Heritage of Wales, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales

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Pictures from an exhibition.

The images on this page are a selection from those on display at the Royal Commission offices in Aberystwyth. Members of the staff chose favourite or iconic images from the huge selection preserved in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

The Jesse, St Dyfnog’s, Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch. (NPRN 165239 DI2007_1988)

From the RCAHMW Colour Transparencies Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Exemplifying the art of the Royal Commission’s photographers, this image shows the dramatic Tree of Jesse stained glass (1533-5) in the east window of the north nave, St Dyfnog's church, Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch, Denbighshire. The church is first mentioned in the thirteenth century, and saw alterations in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and restorations in the nineteenth. The stained glass depicts Kings Solomon and David rising from the sleeping Jesse.

Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire. (NPRN 94945. DI2007_1984)

From the RCAHMW Colour Oblique Aerial Photographs collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Pembroke Castle was founded in 1093 by Roger de Montgomery, early in the Norman conquest of south-west Pembrokeshire, and is famed as the birthplace of Henry VII, Henry Tudor. This aerial view from 1990, taken for the Royal Commission’s scheduled monument monitoring programme, shows Pembroke castle and town from the north-west. The restricted inner ward in the foreground is backed by the great circular keep, one of the earliest of its kind in Britain. Beyond the castle, the plan of the walled medieval town is exceptionally complete.

Elan Valley Water Scheme. (NPRN 96459. 800406/11 - GTJ63756)

From the Edward Hubbard Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

This is a view of the construction of the Elan Valley Water Scheme, an ambitious civil engineering project which lasted thirteen years, from 1893 to 1906, under the direction of James Mansergh. The dams, reservoirs, tunnels and aqueduct were built to supply clean water to the city of Birmingham which, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, was experiencing increasing difficulty in providing water for its rapidly expanding population. The photograph shows a stone-laying ceremony underway, watched by gentlemen in railway wagons lettered BCWW.

Pierhead Building, Cardiff. (NPRN :34241 CD2003_640_008)

Aerial photograph donated by the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum and held in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

This early aerial view of the Pierhead Building in Cardiff docks provides a detailed record of a near-vanished urban and industrial landscape. The impressive decorated brick building with a clock tower was built in 1896 as the dock offices. Beyond the sheds and warehouses in the background can be seen the tiny black and white Norwegian church, later rescued from dereliction and restored as a key building in the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay. Aerial photographs from the first decades of the twentieth century, preserved in the National Monuments Record of Wales, offer precious glimpses of pre-war Wales.

Big Pit Coal Mine, Blaenavon. (NPRN:433 DI2007_1986)

From the John Cornwell Collection, in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Big Pit is a former working deep colliery and now one of Britain’s leading mine museums. While parts of the colliery date from the early nineteenth century, the shaft was sunk in the 1830s but was not put into commission until 1880. The pit was operated in connection with the Blaenavon ironworks company until nationalisation in 1947. The mine now forms a key part of the Blaenavon World Heritage Site, and is managed by National Museum Wales. The mine was recorded for the Royal Commission’s 1994 book Collieries of Wales. The John Cornwell collection is one of the key photographic sources for the industrial history of south Wales.

Cawrence Defended Enclosure, Cardigan. (NPRN 308918 DI2007_1982)

From the RCAHMW Colour Oblique Aerial Photographs collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

The Cawrence defended enclosure, north of Llechryd in the Teifi Valley, was discovered from the air in 1995 and is seen here a year later as a very clear cropmark in ripening barley. The main gate lies to the left (south-west), facing downslope, while there is a ‘back door’ on the right hand (northern) section of the outer enclosure. The concentric arrangement is common among Iron Age farmsteads in Wales, with the inner enclosure probably reserved for settlement and the outer for stock. Both are linked by a corridor entrance, or ‘antenna’. Tractor lines in the crop, and the nearby road, give a sense of scale.

Cardiff Castle. (NPRN 33. DI2007_1982)

Iain Wright, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission, from the RCAHMW Colour Transparencies Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Cardiff Castle was established within the walls of a Roman fort (NPRN 301346) by William I of England in about 1081. The castle mound in the north-west corner of the fort was probably erected in the late eleventh century and its great shell keep was added soon afterwards, if not in the same operation. The castle fell into decline following the Civil War. Between 1868 and the 1920s much of the castle was transformed according to the medievalist vision of William Burgess. This photograph of the keep, with one of the castle’s peacocks on display, was taken for volume III (1a) of the Royal Commission’s Glamorgan Inventory, ‘The Earlier Castles’, published to acclaim in 1991.

The Cob, Porthmadog. (NPRN 34165. DI2007_1983)

Iain Wright, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission, from the RCAHMW Colour Transparencies Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Porthmadog’s famous Cob embankment is a 1.4-km long causeway crossing Traeth Mawr, an area of saltmarshes. The original embankment was conceived by William Maddocks and constructed between 1808 and 1811. It was supplemented by a lower embankment in 1836 on the inland side which carried the turnpike road when the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway (NPRN 34660) was laid on the original embankment. The image looks north-west along the Cob from the Boston Lodge railway works (NPRN 91422), and was taken as part of the Royal Commission’s continuing programme of industrial recording.

Bardsey Island Lighthouse. (NPRN 34151. DI2005_0679)

Douglas B. Hague, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission, from the RCAHMW Colour Transparencies Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Douglas Hague was a pioneer of industrial and maritime recording in Wales and worked as an investigator with the Royal Commission from 1948 until 1981. He was involved in the production of the three volumes of the Royal Commission’s Caernarvonshire inventory (1956-64). Douglas will be most remembered for his love of the Welsh islands, and his long study of lighthouses. His initial work on lighthouses for the Archaeological Journal in 1979 was followed by the posthumous publication of his book Lighthouses of Wales in 1994 by the Royal Commission, in which this watercolour of Bardsey lighthouse station was the rear cover illustration.

Image of Death, St Eilian’s, Llaneilian. (NPRN 32283. Drawing no. 313X16. DI2005_1082)

Dylan Roberts, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission, from the Drawings Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

The medieval parish church of St Elian’s, Llaneilian, lies at the extreme north-east tip of Anglesey, near Amlwch. The church consists of a late fifteenth-century nave and chancel, an early sixteenth-century south porch, a twelfth-century west tower and the formerly detached late fourteenth-century St Eilian's chapel (NPRN 43586). It retains many of its late medieval fittings and the roof of the chancel features wall paintings of angels and other figures. Famous among these is the image of Death, now somewhat worn but restored in this fine reconstruction painting by Dylan Roberts. The Welsh inscription ‘Colyn Angau yw Pechod’ translates as ‘the sting of death is sin’.

Taff Merthyr Colliery, Bedlinog. (NPRN 80488. DI2005_1114)

Charles Green, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission.

The phenomenal growth of the south Wales coal industry during the nineteenth century peaked just before the First World War. Despite increasing international competition, new collieries continued to be developed after the war, including Taff Merthyr, in the centre of the south Wales coalfield, which opened in 1926. Rapid mine closures in the 1990s posed a huge challenge of recording a vital part of Wales’s history before it disappeared. As part of the Royal Commission’s survey of the remaining collieries, Taff Merthyr was selected for detailed recording, particularly of the processes of raising and preparing coal. This annotated drawing is a part of that record.

Oxwich Castle, Gower. (NPRN 19554. Drawing no. 31X8 , GTJ000222)

Dylan Roberts, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission, from the Drawings Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

The Royal Commission’s many years of survey and recording towards the publication of the Glamorgan Inventory, volume 3 (i), Greater Houses, produced an exemplary record of the many grand residences in south Wales. Oxwich Castle, which dates from the early sixteenth century, was largely built by Rice Mansel (1487-1559). The castle includes two residential blocks of differing dates, a mock military gateway to the courtyard, and the remains of a dovecot (NPRN 37628). Dylan Roberts’ evocative cutaway is typical of the high standard of recording and reconstruction achieved for the Glamorgan inventories, and conveys both architectural information and the spirit of the contemporary landscape in a single drawing.

Old Castle Works, Llanelli. (NPRN 40509. DI2005_1153)

Dylan Roberts, Comiswn Brenhinol/Royal Commission, from the Additional Information Collection in the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Prior to joining the Royal Commission’s graphics and photography branch, where he was later to become Head of Branch, Dylan Roberts used his considerable artistic talents to make sketches and drawings of many industrial and other structures in his native south Wales. This coloured sketch shows the Old Castle iron and tinplate works in Llanelli in 1957 when it was still at the height of production. Dylan Roberts’ early sketches form a vivid record of heyday of the works, and its people, and a valuable addition to the National Monuments Record of Wales archive.

Plas-y-Llan, Eglwysbach, Denbighshire. (NPRN 27782. Neg. Ref. No. AA54/2665. DI2007_1987)

G.B. Mason, 1954, from the NMR Site Files Collection, National Monuments Record of Wales.

In the far west of Denbighshire bordering the Vale of Conwy stands Plas-y-Llan, a seventeenth-century stone manor house with many original surviving features. Chief among these are two decorated fireplaces. One, in the south room, bears the date 1684 and a coat of arms above the mantle. The fine, primitive kitchen fireplace pictured here in 1954 is an exquisite survival of its day bearing a coat of arms, the letters ‘RSIW’ and the number ‘16’, above an intact early range. The picture is typical of the diverse records of vernacular architecture held in the National Monuments Record of Wales.