NEWSLETTER FOR 2019

Our President-elect for 2019 is Prof Nancy Edwards FBA who, like Mark Redknap, is an expert on the Early Mediaeval archaeology and history of and Ireland. After taking her first degree at Liverpool University Nancy studied Early Mediaeval sculpture under Prof Rosemary Cramp at Durham. She came to Bangor in 1979 and inaugurated a period of considerable research in the history of early Wales, at first in the field of church history and inscribed stones, and more recently in more secular areas. Alongside her study of Wales she has worked on the complementary period in Ireland.

This year has seen changes in the Trustee body with the retirement of Professor Muriel Chamberlain as Chairman. Professor Chamberlain has been chairman for almost twenty years and has been a very wise and at times formidable manager of the affairs of the Association, and a devoted worker, not only attending nearly all meetings, but also organising several very notable gatherings – the most recent, our very successful autumn weekend at Swansea last year. We marked her retirement at the Llandrindod meeting with a party and presentation after the AGM. We are very lucky that Dr Sian Rees has agreed to take her place as Chairman of Trustees. As a very experienced higher Civil Servant we know that she will guide the Association with wisdom and tact.

This year we have lost through death the following members, Miss Oonagh Michaeliones of Stratford-upon-Avon, Dr J.R. Hughes of Southport, W.P.Day, of Oswestry, Dr Margaret Hunt of Peterston-super-Ely, Gareth Wyn Evans of Cardiff, Peter Mason of the Wirral who died very suddenly just as he and his wife were planning to join us at Llandrindod, and Mrs Elizabeth Walters, better known as the architectural historian Elizabeth Beasley, who died in September this year.

MEETINGS HELD IN 2018

This year our pattern of meetings was slightly changed in that we converted our Spring Conference into a beautiful week in Gascony in order to avoid the heat of full summer – how wise we were in this blazing year! We had a wonderful week under the care of our good friend Marie-Thérèse Castay, who was in August this year, inducted as a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. So we had a shorter Summer Meeting with the AGM in Llandrindod Wells, organised by Heather James. Heather also organised our Autumn Weekend at Llandeilo which looked at the Physicians of Myddfai and their world.

SPRING MEETING IN , GASCONY

Our base in Lomagne, the southern-eastern part of Gascony was the hilltop town of Lectoure, the Iron Age capital of the Lactorates tribe. The Romans established a town at the foot of the hill and a temple to Cybele on the summit which was later occupied by the cathedral which overlooked the rather fine 18th century town house – the Hotel de Bastard – where we were staying for the week. All 46 of us arrived, via Toulouse, on the afternoon of Saturday 21st of April and settled ourselves in before our gourmet dinner.

On Sunday morning some rose early for Mass, some for coffee but we all set out by mid- morning for a tour of the town defences whose outer ring was still complete. We examined the north tower and the statue of Marshall Lannes (one of Napoleon’s Marshalls who was the most notable son of Lectoure), the Royal Tannery (now in need of a new role) the mediaeval well (strangely sited to be only accessible from outside the walls) and the ruined castle of the Counts of Armagnac at the far end of the rock. After lunch we tackled the Cathedral and the fascinating Museum in the old Bishop’s Palace. Before dinner we were introduced to all the castles, castelnau and bastides of the region in a splendid tour d’horizon by Marie-Thérèse.

Monday was our first day of excursions into the countryside. We visited Aubiac where we had some difficulty getting the key, but the interior of the church was worth waiting for. We saw the fine trefoil –shaped chancel and Romanesque frescoes of the Evangelists in the tower. From there we went to Layrac – all these ‘ac’ endings denote settlements originating in the Gallo-Roman period. At Layrac we visited the 12th century church with a fine west door with a range of sculptures like those at Moissac. In the chancel floor recent restoration has revealed a mosaic (date a little uncertain) of Samson and the Lion. Marie Thérèse revealed this to us with a bottle of water and a soft cloth brought specially for the purpose!

We had an ideal salad lunch in Layrac and In the afternoon we went to Moirax a small village on the old Roman road which became part of the celebrated Road to Compostella - a great source of revenue (and interaction and human contact and hope) in the Middle Ages, and increasingly so in the 21st century, as pilgrimage revives. From there we drove to Sainte Mère to visit one of the best preserved and most typical of the 13th century ‘Gascon Castles’, a tall rectangular keep with two square towers reaching 27m high at either end. The castle had been originally built in 1277 by a Bishop of Lectoure as a fortified country residence.

We were welcomed to the site by its English owner Piers Kileen. He uses the ground floor of the castle for pop and folk concerts and spends a good deal of his time arguing with the conservation authorities!

When we returned to Lectoure we met our lecturer for the evening, Dr Anais Comet who spoke to us before dinner on Village Fortification in the in the Late Middle Ages. This explained to us the context of the Castelnaux -- the villages connected to castles and the Bastides – the larger defended market centres, which we would be seeing in the next two days.

Tuesday. The first visit of the day was to Lagarde-Fimarcon – now almost a ghost town. In the Middle Ages this had been the centre of a powerful lordship but at the Revolution all that was destroyed and the 19th century village developed outside the defensive walls. By 1970 all the mediaeval village was empty and bought up by a single owner for holiday and event letting. We wandered amongst the empty cottages. At , another Castelnau, the castle and its defended village survived well and we were allowed to walk in the castle grounds, and then stroll down the central street of the tightly packed village.

From Terraube we drove across to Condom for lunch at the Hotel Continental where the Cambrians had stayed in 2011. We were greeted as old friends and had a wonderful meal!

In the afternoon we went to St Orens-Pouy-Petit where the mediaeval castle at the apex of the triangular defended hilltop village had been rebuilt in the Renaissance and from there we visited the Mas D’Avignon a 13th century castle whose owner was keen to know how close its design was to the Edwardian castles of North Wales. Pretty close was the general opinion. Here we were quite near to Plantagenet lands and the Fimarcon family had links with Edward I, also Duke of Aquitaine.

The lecture that evening was a joint performance by our President, Dr Prys Morgan, and his cousin, Dr Nia Watkin Powell about their uncle Morgan Watkin (1878 – 1970) a scholar of mediaeval languages who may have been spying in Europe on behalf of Lloyd George.

On Wednesday we concentrated on the Bastides – larger 13th century foundations which were designed to encourage trade and usually had a large covered marketplace at the centre. These were defended towns rather than villages, and castles are not as prominent as in the castelnaux. The bastide is familiar in Wales because the towns founded by Edward I in North Wales follow this plan and purpose.

We first visited , notable as the birthplace of the Renaissance poet, Salluste de Bartas, who wrote in French and Gascon, then we passed through Mauzevin to arrive at Cologne for a picnic lunch and a tour of the town. The central market there is 14th century in date and very well- preserved, with an outer stone and wood colonnade around a square two storey timbered tower which housed the meeting place of the 6 Consuls who ran the town. The arcaded galleries around the square are also well preserved. We then moved to Sarrant which was a Gallo-Roman settlement on the Roman road from Toulouse to Lectoure. Remains of columns and statues have been found and it is possible that the fountain retains some original Roman work. In the 14th century it became a royal Castrum with a large church at the centre and a small village clustering around it within a circular wall with a single gate-tower. Not much had changed, but over the years houses had been built against the wall; windows and doors had pierced it and gardens filled the moat. We discovered a most fascinating bookshop at the centre.

From Sarrant we went to Miramont- Latour and visited the notable agricultural museum which has been developed within the Chateau Latour . The chateau has been occupied by the de Lary family since the 15th century. They left during the Revolution but were able to regain the castle and its land after the fall of Napoleon and are still living there now. The Museum of Rural Life spreads through 15 rooms of the castle and stables and contains some remarkable farm implements. This was a really fascinating collection made even more enjoyable by the knowledge and enthusiasm of our guide, Patrick de Lary de Latour.

On Thursday our first visit of the day was to Saint Clar a double bastide with a long and complicated history. The earlier town begins in the 11th century but in 1289 becomes involved and a second bastide is established. Both were defended with walls and the markets flourished. To this day Sant Clar is the national centre for the production of Garlic and on Thursdays there is a major street market under the 13th century roof of the southern market hall. So most of our time in the town was taken up with the market, which spread beyond garlic to many gastronomic temptations and some interesting craft work.

We then drove to Gramont where we were booked in at the Auberge Le Petit Feuillant for lunch. This lay just beside the great Renaissance Château de Gramont and was now a ‘destination’ in its own right -- a restaurant where people take photos of their food to impress their friends on Facebook -- and several Cambrians did! So this was quite a long lunch…..

The castle of Gramont originates with Simon the Montfort, the father of the Simon de Montfort more familiar to most Cambrians. Only a tall narrow tower of this survives. To that was attached a 14th century ‘Gascon Castle’ built by the Montaut family. This was bare military architecture which faced the village and the church. But beyond a Renaissance archway cut into the base of the Gascon Castle lay a long courtyard overlooked by an elegant Renaissance château with large windows and classical detail, with impressive staircases and marble floors -- a completely different symbol of power! It remained the property of powerful politicians until the Revolution; then through the next hundred years the house declined. There were restorations at the end of the 19th century by M. de la Fontan de Goth, but sadly in the early 20th century it was abandoned again. Then in 1961 it was bought by Roger and Marcelle Dichamp who devoted the rest of their lives to restoring the house and filling it with life and furniture.

When we had caught our breath after that tremendous visit we drove to the village of Lachapelle not knowing what to expect next. We were visiting what was originally the private chapel of an 11th century castle. It became the parish church in the 15th century. In 1776 two wealthy brothers -- the Abbés Goulard – were vicar and curate of the parish and they commissioned Maraignon Champaigne, an architect more used to designing theatres, to provide a new interior for the church. He gave them a riot of baroque woodwork in white and gold, such as you would never expect to see in a remote rural village!

On leaving Lachapelle we called at the village of Saint Antoine Pont d'Arratz , a pilgrim village on the road between Auvillar and Lectoure. It had been a commandery belonging to the Order of Saint Anthony who specialised in the care of people suffering from ergotism. The church is particularly interesting with an unusual combination of Romanesque and Gothic architecture and a 15th century panel of wall paintings on the north wall of the nave which were uncovered in 2006. They represent the life of Saint Blasius, and a noteworthy element is that the captions underneath and around the scenes are in the Gascon language.

In the evening our General Secretary, Heather James, gave us a wide-ranging account of the Gascon wine trade and its impact throughout Europe, not excluding Britain where the green, black and white pottery from Saintonge which spread in its slipstream, is an infallible indicator of ‘high status’ settlements.

Friday was our longest journey away from Lectoure and the high point of our architectural tour since we were going to the great Abbey of Moissac on the other side of the Garonne. The abbey claimed to have been founded in the 6th century, but a Merovingian 7th century date is more likely. In 1047 it became a possession of the Abbey of Cluny and by the beginning of the 12th century there were 100 monks and the cloisters and the church were built, richly decorated with one of the finest ensembles of Romanesque art in . The survival of this building through the troubles of the Albigensian Crusade, the Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion, the French Revolution (when was used as a barracks) and finally the 19th century enthusiasm for railways, is nothing short of a miracle. The closeness of the railway track was immediately apparent as soon as we descended from the bus to enter the visitor centre and take our tour of this incredible art gallery of biblical imagery.

Most of the day was available for viewing the church with its wonderful tympanum with Christ in majesty surrounded by Prophets and Apostles and scenes from His life, and the intriguing animal capitals of the narthex. But there were also opportunities for spending time on a rather good lunch and strolling through the old town to stand on the banks of the Garonne to admire this immensely important trading river.

On our return we stopped at Auvillar, a hilltop bastide above the Garonne, to visit two fascinating museums in the town ; one relating to the river trade: boats and mills on the Garonne; the other a the small museum celebrating the local pottery traditions. We were greeted here by an English woman who has been living in Auvillar for many years and is organiser of the rota of volunteers who keep this notable collection of 19th century painted pottery open to the public. The style is floral, exuberant and quintessentially French!

When we returned to the Hotel du Bastard, before our last dinner together, we all gathered on the terrace to thank Marie Thérèse for our wonderful week. We gave her a beautiful framed photograph of church, a fine plant for her garden and also a tribute which, as a notable translator of Welsh into French -- and someone who would be inducted into the Gorsedd of Bards at the coming Eisteddfod -- we knew she would really appreciate: an englyn in her honour written by Nia Watkin Powell and declaimed by our President Dr Prys Morgan. Such a praise poem was a fitting tribute for such a well-planned excursion so enjoyably delivered.

SUMMER MEETING IN LLANDRINDOD WELLS July 2nd – July 6th

We were based at The Hotel Commodore in Llandrindod where we had the use of the de Winton room adjacent to our own dining area for the evening lectures and the AGM during the week. The meeting was of slightly shorter duration than usual since 2018 was a three-meeting year.

On the Monday afternoon members were led on a guided tour of the town by Mike Garner, a conservation architect whose practice is in the town, who had done much good work for the Townscape Heritage Programme 2004-9 restoring and enhancing many of the splendid late Victorian buildings of what was, from the 1860s onwards, Wales’s premier spa town attracting thousands of visitors. Mr Garner explained how the hotels and shops and private dwellings were built to impress, using a variety of exuberant styles but with a degree of unity imposed by the ubiquitous use of red and yellow Ruabon bricks and terracotta tiles. The perambulation concluded outside the offices of Powys County Council, built in 1985-90 on the site of the Pump House Hotel. After the tour several members went to the park to look at the relocated foundations of Capel Maelor, an unusual double apsed medieval church excavated by the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust in the 1980s.

The first lecture of the week was a given by our Editor, Bill Britnell on ‘Llanelwedd Rocks- Radnorshire farming on the edge, 17th-19th centuries’. Though the area is perceived by us as marginal and the archaeological finds were limited, 18th century paintings, many by Thomas Jones of Pencerrig (whose statue stands outside the hotel) and documents tell a different tale.

Tuesday was devoted to Hergest Court and Hergest Croft by kind invitation of Mr Lawrence Banks. Mr Banks is the great grandson of R.W.Banks , a founder member, indefatigable supporter and photographer of the Cambrian Archaeological Association. The family has, uniquely, maintained a continuous membership of the Association since 1846. Hergest Court is described as ‘one of the most important medieval sites on the ’ in the Herefordshire ‘Pevsner’. Lawrence Banks explained how his grandfather, W.H. Banks, had a long antiquarian interest in the house (see Arch Camb 1871 – now on line, see end) and was finally able to purchase it in 1912.

After a welcome cooling drink, we embarked on a tour of both the inside and outside of the building under the spirited and comprehensive guidance of Mr Allan Lloyd, who has a lifetime’s knowledge of the history and architecture of the house. He began by explaining that the lawn where we sat occupied the area of a now lost 13th century great hall to which, on the west, a later two storey solar block had been added (now surviving as a granary) and on the east a chamber, rebuilt in the 15th century, reusing a beam dendro-dated to 1267. Standing on the east lawn, Allan Lloyd pointed out how the late medieval house was extended northwards in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The defensive qualities of the site were very apparent from the lawn with the ground falling steeply away to the valley of the River Arrow. It was in this late mediaeval house that Lewis Glyn Cothi, then resident bard to the Vaughans, then the possessors of the famous Red Book of Hergest, would have worked on his own contributions to the manuscript; and the legends evolved of Black Vaughan reappearing in the guise of a black dog presaging family catastrophes (to reappear as The Hound of the Baskervilles it is said!). The complexities of the present house and its cellars defy brief description, but our final visit to the granary, with its splendid mediaeval fireplace, was easier!

We then arrived at Hergest Croft where lunch had been organised in what had been the dining room of the house, built in 1894 on the marriage of W.H.Banks, whose mother remained at Ridgebourne, the Banks’ home since their arrival in Radnorshire in the mid-19th century. Wonderful gardens were developed around both houses, especially Hergest Croft, and the house now mainly serves their many visitors and is the home of the family archives.

After lunch we divided into two groups alternately being guided around the celebrated gardens with their many champion trees by Mrs Elizabeth Banks (a former President of the RHS) and visiting the Banks family archive. Mrs Heather Pegg, the archivist, had laid out a special display for the Cambrians which highlighted CAA items.

Appropriately, the evening lecture was given by Dr Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan on the Red Book of Hergest. This priceless manuscript contains the Tales of the Mabinogi, much welsh poetry and the medical texts supposedly by Rhiwallon, of Meddygon Myddfai fame. She explained how the manuscript had been compiled for Hopkyn ap Tomas ab Einion in Glamorgan, then came into the possession of the Vaughans of Tretower and then of Hergest Court. Passing through various hands it was given to Jesus College and is now in the Bodleian where Cambrians saw it in 2010. Dr Lloyd Morgan’s lecture was also a fascinating exposition of scribal techniques and roles.

Wednesday saw the party take to two minibuses in order to get up a narrow track and lanes to Pilleth and Cascob churches. Close to Pilleth church is the site of the Battle of Bryn Glas of 1402 where Owain Glyndŵr inflicted what the late R.R. Davies described as ‘the most devastating and decisive English defeat in the field during the rebellion’. Looking down onto the valley, Heather James described the strategy of the battle and the lie of the land, allowing Glyndŵr to bring off a final flanking attack.

The church undoubtedly suffered in the battle and supposedly many of the dead lie buried in the churchyard. It has recently been the subject of a felicitous restoration by the Friends of Pilleth church which included re-roofing and a white lime wash render applied to the exterior. Despite the turbulent history around it, it is a peaceful place.

We then made our way up 2 miles of a very narrow lane to the remote site of Cascob – now a small hamlet with a typical Radnorshire church. Heather James briefly described the exterior and interior. A particular reason for the Cambrians to visit this church is however the memorial slab to William Jenkins Rees, Vicar of Cascob, 1772-1855. In the last afternoon of his Presidency Professor Prys Morgan gave a rousing address on his life as a campaigner for the revival of the Eisteddfod and of the Welsh language, and an active member of the Cambrians, the Cymmrodorion Society and the Welsh Manuscripts Society.

We then made our way to Presteigne for lunch and many members visited the Judges Lodging in the former Shire Hall. With the end of the court sittings there in 1970 its future looked uncertain but under the guidance of Dr Charles Kightly it has been restored as an atmospheric gas-lit living museum as it would have been in the 1870s, helped by the discovery of a treasure trove of Victorian furniture and household fittings in the attic.

From Presteigne we went to Knighton and Offa’s Dyke Centre where Mr Jim Saunders gave a slide show with many images of stretches of the dyke. He described the challenges of management both of the monument and the long distance Offa’s Dyke path. Heather James passed around some illustrations she had intended to use in the field, had time allowed, and described the seminal survey and recording work carried out by Sir Cyril Fox in the 1930s, published serially in Arch Camb. Sian Rees then led a group of members to the section of Dyke preserved, mostly in woodland close to the Centre where further discussion ensued.

2018 was a year (once in every four) that the G T Clark awards were made for the best published work in the Prehistoric, Roman, Early Medieval, Medieval and Post- Medieval periods in Wales. All five prize winners (Elizabeth Walker, David Hopewell, Thomas Charles-Edwards , Neil Ludlow and David Gwyn) had accepted the Association’s invitation to dinner and the presentation. These were made by the retiring President Professor Prys Morgan who then handed over his Presidential badge to the incoming President Dr Mark Redknap.

The new President ‘s address will be published in Arch Camb and relates to Wales and the Sea. His lecture was very wide-ranging and profusely illustrated and was followed by a convivial wine- reception.

Thursday was devoted to a visit to Hereford – both cathedral and town. Our time at the Cathedral was divided between the Mappa Mundi in its new display area with other treasured manuscripts, alongside the famous chained library, and the cathedral itself where a number of recent projects had been realised – most notably the reconstructed superstructure over the shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe which is highly coloured – as indeed it would have been in the Middle Ages – in deep reds, blues and purples. We had the services of the Cathedral guides and, in the library, of our member, Jean Currie who works as a guide there and was also on hand to lead us through the Vicars Choral College to College Hall where we had a simple lunch in the splendid room hung with Episcopal portraits. The President suggested that we then all assemble on the cloister lawn for a group photograph.

After lunch we visited The Black and White House Museum. This is a three storey Jacobean timber- framed house, the sole survivor of a whole row of similar houses cleared away in the 1800s, now standing alone in the open market place. After various uses – and misuses - it is now a house museum run by Herefordshire Museums Service with reconstructed period rooms and good views of well-preserved original 16th and 17th wall paintings.

Reconvening outside the west front of the Cathedral, the group met Tim Hoverd, Projects Manager with Herefordshire Archaeology, who has many years of experience in excavating in the city and leading tours. We went first to Castle Green where the Norman bailey of a substantial castle mound had been constructed over the cemetery of the Saxon monastery of St Guthlac , predecessor of the cathedral. Only some of the rampart and ditch remained since most was cleared after the Civil War and the area became an attractive park with a monument to Lord Nelson in its centre. From there we crossed the river Wye by the pedestrian Victoria Bridge into the Bishop’s Meadow. From here we looked back towards the cathedral and the fine riverbank buildings sketched by Turner in 1795. Tim Hoverd then explained the rather complex history of the mediaeval Rowe Ditch and the causeway across the meadows from results of excavations carried out as part of the Hereford Flood Alleviation scheme. We re-crossed the river on the historic Wye Bridge and assembled promptly to be picked up by our bus.

The AGM was held in the evening and before the business part of the meeting Professor Prys Morgan presented our retiring chairman, Professor Muriel Chamberlain with a hamper, a token of the Trustees’ – and he was sure, the general membership’s - appreciation of her years of service as Chairman of Trustees. We were glad to hear that Muriel will however continue to serve as a trustee. Following the meeting Heather James gave an informal slide presentation of members and places at Cambrian meetings over the past decade.

On Friday morning many members were not able to stay for the final morning’s activities in Llandrindod itself. A small group however walked down to Rock Park. This 12 acre area was set aside at the time of Enclosure of Commons in the 1860s. Initially it was an open hillslope on either side of the Arlais Brook, a tributary of the Ithon, the site of the first spa activities in the later 17th century. Subsequent tree planting created a splendid Victorian Arboretum, now cared for by the Friends of Rock Park. Originally there were many mineral springs; today only one is accessible, encased in a marble drinking fountain, which members duly sampled. The 1895 Pump House is now used as a Complementary Health Centre but the 1908 Treatment Centre and other buildings are struggling to find a sustainable modern use.

We then walked back to the National Cycle Museum for the final visit of the week, where we had a splendid tour by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteer guide. Beginning with the ‘penny- farthings’ we progressed through all the technical developments leading to the modern hi-tech racing cycles, with a great deal of social history on the way.

AUTUMN MEETING AT RHOSMAEN, LLANDEILO, September 28-30th The Physicians of Myddfai.

The meeting was based at the Plough at Rhosmaen, some members also stayed at the White Hart Hotel, Llandeilo and a number of local members attended as non-residents. We assembled at 2 pm on Friday and made our way in wonderful weather to Dinefwr Park. The party then divided with most being led up to the castle by Dr Sian Rees, via a great parkland tree recently shown to be older than the castle; while Heather James led another group on a less strenuous walk in the park.

Sian Rees pointed out that Dinefwr Castle, perched on a crag above the Tywi floodplain, is in such an good defensive position that a prehistoric fortification and an early medieval fortified site have both been suggested here, but no evidence has been found. Thus the castle may well be a new work in the late 12th century by the Lord Rhys, Prince of , much fought over by his descendants. Particularly pertinent to our weekend was Rhys Gryg’s control of Dinefwr since Rhiwallon and his sons are named as his court physicians. The great circular keep and adjacent Welsh gate may have been Rhys Gryg’s work, in contention in his quarrels with his brothers. However much of what we see today dates to the Edwardian conquest of the late 13th century with a new gate and a remodelled entrance passage. Glyndŵr’s Revolt prompted some new building, but thereafter it was abandoned in favour of Newton House.

Heather James led the second group towards Newton House (1850s), and pointed out parts of surviving buildings on other sides of the courtyard which may belong to Gruffydd ap Nicolas’s new house of the mid-15th century which replaced the castle as principal residence. She showed a plan of the park and the location of the recently discovered Roman forts. A great deal of the park landscaping, subsequently approved by Capability Brown, had already been carried out before his arrival in 1775. A short walk provided a splendid view of the veteran trees and park landscaping. The whole group gathered outside the house where Dr Don Williams spoke about his fascination with the famous breed of White Park Cattle (standing before us). It is popularly believed that they descend from the white cattle with red markings specified as the honour price for any insult to the King in the Welsh Laws. This, sadly, is unlikely. The modern herd’s descent is minutely documented and its health is due to its acquisition in 1974 by Lawrence Alderson who returned some to the Park in 1992. Don Williams said that he had seen similarities between these cows and the Italian Chianina white cattle breed and, when the Roman forts were discovered, he wondered whether the British White Parks might have been a Roman introduction. With some difficulty he persuaded the National Trust to undertake DNA sampling. But, as he ruefully admitted, they did not show any linkage.

A change in the Evening Programme had to be made and Heather James had prepared an overview fact sheet on the subject of the Physicians which she went through with a short powerpoint presentation. The notes covered the context of the courts of the Lord Rhys of Deheubarth and descriptions of the office and duties of the court Physician in the Laws; then introduced the medieval medical books and tracts, medical beliefs, practices and herbal remedies, and finally outlined the legend of The Lady of the Lake and her sons, from whom the Physicians allegedly descend.

The second half of the evening was spent in looking at a diverse array of books on early botany and medicine, part of the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society’s fine collection now owned by Dyfed County Council and kept at Carmarthenshire Museum in Abergwili. Jill Davies has been cataloguing this collection and had made a selection which she presented to the Cambrians.

Saturday morning was devoted to lectures. The first lecture was by Alan Paddison the author (under a pseudonym -- V.A.Grant (Vagrant)) of an intriguing booklet The Liminal Lakes of South Wales in which he argued that lakes were places on the borderland of reality and imagination, conveying the uncertainties and dualities of the worlds of myth and legend, and the very real places in which they are located. The legend of the fairy mother of Rhiwallon the Physician emerging from the lake of Llyn y Fan Fach in the Black Mountain near Myddfai is a prime example.

The next speaker, Dr David Thorne, is Chairman of Cymdeithas Enwau Lleoedd Cymru/The Welsh Placename Society. He has made a particular study of the element meddyg in the placenames of Myddfai. It was not a common element, but studied in relation to the local administrative divisions, a pattern emerges which suggests an hereditary office of ‘physician’ in each of the cwmwdau of Cantref Bychan and Cantref Mawr during the period of the Lord Rhys and his sons. He also listed names relating to ‘honey’ and ‘holed trees’, both indicating an interest in bees and possibly the medicinal use of honey.

The final lecture was by Dr Donald Williams, Meddygon Myddfai – a Modern Cohort in which he looked at the recent history of doctors in Carmarthenshire. He began by explaining how he had been born at Glanceidrych, a farm near Myddfai from where he had attended Llandovery Grammar School and then became a medical student in London. He was aware of many other Welsh doctors there and this was the start of his interest in Welsh medical history. He moved to Swansea where he was a consultant psychiatrist. On retirement he began to contribute to papurau y bro and amass an ever growing list of the many doctors coming from the Myddfai area in recent times, starting with the inspirational Sir John Williams, physician to Queen Victoria and founder of the National Library of Wales. This led him to found the Cymdeithas Meddygon Myddfai in 2014 which holds an annual day conference at Myddfai Community Hall. The concentration can be described as a clustering effect, and he finds it hard not to attribute this to knowledge of the traditions of the earlier Physicians of Myddfai.

The speakers were thanked by Dr Mark Redknap, Dr Glenda Carr and Dr Lindsay Morgan, who, with his wife Dr Valerie Morgan, had been a colleague of Dr Williams in Swansea.

The party then set off for Myddfai to have lunch in the Community Hall where we were greeted by Robin Barlow who described the new building opened by the Prince of Wales in 2011 and now earning useful money for local charities. We enjoyed an excellent light lunch made on the premises and then made our way to Myddfai Church where past President and Wales Herald Extraordinary, Thomas Lloyd spoke about the architecture and fittings. The gravestone of the greatest interest for the Meeting was that to David Jones (1719) and his son, John Jones both ‘surgeons’ of Myddfai which is in the church porch. Myddfai is a small settlement and the size of its double-nave church is testament to the prosperity of this upland area in the late Middle Ages and 16th century.

We then boarded the coach once again to drive to Carreg Cennen Castle splendidly visible on its crag in magnificent afternoon sunlight. Some stayed in the café but most walked up the hill with Dr Sian Rees. The building of the castle is attributed to the Lord Rhys but there is nothing now visible of the late 12th century. In the partition of his lands in 1216 Iscennen went to Rhys Gryg. After Edward I’s conquest the castle was granted to John Giffard and money was spent, making it likely that the visible remains belong to this period. Detailed accounts of 1369-70 show that the outer ward was then in place and also the elaborate added barbican – prestige building by a Marcher Lord. It remained an important stronghold through the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century, but after the Yorkist victory it was ordered to be systematically demolished.

The dramatic site began to attract the Romantic travellers of the 18th century and was the subject of a watercolour by Turner. The Cawdors, inheritors of the Vaughan estates, undertook consolidation and indeed rebuilding. A few intrepid Cambrians went down the ‘cliff gallery’ to a watery cave which has produced finds of prehistoric and Roman date.

The final event of the day was a lecture after dinner by Dr Morfydd Owen on medical books, medical knowledge and its wider transmission in the mid 19th century through the first printed text by the Tonn Press, Llandovery. She described, with illustrations, the eleven Welsh manuscripts containing medical material, the most famous being The Red Book of Hergest. A pamphlet manuscript, Bodleian Rawlinson 467B, was especially relevant to the weekend since it has later additions showing that it was in the Myddfai area in the 17th century and was given to Edward Lhuyd. She stressed that beyond the language there was little that was specifically Welsh in the contents of these mss and they were part of a general European tradition and still worked within Galen’s theory of humours propounded in the 2nd century. She hoped to carry out more work on the decision of the Welsh Manuscripts Society to revive the traditions of Myddfai with their translation of 1861.

On Sunday morning a slightly reduced number of members boarded the coach for a visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne. We first visited the Apothecaries Hall where the complete contents of an Edwardian chemist’s shop have been re-installed. Here we were met by David Hunter, a retired GP, convincingly ‘in period’ behind the shop counter in a white coat, starched collar and splendid moustaches. We were able to look at – and indeed handle – various pills, syrups, powders and tinctures and see how tablets were made. A display in the building of how plants are used worldwide attracted interest and the newly created Apothecary’s Garden on the slopes next door still had many plants in bloom and leaf. Free time was also allowed to explore the Garden further, of especial interest to those on their first visit.

See the website www.cambrians.org.uk for longer accounts and photos of these meetings.

MEETINGS ARRANGED FOR 2019

Next year there will be a Summer Meeting at Haverfordwest (June 30th -July 6th) and an Autumn Weekend in South Meirionydd (September 27th – 29th) but there will be two other One-Day Meetings organised in conjunction with other societies . This is a development which the Trustees hope to continue in future years. We also hope to organise Day Schools to highlight research funded by the Association.

SUMMER MEETING Haverfordwest through History: Farmers, Merchants, Gentry and Canons Sunday 30th June to Friday 5th July 2019

Venue: The Wolfscastle Country Hotel, Wolfscastle, Haverfordwest

The history of Haverfordwest and its hinterland makes a fascinating study. The well- preserved prehistoric sites to the north attest to the importance of the area from earliest times, and recent discoveries of a Roman fort and road reveal how the long arm of Rome extended further west than hitherto realised. Situated in the southern March, the town was especially important in the medieval period as its castles and churches demonstrate. The long estuary of the Cleddau was a vital point of entry to Britain both for the fishermen and merchants that made the town prosperous, but also for potential invasion through the ages, from Henry Tudor, the French in the interminable 18th and 19th century wars, to the world wars of the last century.

Sunday 30 June 12.30: Wolfscastle Country Hotel. Lunch (own cost) and Registration 14.00: Walk (or private cars) to local sites: Garne Turne burial chamber, Treffgarne Hillfort and hut circles, Camrose motte and bailey, Rudbaxton Church. Lecture: The First Farmers: Recent discoveries in the prehistory of Pembrokeshire

Monday 1 July. First Farmers 9.00 Coach departs to Carreg Coetan Arthur and Cerrig y Gof Neolithic burial chambers 10.30 Gors Fawr Bronze Age Stone circle 12.30 Castell Henllys Iron Age and Roman settlement with reconstructions of Roundhouses. Picnic lunch 16.00 Rosemarket Rath, dovecot and church 17.30 Coach to Wolfscastle Hotel Lecture: Haverfordwest: buildings and harbours of the gentry, townsfolk, merchants, smugglers and pirates

Tuesday 2 July Lords, Canons, Merchants and Fishermen 9.00 Coach to Haverfordwest. Walking tour of town to include: Haverfordwest Castle and Town Museum, Site of Town Merchant’s house (removed to St Fagan’s), Priory and Haroldston Tudor house 13.00 Buffet Lunch – Bristol Trader Afternoon –Three medieval churches, post medieval chapels, Foley House, Higgon’s Well 18.00 Coach to Wolfscastle Hotel Installation of new President and Presidential Address: Nancy Edwards

Wednesday 3 July Incomers, Bishops and the Aristocracy 9.00 Coach to Wiston: Roman fort and road; Wiston Castle. 11.00 Llawhaden Castle and medieval hospital 12.00 Coach to Picton Castle 12.30 Buffet lunch at Picton Castle 13.30 Guided tour of Picton Castle, gardens and galleries 16.00 Coach to medieval and Tudor sites in Slebech - old church, Sister’s House, Castell Coch 17.30 Coach to Wolfscastle Hotel Lecture: The Augustinians in South-west Wales and Haverfordwest Priory excavations

Thursday 4 July Seamen, Smugglers and Industrialists 9.00 Coach to Carew Castle, early medieval cross, church and tidal mill. 12.30 Lunch at Carew Castle (own cost) 13.30 Carew Tidal Mill 14.30 Cresselly House, Creswell Quay and Cresswell Castle 17.00 Coach to Wolfscastle Hotel AGM followed by talk on the excavation, dismantling and reconstruction of the Haverfordwest Merchant’s House to St Fagan’s

Friday 5 July Haverfordwest: Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors 9.00 Coach to Carew Cheriton WWI and II Airfield and Watch tower 11.30 Coach to Pembroke Dock 19th C Defensible Barracks, Martello Towers and Garrison chapel 13.00 Cross Cleddau Bridge with views over Haven 13.30 Coach to Wolfscastle Hotel and lunch Afternoon – optional visit to Scolton Museum, Haverfordwest. Conference disperses

AUTUMN WEEKEND in SOUTH MEIRIONYDD : September 27- 29th 2019

This coming year we are virtually replicating the meeting held in 1866 when, amongst other things the Cambrians became the first human cargo on the Tal y Llyn Railway. Less auspicious was the fact that the President failed to show up! But apart from that, we hope, we will, like them, be going to Castell y Bere, to Peniarth, to , to Towyn church and its important but virtually illegible inscribed stone, to and its Roman fort and we will be taking a trip on the railway. We will be taking a bus, whereas in 1866 I think they walked from Aberglynolwyn to Castell y Bere and back!

We will be based at Plas Talgarth Resort, Pennal, where we will occupy 6-8 person lodges gathered around the 19th century mansion where we will eat in the restaurant (2 course meal) and have our lectures in the ‘Village Hall’. These lodges have bathrooms (with bath and overhead shower) and fully equipped kitchens with tea/coffee etc . The ingredients of Breakfast are brought to the door. Each lodge has a master bedroom (double or twin beds) a second /third room with twin beds, and a double sofa bed. The cost per lodge is £210 for the 2 nights + £30 a day dinner and breakfast. If you want a room to yourself it will be £105 + £60. If you share a room it will be £52.50 + £60. Do please find someone to share with and perhaps even make up houses. We have booked 15 lodges so please book early to get a bed. Late bookers will get a sofa bed! Level-entry showers are available in the Spa which is part of the complex. There are no lifts and some short flights of steps around the site. Everyone should bring a walking stick – for Castell y Bere if nothing else!

Programme Friday Arrive at Plas Talgarth Resort late morning : Registration Visit Aberdovey in private cars (15 mins away). There is a large carpark near the harbour and another at the east end of the town. The streets of the town are narrow and steep, but there is a good deal of interest in the lower town and very fine views. Return to Plas Talgarth for lecture and dinner in Y Garth Restaurant

Saturday Take private cars to the large car park close to the Tal y Llyn Railway station in . Take the train to Aberglynolwyn where we will be met by a 29 seater coach (or 2) We will look at the quarry town of Aberglynolwyn; use facilities and pick up picnic boxes at the Community Centre’s Caffi’r Ceunant . Visit Castell y Bere and eat picnic. Castell y Bere is quite dangerous in places. The church down at Llanfihangel y Pennant is open and has an interesting exhibition about the valley and Mary Jones. There are lavatories there. Those who do not want to risk the castle can be taken there. Peniarth William Williams Wynne, the present owner, is happy to receive us. The house is notable architecturally, as well as for its previous library belonging to W E Williams Wynne, President of CAA in 1856. The house contains many family portraits and Gilray cartoons. Llanegryn Church -- very fine rood screen and Wynne monuments Towyn Church -- 12th century monastic church and early Welsh inscription. Regain cars and return to Plas Talgarth for lecture and buffet dinner in the Village Hall.

Sunday Morning Visit in private cars to Hall House at Rhownair . It is just N of Aberdovey Pennal Church and memorial garden to Owain Glyndwr (The Pennal Letter) There are interesting 18th century memorials in the church – English invasion from Shropshire. Cefn Caer house and Roman Fort We will certainly see the site of the Roman fort but the 16th century house may not be accessible. Return to PlasTalgarth for lunch (own cost) or Riverside Restaurant Pennal if preferred. Disperse after lunch. You might like to visit MOMA in Machynlleth or the Centre for Alternative Technology on the road to on your way home.

EVENTS ORGANISED IN ASSOCIATION WITH OTHER SOCIETIES : 2019

NEW NEOLITHIC EVIDENCE FROM ANGLESEY Saturday 6th APRIL 2019, 1.30-5pm

Jane Kenney : The Neolithic Period at Parc Cybi, Holyhead : A long house joins the tomb at Trefignath Cat Rees : Excavations at Llanfaethlu Neolithic ‘Village’ Frances Lynch : A Mass of new Pottery in Puzzling Pits

Venue: Lecture Hall 2, Pontio Building, Pontio is in the centre of Bangor about 10 mins walk, straight down the road as you come out of the station. Trains (c. 8.20-9.50am) from Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Manchester can get you there in time -- and return you! By car, take the Bangor turn off J11 of A55 and follow A5 into town. Pontio is on the right, directly below the university building on the hill; car parks on left (access ahead via Asda roundabout). There are cafes and snack bars in the building. There is a £5.00 fee, at the door

For further details and to register your interest, please contact [email protected]

This is an afternoon of lectures organised in conjunction with the Prehistoric Society to showcase the very important new evidence for Neolithic houses and pottery found in Anglesey over the last decade. The work at Parc Cybi is part of a huge multi-period excavation just outside Holyhead, now nearing publication. The Llanfaethlu site is a surprising discovery of no less than four rectangular houses on the site of a new school on the north coast of the island. Both sites have produced a lot of Early Neolithic pottery and also a great deal of Middle and Late Neolithic pottery from pits.

RECENT WORK IN WELSH LANDSCAPE HISTORY

Sat. OCTOBER 19th 2019, 9.15am – 5.00pm Venue : St Fagans National History Museum , Cardiff

We were asked to help the Society for Landscape Studies to develop this Day School in association with their AGM in Cardiff in October. The SLS would be delighted if lots of Cambrians were to join them in St Fagans at the newly re-designed National History Museum.

0910-0940 Registration 0940 Welcome and administrative issues. 0950 Bill Britnell : Location, Location, Location: Neolithic monuments in the Walton Basin 1030 Dr. Peter Guest & Leah Reynolds : The impact of the Roman Army on the Landscape of Wales 1120 Light Refreshments 1140 David Austin : Strata Florida: the Sacred Landscapes Project 1220 Evan T. Jones University of Bristol : The Severn Sea in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries 1300 Buffet Lunch and Society for Landscape Studies AGM 1400 Shaun Evans (ISWE) and Philip Nanney Williams (author) : Estate landscapes in Wales 1450 Speaker from CPAT : The Minera Project. (TBC) 1530 Light Refreshments. 1550 Dr Eurwyn Wiliam : Building a house on sand 1630 – 1700 Further questions and discussion

The cost will be £32.00 for CAA members and £35.00 for others. This includes lunch and refreshments. Please fill in the Booking Form enclosed and send it to: Brian Rich (SLS), 11 Adams Grove, Leek, Staffordshire ST13 8NX Any enquiries: please email [email protected]

THE CAMBRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION’S RESEARCH FUND

The Trustees have very much welcomed the generous response made by members to an appeal for additional moneys to augment this fund, following a suggestion from member Paul Oldham who made a starting donation in 2017. We thank Brian Davies, Sally Evans, David Lermon, Andy Seaman, Rita Wood and Rosemary Yale for their generous donations, and the ever-generous Ethel & Gwyn Morgan Trust. Subject to the Treasurer’s advice, in recent years Trustees have normally transferred the bulk of any surpluses from Spring, Summer and Autumn Meetings to the Research Fund. As a result we were able to support a number of applicants this year for a variety of interesting projects. Anyone wishing to donate, should send a cheque to the Hon Treasurer, Mrs Jenny Britnell, 75, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Salop SY2 6BE.

Grants awarded November 2018 £485 to Peter Crew for conservation, survey and research at Dolgun Blast Furnace. . £1500 to Margaret Dunn,towards dendrochronological dating and building recording for the Discovering Old Welsh Houses in NE Wales project. £2003 to Katie Hemer, for the Ynys Enlli Revisited project – full analysis of early medieval human skeletal remains excavated at Ty Newydd, prior to their reburial by the Trust. £1215 to James Meek and Neil Ludlow for radio-carbon dating and assessment of pottery recovered in recent excavations at Pembroke Castle. £1600 to Tim Mighall for 6 radiocarbon dates for the project ‘Placing Metal Mining and Smelting in to its environmental context: were there hotspots of woodland destruction?’ Using samples already analysed for pollen from the environs of the early mines at Copa Hill, excavated by the Early Mining Research Group. £500 to Gary Robinson and Joanna Brück for exploratory archaeological excavations and survey at WWI Internment Camp. £1980 to Rhiannon Stevens – ‘Seeking Neanderthals’ – using Zooarchaeology Mass Spectometry on human bone samples from older excavations at Coygan Cave, Carmarthenshire.

BLODWEN JERMAN PRIZES

These are in two groups: a junior prize now administered through the very successful Welsh Heritage Schools Initiative. In 2018 our prize winner was the Wolfscastle Primary School, Pembrokeshire for an imaginative project, ‘The Four R’s of Wolfscastle’ which involved all of the KS2 pupils in one class. They divided into groups each taking a subject beginning with ‘R’ – rocks (Treffgarne ), the river (Western Cleddau) and roads and railways (particularly important through the Gorge).

Entries for the senior prize of either an undergraduate or master’s dissertation continue to be at a disappointingly low number of submissions. We are now offering an increase in prize money and a willingness to take electronic submission of entries. Trustees will review progress during 2019. The 2018 prize winner was Nathalie Apted, Cardiff University, for her thesis on the osteology of burials from the excavations at the house of the Austin Friars, Newport.

EISTEDDFOD LECTURE

The 2019 National Eisteddfod will be held in Llanrwst, Conwy. Trustees are happy to report that Rhys Mwyn has accepted the Association’s invitation to give the annual CAA lecture – likely to be mid- afternoon, Wednesday 7th August in the Societies Pavilion. He will be talking on an aspect of the successful and long-running Discovering Old Welsh Houses project, led by Margaret Dunn. CAA has made a number of research grants to this project. Full details will be posted on the CAA website.

CAA PRIVACY POLICY

The Cambrian Archaeological Association, as an organisation to which members pay an annual subscription, believes that it has a contractual relationship with its members. This is one of the six lawful bases for processing data (as set out in Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulations). This one does not demand a renewed consent from each and every member to allow us to continue to send you Archaeologia Cambrensis, the annual Newsletter and, where appropriate, details of the arrangements for our various meetings and conferences.

However the GDPR does require us to tell you what data we hold and how we use it. Our database records the year when you joined CAA, your name, such honorifics as you provide to us, your address, telephone number and e-mail (if you included these on your application form). We also record if you signed up to Gift Aid, the method by which you pay your subscription and the date on which it is paid (over a rolling 3 year period).

We do not give or sell this information to anyone outside the Association. We do not send unsolicited material, but we may give information about events etc organised by others, by email if you agree (see below). However, as you will know, we do provide (every five years) a printed list of members' names and addresses. This is given to all individual members but is not given to corporate or institutional members, so it is never available in public libraries.

National Library of Wales receives a copy with our regular deposit of archive material. Anyone who looks at the membership lists published at the back of Arch. Camb. in the 19th century, will know how interesting such information can become with time. If anyone does not wish to see their name and address on this list, please tell the Membership Secretary who will remove it from the next list.

WEBSITE AND PUBLICITY

Trustees are grateful for the assistance of Christopher Catling, Secretary, RCAHMW, in the design of a new website with our website providers Orchard Web. Trustees have reviewed and approved the new design and work is underway on revising and updating core entries which will be bi-lingual. The new site should be up and running in Spring 2019. Meanwhile the existing site will continue to contain information about all aspects of the Association’s activities. We urgently need to attract new members. Social media outlets will be explored in 2019.

EMAIL ADDRESSES

Every year a number of events of potential interest to members are brought to the attention of the committee. At present we tell members about these through a message in our annual newsletter, provided we get information in time. Cost of postage precludes general mailings at other times. We would in future like to use email to advise members of such events as well as for messages relating to Cambrian Archaeological Association activities that cannot (for whatever reason) be included in the annual newsletter. In order to meet GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) requirements we will therefore, over the coming months, be contacting members whose email addresses we already hold to check whether they are happy for these to be used for Cambrian Archaeological Association business and for advising members of other matters of interest, like events organised by other societies.

If you have an email address that you have not told us about, please email us at the address below. We will add your email address to our records and contact you when we run our GDPR compliance email. This is the email address to use for contacting us: [email protected]

We can reassure members that we intend to keep sending out our annual newsletter by post. If, therefore, you do not use email, you will continue to receive information about the society’s main events as at present, but you will not receive the supplementary notices that are sent out by email in between the annual newsletters. Cost considerations mean that we will not be able to use the postal service for these supplementary notices. We hope that you will understand this. Rhiannon Comeau Trustee with special responsibility for Web communication

ARCHAEOLOGIA CAMBRENSIS ONLINE

Volumes from 1846 to 1999 are available on the Welsh Journals website hosted by the National Library of Wales (https://journals.library.wales/). You can read the account of the Machynlleth/ South meeting in AC for 1867!

Arrangements are now being made to make the volumes from 2000 onwards accessible digitally on the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) website some time in 2019. The ADS is an accredited digital repository for heritage data, hosted by the University of York, and already carries a number of other journals. A further announcement will be made when recent volumes of Archaeologia Cambrensis are up and running.