RCAHMW ANNUAL REPORT 2015-16 RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 1 Who we are and what we do It has long been recognised that Wales’s historic buildings and monuments are as important a part of the heritage of Wales as its museum, archive and library collections. That is why the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales Our purpose (RCAHMW) was set up in 1908 to research and record the castles and abbeys, churches and chapels, farmsteads and mines, cottages and public buildings, hillforts and burial mounds that make up the distinctive historic environment of Wales. The records we create as a result of our own fieldwork and through the deposit of material with us created by partner organisations and well-wishers, form the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW), Wales’s third national collection (along with the collections of the National Library of Wales and National Museum Wales). NPRN 101450 Pentre Ifan burial chamber, Nevern, Pembrokeshire. In undertaking this work, we aim to do much more than create a record for posterity, valuable as that is as evidence of the Wales of the past. The research we do to understand different types of historic building and monument allows the best examples to be identified and protected from demolition or harmful alterations, thus ensuring that they survive and that the historic environment of Wales remains rich, varied and rewarding for the people of Wales and for the many visitors who form a vital NPRN 105363 part of the Welsh tourism economy. St Michael’s Church, Penbryn, Ceredigion. 2 RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 Our core funding of £1.727m a year comes from the Welsh Government, and is supplemented by income from grants and from book and photographic sales. This money pays for the offices we share with the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth and for the storage of our records in a modern purpose-designed archive store. It also pays for the 30 specialist staff employed by the Royal Commission, including investigators who work in the field to record buildings and archaeological monuments and a dedicated team of public service staff and archivists who run the library and search room, helping visitors find the material they need and answering their queries. RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 3 Who benefits from our work Our work Much use is made of our field work and of the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW) by teachers, students and academics in their own research and learning work. Other major users include family historians and people researching the history of a particular place, region or heritage asset. Visitors to the National Monuments Record of Wales. 4 RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 The media draw on our resources for news reports and TV documentaries about the Commission and its work, or through their use of historic images from the NMRW. This year we licensed the use of our material in the Open University publications, tourism booklets for Oswestry Border Tourism and an article on the hill-forts of the Clwydian Range published in the Archaeological Institute of America’s Archaeology magazine. Our images were also used this year by the BBC Crimewatch programme to recover the stolen Nanteos Cup and to help South Wales Filming of Commission staff for a documentary. Police solve an historic crime in Cardiff. Commission staff are in demand as public speakers and they work hard to share the results of their work through publications, talks, lectures, guided walks, open days and events and through the almost daily round of guided tours of the NMRW that our staff give to local community groups. Children from Pontsian School visiting the open day at NPRN 11594 Hen Gapel, Llandysul, Ceredigion. Our popular touring exhibitions on ‘Wales from the Air’ and ‘Inside Welsh Homes’ have been enjoyed by thousands of people, and we also promoted the NMRW through exhibitions at the Royal Welsh Show, lectures and exhibitions at the 2015 Eisteddfod and through well- attended lectures at the National Library of Wales and Royal Commission offices, including Keith Ray’s talk on ‘Offa’s Dyke’, David Gwynn’s on ‘Welsh Slate’ and Richard Suggett’s on ‘Medieval Wall Paintings’. We ran a number of successful events as part of the Festival of Archaeology and Open Doors 2015, and this year, for the first time, we organised an Inspirational Archives open day in November, when our offices came alive with visitors who came to explore the NMRW’s holdings, listen to lectures throughout the day and produce collages based on images from the NMRW. Toby Driver giving a gallery tour of the prehistoric and Roman collections at Ceredigion Museum. RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 5 Fellow professionals in the historic environment sector all draw upon the advice and expertise of Commission staff and on the data held in the NMRW in drafting historic environment policy, in assessing the risk that the historic environment faces from a range of threats, from climate change to change in social and economic patterns of activity, and in assessing the impact of proposed developments on the historic environment, which includes Wales’s territorial waters. We also undertake a substantial amount of advisory work in partnership with the staff of Cadw and the Welsh Archaeological Trusts, local authority planning officers and their archaeological colleagues. Case study: the Nanteos Cup The Nanteos Cup is a medieval bowl information. Within hours, the police made of wood named after the mansion received a phone call and the cup was at Nanteos, near Aberystwyth, in which it handed to officers by an anonymous was kept by the owners for many years. person at a pre-arranged meeting place Once thought to be the Holy Grail, and in June 2015. It is now on display at the credited with miraculous powers, the National Library of Wales where it will be Our work precious cup was stolen in July 2014. The the focal point for activities in 2017 as Royal Commission’s photographs of the part of the Wales Year of Legends tourism cup were used when the BBC Crimewatch initiative. programme put out an appeal for further DI2005_0414 NPRN 278 6 RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 Case study: People’s Collection Wales People’s Collection Wales is a joint Culture Beacon projects are currently venture with the National Library of being developed by Cadw, Pembrokeshire Wales, Amgueddfa Cymru-National Coast National Park, the National Botanic Museum Wales and MALD, enabling Garden of Wales, the Church in Wales people to contribute their own family and St Dogmaels Abbey. Further projects, and community archives to the national including those in collaboration with collection – adding local knowledge and MALD, Snowdonia National Park, the community, club, or family stories to the Senedd and the Wales Millennium Centre histories of Wales. are in the initial stages of development. The Royal Commission has been leading We have also worked with Girlguiding the Innovation strand of the project Cymru to apply successfully for a £40,000 since its inception. As part of this work, grant under HLF Cymru’s Young Roots we have developed a series of Culture grant scheme. In the Centenary year Beacons which delivers information to of the Girl Guides’ Senior Section, this users’ tablets and smartphones when project will seek to tell the stories of the they are visiting museums and heritage past 100 years drawing upon a wealth attractions. The information is drawn from of archival material, oral history and the People’s Collection and allows users personal anecdotes, preserving the past to explore a great range of content; for and bringing it into the present using example, interviews with slate workers and modern digitisation and dissemination photographs of their working lives that technologies. Through this project those adds depths and richness to a visit of the involved will gain a wide range of new National Slate Museum. Culture Beacons skills, and recognised qualifications. are very flexible tools. Girl Guides Cymru have adopted them. RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 7 Case study: Digital Past 2016 ‘Providing leadership in the sector in Wales on digital techniques and standards’ Our work In February, we organised Digital Past Librarian at the National Library of Wales. 2016, the only annual conference of its 136 people, including speakers, exhibitors kind in the UK, showcasing innovations and workshop providers attended; 63% in digital heritage tourism and survey, were from organisations within Wales, demonstrating that the heritage sector 39% from the public sector, 25% per is in the vanguard when it comes to cent from the commercial sector, 18% adopting innovative technology. from academia, 15% from third sector organisations and 3% from museums. Bringing together participants from the commercial, public, academic, third sector Five keynote addresses and sixteen and voluntary sectors, the conference presentations were given from a range promotes learning, discussion and debate of commercial, academic, public sector around a range of digital technologies in and community organisations. Eight current use, or in development, to record delegates took the opportunity offered and understand the historic environment. by the unconference sessions to make presentations on projects, research, ideas This year’s conference, held at the St or issues outside the strict themes of this George’s Hotel in Llandudno, was opened year’s event. by Linda Tomos, Chief Executive and 8 RCAHMW Annual Report 2015-16 NPRN 13780 One of the Commission’s presentations included a demonstration on Gigapixel Photography at Bethania Welsh Baptist Chapel, Maesteg, Glamorgan. The 360° panorama (above) comprises a mosaic of 351 images which enables you to view detail (below) without the degradation you would see in a standard photograph.