Cyngor Archaeoleg Brydeinig CYMRU Council for British Archaeology WALES ** Online Information for Archaeology in Wales **

In this issue:

The continuing sad plight of Ruperra Castle

The prehistoric funerary and ritual project in Wales

Llanmaes: A prehistoric midden and open settlement in the Vale of Glamorgan

Darren hillfort and mine, Ceredigion

Tir Gofal’s enhancement of the historic environment record

The IBRA bee boles register online

2006 Spring Meeting and Symposium

The continuing sad plight of Ruperra Castle

It’s been gutted by fire, fallen into a dreadful state of repair and even been inhabited by bats. Moves to halt the deterioration of Ruperra Castle, near Caerphilly, a historic landmark in South Wales, are being obstructed by delays in the resolution of a planning application.

The Ruperra Estate, which lies in a green triangle of open rolling countryside between Cardiff, Newport and Caerphilly, was once owned by the illustrious Morgan family of Tredegar. John Morgan, the last Baron Tredegar, sold it to Eagle Star Insurance Company in 1956, The castle, a typical Jacobean mansion and unique in Wales, was built in 1626 by Sir Thomas Morgan. It enjoyed a long history of occupancy, and acquired a fine range of outbuildings, gardens and a Mackenzie and Moncur glasshouse, but has been in a derelict state since the Second World War, when it was gutted in a fire while British soldiers were stationed there. Now in 2005 it is under threat of unsympathetic housing development.

The current owner of Ruperra Castle, Mr Ashraf Barakat bought the Castle in July 1998. No repairs have been carried out since then and part of the stable block roof has been destroyed by fire. In 2003, a planning application to convert the Castle and outbuildings into flats and build 15 new houses in the grounds was submitted. Reports were requested by the planning authority as the house is listed grade II* and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the application lacked necessary information. Three years on only an ecological report that confirmed the presence of legally protected species of greater and lesser horseshoe bats has been supplied. A change in the development made to ensure protection of these species.

In May 2005, Mr Barakat put the castle on the market but then withdrew it, telling a Western Mail newspaper reporter in July that he would retain the estate even if his planning application proved unsuccessful. With the castle in a worsening state of decay, Ruperra Conservation Trust, which owns the 150 acre woodland to the north of the castle, and is supported by local Assembly Member, Jeff Cuthbert, has called on Caerphilly County Borough Council to speed up its deliberations surrounding the planning application in the hope of saving the building from further damage.

The chief planning officer of the Council told the Western Mail reporter that there were no plans to interfere with the castle as long as the planning application remained active. He said “While there’s a realistic prospect of a substantial private sector investment in the site, it would be frivolous of the council to throw public money at it.” He admitted that he would “very much hope that we would get a resolution soon because the castle, which is a place of great historic importance, is deteriorating as we speak.”

The owner of the Castle denied that the delay was due to deficiencies in his plans, insisting that the process was being conducted at the Council’s pace. The Trust considers that the fifteen new houses proposed originally would be an intrusion in the historic landscape and would hardly produce sufficient profit for a developer. There would inevitably be a demand for more new build. As a ‘not for profit’ organisation the Trust or any similar trust, with the help of public funding, could offer an alternative to large-scale development of the site.

A spokesperson from Cadw told the reporter that although discussions had been held with the owner to develop his plans in a way that is compatible with the special status of the site, no application for the necessary Scheduled Monument Consent had so far been received.

If the planning problems are not solved soon, the Trust will ask the Welsh Assembly to intervene to save the castle and prevent a national scandal of heritage neglect. It feels that the castle’s dual status as a grade II* listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument should be helping to preserve it and not to confuse the issue.

If the castle becomes available for sale again, as it may well do, the Trust wants to be in a position to purchase it and is seeking pledges of donations from individuals and organisations towards that end. £10,000 has already been pledged from all over England and Wales. This widespread concern from so many parts of Britain will hopefully encourage public funders to support the rescue even if the actual money pledged would probably only buy a couple of gates for the castle. If you would like to help please phone 02920 885840 for information.

Pat Moseley
Ruperra Conservation Trust
www.ruperra.org.uk

The prehistoric funerary and ritual project in Wales

For the last five years Cadw has been funding the four Welsh Archaeological Trusts to record and evaluate all of the known prehistoric funerary and ritual sites in Wales. This project is one of a series of thematic pan Wales surveys that are designed to assess the condition of the known archaeological resource through fieldwork. The results will improve and enhance the regional Historic Environment Records (held by the Welsh Archaeological Trusts) and the National Monuments Record (held by the RCAHMW). The results will also feed into management initiatives such as Tir Gofal (a Welsh Assembly Government agri-environment scheme) and provide information towards Cadw’s programme of continued national statutory protection (the Schedule of Ancient Monuments). A similar survey of deserted rural settlements will shortly be published as a CBA monograph, while other projects in progress include Roman vici and road systems and prehistoric defended enclosures.

Initial challenges included formulating a common survey methodology and reaching a consensus on terminology. Regular meetings between Cadw, Welsh Archaeological Trust project officers and the RCAHMW ensure common survey and recording standards - interrogating the various Records and constructing a complete national dataset (eg for stone circles) should now be relatively easy. Once completed, the survey will have ensured that approximately 7000 sites have been visited and recorded, with accompanying management recommendations where appropriate. The University of Wales, Lampeter as an integral part of the overall programme, provides paleoenvironmental advice and analysis.

Information regarding each regional survey has been disseminated through various media. Short descriptive notes are included annually within Archaeology in Wales (published by CBA Wales), with longer discussions in local journals. A booklet, Caring for Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Monuments, has been produced by Cadw and aims to educate and enthuse the public (particularly owners and occupiers of the monuments) while describing appropriate conservation and management measures.

Maen Llwyd standing stone, Black Mountains, Breconshire
This stone is one of the tallest in the county at 2.18m high. It stands in a prominent position dominating the head of the Grwyne Fechan valley and is in the process of being scheduled as an ancient monument.

The methodology of this type of record-based descriptive survey is geared towards the comprehensive enhancement of the Historic Environment Records, providing a consistent and contemporary description of the known archaeological resource.

However, many new sites have been identified during both initial and follow-up fieldwork - and it is envisaged that further developments will be stimulated by the Survey. It is planned that such work will include individual site conservation schemes, further research projects and educational and outreach opportunities. One such scheme has already occurred - the rescue excavation and consolidation of a burial cairn on Fan Foel in the Brecon Beacons, where accelerated erosion was caused by increased visitor numbers. A partnership of the Brecon Beacons National Park and Cambria Archaeology (Dyfed Archaeological Trust) undertook to record the site and consolidate the archaeologically-sensitive areas. Various walker’s guides to the archaeology of a given area are also planned - popular leaflets whose educational qualities would also help to raise awareness in regard to visitor damage and erosion. It is hoped that the conclusion of the Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Survey will herald many new associated projects, benefiting both the archaeology and people of Wales.

Matthew Ritchie
Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments
Cadw, Plas Carew, Unit 5/7 Cefn Coed, Parc Nantgarw, CF15 7QQ
01443 336077
matthew.ritchie@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Llanmaes: A prehistoric midden and open settlement in the Vale of Glamorgan

Survey and research excavation continued at Llanmaes over a four-week season during June and July 2005, funded by Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and supported by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The project was run as a training excavation for undergraduate students at Cardiff and Edinburgh Universities, with a number of further volunteers also involved. Building upon the existing Llanmaes Community support for the project, Kenneth Brassil (Archaeology Education Officer at National Museum Wales) led a schools archaeology project involving classes of nine and ten year olds from three local primary schools.

Following the discoveries made in 2003 and 2004 at this site (and reported in Archaeology in Wales 44), a major aim of this season was to investigate the character and scale of the settlement associated with the midden or rubbish mound. A trench was opened with the aim of revealing a complete roundhouse plan, partly uncovered in 2004. In addition, three small exploratory trenches were opened to assess the extent of the settlement to the south, east and north east of the excavation focus. In the larger trench, the partial plans of three roundhouses were revealed as post-hole rings, with further midden deposit overlying a stone yard surface to the east. To the south a sizeable roundhouse (7-8m in diameter) with a southeast-facing porch was located. In the northwest corner a small roundhouse (4.5-5m in diameter) with a central hearth was revealed, the central house (5-6m in diameter) proving difficult to define as a complete post ring. The evidence revealed suggests a sequential, rather than short-lived occupation. To add to the disarticulated human bone evidence from the site in 2004, a human cranial fragment was found in a depression in the interior area of the large roundhouse, which also cut a pit containing a cremation burial. Associated pottery evidence suggests a Middle Bronze Age date, the pottery demonstrating Deverel-Rimbury stylistic affinities.

The small exploratory trenches to the south and east of the excavation focus yielded sparse occupation evidence, with the exception of occasional Neolithic and Early Bronze Age lithic finds, (a background lithic scatter now being derived across the site). However, to the northeast was preserved a complex and materially rich sequence of Romano-British deposits and features, overlying a prehistoric floor surface, itself sealing a series of stake-holes. Excavation also continued within an extended part of Trench A, first excavated in 2004. This ensured that the two large pits containing important ceramic and animal bone assemblages were completely excavated, while the eastern edge of the midden was defined. Antler tines, placed at the top and same side of each pit may represent structured closing deposits.

Reflecting the desire to understand the immediate landscape context of the excavation, Dr Tim Young of GeoArch undertook further geophysical survey, on behalf of the project, over an apparent cropmark enclosure just 250 metres from the excavation. This, together with a possible Early Bronze Age barrow cemetery had been tentatively identified from an aerial photograph in the immediate vicinity of the excavation. The magnetometer plot convincingly demonstrates the existence of a sizeable univallate enclosure with bank and external ditch, some 1.25ha in area. A complex palimpsest of large area, pit and gully anomalies are evident in the interior. It is hoped that the construction and occupation of this enclosure will be dated through future targeted excavation, though a combination of Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano-British or Early Medieval dates remain equally plausible.

The material culture assemblages from this excavation are now sizeable, with a key sequence spanning the Middle Bronze Age to Romano-British date. Preliminary assessment of the animal bone assemblage by Dr Jacqui Mulville indicates a unique signature of 70-80% pig bone from midden contexts, suggesting a meat eating and feasting context to accompany the cauldron fragments from the site. At already 60,000 fragments, this will be a key faunal assemblage for Wales. Analysis of a few sieved environmental samples by Astrid Caseldine provides good plant macrofossil evidence with emmer or spelt wheat, barley and oat being processed and consumed at the site. Soil micromorphological and chemistry assessments, undertaken by Dr Richard Macphail and Dr John Crowther, are producing very distinctive evidences, indicating the extensive black deposit to be a midden and informing our understanding of the processes involved in its formation and during its subsequent modification.

Seven radiocarbon dates (Queen’s University Belfast), indicate that the midden started to form during the 8-6th centuries BC, continuing to expand during the 6th-4th centuries, with a single date at the top of the midden belonging to the 2nd-1st centuries BC. One of the adjacent roundhouses was also occupied during the 8-6th centuries BC, while a sample from one of the large pits is also dated as contemporary. Surprisingly, a small pit cut by a roundhouse posthole dates to the 12-10th centuries BC, indicating Late Bronze Age activity on the site. This is in accord with earlier ceramic and metalwork discoveries from the site, spanning Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The long development of this midden between the Earliest to Middle Iron Ages contrasts with a number known in southern England (e.g. East Chisenbury, Potterne or Runnymede) dated specifically to the Earliest Iron Age, however is paralleled with a midden deposit sampled at Mount Batten, Plymouth and its associated metalwork assemblage. This dating evidence would appear to support the hypothesis that some of the cauldron fragments from Llanmaes do provide a chronological and technological bridge between Late Bronze Age and Late Iron Age cauldrons.

It is anticipated that excavation and survey will resume over the summer of 2006, when a team of twenty will return to excavate further areas of the settlement and midden. In addition, the schools and community archaeology project is set to continue and develop with the life of this research project.

Adam Gwilt,
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
Mark Lodwick,
Portable Antiquities Scheme

Darren hillfort and mine, Ceredigion

The Early Mines Research Group in conjunction with RCAHMW carried out a short programme of archaeological work on the hillfort and adjacent opencut mineworkings in July 2005. Staff from the RCAHMW conducted a detailed topographical and contour survey of the earthworks in advance of small-scale excavations by the EMRG. The latter was undertaken to try and elucidate the phases of earthwork construction in the area of the western entrance to the camp and also to examine the evidence for early mining and its relationship to the construction and occupation of the hillfort.

Darren Camp is an example of a large and significant north Ceredigion univallate fort of unique design whose layout and other features could imply an early origin. This would appear to be supported by the discovery by Toby Driver in 1996 of a possible Late Bronze Age pottery sherd within the eroding section of the (western) gateway terminal. The sherd appears to of a similar type to that excavated from the early Breidden hillfort in Powys.

Darren: Gate and section

A trench opened upon the south side of the gateway uncovered a well built incurved dry-stone wall gate terminal, the outside corner of which rested upon a large and impressive white quartz boulder, possibly one of a pair placed either side of the gateway to provide an imposing entrance to the camp. At the rear of the gateway this wall enclosed what might have been a small guard chamber, but the exact nature of this awaits further excavation. The latter was the final stage of three phases of construction, the chronology of which might eventually be established by the dating of layers of charcoal and/or bone. Finds included a single scrap of bronze sheet, burnt stone and several horse teeth, but no further pottery.

Examination of the western face of the middle earthwork at several different locations seemed to indicate two phases of earth and quarried shale rubble construction with an outer course revetment composed of rounded river boulders, some of which must have been carried up more than 180m from the bottom of the Nant Silo valley. Many of these boulders had since slipped into the mine opencuts facing the earthwork.

The powerful Darren mineral vein glances the whole western side of the fort; the line of the main hillfort ditch closely follows it. At one point on the surface a section of the original rock cut ditch appears to have survived, and a trench was excavated here exposing the ditch to a depth of almost 2.5 m. No dateable material was recovered, yet it seemed clear to us that the original excavators of the ditch had exposed the top of the vein at this point, and had apparently begun to work it. To the west of the great mine trench the ancient tip-lines of mine spoil were examined, and this confirmed an earlier and later phase of mining separated by a substantial buried soil line. From the latter was recovered waterlogged wood suitable for dating, whilst charcoal was also collected from the land surface that pre-dates all the mining activity.

Simon Timberlake
Early Mines Research Group

Tir Gofal’s enhancement of the historic environment record

Alice Pyper of Cambria Archaeology in the spring 2003 Newsletter detailed the role of the four Welsh Archaeological Trusts, Cadw and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) to the National Assembly’s Tir Gofal agri-environmental scheme and its contribution to the preservation and management of the Welsh archaeological record within the agricultural landscape. This article considers one of the beneficial consequences of the Trusts’ participation as key partners in the Tir Gofal scheme: the enhancement of the Historic Environment Records (HER) held and administered by each of the Trusts, with particular reference to the work of the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT).

During the 2005/06 financial year CPAT has undertaken around 40 Historic Environment Surveys (HES) of Tir Gofal farms; we have visited roughly 1,600 recorded archaeological sites and another 300 that had been identified during the initial Tir Gofal desktop survey. As part of each farm survey these sites are photographed, their descriptions updated and their condition recorded.

Further to this some 250 previously unidentified sites (excluding traditional farm buildings) have been recorded. These range from Bronze Age ring cairns, areas of ridge and furrow, medieval building platforms, industrial features such as mine shafts and leats, post medieval hafotai and sheepfolds, and modern features such as a WWII searchlight station. This additional information including digital photographs will eventually be incorporated into the HER.

These surveys have obvious benefits to the expansion and enhancement of the Welsh Historic Environment Record, since the scheme allows archaeologists to visit farmland that often falls outside more traditional survey areas such as the uplands. They demonstrate that despite farming intensification since the last war many well-preserved archaeological features remain: such as the pair of probably medieval house platforms at Adfa near Newtown which are just two of the thirty six such features identified in the last 12 months.

One of a pair of probably medieval house platforms identified at Adfa near Newtown

Areas that have been previously surveyed can also reveal further secrets. For example a Tir Gofal HES carried out in an area of upland in the Elan Valley previously surveyed in 2000, identified eight previously unrecorded sites including a post medieval building platform and a Bronze Age cist (put forward for scheduling), as well as updated the records for twenty-six known archaeological features (correcting the position of three using GPS) and removed from the record a number of duplicated records.

Field barn, set on a hillside platform similar to that at Adfa

Although now slowing, the loss of traditional farm buildings (often considered redundant to modern agricultural practices) through neglect, demolition, or conversion - no matter how sympathetically - into domestic accommodation, has not abated. Thankfully it is still rare for a Welsh farm not to possess at least one traditional farm building either within the farmstead or as an isolated field barn. It is, however, unusual to find any significant details of these buildings within the HER. Those few that are recorded are of particular significance and almost exclusively listed in their own right or more frequently as part of the curtilage of a listed house and only mentioned in passing. Tir Gofal is contributing considerably to the enhancement of the record of these vernacular buildings within the HERs.

Each Tir Gofal HES records all traditional farm buildings with detailed written descriptions recording the fabric, construction, style, use and condition, along with a basic photographic survey. In 2005/06 CPAT has recorded and added some 250 traditional farm buildings to the HER. These range from planned 19th century home-farm estate buildings to upland smallholdings with combination barns and cow houses. The smaller periphery buildings, most vulnerable to loss, such as pigsties, often ignored by previous surveys, are now being recorded.

Digital photography allowing the cheap and efficient production of numerous images of these buildings, will begin to be of use in both the development control role of the Trusts and academic study. Although the record is not yet complete enough to provide sufficient data for regional studies of traditional farm buildings from HER information alone, areas that have been more intensively surveyed through Tir Gofal demonstrate patterns of development of farmsteads and their buildings at county, parish and estate level.

The importance of Tir Gofal traditional farm building photographic surveys was seen earlier this year when a fire largely destroyed the grade II 19th century estate building near Welshpool, once forming part of the Leighton Estate. The detailed Tir Gofal photographic survey and the listing description are now the only remaining record of the building. A Tir Gofal survey of a farm building near Newtown, incorporating the remains of a 16th century building within the later structure went someway towards preventing the demolition of the building and its replacement with a modern steel framed tractor shed.

Former Leighton Estate building, largely destroyed by fire in 2005

The input of the four Trusts’ Tir Gofal HES will have made a significant contribution to their HERs by the end of the ten-year lifetime of the scheme. It highlights the need for more intensive survey of general farmland and the need for a systematic programme of survey of the remaining traditional farm building resource of Wales. It also re-emphasises that previously surveyed areas walked by different archaeologists over time will reveal new sites, and that even after decades of intensive farming there are still many archaeological sites lying unrecorded in our green and pleasant land.

David Bull
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust

The IBRA bee boles register online

These are all included in the Register’s new database. It contains a total of 1370 records and over 1100 images, and can now be accessed online (free) at http://www.ibra.org.uk/beeboles. Searching is easy, and selected records and images can be viewed. In addition, a list of relevant publications is provided. The site will be of special value to local historians who are interested in our beekeeping heritage and in vernacular buildings. It could also be useful for school or college projects.

The site’s main purposes are to make the information and images easily accessible to anyone interested, and to encourage conservation of the structures as well as further recording. New records are welcome, and the database will be updated regularly. For contact details, see the website, or tel. 029 2037 2409 (IBRA).

Financial contributions towards the cost of the project were received from Awards for All (to the English Bee Boles Society), Cadw (Cardiff), Historic Scotland (Edinburgh) and the Eva Crane Trust.

Penelope Walker
Voluntary Curator, IBRA Register

References
E. Crane & P. Walker (1984-85) Evidence on Welsh beekeeping in the past. Folk Life, 23: 21-48; also 24: 121-123 (1985-86).
P. Walker & W. Linnard (1990) Bee boles and other beekeeping structures in Wales. Archaeologia Cambrensis 139: 56-73.

2006 Spring Meeting and Symposium

This will be at the James Callaghan Centre on the University of Wales Swansea Campus. A plan of the Swansea campus is available online here.

The business meeting will be in the James Callaghan Seminar Room B03 from 11:00.

The symposium will be in the James Callaghan Lecture Theatre starting at 14:00.

Non-members are welcome to attend the symposium.