January 27, 2022

Newsletter for 2022

 

Download a PDF of the newsletter by clicking here.

 

We hope that you will feel that the Cambrians served you well over the last year, as we all
got used to a life lived online. In many ways it gave us greater access to interesting lectures
and discussions – many of them provided by other societies and groups — and certainly
took away the effort of travelling up and down our geographically awkward country, which
has meant that many events had much larger audiences than would have been the case in
the past. This has certainly widened our contacts and, indeed, lowered our average age!
But the fact that we did manage to hold our Summer Meeting in July in Lincoln and our
Autumn Meeting to celebrate our 175th Centenary in Llangollen was a great relief and
reminded us that Homo Sapiens Cambrensis is a social animal and really likes to have a good
natter across the dining table!

Our President for 2022 is Dr Elizabeth Walker who is the Principal Curator: Collections &
Access and specialist curator for Palaeolithic & Mesolithic archaeology at Amgueddfa Cymru
– National Museum Wales. She was the winner of the G.T.Clark Award for Prehistory in
2017; she is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and currently chairs the
National Panel of Archaeological Archives in Wales. She was brought up in Porthcawl. She
studied archaeology at Lancaster University under the late Roger Jacobi and, in vacations,
commenced her association with the NMW, working with Stephen Aldhouse Green on his
research projects including the early Neanderthal site at Pontnewydd Cave, Denbighshire,
where she got her first paid employment as a temporary research assistant. Thus she got
her foot into the door of the National Museum and has been there ever since, to the great
advantage of our understanding of the earliest history of people in Wales. Not only has she
carried out notable excavations herself, but she has devoted much of her time to the
publication of others’ earlier work at many cave sites, enabling new techniques to be
applied to stored material. Always mindful of the need to preserve a resource into the
future, she has worked closely with collaborators to help take further the understanding of
some of the contents of Welsh caves.

Sadly we must record the death of eight members, Debbie Wheeler of Dublin, David Yale of
Porthmadog and Mrs Elizabeth Williams-Ellis of Criccieth, who all frequently attended our
meetings. We have also lost J G Williams of Criccieth, Derryann Paul of Aberystwyth;
Murray McLaggan of Merthyr Mawr (in 2019), Mrs Cory of Penllyn Castle and Mr Murden of
Walsall. We have not heard of any Cambrian deaths from Covid 19 but I’m sure that all
members will have been affected by the pandemic in so many ways.

 

EVENTS and MEETINGS HELD IN 2021

The first event of our year on April 10th was DARGANFOD – DISCOVERY the Day Conference
on New Archaeological Research in Wales organised by Dr Rhiannon Comeau and Dr Oliver
Davis. Originally planned for 2020 it was the first of our events to fall foul of the Lockdown.
This year it was planned from the start as an online event and attracted an audience of 176
viewers! There is a full account of the event in the current volume of Arch. Camb. (pp 333-
340) with summaries of all the lectures and some analysis of the audience, for this, our first
online conference. The talks are also available on YouTube, accessed from the Talks section
of the CAA website (https://cambrians.org.uk/talks/darganfod-discovery-2021-talks/).

SUMMER MEETING IN LINCOLN JULY 4TH– 9TH

This meeting had originally been planned for 2020 and its organisers, Nick and Eva Moore,
had had a full two years of planning, re-planning and anxiety. Right up to the end of June
there were uncertainties, and the programme had to be re-arranged several times. But The
Lincoln Hotel was very co-operative and had worked out a way in which we could form the
necessary ‘bubbles’ and comply with the law, as we occupied our own dining/ lecture room
each evening. The meeting was attended by 33 people (approximately the legal maximum)
and the programme had been carefully re-tweaked to give us more time out of doors. We
had also hired a very effective sound system which allowed us to maintain social distancing
while listening to commentaries on the buildings and sites we visited.

The meeting began on the Sunday afternoon with a tour with Dr Mick Jones and Nick Moore
of Upper Lincoln, dealing particularly with the Roman remains, the first of which – the
eastern gate of the 1st century fort, was actually in the garden of our hotel! From there we
walked to the North Gate, or Newport Arch, which was the surviving inner face of the
Roman gateway. It had been largely complete until 1784, but then partially demolished,
though it is still the most substantial Roman gateway surviving in Britain. We then went
down to the Mint Wall to see the very impressive remains of the wall of the Roman basilica.
We passed several colourful Lincoln Imps, on the ‘Imp Trail’. There was one in the hotel!

That evening – when all our week-long bubbles had been sorted out – we enjoyed a
wonderful introduction to the history of the City of Lincoln by the former Lincoln City
Archaeologist, Dr Mick Jones.

On Monday morning we set off towards Bailgate and round to Steep Hill, all fitted with our
sound system receivers which worked splendidly as we formed a thin line listening to Nick
telling us about the historic pubs we passed, the Norman House, the Jew’s House and Jews’
Court. Our destination was The Collection (the museum) where regulations demanded
smaller groups, so the management of our exploration of the town was challenging. Half
the group went to the Collection. The other half went to the historic 12th century Guildhall.
We went from cellars to roof and to parts of the building not open to visitors, in the
company of guides who made the history of local government truly fascinating. At the start
of the afternoon the visits were reversed. We then all met up again, to visit sites in the
Lower Town and the riverside.

The lecture on Monday was by Michael Sheppard, Director of the Cathedral Works Dept.
who introduced us to the architecture of the Cathedral and it conservation.

Tuesday was the day on which we explored the Cathedral, the Cathedral Close and, at the
other end of the ridge, the Castle. Again we were broken up into smaller groups, alternating
between those inside and outside the Cathedral. Outside we looked at the old Bishop’s
Palace where a new restoration project was just getting underway, glanced at the adjacent
Vicars’ Choral buildings, admired the recent cleaning and repair to the Chapter House and
also the statue of Tennyson and his huge dog. Inside of course we sought out the famous
Imp but also admired the unique ‘Crazy vaulting’ and the Wren Library.

After lunch in the new Visitor Centre we went across to the Norman Castle built by William
the Conqueror within the north-west corner of the Legionary Fortress. Little remains of the
castle of 1068, except two mottes; the wall, on the Roman line, was rebuilt in the
12th and 13th centuries, as were the keeps and the gatehouse. The internal buildings are
much later and relate to the use of the castle as a prison (now a museum). The Sessions
House of 1826 is still used as a court house. Before returning to the hotel we visited the
west side of the city, notably the early 19th century Lunatic Asylum – a fine building and the
first Asylum to abandon physical restraint of patients.

The evening lecture on Tuesday was by Neil Wright who spoke on the History of Boston, the
main port of Lincolnshire, around which he would guide us the following day.

On Wednesday we took off for Boston in a large coach, maintaining our bubbles, with
commentaries on route from Neil Wright, Nick and Eva. Our first visit was to the Hussey
Tower the remnant of a large manor house built for the local tax inspector in 1460 – a time
when Boston was second only to London as a trading port. It set the tone for the day:
Lincolnshire was thriving in the late Middle Ages!

The coach then dropped us off by the Old Grammar School built in 1567 on the site of the
Franciscan Friary. From there we walked to the Guildhall Museum. Built in 1390 for a
religious guild it passed to Boston Corporation in 1555. In 1607 a group of the Puritans were
arrested and briefly imprisoned there – one of the stories now told in the Museum. From
there we walked in the centre of the town, passing a number of notable buildings on our
way to the famous ‘Boston Stump’ the parish church of St Botolph. This splendid church
and its 50m tower dominate the town and the surrounding fenland. The bright interior is as
splendid as the exterior. We returned to Fydell House ‘the grandest house in town’ to have
a splendid lunch including Lincolnshire specialities. After lunch we continued our guided
tour, dodging rain showers, crossing the river and looking at the port area.

On the way back we stopped at Temple Bruer to look at the Knights’ Templar
Preceptory. Only the 13th century tower survives of this unusual round church with a
complicated history. It and its land subsequently came to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
who entertained Henry VIII here. Our return route took us along the edge of the limestone
cliff which runs north through much of Lincolnshire.

That evening we enjoyed a seated reception (if you weren’t sitting down you would not get
any wine!) before the inauguration of the New President, Dr Eurwyn Wiliam by the retiring
President, Professor Michael Jones who, with his wife, was staying overnight. Dr Wiliam’s
lecture ‘Let Use be Preferred to Uniformity’ — a history of the study of vernacular buildings –
was delivered here in person and was also recorded and transmitted by Zoom after our
virtual AGM in October.

Thursday was our last day in Lincolnshire and we had a day of visits which spanned seven
centuries — from the 13th to the 20th! Our first stop was in Thimbleby to see a street of 9
Mud and Stud houses. These houses, built of wood and mud with steep thatched roofs,
were common in the poorer parts of the Fenland till the 1850s. The next was Horncastle, to
visit the Sir Joseph Banks Centre. Banks (1743- 1820) was a botanist, world traveller and
plant collector (a friend of Thomas Pennant among others) who dominated the world of
science, with wisdom, as President of the Royal Society for more than 40 years.

We then visited the 13th century castle at Bolingbroke. It had been built as a wet moat and
angular walled enclosure defended by 5 rounded towers and a double towered gatehouse.
Now It is rather unimpressive since the final chapter in its history is the Civil War and in
1652 it was very professionally destroyed. Before this, it is more significant for its history of
inheritance, than of battles. It eventually descended to John of Gaunt through his wife, and
their son Henry was born here, hence his name Henry Bolingbroke/ Henry IV and the
beginning of the Wars of the Roses.

Lunch was at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at the wartime airfield of East
Kirkby. We were in time to see the Lancaster Bomber taxi up and down the central runway
and most people were able to visit the main hanger with its displays of material from WW2
and Bomber Command. But you would need a day to see all that was on show there.

Tattershall Castle and Tattershall Church were visited next. The National Trust were not
allowing Groups into the Castle so we admired it from afar – except for Dr Peter Jarvis who
dissociated himself from the rest of us, presented his card and was allowed in! The castle
had been created in the 13th century and was aggrandised in the mid 15th by Ralph
Cromwell, and even more by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk who, in 1537, created a
Tudor palace. During the Civil War it was badly damaged and only the Great Tower
survived. By 1910 that was derelict and was about to be stripped out for the American
market, but was saved by Lord Curzon. When he died he left it to the National Trust.

Tattershall Church and Almshouses (endowed by Ralph Cromwell, though they have been
changed since his day) were close by and we were welcomed with tea. It is a massive
church whose construction started in 1469 and was completed by 1482; the style is
Perpendicular with a tower and transepts and huge tall windows.

On our return journey we stopped briefly at Woodhall Spa to see the memorial to RAF
Squadron 617 – the Dambusters. Woodhall Spa – with lots of hotels and a fair amount of
woodland — was a base for the training of several specialist groups during World War 2.

Our route to Lincoln took us through the Witham Valley, notable for the number of major
monastic sites there. Most have been destroyed, but we were able to briefly visit Tupholme
Abbey, a house of Premonstratensian Canons founded in 1155. We also drove alongside
the Car Dyke, a waterway of probable Roman origin whose route can be fairly confidently
traced for some 57 miles.

Nick and Eva Moore were thanked very warmly for their magnificent response to the
challenge of running a Cambrian Summer Meeting ‘in a time of plague’. All the ear pieces
for the audio system were eventually located and returned, and the following morning we
all dispersed, having enjoyed a stimulating few days in interesting and friendly company.
This was something that everyone appreciated more than ever this year.

 

CAMBRIANS WALKING

An innovation in 2021 which we will repeat in 2022 was the programme of walks to bring
Cambrians out into the healthy fresh air. Last year we found that – not surprisingly — few
people signed up in January for an afternoon walking on the moors in July! So this year we
will leave it to our now well-established e-mail circulation and to the website to give
details of the dates and places for the walks in the summer of 2022. We plan to start the
walking season a little earlier – in April — this year so please keep your eye on your e-mails
or the website if you want to sign up. If you can’t be bothered with either of these means
of communication, do contact the General Secretary.

There were seven walks organised last summer in various parts of Wales and you can see
notes of them on the Website –
https://cambrians.org.uk/cambrian-archaeological-association-walks-and-talks-2021/

The size of the groups averaged about 10 – 15 and most walks took about 3 hours of fairly gentle walking and a good deal of talking. The participants were a mixture of long-standing members, some new members and some non-members, several of whom became members!

 

CELEBRATING 175 YEARS OF ARCHAEOLOGIA CAMBRENSIS

A ‘plague year’ is perhaps not the best time to organise celebrations, but the Association
was lucky in its timing: the Autumn Meeting at Llangollen took place as planned. On
Friday October 22nd, 34 Cambrians assembled at the Wild Pheasant Hotel in the afternoon.
At 6.00pm the celebrations of Archaeologia Cambrensis began with a lecture by Prof Huw
Pryce on Harry Longueville Jones, one of the joint founders of the Association and joint
editor of the journal, to which he was a prolific contributor of both text and illustrations –
the subject of our particular celebration this year.

The following morning there were 3 lectures about particular classes of antiquities and their
illustration over a hundred years and more in our Journal. Professor Nancy Edwards spoke
of the Early Christian monuments and the varying techniques used to bring these crucial
images to the page; Frances Lynch, looking at 19th century illustration of monuments and
artefacts, made a plea that we should return to the standards of observation and analysis
which they embodied, and forgo the fast cheap photograph. Iain Wright, speaking next
about his career behind the camera, showed what the carefully prepared photograph can
do when painting interiors with light.

After lunch we set off for a coach excursion to the Pillar of Eliseg and Valle Crucis Abbey (the
subject of the frontispiece to the first volume of Arch. Camb.) Nancy Edwards and Sian Rees
spoke to us at these sites, before we drove back down the valley to the Froncysyllte
Aqueduct and tea at a re-purposed Baptist Chapel in an area of the town now enjoying a
tourist boom since becoming a World Heritage Site.

On our return there was a drinks reception with our President, Dr Eurwyn Wiliam, to
formally launch the 175th Anniversary booklet : Illustrating the Past in Wales . This was
followed by a lecture by Heather James on the printing history and development of
illustration in the journal – a lecture which complemented the exhibition of a range of
woodblocks and copper plates which had been used in Arch. Camb. She is currently
cataloguing this fascinating collection for deposit, it is hoped, in the National Museum.

The following morning there were three lectures dealing with modern illustrative
techniques, presented by the RCHAMW (Dr Toby Driver and Sue Fielding) who are involved
with projects for ‘Cherish’ and the ‘The Digital Past’ We also had a lecture from Chris Jones
Jenkins on the production of his cutaway drawings and computer generated 3D models
explaining the inner workings of Holt castle.

All those present received their copy of the fascinating and very attractive booklet
celebrating our 175th anniversary and, since then, all the membership will have received a
free copy of it by post. The Association is very grateful to the Morgan family for a generous
donation towards the cost of the publication, which was also helped by a bequest from Miss
Olwen Davies of Bangor. We are especially grateful to the editors — Heather James and
Toby Driver — and to all the authors for their sparkling essays. We are equally grateful to
the members who contributed reminiscences to the website celebration of the anniversary,
which was organised by our Chairman, Sian Rees. Such online celebrations are to be
regretted in many ways, but perhaps they touch a larger proportion of the membership, and
we must thank our social media and communications team, Rhiannon Comeau, Genevieve
Cain, Toby Driver and Andrew Davidson for keeping us all in touch.

The Annual General Meeting for 2021 (October 14th) was held online like the one for 2020,
and the one for 2022 will be too. Each was associated with the replaying of the Presidential
Address and it is likely that this, too, will become a custom. On December 15th we
inaugurated what we hope will become an annual event – a Christmas Lecture highlighting
a particularly important recent excavation. This year we were delighted to hear the details
of the Pembrokeshire Chariot Burial from Adam Gwilt of Amgueddfa Cymru.

 

Archaeologia Cambrensis : New Editor

Members will be aware, from the note in a previous Newsletter, that our Editor of eighteen
years standing, Bill Britnell, was looking to retire. The Trustees are pleased to announce
that a new Editor has been found – Ken Murphy of Dyfed Archaeological Trust. Ken has a
good deal of editorial experience and skill in book production and he and Bill have been
working together on the final production of this year’s volume of Arch. Camb.

The Association has always been immensely proud of its journal – a pride which our meeting
at Llangollen was designed to celebrate. The roll call of its Editors over 175 years has been
impressive and many of them have given long service to the membership in that role. Bill
Britnell has been one of the most distinguished and most hard-working of this group of
scholars, for which we are extremely grateful. When he took over the Editorship in 2003
Arch. Camb. had dropped behind on its publication date by some four years, because of
illness, and it was his avowed intent to bring it back on line as soon as possible. This he
achieved without loss of quality in scholarship or production. By 2010 the volume was
appearing in the following year and from 2015 the volumes have appeared regularly within
their calendar year. That is the record of a tremendously efficient Editor! And I don’t think
he has made any enemies en route. Bill has also overseen the digitisation of current
volumes by ADS, alongside the National Library’s work to put all the 19th century volumes of
Arch. Camb. online. This increased access has greatly enhanced the reputation of the
Association and its journal. At a time when the quality of archaeological publication is
declining on many fronts, due to pressures of money and time, and the belief that
photographs and computers are an adequate substitute for knowledge, taste and hard
work, Arch. Camb. has maintained its standards. For this we owe Bill an enormous debt of
gratitude. And we wish his successor an equally successful and fruitful period of office!

 

MEETINGS PLANNED FOR 2022

SUMMER MEETING IN THE RIBBLE VALLEY, LANCASHIRE JULY 4TH– 9TH 2022

Meeting full.  Please contact Frances (flynchllewellyn@gmail.com) if you want to be added to a waiting list.

The Ribble Valley from Preston to Burnley may bring to mind an image of mills and smoking
chimneys, of clogs and cobbles and four-loom weavers, of grabbing industrialists and downtrodden
workers, but, like the South Wales valleys, there is a lot more to it than that. It’s prehistory will
mainly elude us because you have to walk high onto the moors to find it. But the Roman were here
and we will see them at Ribchester. The Saxons and the Vikings have left traces at Whalley where
there are monastic ruins and also a very fine late medieval parish church with a distinctive style seen
also at Ribchester.

But perhaps one of the most notable things about this area is that the Reformation scarcely
happened. The landed gentry (the magistrates) living in very fine 15th and 16th century timbered
halls, took little notice of the changes and remained Catholic (or perhaps Church Papist) throughout.
There were penalties — you could not go into politics, so you didn’t waste your money and there are
some extraordinarily fine 17th century houses and a lot of discreet and elegant ‘barn’ churches —
and, at Pleasington, less discreet -which pre-date Catholic Emancipation (1829) by a generation or
more. The most important focus for this recusant history is Stonyhurst which we will visit on
Tuesday. This is a very impressive Tudor mansion built by the Shireburn family in the 1530s with
additions in the 1660s, but extra to their requirements by the late 18th century. In 1791 it was given
to the English Jesuit Mission. From the late 16th century the Jesuits had been educating the sons of
English Catholics in the Low Countries for some 200 years. But in the 1790s English laws against
Catholics were relaxed somewhat, and schools were allowed. From a group of 4 staff and 12 boys
camping out in the damp empty mansion a major public school emerged which is still going strong.

Another aspect of the region which is less well known is the quality of its museum
collections. The great wealth which came from the industrial development of the latter half
of the 19th century was, in many cases, spent on collecting – art, manuscripts, books, coins
Egyptology, textiles, glass; and these collections were given to the municipal museums in
Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and Accrington. The Hart Collection of mediaeval manuscripts
and early printed books in Blackburn Museum is second only to that in the British Library.
Dr Cynthia Johnston will be lecturing to us on this collection on the Thursday evening.

The programme is below, and most days have been fully planned, but the details of
Wednesday are still uncertain because of the closure of the Harris Museum in Preston – for
the encouraging reason that it has obtained a large grant for re-design. And, as I write this,
the pandemic is still with us. Please return the preliminary booking form as soon as you
are happy to do so, but do not send money at this stage.

We have booked rooms in the Mercure Hotel Dunkenhalgh in Clayton le Moors, an 1830s
country house with modern additions just outside Accrington, accessed from Junction 7 of
the M65, or by train to Accrington. Please book through CAA, not the hotel.

Costs are £48.50 per person DBB with a £35.50 single supplement. This will be a total of
£485.00 for a couple; £417.50 for single occupancy; £242.50 each for 2 people sharing.
The proposal is for arrival lunchtime Monday July 4th and departure Saturday July 9th pm.

Meeting full.  Please contact Frances (flynchllewellyn@gmail.com) if you want to be added to a waiting list.

BOOKING FORM CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE.

 

PROGRAMME

Monday July 4th
Arrival. Early afternoon suggested
2.30pm Depart by coach for Helmshore Textile Museum
6.30 Lecture Dr Jan Graffius on the Stonyhurst Collections
8.00 Dinner

Tuesday July 5th
North side of the valley
Stonyhurst Tour of the School and Museum
Salmesbury Hall very fine 15th timbered hall
lunch at 12.00 – 1.00 then a Group guided tour
Whalley Parish church has very fine woodwork, a Roman Altar in the nave and 3 Saxon
crosses in the graveyard.
Walley Abbey ruins are close by.
Lecture Reception and Presidential Address Dr Elizabeth Walker : ‘Out from the Darkness
into the Light: the significance of Welsh Caves to Palaeolithic archaeology’
Dinner

Wednesday July 5th
It was intended to be a split day between:
A. The mouth of the Ribble and
B. The Trough of Bowland (more walking)
More planning needed

A. Preston , perhaps St Walberge’s church with spire 1854 Rufford Old Hall (NT) and
perhaps St Mary’s, Leyland (1964)
B. Bleasdale Circle (prehistoric) and Calder Vale (early industrial village), Browsholme or
Clitheroe Castle
No evening lecture.

Thursday July 7th
Burnley area
Weavers Triangle Industrial history tours in the canal district
11.30 Townley Hall Museum V. splendid 16th cent. building +Art Gallery Private tour :
Egyptian Coll, Whalley Abbey vestments, Kashmir embroidery and Pilkington pottery. Then
lunch in café.
Gawthorpe Hall (NT) Renaissance building Collections : portraits and needlework
Lecture Dr Cynthia Johnson on the E B Hart Collections in Blackburn Museum

Friday July 8th
Blackburn Area
Pleasington Priory 1819 Catholic church.
Hoghton Tower A late castle with possible connections with Shakespeare. 11.00 Guided
tour and archaeological features in the garden
Blackburn Cathedral A Georgian Gothic church We will have lunch here
Blackburn Museum has notable collection of coins and early books from the E B Hart
Collection, as well as local archaeological material and modern material reflecting the
diversity of the area.

Saturday July 9th
(Last day – in private cars. Bring your luggage)
Ribchester Museum Good small Museum and exposed Roman foundations in the
churchyard next door . Church is worth a visit 13-19th cent. There may be a Roman
Festival going on that day!
Stydd very narrow road access to 18th Catholic ‘barn’ church with v. large car park. Walk (c
500m) from there to Preceptory, past the ‘very curious and very engaging’ Almshouses.
The Preceptory is a redundant Anglican church with 18th cent Catholic burials. Part of the
Shireburn Estates.
Return to A59 and M6 (and also drop people at Preston Station if needed).

EISTEDDFOD LECTURE

It is hoped that the Eisteddfod at Tregaron, Ceredigion, postponed from 2020, will
eventually take place in the first week of August in 2022. Our Eisteddfod Lecture which is
normally on the afternoon of the Wednesday (August 3rd) will be a joint lecture by
Professors David Austin and Dafydd Johnson on the ever-developing Strata Florida Project,
now part of an AHRC funded ‘Sacred Landscapes of Mediaeval Monasteries’
interdisciplinary study.

 

CAMBRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION AUTUMN MEETING

COWBRIDGE, VALE OF GLAMORGAN

12 – 14 September (Note, this is a Monday – Wednesday meeting)
The Bear Hotel, 63 High Street, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, CF71 7AF 01446 774814

The theme of this meeting is a study of the early medieval monasteries and the historic
houses of the Vale of Glamorgan. We are based at Cowbridge, founded in the Roman
period and developed as a 13th century walled town. The first visit is to the historic centre of
the town, and thereafter we visit medieval defensive houses at Llanblethian, Old Beaupre,
and Fonmon Castle and gardens, the early monastic sites of Llancarfan (with the recently
discovered wall paintings) and St Illtud Fawr (with new displays of the early medieval
stones). We hope to be able to visit the spectacular conservation of the formerly derelict
17th century Sker House, and continue to Merthyr Mawr to see the House, medieval chapel
and crosses, early medieval stones and Candleston Castle.

BOOKING FORM CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE.

 

Monday 12 September

12.00 – 14.00 Bear Hotel. Registration
Lunch (own cost) – prior booking with hotel advisable but not essential.
10
14.00 Perambulation of Cowbridge to include the layout of the Roman town, the Medieval
Town Defences, Church, Physick Garden and the town’s medieval and post-medieval
architecture (Edith Evans and Bill Zajac).
15.30 Walk to St Quentin’s Castle, Llanblethian (John Kenyon)
18.30 Lecture: The Early Medieval Monasteries of Glamorgan (Jeremy Knight)
19.45 Dinner

Tuesday 13 September

9.00 Coach (on road outside Bear) to
9.30 Old Beaupre Castle (John Kenyon and Prys Morgan)
11.30 Llancarfan Church medieval wall paintings (Ann Ballantyne)
12.30 Fox and Hounds pub lunch
13.30 Fonmon Castle (Prys Morgan)
14.45 Llantwit church and early medieval stones (Jeremy Knight) and view of the Old Plas
restoration
16.00 Llysworney church and Tea at Moor Farm (by kind invitation of Jill and Edward Jacobs)
17.45 Coach leaves for Bear Hotel
18.30 Lecture: Historic Houses of the Vale of Glamorgan (Prys Morgan)
19.45 Dinner

Wednesday 14 September

9.00 Leave for Sker House (or Ewenny Priory)
9.40 Arrive Sker House (Michael Davies) or Ewenny Priory (Sian Rees)
11.30 Merthyr Mawr House Chapel and Crosses, Church and Early Christian Stones (Jeremy
Knight)
12.15 Candleston Castle (Jeremy Knight)
13.00 Return to Bear Hotel Lunch (own cost) and conference disperses.

 

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING for 2022

This meeting will be held online on the evening of Thursday October 13th
After the Business Meeting we will, as last year, have a repeat of the Presidential Address by Elizabeth
Walker : ‘Out from the Darkness into the Light: the significance of Welsh Caves to Palaeolithic
archaeology’. Joining arrangements will be sent by e-mail. Please ensure we have your e-mail.

 

CAMBRIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION RESEARCH FUND

The Association continues to reassign the greater part of any surpluses from Meetings to
the Research Fund. Any member wishing to donate to this fund should send a cheque made
out to CAA Research Fund to the Hon Treasurer, Mrs Jenny Britnell, 75, Abbey Foregate,
Shrewsbury, Salop SY2 6BE.

 

GRANTS AWARDED DURING 2021

Emma Wager was awarded £2000 towards the costs of preparing for publication a book
entitled A Social Archaeology of Prehistoric Copper Mining: Community, Technology and
Tradition at the Great Orme Mine, North Wales. Dr Wager has directed excavations at an
early copper ore washing site on the Great Orme and completed a PhD on the character and
context of Bronze Age mining at the site in 2002. The proposed Open Access book with
Sidestone Press will provide an updated study utilising all previous radiocarbon dates from
the site for its prehistoric chronology.

Martin Bell was awarded £2000 towards the cost of conserving 29 pieces of Mesolithic
worked wood from wood structures interpreted as fish traps in the bed of a palaeochannel
in the intertidal zone at Goldcliff in the Severn estuary . The structure is dated 5210-4912 cal
BC. Following conservation these rare finds will be deposited at the National Museum of
Wales to join other finds from the site.

Oliver Davis was awarded £2000 towards the costs of analysing a pollen core from Nant y
Plac near to Caerau Causewayed Enclosure, Cardiff of Neolithic date. The sample site
contains deposits from the late Glacial to the Late Bronze Age and has the potential to
provide environmental evidence for the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition.

 

DISSERTATION PRIZE

Over the summer a sub-committee of Trustees, including past winners of the Blodwen
Jerman Prize, have been working to revivify this student award. It is now called Gwobr
Archaeoleg Cambrian Archaeological Award and application details are on our website
https://cambrians.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/dissertation-prize/

Following an active advertising campaign that targeted several academic institutions,
research groups and student associations, the successful re-launch of the dissertation prize
for 2021/2 received nine eligible applicants. Judging for the prize will be undertaken over
the next few months with the aim of choosing the winner by the spring of 2022. We wish
good luck to those who have entered and give our thanks to those who have helped with
increasing the reach and range of audience for our advertisements via social media.

 

SUBSCRIPTION INCREASE

Thanks to all our members who have updated their standing orders for subs payable on 1st January
each year. The new rates are £25 for individual membership, £30 for joint and £10 for associate
membership (students). If you have mislaid the BO form recently sent out, there is more information here
and you can contact the Membership Secretary, Dr Rhiannon Comeau, 21 Ulleswater
Road, Southgate, London, N14 7BL (email cambriansubs@gmail.com) with any queries.

 

EMAILS, WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Over the past few years those members who have ‘signed up’ have been receiving emails
from Rhiannon Comeau and now Andrew Davidson with information on events, publications
and lectures likely to be of interest to members, as well as information on our own events. If
you would like to join the email circulation list please contact cambrians1846@gmail.com

Genevieve Cain continues to update the website which now
contains a wealth of material and we have a growing following on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/CambriansArchaeology) and Twitter (@CambriansArch).

There are a number of interesting lectures available on our You Tube channel, including 2
Presidential addresses; more, including lectures from the Autumn Meeting this year, will be
added throughout the year. Access is via the ‘Talks’ page on our website –
https://cambrians.org.uk/talks/

 

Cambrian Archaeological Association

New subscription rates from 1st January 2022

Individual members: £25.00
Joint members (two members of a household): £30.00
Student members: £10.00

(Institutional rates are available from the Membership Secretary – contact details below)

If your payment for 2022 has been made at the old rate, please send a payment for the
balance owed to our Membership Secretary, Dr Rhiannon Comeau. Payments can be made
online or by cheque.

Our bank details are as follows:
Account : Cambrian Archaeological Association Subscription Account
Account No : 07917651
Sort Code : 51 – 81 – 27

Standing Orders

Please change your Standing Orders so that the correct amount is paid the next time your
subs are due (normally 1st January each year). Standing Orders are easily changed with
online banking – just log in to your bank account and follow your bank’s instructions.
If you do not use online banking, you will need to complete our Standing Order form
(enclosed) and send it back to us at the address below. We will then forward it to your bank.
Alternatively, you can make the change yourself by visiting your bank, but if you do this,
please let the Membership Secretary know – contact details are below.

Cheque payments

If you do not currently pay by Standing Order, could you perhaps consider doing so? It
makes payment of your subscription much easier for you and for us. The easiest way to set
up a Standing Order is via online banking, and instructions for this are included on the
Standing Order form. If you do not use online banking, please complete the Standing Order
form and send it to us.

If you pay by cheque, please note that Frances Llewellyn has retired from Membership
Secretary responsibilities. The new Membership Secretary’s details are given below.

Dr Rhiannon Comeau, Cambrian Archaeological Association Membership Secretary
21 Ulleswater Road, Southgate, London N14 7BL. Email: cambriansubs@gmail.com