A Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales
Northwest Wales – Post Medieval
22/12/2003
Introduction
Every part of the United Kingdom shared fully in the fundamental economic, social and technical changes of the last two hundred and fifty years, which wrought such profound changes in the landscape. Yet North-west Wales has particular claims to the attention of archaeologists of the Industrial and Modern period. Its economic pace quickened markedly from the late eighteenth century onwards, and led to extensive development in the Victorian period, which proved incapable of being sustained through the harsher realities of the following century. For this reason, the modern archaeology of North-west Wales shows the lineaments of the classic industrial period very clearly indeed, not only in the evidence for mines and quarries but also in settlement. Brave but largely ineffectual attempts to salvage the economy of the area in the twentieth century – hydro electricity and its associated industries in the early years, the ‘advance factories’ of Attlee and Macmillan era dirigisme – have also added to the resource without presenting the archaeologist with overwhelming problems of scale. The present document suggests priorities for research for this region of Wales in the archaeology of the period 1750 to the present.
Primary industries
Slate
The slate industry of Gwynedd has been very thoroughly studied; to such
an extent that it is unlikely that any other British industry comparable in
terms of workforce and economic impact that has received the same level of
attention. Detailed documentary research begins with Dylan Pritchard in the
1930s, and archaeological survey with the pioneering Rhosydd published
in 1974. The group established to carry out this survey of Rhosydd Quarry in
1970s is still in existence, albeit with only a few of its original members and
much newer blood, and continues its work from Plas Tan y Bwlch, meeting there
for a week’s fieldwork every year under the supervision of Dr Michael Lewis,
assisted at various times by Merfyn Williams, Gwynfor Pierce Jones and David
Gwyn. The work of Fforwm Plas Tan y Bwlch
has led much detailed recording on several sites. Hafodlas has been published
and several other reports circulate in manuscript. It is to be hoped that the
survey of Rhiwbach quarry will shortly be published.
The Gwynedd Archaeological Trust carried out much work on the slate
industry between 1994 and 2000, with grant-aid from Cadw. This had the merit of
establishing an overall picture of the archaeology of the industry as
counter-poise to the single-site studies carried out by the groups associated
with Plas Tan y Bwlch. These were able to move beyond rapid landscape
assessment to looking in some detail at particular aspects of the industry,
written up in the tradition of historic engineering rather than necessarily
digging archaeology. There is clearly much work that remains to be done, and
this should include further documentary research. The archive of the Gwynedd
slate industry is vast, and many sources have only recently been catalogued or
remain in boxes to this day.
Copper, lead, gold, iron-ore, manganese
The work of David Bick on copper mining in Caernarfonshire and Merioneth, and the work of John Bennett and
Robert Vernon on the lead and other mines of the Gwydir forest has done much to
increase our knowledge of the archaeology of some of the most important sites
in the region. By the same token, the Amlwch Industrial Heritage Trust has
carried out extensive documentary research on, and archaeological investigation
into, the Parys copper mine, partly grant-aiding a study carried out by the Gwynedd
Archaeological Trust. GAT’s own rapid landscape assessment of metalliferous
mining in Gwynedd, has, as in the case of the slate industry, established an
overall picture, and made recommendations for detailed study. Organisations under the umbrella of NAMHO
(National Association of Mining History Organisations) have also studied
individual sites and NAMHO recently sponsored a conference at Aberystwyth on
the all-important matter of water-power in Welsh mining, which it is understood
will be published shortly. For these reasons, the archaeological study of
metalliferous mining in Gwynedd is in a reasonably healthy state.
Coal.
An archaeological assessment of the Anglesey coal industry was carried
out by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust with grant-aid from Cadw, between 2000
and 2001. This established that although there were very few building remains
associated with the industry, there were extensive remains of shaft-heads and
tips. Furthermore, in that the coalfield
had not been extensively developed after the mid-nineteenth century, it offered
a textbook illustration of the development of coal-mining techniques. The chronological
span of the archaeology of the coalfield extends from the early seventeenth
century, if not earlier, at the northeastern end of the coalfield near Ceint,
where the seams are shallower, to the early Victorian period to the southwest.
The report recommended that a ground contour study be carried out of the Ceint
end of coalfield. This would provide a unique opportunity to investigate the
archaeology of early coal-mining, which will complement the work carried out by
Fred Hartley on the fifteenth to seventeenth century remains of the
Leicestershire coal-field.
Agriculture
Archaeologists who interest themselves in the rural economy do not,
perhaps, think of themselves primarily as Post-Medievalists, still less as
industrial archaeologists. There is no industrialised faming on, for instance,
the Leighton Hall scale within Gwynedd, but the construction of court farmyards
on the greater estates in particular reflects patterns of investment and
patronage which are also evident in the region’s industrial landscapes. By the
same token, the rural and the industrial economy were often one and the same in
Gwynedd, both on the estates such as at Mynydd Llandygái and above Deiniolen
and on the squatter settlements of Moel Tryfan and Nebo. Again, the landscape
characterization projects carried out by GAT have been invaluable in
identifying the variety of these landscapes.
Threats
Threats to the archaeology of primary industrial sites and landscapes
come from several sources. The recent interest in reworking slate waste tips
means that some quarry landscapes may yet be altered irretrievably. In some
cases, environmental pressures may require copper mine tips to be removed or
altered. The task of examining the archaeological resource for agriculture is
made the more urgent by current uncertainty as to the future of the farming
industry, and the likelihood that many more agricultural buildings will be
adapted as part of agricultural diversification programmes.
Ancillary industries
Sites
Study of iron working in the early Industrial period has been advanced
by Peter Crewe, with the result that the archaeology of sites such as Dolgun is
well understood. On the other hand, study of the archaeological legacy of the
nineteenth century of ironworks and foundries within Gwynedd has barely begun.
The extensive marine yard at Holyhead forms part of the study to be undertaken
by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust of the port infrastructure there.
Threats
In that the resource is barely quantified, it is difficult to assess
threat level. The DeWinton works in Caernarfon is being allowed to fall into
ruin, and only the bare minimum of recording has been carried out, on one
structure within it. The future of the Holyhead marine yard is in doubt.
Twentieth century industry
Sites
In part because the nineteenth century legacy is so rich, comparatively
little attention has been paid to what twentieth century industry remains in
North-west Wales. The Hotpoint factory at Llandudno Junction was recorded by
GAT before demolition, but its fate highlights the ease with which significant
industrial building can disappear. Any future study should also include
structures such as overhead power-lines – several dating back to the 1920s
remain in use.
Threats
Again, little attempt has been made to quantify the resource. The future
of the Dolgarrog aluminium rolling plant is
in doubt.
Transport
Water-borne transport
Canals barely feature in the industrial landscapes of Gwynedd, though
navigable rivers such as the Dwyryd, the Mawddach and the Conwy penetrated
miles into the interior of the county. Michael Lewis’s Sails on the Dwyryd has
done ample justice to the archaeology of wharves and boats on this particular
river, and suggests that similar studies, part historical and part
archaeological, of the other long rivers in the region might prove equally
informative. The slate harbours at Abercegin (Port Penrhyn) and y Felinheli
(Port Dinorwic) have long been known to port historians as outstanding examples
of the small industrial port of the nineteenth century, but other than Myrvin
Elis-Williams’s historical research on the port of Bangor, they have attracted
little attention from scholars based in Wales. The early history of Portmadoc
and of Ynys Cyngar has been set out in Sails on the Dwyryd, but this has
not attempted a detailed archaeological investigation of either of these sites,
and the other, even smaller, slate ports have not been investigated in any
serious way – Caernarfon, y Foryd, Arthog and Aberdyfi. Bryan Hope’s work on
Amlwch will shortly see the light of day and will no doubt confirm many of the
archaeological details of this all-important site. Other mineral exporting
ports and jetties have received very little attention, and apart from the work
of Mike Stammers on the archaeology of ship-wrighting creeks, Mr Hope’s work
remains the only investigation into the archaeology of shipbuilding within
Gwynedd. As Andrew Davidson points out in ‘The Potential of the Archaeological
Resource’ in The Coastal Archaeology of Wales, there have been very few
archaeological studies of harbours and other riparian features.
The project recently awarded to Gwynedd Archaeological Trust to
undertake a survey of the port and
harbour
of Holyhead represents an opportunity to study the archaeology of a major
packet port in some depth, and to place its development within what is known of
the growth and evolution of such sites worldwide. Yet it must be admitted at
once that such a study will be hampered by the fact that very little is known of
such sites – or rather, that what information is available is only to be found
by dint of trawling through the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil
Engineers and other nineteenth century professional journals. The
Cadw-funded Welsh coastal archaeology projects emphasised just how little work had been done on the archaeology of the ports of
the Industrial and Modern period, either in Wales or anywhere else, yet it is
clear that such developments formed part of an international technical culture,
and that the evolution of individual sites will only properly be understood
when at least the broad outlines of international development are established.
Railway archaeology
In many respects, the number of books, journals and other studies
devoted to railways in Wales suggests that academic study of the material
evidence for the railway past is in a healthy state. In some respects this is
true. Yet much of it continues to be written in terms of classic railway
history, either of an ‘externalist’ variety which emphasises boardroom
squabbles or an ‘internalist’ variety with a tendency to succumb to the
fascination of technical minutiae. The traditional emphasis in railway studies
on locomotives and rolling stock has tended to lead to the neglect of other
features, such as civil engineering. It has also led to neglect of the
all-important relationship between railway and settlement, as broader landscape
features. The result is that very little work has been carried out from an
archaeological perspective. A number of individual archaeologists have carried
out private research into, and survey of, early/hybrid railways in North-west
Wales, but as yet no archaeological organisation has carried out any detailed
survey, with the exception of the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust’s work on the
Cegin bridge near Bangor, identified as the oldest surviving multi-arched
railway bridge (2002). Individual sites have been recorded as part of
assessments.
The extensive work carried out in the 1980s, particularly by the Royal
Commission, on early/hybrid railways in Wales has tended very much to reflect
the extensive networks and distinctive technology of South Wales, with its
adoption of the plateway system and early use of locomotive power. It is clear
that North-west Wales was more heavily influenced by other parts of the United
Kingdom than it was by South Wales, and the archaeology of such systems, like
the archaeology of later forms of railway, has to be considered in a British
context, rather than regionally or even nationally. In this respect the
tri-annual Early Railways Conference forms an important meeting ground for all
interested in this period. The first of these was held in Durham in 1998, the
second at Manchester in 2001. The third will be held at York in 2004. A
detailed archaeological study of the railways built in North-west Wales between
1801 and the mid nineteenth century which applied insights gained elsewhere
would highlight a crucial phase not only in the evolution of the early/hybrid
railway, important though that is, but also in the all-important matter, barely
considered, of how the North Wales narrow gauge, with its distinctive
technology, took the unimproved horse railroad into the age of steam traction.
The Portmadoc trials of 1870 effectively provide a narrow gauge version of the
Rainhill trials of 1829, conclusively demonstrating the practicability of a
steam traction system in a way that could be imitated worldwide. The recent
declaration by UNESCO of the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway as a word heritage
site underlines the international significance of these railways that were the
immediate lineal descendants of those in North-west Wales.
However, study of railway archaeology within North-west Wales should not
confine itself to the narrow gauge lines. A number of features associated with
standard gauge railways have been acknowledged from inception as of
international significance – primarily the two Stephenson tubular bridges,
which established wrought iron as the dominant structural material. There is
little need to make a case for the Conwy tubular bridge, but many other humbler
structures should be considered. The Cambrian coastline from Dyfi Junction to
Pwllheli is one of the very few railways in the world making use of wooden
bridges, such as were once familiar in every country, though above all in the
United States of America. Features such as these cry out for detailed
recording. Other structures, however apparently unremarkable, should at least
be evaluated – signals and signal boxes, station buildings, over-bridges. Even
if many of them prove to be of no more than regional significance, the effort
should still be made.
Roads
Roads have been almost entirely neglected by archaeologists. Within
North-west Wales the one exception is the study carried out by the Lancaster
Unit on the Telford lon bôst, the old A5, publication of which is
eagerly awaited. Otherwise, the rich archaeological inheritance of the turnpike
system, its predecessors and successors, is almost entirely ignored. As well as
details such as mileposts and structures such as tollhouses, the whole question
of the archaeology of civil engineering of roads themselves and of bridges,
should be investigated. This would involve detailed research in the quarter
sessions papers and in bridging bonds, but it would confirm building dates for
many surviving features and possibly the identification of different engineers.
Intermodal transport
Ports and harbours strictly speaking form intermodal transport features, but it is also worth mentioning the locations at
which goods were transhipped between different types of transport feature –
primarily between railways of different gauge. Examples survive at a number of
locations, primarily at Pant yr Afon, Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the Gwynedd
Archaeological Trust commented on plans to alter and destroy some of the
features in danger from the proposed A470 road widening, and at Minfford yard
in Penrhyndeudraeth. As with other features of the Gwynedd narrow gauge, their
significance extends beyond the merely local or regional, in that the use of
railways of different gauges within North west Wales is more akin to, and is
sometimes the clear progenitor of, the many locations in the British empire
where two different rail gauges met.
Threats
Transport features are under threat from continued use of the sites with
different technologies. The heritage railways are constantly needing to adapt
to intensive use for half of the year, the arms of the national rail network to
minimal use and to the uncertainties of a privatised industry. Roads and
bridges are constantly upgraded and altered. The treats to transport
archaeology are not always obvious but because of the dynamic nature of the
sites, they are unremitting.
Settlement
Dwellings
In 1991 the Association for Industrial Archaeology produced a policy
document making the case for all the buildings of the Modern/Industrial period
to be worthy of inclusion in the study of Industrial Archaeology. Certainly the
case for regarding the dwellings of industrial workers as part of the
industrial landscape has now been largely accepted, and the work, particularly
of Jeremy Lowe, of the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff did much to
focus work on the significance of individual buildings within this tradition.
Judith Alfrey’s work on rural building has established parameters within which
the vernacular and ‘picturesque’ traditions may be assessed.
Later forms of industrial housing stock, and houses built for a wealthier
clientele than for industrial workers, should now receive the same sort of
attention. The relisting surveys and the
landscape characterisation projects have confirmed the wide variety of urban
architecture within Gwynedd. Caernarfon, for instance, preserves a surprising
range of Regency houses; Porthmadog builders appear, on present evidence, to
have gone on building in a Regency idiom derived from Madocks’ Tan’rallt until
about the 1890s, and extended their sway as far as Penrhyndeudraeth, where their
styles clashed with those of Blaenau Ffestiniog builders, who themselves may
have imported the idiom of their native Cardiganshire. There is little doubt
that just as recent Welsh scholarship has established a school of ‘artisan
painters’ and ‘artisan engineers’, schools of ‘artisan architects’ wait to be
discovered. The wealth of information in eisteddfod essays and local newspapers
makes it possible to recover these traditions if the work is undertaken.
Public buildings
Chapels, both rural and urban, also are at long last receiving the
attention they deserve, even if the sound advice on adaptation provided by Cadw
is not always heeded by planners and local authorities. Other public buildings have been little studied,
yet it is clear from the landscape characterisation work carried out by the
Gwynedd Archaeological Trust with grant-aid from Cadw that splendid examples
survive, sometimes in unlikely places – a Regency reading room in Tan y
Grisiau, a Carnegie library in Deiniolen, to say nothing of the off-site quarry
hospitals erected by patrician landowners in the mid nineteenth century. That
the old C&A hospital at Bangor should have been demolished without any
recording in the 1980s was hardly surprising. It is a pity that no opportunity
was afforded any archaeological organisation to record St David’s Hospital in
Bangor before the contractors set to work in 2002. Such buildings cry out for
an integrated approach which places the material evidence within the context of
medical history, as has been carried out, for instance, in the University of
Wales, Bangor’s study of the Denbigh asylum.
Towns and villages
It is important also that studies of the nucleated settlement should not
consider buildings in isolation but in their relation to each other and to the
proprietorial patterns, which, arguably, gave rise to them. The author of the
present document attempted something of this in an article in Landscape
History, which argued that the distinctive form of Gwynedd’s slate quarry
settlements derives from the refusal of the great landlords to allow villages
on their lands, and that nucleations came into being on small freeholds.
Threats
Threats to the archaeology of settlement in North-west Wales are many
and various. The local political climate is not conducive to heritage, and
there is often a difficulty in seeing that the dwellings of what are perceived
to be ‘ordinary people’ have any merit or interest. The pebbledash culture is
still alive and well, and enjoying official benediction with ‘enveloping schemes’.
Priorities
In Gwynedd it is perhaps more difficult even than in many other areas
difficult to make clear-cut distinctions between different types of archaeology
from the Industrial and Modern period, with the industrial economy of mine and
quarry being part and parcel of the rural economy of small-holding and field.
For this reason it is difficult to establish particular priorities for
particular subject areas. In many ways the gradual advance on all fronts that
has characterised the last ten years’ work on this period and within this area
has yielded valuable results. However, the primary industries have been
considered in detail, and the focus should now move to the transport
infrastructures. In the light of the foregoing, the following are suggested:
High priority - comprehensive survey
• Urban settlement survey
• Rural settlement survey
High priority – scoping survey
• Transport archaeology, whether on an area-by-area basis or on a
transport type
Medium priority – scoping survey
• Agricultural buildings and field systems
• Twentieth century industry
Medium priority – contour survey
• Coal workings at Ceint
Approaches
Given the wealth of documentary evidence for the social history of the
period 1750 onwards, it is vital that archaeological study include academic
library-based research. This should include a literature search through primary
sources, but it should also examine the work of, for instance, technical,
economic, social and labour historians. It should, by the same token, inform
the work of scholars in other disciplines, whether by means of joint
conferences or by publishing in a wider range of journals. Stephen Hughes has
recently made a plea for a still more inclusive approach to social archaeology,
arguing that: There is much need for this integrated social/industrial approach
but it has not been immediately apparent how for example a nineteenth-century
Anglican church might be studied using methodology employed by and relevant to
‘industrial archaeologists’ rather than those methods well established by art
and architectural historical practitioners.
Mr Hughes’s conclusions are necessarily at this stage speculative and
provisional. Yet he is by no means the only archaeologist of the Industrial and
Modern period to argue that the traditional parameters of the discipline are
not in themselves sufficient to do justice to the material evidence for the
past. Possibly Post-Medieval archaeologists have been more ready than
industrial archaeologists to look beyond subject boundaries, and there are also
signs that a longstanding distinction between the two as the archaeology of
consumption and as the archaeology of production no longer command assent.
North-west Wales, with its strong and distinctive cultural and intellectual
traditions and its long record of historical research, offers a challenge to an
archaeological profession willing to engage with the totality of its past.
Paper prepared by David Gwyn.