerleon. Christabel Hutchings (with information kindly provided by Dr Marilynne Raybould) |
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Dorelia
McNeill in the Garden
at Alderney Manor
Augustus
John (1878 – 1961)
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The
first time I saw this portrait of Dorelia McNeill by Augustus John in
the
National Museum, I was struck firstly by its actual size (2 metres by 1
metre),
its simplicity and the imposing figure of Dorelia which dominates the
work of
art. The
background is simple with flat areas of
subtle colours but more attention has been paid to the figure itself –
the
folds of the apron, the patterned dress and the soft beautiful features
of the
face. Her dress is reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites. Dorelia was embarrassingly beautiful and according to a fellow friend and artist William Rothenstein “one could not take one’s eyes off her”. She had high cheek bones and slanting eyes and in this portrait she appears tall with a swan-like neck but apparently she was rather short. She had an enigmatic power that gave her beauty its depth which is obvious in the portrait. She was not particularly articulate but people in trouble came to her hoping to share her calm. Augustus John and Gwen John went from Tenby to the Slade Art School in London. Gwen became friendly with fellow student, Ida Nettleship who was later to become Augustus’ wife. It was Gwen John who had also met Dorelia first at art evening classes at Westminster School and when Augustus met her he fell in love with her instantly. Ida liked Dorelia and a tumultuous ménage-a-trois was formed. However it wasn’t until his wife Ida died that he moved into Alderney Manor with Dorelia and his seven children. The manor was a fortified pink bungalow built by an eccentric Frenchman in 60 acres of heath and woodland outside Poole, Dorset. Dorelia’s sister Edie helped to tend the cats, cows, pigs, donkeys, ponies, horses and bees as well as the children who lived a carefree existence running about the gardens and nearby heath, occasionally posing for their father to paint them. Guests tended to drop in and stay for days or sometimes weeks sleeping in the cottage, caravans or gypsy tents in the grounds. It cannot be denied that Augustus John was a wild, promiscuous, bohemian artist but considered the top portrait painter of his generation. He had almost too many affairs to mention but never seemed to deny any of his wayward offspring - taking some under his communal wing, paying maintenance to support others. A claim that he had fathered some 100 illegitimate offspring is probably an exaggeration. At Alderney John would spend his time painting and sketching the children and guests; taking part in afternoon jazz sessions, the tango was his speciality, and presiding over the many parties, bonfires and trips to local pubs. Dorelia and John lived at Alderney Manor, from August 1911 until March 1927. She and John remained together (though unmarried) for the rest of their lives. This portrait was painted in the year they moved in. Perhaps that’s why Dorelia looks so calm. Had she any idea of what her future held? Gwen Williams |
| Editor' Note:
Amgueddfa Cymru owns the painting but copyright restrictions mean I am
unable to display the picture in this blog. However, you can
see
an image by clicking on the title of the painting in blue or, if you
don't want to scroll up click here |
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| En plein-air For Gwyneth Lewis After reading about Morning on the Oise, Auvers, Charles-François Daubigny 1859, National Museum Wales |
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to the place where plunder is possible. Your inheritance for posterity. Horizons singing With rhyme At the end of a line. |
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Charles François
Daubigny, Morning
on the Oise, Auvers (Oil on
board, 21cm
x 42cm, 1859)
©
Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales
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| Christ
mocked David Jones National Museum Wales |
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| The
Carpenter on his way
to the Tree on the boards of the carpenter’s workshop in Ditchling where you lived in the stable. I was arrested by boards and helmets. I thought I knew David Jones as I gazed. I had taken in words and their music in the opera “In Parenthesis”. I thought it was you, mocked for what you were; looking with unfocussed understanding. I wanted to know, to observe clearly. I read all I could — imagination opened a shutter on my own mocking. Light streamed in through the cracks of memory to see as if for the very first time — my life and the painting through healing tears. A friend had gifted Epoch and Artist And there I saw glimpses to help me grasp: “everyone means different things by the same words” I learned about your thoughts before Ditchling: our shared understanding of remembrance. Cataracts removed, clear lenses in place I will never have perfect vision. I hope for adequate perception: you are my David Jones now. |
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The Parting by James Tissot (1836-1902) |
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| One
of my favourite artworks at National Museum Wales. I can’t give you a date for when I first saw this painting. I have had a postcard of it at home for many years. So I obviously liked the work enough that I searched out a copy of it in the shop. |
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The title of the painting indicates precisely what it is about, a leave taking. The scene is a soldier in his red uniform sitting looking very despondent. A lady we assume to be his wife or at least his beloved puts her hands on his shoulders to console him. Her white dress and bonnet contrast with the military red. Another lady is preparing tea and looks at the two sympathetically. All three are looking totally anguished. Through the bay window of the parlour can be seen boats rowing out to a warship. The young soldier has received his orders to join his ship. The painting has the subtitle of “Bad News” which again encapsulates the situation. I love the detail of the painting – the Lady’s black half gloves, the quills and inkpot and the fruit cake which has been sliced into. |
| James
Tissot, Bad News (The Parting)
(Oil on canvas, 69cm x 91cm, 1872) © Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales |
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| Researching the artist I found that he was popular with the public but taken to task by the critics of the time as his work was considered too photographic and simplistic. I certainly like the depiction of a scene with which I can empathise. It is one which has remained in my memory. Lorraine Wilson |
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A
Favourite Picture: Brenda Chamberlain’s
Self-portrait
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One of my all-time favourite pictures at National Museum Cardiff is a self-portrait by Brenda Chamberlain. It is entitled, Self-portrait on Garnedd Dafydd, and quite small - just 30.5 cm high by 30.5 cm wide. It was painted in 1938 at the start of her artistic career when she had just married to John Petts, whom she had met when both were studying at the Royal Academy, and they had set up home in Llanllechid near Bethesda. The picture shows her standing on the summit of Carnedd Dafydd and behind her can be seen the glaciated valley of Cwm Pen-llafar running down to Bethesda. However, it is she who dominates the picture which barely has space to contain contain her face and long blond hair. She is looking directly at us, the viewers, with an inscrutable expression and with her eyes, black pools that reveal nothing but seem to transfix you. Yet it is also a very naturalistic painting with the flesh faithfully rendered with the cheeks tinged with red as if proclaiming the exertion of the climb and with her long blonde hair brought to life using impressionistic brushstrokes.
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| © Estate of
Brenda
Chamberlain and by permission of Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales |
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Diane Davies Editors Note: copyright restrictions mean that I am unable to show Dürer’s self-portrait but if you click on the blue title you can see the picture at a site that does have permission! |
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I don’t know a great deal about art, but I have been asked to choose a work of art from Art Collections Online and write about it. I have chosen this sculpture because it relates to my family and because the Rev Thomas Thomas knew all about the effects and fear of disease as two of his sons died of consumption (TB a bacterial disease) in 1854 they were just 22 and 19. |
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Rev
Thomas Thomas was a Baptist Minister in London and then Principal of
the
Baptist College at Penygarn, just above Pontypool. The
sculpture’s
Accession Number is NMW A 2985. It
is
by sculptor James Milo Griffith and is dated 1887. The media
is
marble
and the size 65.4 cm. Rev Thomas’s son, T.H. Thomas,
is
stated
to have commissioned this posthumous work of art. He was a naturalist,
artist and antiquarian, who donated many works to the Cardiff Museum
and the
National Museum of Wales. It
could not
have been produced from life as Rev Thomas Thomas died in 1881 and it
was most
probably created from pictures provided by his son. The
bust was exhibited at the South Wales Art
Society and Sketching Club’s 2nd Annual Exhibition in 1889 a club of
which T.H.
Thomas was a member. It is stated to have been acquired in 1924 as a bequest from T.H. Thomas (1839 - 1915), but as you can see his son died in 1915. In fact it was donated under the terms his cousin-companion Ann David’s will in 1924. She had lived with the Thomas family as a housekeeper at the Baptist College but was also a companion and daughter. On her cousin T.H. Thomas’s death she continued to live at 45 The Walk in Cardiff, the family home, until her own death in 1924. Under his will she could have any works of art she wished to keep and this bust was one of them. |
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©
Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales |
So what about Milo Griffith? He was born in Pembrokeshire and trained at the Royal Academy. He had numerous Welsh clients and later taught sculpture in San Francisco. He returned to London in 1896 and died there in 1897. Does anyone know any more about him? |
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So what do I think
about
the work of art? Well
it is part of the
genre that created naturalistic representations. Milo
Griffith created Thomas Thomas with a
large beard typical of the period. Thomas
is looking serious which reflects his position in society and his
strict
puritan beliefs. The eyebrows
hair and
beard show great skill. The
production
of the crease in his coat where the button holds it together indicates
that
Revd Thomas was a little too large for the garment. I
like that touch. Also
it was usual not to
produce arms which I
find disconcerting. Is
there a twinkle
in his eyes? I am not sure. I
think it
represents the man and his position in life but does not say much about
the
inner man. He was a
kind man who was much
loved by his students and this is not apparent in this sculpture.
Christabel Hutchings |
A Milestone for the Friends |
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| Saturday
4th January was a milestone day for the Friends. It was the
first
time we had arranged a talk for members who were mostly grandparents
together with their grandchildren. It was an attempt to
diversify
our audience and encourage children and young people to foster their
interest in learning and lifetime interest in the Museum. |
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At the end of the talk Caroline, ably assisted by her daughter Grace, allowed the children to come and examine the dinosaur skull and assorted horns, claws, foot bones and jaw bones and teeth. The children were rewarded with a soft drink and a dinosaur biscuit at the end of the event and the adults had the usual caffeine intake. |
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| Everyone
really enjoyed this event and we’d love to replicate it. Have
you a suggestion for a subject that you
think we could arrange an event around at the Museum. Please
let us know. Gwen Williams |
Visit to National Collections Centre: 28th October 2019 |
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| A
visit to Amgueddfa
Cymru’s
Collection Centre on the Treforest
Industrial Estate is always a rewarding experience. This was
the
third
visit organised for the Friends by Roger Gagg and the third I have been
on. The Centre holds so much, over half-a-million objects –
roughly
12% of Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection. So each visit is a new
experience. We started with an introductory talk by Diane Gwilt, Keeper of Collections Services and the Site Manager. She gave a brief history of the Centre from its founding in 1998 as a place to store objects from the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum in Cardiff Bay. It expanded considerably in 2006 when it began to store collections from other Amgueddfa Cymru sites and now has eleven staff concerned with conservation and management of the collections. |
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| We
were then split up into three groups to get a taste of the collections
and the work that goes on at the Centre. My group went first to see some of the 250 ship models held by the Museum and learn more about them from David Jenkins, former Principal Curator at the National Waterfront Museum. The one that most interested me was a model of a sailing ship, the Mary Evans, which was built in 1867 and which carried coal to Valparaiso in Chile until the 1890s when it ended up as a hulk in Rio de Janiero. What was intriguing was that it was built in Montgomeryshire, an apparently land-locked county. However, it had a port at Derwen Las, a village on the River Dyfi, which flourished in the 1800s. The coming of the railways to the area in the 1860s, though, changed the course the river so cutting off Derwen Las from sea and ending its role as a port. |
Model of the Mary Evans
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Next, we had a talk from Jenny Griffiths, the conservator at the Centre. She spoke about some of the objects she had been involved in conserving. These included the fat-fryer that is now in the Life Is Gallery at St Fagans and a model of Oakdale Colliery which was made by schoolchildren from the local primary school in the early 1970s which will go to Big Pit. The object that she is working on at present is an iron bell which used by the Foyle Tryfan Slate Company from 1837 to 1873 to warn about imminent blasting operations. It was acquired by the Museum this year in a sorry state, being severely corroded. Jenny explained how she had removed the corrosion by scraping and polishing and then applied a protective layer to maintain its present appearance, ready for it to become part of the collection at National Slate Museum. |
 Jenny Griffiths talking about the conservation of the quarry bell |
| Our
final visit was to see some of the industrial photographs held at
the Centre. They were selected by Mark Etheridge, Industry
and
Transport Curator, and they ranged from photographs taken by the
Dillwyn-Llewelyns of Penllergare which are some of the earliest taken
in Wales to modern aerial photographs of major building projects such
as the Cardiff Barrage and the second Severn Crossing. He
explained
that the industrial collection is just one of a number of photographic
collections held by the Museum. Those primarily acquired for
their
artistic merit form part of the National Museum Cardiff collection,
whilst those primarily relating to social history are at St
Fagans. A
large part of the industrial collection has been digitised and can be
seen on the website on the Collections Online page. Many thanks to Roger Gagg for organising such a fascinating insight into the work that goes on at the National Collections Centre Diane Davies |
 Mark
Etheridge talking about photographs from the industrial collection
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Elgar and
Hellens
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In
June of this year a visit to the Elgar Museum and Hellens Manor House
was organised for the Friends and this proved to be so popular that a
repeat visit was arranged for October 3rd. Thus
it was on a chilly morning that a full coach left from Cardiff and,
although the weather remained dull throughout
the day with heavy rain in the afternoon, it did not spoil the
enjoyment of what was a
most interesting and informative day. The Elgar Museum consists of two separate buildings, The Firs at Broadheath, which is the house in which Elgar was born, and a purpose-built Information Centre. On arrival we were served coffee and biscuits and enjoyed another excellent talk, this time from an enthusiastic member of staff, who gave us further information about the family. |
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| The
Elgar Museum, The Firs, Broadheath |
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Broadheath
remained very dear to Elgar throughout his life, although he only
actually
lived there until he was two, when the family moved to Worcester. However, his mother wanted a country
upbringing for her children and they spent their Summer holidays on a
farm near
Broadheath. It was
a pleasure to walk
through the rooms of the cottage, which contain so many of the
composer’s
personal possessions – manuscripts, letters, photographs, musical
instruments
and one of his treasured bicycles on which he explored the nearby
Malvern
Hills. It was Elgar’s daughter Carice to whom he confided his wish to be remembered in the place he loved best. After his death in 1934 she persuaded the corporation of Worcester to purchase the cottage which was later acquired by the National Trust. It was Carice who recalled her father’s love of and connection to the Worcestershire countryside. She wrote that it meant, ‘everything to him’. He was, ‘imbued with the very spirit and essence of the county. … From his walking, driving and cycling there was very little of the county he did not know’. |
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| Edward Elgar by
Jemma Pearson made
in 2007 to mark the 150th
anniversary of his birth |
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From
Broadheath we travelled towards Ledbury to visit the very fine medieval
manor
of Hellens.
Before
our tour we enjoyed a very welcome lunch which had been cooked and
served by
members of the catering staff. This
consisted of delicious quiches, new potatoes and a variety of
imaginative
salads all created from locally grown produce. With
the perennial favourite dessert of fruit
crumble we considered ourselves well prepared for the rest of our day. |
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| Hellens
Manor House near Ledbury and its formal garden (below) |
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Among many interesting anecdotes
was the sad story of Hetty Walwyn, a daughter of the house, who in the
18th century eloped with a local lad and was eventually abandoned. On
her
return
home she was confined to her room for 30 years and her mournful ghost
is said
to wander Hellens making it one of England’s ‘most haunted’ houses. Diana Wilson |
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| Note: photgraphs are from the first trip in June 2019 |
Visit
to
Nantgarw China Works and Museum
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Friends
Visit
on Tuesday 27th August 2019
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| Friends Day Out in Worcester | |
| Visit to Royal Worcester Museum and Worcester Cathedral: Tuesday 6th August 2019 | |
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Our
last coach trip of 2019 was to Worcester. An almost fully
booked coach set off early and reached Worcester without trouble around
10:00am. Our first port of call was the Royal Worcester
Museum.
Here we treated to a wonderful talk by Jane Tudge on the history of
porcelain
making in Worcester from its beginnings in 1751. In addition,
we
had
the
opportunity to handle
some of the items in the collection and hear sound bites from audio
recordings
of workers talking about their experiences.
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Royal Worcester Museum |
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Porcelain production ceased in Worcester in the late 1970s and in 2008 the company itself went into administration. Fortunately, by then a Trust had been set up to create a Museum which was given ownership of all the historic pieces thus safeguarding them from sale by the administrators. Then there was an opportunity to visit the Museum galleries to see the collection. So we were able to explore Galleries showing the Museum’s extensive holdings of Royal Worcester Porcelain with one gallery devoted to the Georgian period when it all started, one devoted to the Victorian period and a third gallery showing pieces up to the closure of the works. After lunch we assembled at Worcester Cathedral for a guided tour. We were split into four groups each with our own guide. The Cathedral was built between 1084 and 1504 and thus has examples of every style of English architecture from Norman to perpendicular. |
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Nave
of Worcester Cathedral
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The
cathedral is famous for its Norman crypt and early 12th
century
Chapter House. In addition it houses the tomb of King
John as well
as a chapel with the tomb of Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry
VII.
Arthur's early death at the age of fifteen meant that his younger
brother Henry
acceded to the throne when Henry VII died in 1509.
Our
guide
pointed out aspects of Prince Arthur's Chapel that suggest it was built
off
site in pieces and reassembled because it would appear to be facing the
wrong
way and also certain decorative features had to be broken off in order
for the
chapel to fit. As well as these sights, a stained-glass
window
dedicated
to Edward Elgar was pointed out.
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Many
thanks to Peter Davies for organising such an interesting and
informative
visit.
Diane Davies |
Friends in the Choir of Worcester Cathedral listening to our guide |
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