Friends’ Newsletter and Magazine October 2015 1 A MESSAGE TO FRIENDS travels in South Wales, which you may remember we featured in an earlier edition of this Newsletter. The front and back covers celebrate two recent discoveries in Wales which are of international importance. The front All of us play a part in supporting Amgueddfa Cymru cover shows an artist’s impression of a new species of through our membership of the Friends. However, there dinosaur. Its skeleton was found by two brothers, who are are other ways and we have a piece setting out what it amateur fossil hunters, after a rock-fall along part of the means to become a Patron of the Museum. Then there is Glamorgan Heritage Coast and they have generously do- an item about a little known piece of War War I history: nated their find to the Museum. The back cover shows a the trains, known as the ‘Jellicoe Specials’ that carried detail of a medieval painting that is being gradually re- South Wales coal to the ships at Scapa Flow. Finally, there vealed in Llancarfan Church in the Vale of Glamorgan. is a piece about the Young Archaeologists Club (YAC). You can read more about both in an article entitled Cover This year marks their 20th anniversary and I am pleased to Stories. have an item about the organisation and about how Muse- um staff are helping to motivate archaeologists of the Another important find was recently made by archaeolo- future as well as simply inspiring young people to take an gists at National Roman Legion Museum and is the subject interest in our past. of the first of four major articles. The find consisted of parts of a horse's headgear known as a chamfron which There are also two pieces about Welsh artists. Tony Curtis was worn by horses in the Roman cavalry. The artefact is has contributed a new poem paying tribute to the artist, one of the few of its sort to have been found. The article John Knapp Fisher, famous for his coastal landscapes of sets the find in the context of other finds from Caerleon Pembrokeshire, who died earlier this year aged eighty- and what is known about Roman cavalry life at Caerleon three. This can be found in Poetry Corner. The Book in general. Review focuses on a biography of the artist Carey Morris, who is famous for his scenes of Welsh rural life. What of the other major articles? One is inspired by the photographs produced at Penllergare House near Swansea As usual we have news of what is happening with the which formed part of a recent exhibition of historic pho- Museum, BAfM and Friends. In Friends News I would like tographs at National Museum, Cardiff. The article looks to draw your attention to a tribute to Diana Elizabeth at the photographic and other scientific endeavours in the Davies who died recently and left a very generous bequest 1850s of three women associated with Penllergare House: in her will to the Friends. Emma Thomasina Dillwyn Llewelyn, her eldest daughter and her sister-in-law. Last, but not least, there is a Letter to the Editor. I would add that correspondence from readers is always welcome. Many of you will know Val Courage, who has been organ- ising foreign trips for the enjoyment by Friends since 1994. On that note I end, not with my usual plea to you for So I am very pleased to say that we have an interview with written pieces, but with an idea for another way for you to Val in which she is asked, amongst other things, about contribute. Do you have a favourite painting or other how she came to be so involved in organising these trips artefact in one of the galleries or Museums that make up and her experiences in leading them over these twenty-one Amgueddfa Cymru? Would you like to talk about the years. piece and why you have chosen it? Christabel, who organ- ised the interview with Val Courage, would be happy to The historic bridge at Pontypridd and the life of William meet you in order to talk to you about your choice. If you Edwards, its designer and builder, is the subject of the are interested, please let me know. fourth major article. It looks at the subject through the eyes of Thomas Malkin who wrote a book about his Diane Davies Next Edition Diane Davies Contributions for inclusion in the April 2016 edi- 9 Cyncoed Rise, Cyncoed, Cardiff CF23 6SF tion should be submitted by the beginning of Tel: 02920 752464 January 2016. Email: [email protected] or/neu Please send items, either electronically or by [email protected] post, to the Editor. Friends of the National Museum of Wales is a member of the British Association of Friends of Museums 2 CONTENTS ARTICLES FROM THE CHAIRMAN 3 Equus 4 POETRY CORNER 14 Women at Work 10 BOOK REVIEW 18 Celebrating Twenty-one Years 15 LETTER TO THE EDITOR 23 Pontypridd Bridge 19 MUSEUM NEWS 25 MISCELLANY BAfM NEWS 27 Rhondda Coal & the Jellicoe Specials 7 FRIENDS NEWS & ACTIVITIES Becoming a Patron 9 News items 28 Cover Stories 21 Turin 28 Young Archaeologists Club 23 Broadway & Sezincote 30 A MESSAGE TO FRIENDS 2 Cover illustrations Front cover: Artist’s impression of the newly discovered dinosaur found at Penarth, South Wales. © Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales. Back cover: Detail from the medieval wall paintings uncovered at Llancarfan Church. Another way you might consider supporting the Museum FROM THE CHAIRMAN is to become a Patron. It was through becoming a Patron that I realized that I wanted to become more involved in It is now ten mouths since I became Chairman of the supporting the Museum. Patrons have a closer relation- Friends and as you can imagine I have been on a steep ship with the Museum and enjoy a range of benefits in learning curve! During that time, I have spent some time return for their support, such as invitations to exhibition reflecting on how we, as Friends, currently support the launches and the annual Gala Dinner. Sian Russ, who is Museum and how we might move forward in the future. in charge of the Patrons scheme, has written an article I am very conscious that, with increasing concerns about about becoming a patron which you can find on page 9. the possible impact of cuts to their funding, many public bodies, including Amgueddfa Cymru, are having to make As well as valuable financial support, the most important really hard choices. In these circumstances, I feel it is thing we as Friends can do is to act, both as individuals pertinent to ask the question what we, as Friends, can do and collectively, as advocates and ambassadors for the to support the Museum in these challenging times. Museum at every opportunity. We can each play our part in telling other people about the really exciting things the There are, of course the obvious things that we are doing Museum has to offer to people of all ages, social and already: raising money by the membership subscriptions, ethnic backgrounds. lectures, dinners and visits, twenty-five in total this year alone! However, there are other ways you might like to It is also about using our influence to persuade people, consider. including those that make decisions, about the huge contribution the Museum makes to the cultural and In 2015, the Friends received, in accordance with the terms educational life of our country. I believe we need to of the will of the late Diana Elizabeth Davies, a very stress how the Museum gives people a rich and often substantial legacy that has now been gifted to the Museum. unique window into Wales, both past and present. It also At the present time, there are on-going discussions be- helps us to gain a greater appreciation of the way these tween the Museum and the Friends on the most appropri- experiences are both similar and different from those of ate ways of using this this money. We will let you know people living in other parts of Britain, Europe and be- when we have further information to report. Following yond. the example of this most generous gift, I would invite you to consider giving a gift or leaving a legacy, no matter how I hope you will feel able to join me in this vision. large or small, to Museum. Richard Carter 3 EQUUS: A NATIONAL ROMAN LEGION 230 horses for cavalry, officers and remounts. We can also MUSEUM EXHIBITION assume one pack-mule per company of 8 soldiers or contu- bernia (but there may have been two) and one large wagon per century, so there may also have been 900 mules and Mark Lewis 400 oxen! This suggests a daily requirement of 3.85 tonnes of grain, 6.3 tonnes of green fodder and 19.25 tonnes of n 2012 all Amgueddfa Cymru sites were asked how water. The grain requirement is 4 times that of the men. they might be able to contribute to Cymru’n Cofio – The animals were probably taken to the river twice daily to IWales Remembers 1914-1918, marking the centenary drink – costing 125 man-hours. of the First World War. This presented a challenge for the National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon. Noting The legion had 120 cavalrymen or equites of its own. that ‘War Horse’ would appear at the Millennium Centre These were mounted despatch riders or scouts. Its decuri- in 2014, I was reminded that the horse, pivotal in the ons were assisted by a standard bearer (vexillarius), password Roman war machine, was heavily used during WWI, really officer (tesserarius), possibly the foal breeder (pollio) and the for the last time, drawing to a close a millennia-old rela- groom (the mulio).