50 Buildings that Built Wales

50 Buildings that Built Wales MARK BAKER GREG STEVENSON DAVID WILSON

Contents Preface 5 Wales – a Small Country that Changed the World 1. Blaenavon Ironworks, Blaenavon 2. Penrhyn Castle, Bangor 3. Cardiff Waterfront, Cardiff 4. Toll Cottage and Cob, Porthmadog 5. Big Pit, Blaenavon 6. Parys Mountain, Anglesey 7. Tredegar Central Surgery, Tredegar Forming the Nation 8. Caernarfon Castle, Caernarfon 9. Capel Celyn, Tryweryn, Gwynedd 10. ‘Parliament’ of Glyndŵr, Machynlleth 11. Cathays Park, Cardiff 12. Dolwyddelan Castle, Conwy

6 10 16 22 26 30 34 38 42 48 52 56

Building the Culture and Identity of Wales 13. Plas Teg, Pontblyddyn 60 14. St Fagans, Cardiff 66 15. Portmeirion, Porthmadog 70 16. Llwynywermod, Myddfai 74 17. Broadcasting House, Llandaff 78 18. Gregynog, Tregynon, Newtown 82 19. Dylan Thomas’ Writing Shed, Laugharne 86 20. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 90 21. Gwrych Castle, Abergele 94 Building the Economy of Wales 22. Industrial terraces, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Rhondda 23. Tredegar House, Newport 24. Port Talbot Steelworks, Port Talbot 25. Castell Coch, Tongwynlais

98 102 106 110

Cover photograph: Tredegar House, Newport by David Wilson. * No fixed location

26. Royal Navy Dockyard, Pembroke Dock 27. Kinmel Hall, Abergele 28. Melin Tregwynt, Mathry 29. Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station 30. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Trevor 31. Llanerchaeron, Aberaeron 32. Llandudno Promenade, Llandudno 33. Hafodunos, Llangernyw

114 118 122 126 130 134 138 142

Keeping the Language Alive 34. Y Pafiliwn, Eisteddfod* 35. Castell Brychan, Aberystwyth 36. Pont Trefechan, Aberystwyth 37. Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant, Conwy 38. Cae’r Gors, Rhosgadfan 39. Capel Bethel, Gaiman, Patagonia 40. Neuadd Pantycelyn, Aberystwyth

148 152 154 158 162 166 170

Education and Religion 41. Bangor University, Bangor 172 42. Pentre Ifan, Pembrokeshire 176 43. S t. Davids Cathedral & Bishop’s Palace, Pembrokeshire 180 44. Capel Soar-y-Mynydd, Ceredigion 186 45. Capel y Tabernacl, Morriston, Swansea 190 46. Tintern Abbey, Tintern 194 47. St David’s College, Lampeter 198 Contemporary Wales 48. The Senedd, Cardiff 49. T he Great Glasshouse, National Botanic Gardens of Wales, Carmarthen 50. Principality Stadium, Cardiff

202 206 210

Biographies 214

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Preface These are the buildings that built the modern Welsh nation; the structures that formed our sense of what Wales means, and what the country and her people are.

We had a difficult task whittling our long list of influential buildings down to a mere fifty. A few were such obvious contenders that we couldn’t leave them out, whereas others are included more as a representative sample of a building type that has helped to form Welsh identity.

We could easily have filled a book with ‘Fifty Influential Welsh Chapels’ or ‘Fifty Castles that Changed Welsh History’, but in order to give balance and make for a visually interesting and engaging read we’ve necessarily had to limit our selection. We’ve also generally avoided buildings outside of Wales, though it could be argued, for example, that the Palace of Westminster has had significant influence on the shape of modern Wales.

That said, we couldn’t resist including a Patagonian example to remind readers of how the Welsh diaspora also informs our national identity. In the difficult cull down to just fifty buildings we also said goodbye to ‘buildings’ which are no longer extant like RAF Penyberth on Penllyn which boosted Welsh nationalism in the 1930s after it was the victim of an arson attack.

Please remember as well that this isn’t a book of ’Fifty Very Welsh Buildings’. Most of the structures selected aren’t, in fact, peculiar to Wales, even if they are built of local materials in local styles. A few are even pattern-book examples that could have been constructed anywhere in the British Isles, or possibly even the world. We propose these buildings as our selection of structures that represent the history that has formed modern Wales and our understanding of Welshness.

consider the case we make for each, and enjoy reading the fascinating histories they embody. We hope, too, that you will reflect on your own ‘Buildings that Built Wales’. As architectural historians it is inevitable that we have chosen buildings we know and love. But we also know that each reader will have a favourite chapel, a traditional cottage, a farmhouse, a favourite view of a castle, an industrial site that are no less valuable than ours in defining Wales to them.

Here, then, are buildings built by the Welsh, for the Welsh, and sometimes even against the Welsh such as Caernarfon Castle. Yet even that famous castle has, over time, become an icon of Welsh, rather than English, heritage.

This is the wonderful thing about nationhood, it is defined by the people and has fluid edges that are hard to describe. For that reason we’ve also included the bridge at Llanfarian and the lost structures at Capel Celyn, Tryweryn, both sites associated with popular protest that, over time, have come to strengthen our sense of nationhood and culture.

Everyone has an individual relationship with our country, but we hope this book brings together a collection of rich histories that we can all agree have helped make Wales the wonderful and meaningful place that it is today.

Mark Baker and Greg Stevenson

Ultimately, this is a personal selection.

We each know the buildings that make our own Wales. Even if you disagree with a few of our choices, we hope you’ll

Preface

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Blaenavon Ironworks

A World Heritage Site 6

50 Buildings that Built Wales

Wales was the first industrial nation in the world. By 1850 more people in Wales were employed in industry than in agriculture, and the mineral deposits that lay under the surface of the Welsh landscape made it rich, as it developed into a land of heavy industry and mass employment. Through mass emigration to Wales, the population rose from just under 600,000 in 1801 to around 2,000,000 by 1901. Internal migration saw many people move from rural locations to the south-east, settling around Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and the Valleys.

Welsh iron was used all over the world, from ship’s cannons to the railways of Europe, Russia and America. In 1787 Lord Abergavenny leased his land to three businessmen; Thomas Hill, Benjamin Pratt and Isaac Pratt, and, in 1789, the production of iron began at Blaenavon. The topography of the land was important as the furnaces needed to be built into a slope so that the brick and stone chambers could be fed from above. A mix of ore, coke and limestone were fed into the interior of the furnace where jets of air fired the temperature to great heights to produce molten iron.

This was tapped off into sand moulds in the casting house built adjacent to the furnace. The workers, many of whom had come from an agricultural background, likened the rivers of iron travelling through the sand to piglets feeding from a mother sow. With this in mind, pig iron was named.

Three blast furnaces were constructed at a total cost of £40,000, a huge sum to outlay for a new method of production.

Blaenavon Ironworks People: Lord Abergavenny; Thomas Hill, Benjamin Pratt and Isaac Pratt; Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and his cousin Percy Gilchrist.

Place: In 1787, Lord Abergavenny leased his land at Blaenavon to three businessmen and, in 1789, the production of iron began. Blaenavon Ironworks is now a museum and World Heritage Site.

Event: Blaenavon Ironworks testifies to Wales’ role as the world’s first industrialised nation. The basic steelmaking process was later invented here

by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Gilchrist.

Blaenavon Ironworks

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50 Buildings That Built Wales

The people who lived in these houses kept the furnaces burning night and day to ensure production was continuous

The ironworks were crucial in the development of producing cost-effective iron ore for a mass market. Novelist Alexander Cordell set his famous book, Rape of the Fair Country, at the ironworks and contributed to getting the site statutory protection. Reality television took over the Stack Square cottages in 2007 and 2008 for two series of Coal House, a production in which families experienced and relived life in the south Wales coalfield in the 1920s and 1940s.

Participating families had to live in authentically furnished and functioning

dwellings, and the cottages they used are now open to the public.

The eighteenth-century blast furnace is one of the best surviving examples of its kind in the world. It is also one of the earliest, making it a site of international importance. The workers who kept the furnaces burning night and day to ensure production was continuous were housed in Stack Square, a residential area contemporary with the building of the original furnaces. Ever at the forefront of innovation, modern day techniques of steel production were pioneered at

Blaenavon during the 1870s.

The site at Blaenavon continued to produce iron until 1904 and survived as a coal yard until the 1960s. With great foresight, the local council presented the ironworks to the Ministry of Works, now Cadw, for preservation. The furnaces are presented in various stages of dereliction which allows the visitor to see how they functioned. The ironworks are an integral part of the Blaenavon World Heritage site, and are reminders of Wales’ status as the world’s first industrial nation.

Blaenavon Ironworks

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50 Buildings that Built Wales MARK BAKER GREG STEVENSON DAVID WILSON Is Wales a nation forged in the furnaces of industry, or one which survived the conquests of the past? A population defined by language or a society founded on faith? Join architectural historians Greg Stevenson and Mark Baker, together with

photographer David Wilson, as they explore the idea of identity as expressed through a nation’s ‘bricks and mortar’, charting some of the people, events, discoveries and developments which served to define Wales and establish its place in the world.

• A Small Country that Changed the World • Forming the Nation • Building the Culture and Identity of Wales • Building the Economy of Wales • Keeping the Language Alive • Education and Religion • Contemporary Wales

‘These are the buildings that built the modern Welsh nation; the structures that formed our sense of what ‘Wales’ means and what the country and her people are.’

Mark Baker and Greg Stevenson £25.00

www.graffeg.com

9 781905 582808 Social & Cultural History Architecture