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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Top of the list to see was Llys Llywelyn. This is a recreation of the 13th century Royal Court of the Princes of Gwynedd (including Llywelyn the Great). It is based on the actual court that was excavated at Llys Rhosyr, near Newborough. A number of buildings were unearthed there, and more may lay under the surrounding turf, but the two most completely investigated ones were recreated in St Fagans. The great hall, with its massive timber frame forming a grand space, was built to impress.

Entering through the great doors, visitors would face the dais at the far end, where the prince would take his seat. The stunning painting of the stonework around the windows and the timber columns and arches, in a Romanesque style common at the time, would be complemented by tapestries on the walls. The smaller adjoining building has been reconstructed as a food storage area and living quarters.

Another new feature of the outdoor museum is a refurbished main entrance building with exhibition space called “Wales is…”. This explores Wales from a variety of perspectives, looking at history and social development, with a view towards the future. This gallery has a number of links to Anglesey, particularly its archaeology.

One of the most astounding finds on Anglesey is the Llyn Cerrig Bach treasure hoard. Dating from the Iron Age, these 2000 year old artefacts were discovered in a lake near RAF Valley during World War II. These items include swords, slave chains and horse bridle bits, as well as some magnificent bronze decorative plaques and shield bosses. They are thought to have been thrown into the lake by the Celtic druids as offerings to the gods. These items have occasionally been lent to the Oriel Môn in Llangefni for display near to their home, and replicas are on permanent display there, but St Fagans now has a large display of most of the items, artfully jumbled together in a single case.

Another beautiful set of objects, which I had been reading about just a couple of days beforehand, was a set of five silver arm bands found in a quarry overlooking Red Wharf Bay. Discovered in the late 19th century, they are similar in style to objects found in the Cuerdale Hoard in Lancashire, which are thought to have been possessions of the Vikings who were expelled from Dublin in 903 AD. That Viking band, led by a man called Ingimund, had settled in Anglesey briefly after their expulsion, so these may have belonged to him or one of his followers.

Nearby in Llanbedrgoch recent excavations have revealed a more spectacular set of artefacts, which feature heavily in the St Fagans displays. This site, also of Viking age, is a village that has clear trading links, with coins from various places and a set of Viking lead weights, used for weighing silver, being found amongst numerous other items that give us an insight into the lives of people at the time.

Also found at the site were the burials of several people. Some of the skeletons show evidence of having died violently, and it was first assumed that they may have been victims of Viking raiders. However, isotope analysis of the skeletons show that some of them had previously lived in north-west Scotland or Scandinavia, so may have been Vikings themselves.

One burial had the skeleton of a young boy, underneath that of a man, who had unhealed cutmarks on his arm and skull, and may have had his hands tied behind his back. The skull features of the two are similar, and reconstructions of their facial features show remarkable resemblance. Were they father and son?

Another new building at St Fagans is Gweithdy, a space devoted to the skills of craftsmen through the ages, showing how things have been made from wood, clay, stone, metal, plants and textiles. In the section on stone carving was an object that I’ve seen many times, but never really seen at all. Next to the burial mound at Bryn Celli Ddu stands a stone with a complex series of carvings, with spirals and zig-zags. I always admire it when there, even though I know it is a replica of the original, which was sent to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff after the excavation in the 1920s. So finding the original here was like running across an old friend in a distant city.

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Yesterday I went from Anglesey to Bodelwyddan Castle in Denbighshire. Nothing unusual there; I often drive by it, promising myself that I will one day stop to have a closer look, but never managing it. So, I made a special trip out there. As I toured around and looked at the story of its various owners I discovered that the connections between Anglesey and Bodelwyddan run through its history.

The original manor house at Bodelwyddan came about because of an eviction. A man with the long genealogical name of Thomas ap Wmffre ap Thomas ap Rhys ap Benet ap Ieuan ap Deikws ap Ieuan Ddu ap Trahaiarn was the owner of Henllys, near Beaumaris. But, Edward IV decided that it was ideal for his Deputy Governor of Beaumaris Castle, so poor Thomas was dispossessed of it. He was given the land at Bodelwyddan instead, where he built a manor house around 1460. He also decided at the time to take the family surname of Humphreys (from his father’s name, Wmffre).

The house and lands remained with the Humphreys family for 230 years until it was purchased by Sir William Williams, who was Speaker in the House of Commons from 1680–1681. Sir William was also an Anglesey boy, son of Hugh Williams, rector of Llantrisant and Llanrhuddlad parish. A fine memorial to Hugh can be found in his old parish church of Llantrisant.

William became a lawyer, after attending Jesus College, Oxford, and Gray’s Inn. He later entered politics, become MP, first for Chester, then Beaumaris. He purchased Bodelwyddan for the use of his son, but it was never the family’s main residence until Sir William’s great-great grandson John was made a baronet in 1798.

He decided that the simple 15th century manor house wasn’t fitting for a man of his stature, and commenced extending and altering the building in the Greek Revival style. His son continued the work, adding Gothic Style towers to give it its current castle-like appearance. Throughout the house the family’s crest of the cross foxes appears in tiles, ceiling bosses and stained glass windows. The same crest can be seen in their ancestor Rev. Hugh’s memorial at Llantrisant Church (see picture above).

Sir John, the 1st Baronet of Bodelwyddan, also has two other Anglesey connections. He married Margaret Williams, the heiress of the Ty Fry estate near Pentraeth. His parents had given him land near Beaumaris, which was passed on to his son, Sir John Hay Williams. As a gift to his wife, Lady Sarah, he began building a fairy-tale style castle overlooking the Menai Strait. This building is now the luxury hotel, Chateau Rhianfa, situated on the Menai Bridge to Beaumaris road.

During the First World War the house was taken over to be a recuperation hospital for wounded soldiers, associated with the nearby Kinmel training camp. After that it was leased to Lowther College girl’s school, until 1982. It was then bought by Clwyd County Council to develop as a visitor attraction, with part of the site converted to a luxury hotel. Until recently it served as home to a large number of paintings from the National Portrait Gallery, but now the walls are full of the Bodelwyddan Castle Trust’s own collections of Welsh art, including an excellent Snowdonia landscape by another Anglesey boy, Kyffin Williams.

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It’s bigger on the inside than it appears from outside, and it lets you travel back in time, like Dr. Who’s Tardis. That was my first thought when I ducked through the low entrance into the high-ceilinged space of the reconstructed Bryn Eryr roundhouses at St. Fagans open air history museum.

I’ve been wanting to visit St. Fagans for quite a while, and I finally managed to extend a trip south to spend the day there. It is a wonderful place for anyone with an interest in the past. You can wander through historic buildings, brought here and rebuilt from all over Wales, experiencing the way people lived, worked and worshipped through time.

The most recently rebuilt house is also the oldest. Bryn Eryr is a reconstruction of what archaeologists think an Iron Age house would have looked like. It is based on the excavation of a farmstead on Anglesey, at Bryn Eryr farm, which lies halfway between Menai Bridge and Pentraeth, just off the A5025. Between 1985 and 1987 the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust excavated a site on the farm where early archaeologists had noted the faint rectangular outline of an enclosure wall and found pieces of Roman pottery in what was otherwise a flat and unremarkable field.

The excavation revealed the walls of two roundhouses, built right next to each other, as well as pits, post holes, grinding stones and animal bones. It appears that the site initially had one roundhouse, built in the Earlier Iron Age (about 800-400 BC), with the walls made of clay quarried from the pits. It was partially enclosed by a wooden fence.

A second phase of building occurred in the Middle Iron Age (400-100 BC), when the defensive rectangular bank and ditch was built around the settlement. A second somewhat smaller roundhouse was built right next to the original one, most likely with a passage between them, much as a modern bungalow might have an extension built to accommodate a growing family.

The reconstruction at St. Fagans represents the houses as they were during this period. Excavations of the original site also uncovered a third roundhouse, somewhat separate from the other two, where numerous pieces of Roman pottery were found. These have been dated to the 2nd-4th century AD, thus showing that this site was occupied for over 1000 years.

Although archaeological excavation can tell you about the walls of these ancient houses, it doesn’t tell you much about how the roof was built, nor how it was furnished. Particularly, there was much puzzlement about how the roof was constructed once the second roundhouse had been added.

A single round house would have a conical roof, but what about two? Did it have some type of roof that spanned both circular areas? Or did it just have two conical roofs next to each other? In the later case there would be a risk of rainwater draining off both roofs between the two houses, which could water-log that area and damage the walls. In the end it was decided to reconstruct this with two conical roofs with a lower ridged roof over the passageway between the two.

The next question was what to use to do the thatching and how to construct it. Some earlier roundhouse reconstructions have used straw from the same varieties of wheat that are used today by thatchers. But these varieties didn’t exist back in the Iron Age, so wouldn’t be authentic. The original excavation of the site turned up spelt as the main grain used by the occupants, so it makes sense that the straw from that would have been used for the thatch. A field near St. Fagans was planted with spelt, which was then used to thatch the houses.

Once the roofing was complete the interior needed to be fitted out to show how it might have appeared when occupied. This again involves a lot of conjecture, as the Bryn Eryr archaeological excavation didn’t give much evidence as to what the furniture and contents might have looked like. However, artefacts from other similar aged sites from elsewhere around Wales and Britain, many of which are housed in the National Museum of Wales collections, can act as templates for producing replicas to be displayed in the roundhouses.

The centrepiece of the smaller roundhouse is the fireplace with a fine bronze cauldron hanging over it. It is similar to one found at Llyn Cerrig Bach, near Valley on Anglesey and was made by Hector Cole.

The shelves along the walls contain wood bowls, modelled on ones found in Wales and Somerset and made by Robin Wood, plus various tools that have been found in Iron Age and Roman era sites in North Wales and produced by the St. Fagans blacksmith, Andrew Murphy. Baskets, leather bags and even a child’s doll join these objects.

St Fagan’s previously had a Celtic Village, built in the 1990s, that Bryn Eryr has replaced. An excellent article about lessons learned from that exhibition and how that informed the decisions about how to reconstruct Bryn Eryr can be found at the Exarc (Experimental Archaeology) Journal site.

In addition to this new feature, St. Fagan’s has an ambitious building program going on, with not one but two new visitor centres being erected. Another new feature being developed is Llys Llywelyn, a medieval Prince’s court, based on Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and Llywelyn ap Grufydd’s court at Llys Rhosyr, near Newborough, Anglesey. I was only able to get a tantalising glimpse of it through the construction site fences, but I look forward to seeing it when I next visit St. Fagans.

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