Cadw: the story of a national collection

A photograph of an Edwardian picnic at Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber, Pembrokeshire. You can see the protective cast-iron railings installed by the Office of Works.

A 1930s poster encouraging visitors to travel by train to Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire. © mooziic / Alamy Stock Photo

Cadw

the story of a national collection

Dr Jon Berry, Senior Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Archaeology, looks back on the history of Cadw, from its origins as the Office of Works to the present day. He traces the legislation, personalities and influences that shaped a Welsh heritage collection to be proud of.

Amongst Wales’s many cherished national collections — from National Library to National Museum — ours showcases the best examples of different monument types from different periods.

This reflects a deliberate effort by our predecessors to place our most important monuments in state care (guardianship) and preserve them for future generations to enjoy. We now have a total of 130 sites in our portfolio, ranging from prehistoric to industrial — representing our inheritance and the sum of Cadw’s corporate history.

A new concept of state ‘guardianship’ was introduced by the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882. The Office of Works was bound to maintain and protect what was considered to be the best preserved and most typical examples of prehistoric monuments — 68 sites in Britain and Ireland were entitled to protection, including three in Wales: Plas Newydd tumulus and dolmen, Anglesey; Arthur’s Quoit (Arthur’s Stone), Gower and Pentre Ifan cromlech, Pembrokeshire. While the act did not include Roman or medieval remains it marked the beginning of the National Heritage Collection in Wales.

The act introduced the post of Inspector of Ancient Monuments to oversee and provide advice on the protection of monuments, to meet owners and encourage them (and their successors) to voluntarily place a monument into guardianship. Guardianship meant that the state took on the responsibility for the future maintenance of the monument but public access to the monument (albeit sometimes on specific terms) was secured.

Pentre Ifan was the first monument in Wales to be placed into guardianship, on 25 June 1884. During the late 1880s, then Inspector, Lieutenant-General Pitt-Rivers, enlisted the help of local archaeological societies to draw up lists of monuments and persuade local landowners to place them in state care. As a result, the sculptured stones and crosses at Margam, Neath Port Talbot, were brought into guardianship on 9 May 1891.

Between 1900 and 1931, a series of pieces of legislation refined and broadened the definitions of what should be protected. The Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1900 widened protection to non-prehistoric monuments of historic or architectural interest, including medieval churches, abbeys, castles, town walls and Roman sites.

An update in 1910 allowed the government to receive monuments as gifts and the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act 1913 aimed to tackle damage to ancient monuments. It reduced an owner’s property rights over ancient monuments and expanded the definitions to ‘any monument or part or remains of a monument’ which were of ‘historic, architectural, traditional, artistic or archaeological interest’.

The collection of almost 30 inscribed stones and crosses at Margam Stones Museum, Neath Port Talbot, was brought into state guardianship in 1891.

A 1931 act broadened the definition further to include buildings, structures and works above or below ground and caves and excavations.

Partly as a result of these acts, new acquisitions in Wales increased substantially. There were 17 in the 1910s, including Holyhead Mountain Hut Group, Anglesey (1911); 16 in the 1920s, including Bryn Celli Ddu Burial Chamber, Anglesey (1923), Carew Cross, Pembrokeshire (1924) and Beaumaris Castle, Anglesey (1925); and 20 in the 1930s, including Strata Florida Abbey, Ceredigion (1931) and Eliseg’s Pillar, Denbighshire (1937). Caerleon Amphitheatre, Newport was the first Roman monument to come under state guardianship in Wales in 1927.

In the meantime, Wilfrid James Hemp was appointed the first dedicated Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Wales in 1913. He was responsible for the important repair work on castles in north Wales — Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Harlech, Denbigh and Ewloe — and he also excavated and restored the Neolithic chambered tombs at Capel Garmon, Conwy, and Bryn Celli Ddu and Bryn yr Hen Bobl, Anglesey.

During the First World War, guardianship sites remained open and were free to visit for those in uniform but, with some exceptions, offers of guardianship were generally deferred. From 1919, guardianship sites were used in the King’s National Roll Scheme, an employment programme for disabled ex-servicemen. The first schedule of ancient monuments was published in 1921.

The Great Depression in the 1930s prompted several owners to pass monuments into state care. The government adopted a policy of becoming the owner of monuments as a ‘last resort’.

By 1935 tourism was big business and posters encouraged visitors to travel by train to guardianship monuments. The monuments charged an entrance fee of 6d. (2.5p) and 3d. (1.2p) and the revenue went towards their maintenance and conservation.

During the Second World War, the Office of Works was renamed the Ministry of Works and Buildings. With a much reduced staff, owing to the war effort, excavations on guardianship sites halted and maintenance was reduced to a bare minimum. Caernarfon Castle was requisitioned and Harlech Castle occupied by the Home Guard.

During the late 1940s, 20 new monuments in Wales were added to the National Collection including Neath Abbey, Neath Port Talbot and Ewenny Priory, Vale of Glamorgan (both 1949). In 1949, the Ministry of Works drew up a target list of desirable guardianship site types — including Norman keeps, medieval castles, pre-Norman churches and medieval monasteries — and in the 1950s sought actively to obtain guardianship or purchase first-class examples of these monuments. Eighteen new acquisitions included some of Cadw’s best-loved sites, like Caerphilly Castle and Castell Coch, Cardiff (both 1950).

Such a rapid expansion had significant consequences: the Ministry of Works could not afford the upkeep of these monuments and there was a maintenance backlog many times the department’s annual budget. A review of the guardianship acquisition policy in 1956 clarified that only monuments of first-class importance should be accepted and an offer should not be deliberately sought unless the monument was in danger.

The following decades were characterised by a pronounced slowing down of the number of new acquisitions — there were only six in Wales during the 1960s, including Swansea Castle (1961), and nine in the 1970s, including Blaenavon Ironworks, Torfaen (1976). On the other hand, there was a significant growth in visitor numbers and the Ministry was the biggest operator of historic attractions in Britain.

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 was very significant, giving the Secretary of State the power of acquisition over any ancient monument to secure its preservation. Cadw, as we know it today, was created on 29 October 1984, but the number of new sites coming into guardianship remained low over the next few decades — six during the 1980s, including Dryslwyn Castle, Carmarthenshire (1980), and only three in the 1990s, including Plas Mawr, Conwy (1993). There were no new acquisitions in the first decade of the new millennium and only two in the second, including Heritage Cottage in Cwmdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf (2012).

Cadw continues to assess offers of new guardianship and freehold sites, but it is unlikely that we will see large numbers of new acquisitions in the future. Our public portfolio of 130 monuments reflects different collecting policies practised over the last 138 years. The result is a magnificent range of monuments that can proudly take their place next to Wales’s other national cultural and artistic collections.

Opposite, top: Conservation work in progress at Beaumaris Castle, Anglesey, in 1926, shortly after the monument was taken into guardianship in 1925.

The Ministry of Works and Buildings

Sir Charles Reed Peers, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments 1913–33, developed the ‘Ministry’ approach for the preservation of medieval buildings that remained largely unchallenged until the late 1970s and can still be seen at many of our sites today.

He transformed ‘the mouldering ivy-clad ruin(s) of the Romantic tradition’ into well-managed and informative archaeological sites protected from further decay or deliberate vandalism with fences and mown grass lawns.

Accretions such as undergrowth, ivy and later buildings were removed; structural repairs were hidden from view and no new masonry was added unless it supported historic fabric; postmedieval evidence was removed to expose medieval remains.

These physical works were complemented by measured plans, official photographs and guidebooks. Peers initiated the series of souvenir guidebooks in England and Wales, publishing Harlech Castle (with Hemp) in 1927 and Caernarvon Castle in 1930.

Left: An image of the ivy-clad ruins of Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, before it was restored.