3rd-5th July 2009

at St Fagans National History Museum (near Cardiff)
Part of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

The 2009 ICOMOS-UK Summer meeting and AGM took place at St Fagans National History Museum, south Wales, in collaboration with Eurwyn Wiliam, our Vice President for Wales, former Director of St Fagans, Deputy Director General of National Museum Wales and latterly Keeper Emeritus, National Museum Wales.

The ‘first generation’ open air museums were set up in Scandinavia at the end of the 19th century. Over the next 80 years many others followed in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and North America.

Set up to highlight the value of regional buildings which contribute so much to our national identity at a time when many vernacular buildings were becoming vulnerable to destruction or radical change, they became the repositories of ‘unspoilt’ structures which could be read as social documents, particularly of rural life before the industrial era.

The meeting included visits to the museum’s buildings, a concert in its painted, mediaeval church and a seminar discussing the vision, extraordinary diversity and benefits of open-air museums in Europe.

Programme:

Friday 3rd July:

5.30 – 6.30 Drinks Reception at St Fagans

6.30 – 8.00 Informal Concert at recreated mediaeval church of
St. Teilo’s from Pontardulais, West Glamorgan

8.30 – 9.30 Supper at Iolo Morganwg restaurant, St Fagans

Saturday 4th July:

Seminar: Open-Air Museums and Society,
(Committee Room, St Fagans)

10.00 – 10.30 Coffee

10.30 – 10.40 Introduction and welcome

10.40 – 11.00 Dr Eurwyn Wiliam, Keeper Emeritus, National
Museum Wales: Open-air museums in Europe: a visionary idea

11.00 – 11.20 Gerallt Nash, Senior Curator, St Fagans National History Museum: Presenting recent history at St Fagans

11.20 – 12.00 Richard Suggett, Manager of the Emergency Building Recording Team, Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: Searching for the earliest houses in Wales

12.00 – 12.20 Dr Thomas Bloch Ravn, Director of Den Gamle By, Denmark’s National open air museum, Chair of the Association of Open-Air Museums: Open-air museums and society

12.20 – 12.45 Discussion

12.45 – 1.45 Sandwich Lunch Iolo Morganwg restaurant

1.45 – 4.15 Guided visit to St Fagans National History Museum

5.00 – 6.00 ICOMOS-UK AGM in the Committee Room (The Annual General Meeting is open to all members and their guests)

6.00 – 7.00 Optional Supper

Sunday 5th July:

Tour to the landscape of the Blaenavon World Heritage site

ICOMOS-UK visit to Blaenavon landscape

Download the flyer and booking form

For more information please contact:
Camilla Massara
Events Co-ordinator
ICOMOS-UK
Tel: 020 7566 0031
e-mail: camillamassara@icomos-uk.org

This event was organised in collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

A new five-part television series following the investigative work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. The Commission and the FBI are both 100 this year – watch the ‘Welsh bureau of investigation’ uncovering clues to our past.

4 November – Building Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Rediscovering a lost church in the Conwy Valley. The oldest gate in Europe?

11 November – Uncovering an Industrial Revolution copperworks in Swansea. Deciphering a ninth-century inscription. Revealing an Iron Age hillfort.

18 November – The Roman army at Trawsfynydd. Exploring social history with Huw Edwards at a great Llanelli chapel. Tracing Tudor master-carpenters.

25 November – Lumps and bumps in the uplands. A Victorian millionaire’s farm. Rediscovering wall paintings in the Wye Valley.

2 December – A disappearing mansion at Llandeilo. How would Wales have fought a Nazi invasion? Searching for a castle of the Welsh princes at Portmeirion.

Available on iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/

www.tinyurl.com/hiddenhistories

Blaenavon World Heritage Centre

The UK’s first dedicated World Heritage Centre has been officially opened in Blaenavon by First Minister for Wales, Rhodri Morgan. The £2.7 million visitors’ centre tells the story of how Blaenavon helped to change the world during the Industrial Revolution and the international importance of World Heritage status.

Dan Clayton Jones, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund Committee for Wales, said:

“This project has helped turn Blaenavon’s fortune around and is a fantastic example of the positive impact lottery players’ money can have in terms of conservation and regeneration, bringing a sense of pride back into the community, attracting visitors to an area and helping a local economy thrive”

RIBA award for centre’s building

The Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW) announced that Blaenavon World Heritage Centre is the sole recipient of an RIBA Award 2008 in Wales.

Alistair Sunderland, Chairman of the RIBA Awards jury in Wales said:

“Creative, pragmatic joinery details and excellent construction on the one hand, and the evident, close involvement of the client on the other, are worthy of comment and indicative of the role of effective partnering in award winning projects.”

John Rodger MBE is Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site Co-ordinator, and ICOMOS-UK Member. He reports:

“The recently opened World Heritage Centre in Blaenavon has received an RIBA Award. This is the only building to receive an award in Wales in the last three years.

The new centre comprises two listed buildings Grade II* and Grade II which were the original St. Peter’s School built by the Ironmasters sister Sarah Hopkins on his death in 1815. The school was for the education of the worker’s children and was the first built by an industrialist in Wales.

The centre has two main aims. Firstly to promote awareness of World Heritage Sites and their “Outstanding Universal Value” and secondly to provide act as a focus for actual and intellectual access to the World Heritage Site which extends to 32,000 hectares and includes The Ironworks (1789) the best preserved of its period in the world and the Big Pit now the National Mining Museum winner of the 2005 Gubenkian Award as UK Museum of the Year.

The two historic buildings are linked by a bright new link in steel and glass. This reflects the aim of the Blaenavon Partnership not only to show pride in the past but to look to the future and achieve regeneration in this Welsh mining area which has suffered from the loss of iron, steel and coal making industries.

The prime uses of the centre is for education – all life learning and for local community use.

The World Heritage Site Warden Alvin Nicholas uses the centre as a base for his World Heritage Site voluntary rangers and a centre for guided walks to explore the cultural and natural features of this cultural landscape.

Awards were presented by the Rt. Hon. Paul Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Wales on 19 June to the architect Nial Phillips, The Contractor DAVLAN Construction and to Cath Thomas on behalf of the client Torfaen County Borough Council.”

Read Torfaen County Borough Council Press Release

Blaenavon World Heritage Centre website