Tours
This year, we were very pleased to offer two fantastic tours to nearby attractions, led by expert guides. One was to hang out with the Roman, at Caerleon and then Caerwent with Dr Peter Guest and Dr Richard Brewer. Those who preferred a Medieval atmosphere headed off for Cosmeston and St Fagan's with Professor John Hines, Ken Brassil, and Gerallt Nash.
Roman Trip: Caerleon and Caerwent
This trip visited the remains of the two most important Roman sites in Wales: the town of Venta Silurum (Caerwent) and the legionary fortress at Isca (Caerleon).At Caerwent, we walked around the best preserved town walls surviving in Roman Britain, and the excavated remains of the forum-basilica, the Romano-Celtic temple, an urban courtyard house, as well as the shops and houses of the Pound Lane site. The afternoon took us to the fortress at Caerleon, where we will visit the amphitheatre, Prysg Field barracks, the fortress baths as well as the National Roman Legion Museum.
Guides:
Richard Brewer is Keeper of Archaeology & Numismatics at the National Museum Wales. Richard has excavated widely in Caerwent and is the author of many books and articles on the Roman period in Wales.
Peter Guest is Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology at Cardiff University. Peter has excavated a number of Roman sites in Britain and in 2008 he co-directed the excavation of a probable warehouse within the fortress - the first research archaeological project in Caerleon for several decades.
What Editor in Chief Andrew Selkirk had to say about the tour:
I will always remember the scene at the Roman legionary fortress at Caerleon as we trotted out over the thickening snow to the amphitheatre where Peter Guest gave us a stirring address, the snow falling on his woolly hat: the Romans would have been proud of him. After the amphitheatre, we went on to the museum where I met up with the Curator, Mark Lewis, who, when I asked him to point out his favourite exhibits, showed me the tombstone of a man who had lived to be 100 and that of his wife who lived to be 76. He also showed me some splendid antefixes, including one which was significant because an identical one from the same mould had been found at Exeter.
At Prysg Field we saw the excavations of the barrack blocks done by Nash Williams. The nearest one was the only totally excavated Roman legionary barracks in the whole of the Roman Empire - and looking very dramatic under the snow.
We then embarked on the coach for Caerwent. Richard Brewer took us for a tour of the town walls on the south side - the best preserved of any town walls in Roman Britain, mostly standing two to three metres high. We also looked at the South Gate, which had been blocked up in the 4th Century so that the bottom part of the arch over the gateway has survived, before going on into the centre of the town to see the elaborate temple and finally the basilica and the forum.
Further information about recent research at Caerleon can be found on the Caerleon Research Committee's website while you can still view the 2008 dig-blog
Medieval trip: Cosmeston and St Fagans
The medieval trip visited two fascinating sites which have broken new ground in interpreting aspects of medieval Wales.
The medieval village of Cosmeston is located in attractive Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and is a unique heritage project in Britain. The reconstructed village is on an original site and consists of medieval buildings, gardens, and a museum. Tours of the village are conducted by costumed villagers with special events throughout the year.
During the afternoon, we visited St Fagans to see the reconstructed single-story building Hendre'r-ywydd Uchaf farmhouse (built 1508) from Denbighshire, and the reconstructed St Teilo's church, from Llandeilo Tal-y-bont, near Pontarddulais. This has been refurbished and its late medieval pre-Reformation appearance re-created, complete with rood screen and late medieval wall paintings, in a collaboration between the departments of Social and Cultural History (Historic Buildings) and Archaeology & Numismatics, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, and other bodies.
Guides:
Cosmeston: Professor John Hines is a specialist in the archaeology, literature and languages of medieval northern Europe, in the School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University.
St Fagans: Ken Brassil is Archaeology/History Officer, Department of Learning, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales; Gerallt Nash is Senior Curator, Department of Social and Cultural History, St Fagans: National History Museum. Specialising in historic buildings and traditional building techniques.
You can get further information about Cosmeston from the Cardiff University website and the Vale of Glamorgan County website
You can get further information on St Fagans at the Museum of Wales website
Click here to purchase tickets for the tours
