The following review was published in the Anglesey Antiquarian Society‘s 2020 Transactions. Oriel Môn will be reopening on 18 May 2021, and the exhibition can be viewed until 13 June 2021.

Jane Kenney, Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, an exhibition at Oriel Môn, Llangefni, 12 December 2020 – 13 June 2021

Between 2006 and 2010 Gwynedd Archaeological Trust (GAT) carried out extensive excavations at Parc Cybi, Holyhead, in advance of development of a business park. As such a large site was being developed, GAT was able to investigate more than 20 hectares. Peeling off the layers across such a large area has revealed an astonishing collection of archaeological finds ranging from the Mesolithic to the 18^th century. The results of the excavations were presented at a day-long symposium in February 2020 at the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead, which was accompanied by an exhibition about the finds. This exhibition has now moved to Oriel Môn, where it can be viewed until 13 June 2021 (COVID-19 restrictions allowing).

Given the wide range of periods uncovered by the excavation, the advance of time is the keystone of this exhibition. As you walk into the central display space of the museum, footprints on the floor guide you to the left to start your journey, and a timeline running around the top of the walls gives key dates ranging from the last ice age to the start of the industrial revolution. Twelve nicely designed and well-illustrated bilingual display boards line the walls above four low display cabinets with artefacts, supplemented by a fifth tall cabinet containing pottery and stone items and an open central area with more stone objects.

The displays start by showing scenes of the excavation under way, along with some of the flint, chert and stone tools found on the site. It moves on to a display of one of the highlights of the excavation, a rare 6000-year-old timber hall. An illustration showing a bucolic domestic scene outside the hall accompanies photographs of the excavated evidence of other domestic buildings, including roundhouses, a Bronze Age granary, and a hearth from a small hut.

The next set of displays show the various burial practices in the area, including the nearby Trefignath burial chamber, Bronze Age cist graves and later Roman long cist cemeteries, and excavations of the Iron Age roundhouse village. These are accompanied by a display case full of stones with holes that were found in the village. Some of these were fishing net weights, but most were spindle whorls that, combined with a stick, were used for spinning fibres into threads for clothing. The display is graced with a recent photo of a Nepalese villager using a similar system for spinning.

Halfway through the exhibition we encounter the tall display case with several stone bowls, mortars and hammer stones, two pieces of pottery and two reconstructed Neolithic pots. In contrast to the rest of the exhibition this case has very little information about the items on display, just a few labels with brief descriptions. The next display case makes up for this by having several pottery fragments from the early, middle and late Neolithic and the Bronze Age, showing how style and decoration developed through time. The accompanying posters describe domestic life and industry during the Iron Age and Romano-British period.

The final display case focuses on the ‘bling’. The centrepiece is a small gold ring found at the edge of a Bronze Age field. It is small, with a gap in it, and may have been a hair decoration. Also in the case is an amber bead, other decorative items made from shale, pottery and cannel coal, and some iron tools. The history of the occupation of the site post-Romans is explored in the last two posters, with photographs showing corn driers, a cobbled floor from a now vanished farmhouse, and a stone-lined well with steps leading down to it.

In the centre of the exhibition area is an open wooden-framed display case, filled with soil and tools of the archaeologist’s trade. This is used to display several large stone objects: a stone bowl, a saddle quern, a post for a granary and a cup-marked rock.

The text of the displays is clear and geared towards informing the general public of the highlights of the finds and their importance in understanding our past. A couple of copies of the summary report (with a chair to ease your feet and a magnifying glass to ease your eyes), alongside a QR code link to the GAT web site, allows the curious visitor to delve further into details of the finds. Full reports of the excavation can be found on GAT’s web site at https://heneb.org.uk/project/archaeology-at-parc-cybi-holyhead/.

Warren Kovach

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This single standing stone is just beside the road between Pentraeth and Talwrn, close to the Llanddyfnan parish church and its neighbouring Ty’n Llan farmhouse. The Stone Science museum is across the road. I got some nice photos of a well-lit monument, plus some of a herd of curious cattle who ran over to the fence, either to see what I was up to, or to see if I was bringing their feed. I then went over to the church, which I had photographed before, but several years ago.

After a few shots of the church I began wandering around the graveyard, mindful that some of the people I mentioned in my recent blog about the abandoned house, Ynys, at Cors Bodeilio might be here. Sure enough, two prominent slabs near the church door were for the Thomas family of the Bodeilio estate, including Evan Rice Thomas, who died 20 August 1875. Back by the wall was the grave of William Williams, the last recorded resident of Ynys, who died in 1906, and his wife Ann, who died the next year.

A few other interesting stones were spotted, including a Commonwealth War Grave stone for Corporal H. Jones of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, who died in November 1940, aged 28. I stood by his grave for a moment in advance of the minute silence later in the morning for Armistice Day.

But the real surprises were to be found in the newer section of the cemetery. I spotted a grave with a number of plants and flowers around it, and a familiar name. Ann Benwell was a prominent local historian, a retired university lecturer, devoted member of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society and trustee of Menai Heritage, of which I am also a trustee. She died suddenly in 2013. I was surprised to find her here in Llanddyfnan, as she had lived in Menai Bridge, and I didn’t know of any connection to the parish. I’ve since learned she grew up near Talwrn.

I was further surprised when I looked at the grave next to Ann’s. This was for Eirian Llwyd, a well known local artist and wife of former Anglesey MP, AM and Plaid Cymru party leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones. She died after a short battle with cancer in 2014. I met her a couple of times a few years ago when I bought two of her prints, which hang proudly in my house. One of these prints is of a raven, so I was touched to see her gravestone also features a raven, a bird that appears in a number of her artworks. It must have had special significance to her, perhaps because of the association with the figure from the Mabinogion, the giant Welsh king Brân the Blessed, brother of Branwen.

As I mentioned in my last blog, The Irishman in Church Island Cemetery, every graveyard has several interesting stories to tell, if you just look closely.

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