Pilot Project

An Interactive Historical construct as an Educational Resource and Heritage site.

“We aim as a community based Trust for the promotion of local medieval history, in the age of the timber and earth castle and Llys, traditional skills, crafts and buildings, an open air living history museum for local, national and international members, visitors, schools and students.”

Castell Newydd Domen (“new mound castle”) was the working title for a project that aimed to create an open-air living history museum to be located close to the village of Llanerfyl, in the Banwy valley of mid Wales. It was initially proposed in the Autumn of 2000 and has spent the following years researching the project whilst searching for a suitable site or land owning partner to facilitate it. A pilot project was created in August 2005 based at a farm diversification scheme centered on a man made fishing lake and semi natural oak woodland.

The museum was to be based around a series of distinct, traditional Welsh medieval buildings. The project aimed to create three areas of the local medieval landscape a Llys, the fortified royal residence of a Welsh prince, a Hafod, the summer upland farm and the Castell a Norman inspired native motte and bailey castle.
Three phases of development were planned at the site with the initial construction of the Llys with its cruck framed great hall, smithy, chamber, kitchen, dormitory, kiln-house, barn, stable, dog-kennel and privy.

The second phase of development would have included, the Hafod, our medieval upland farm with its longhouse, weaving shed, agricultural buildings, and outlying field systems, reflecting a growing medieval community

The third phase would be the construction of the Castell, a motte and bailey castle set within a moat. Wales has been called the ‘land of castles’ due to the large number of stone monuments that survive. However none are reconstructed to portray an example of what these sites where like during their useful lifetime and little is generally known of the timber and earth castles that preceded them The purpose of the proposed reconstructed motte and bailey is to recreate one of the lost castles of Wales, for before the 13th Century many castles where constructed primarily in earth and timber, some continuing to be occupied until the 15thC.or 16thC. The work carried out excavating and interpreting the site of Hen Domen, Montgomery, was the initial inspiration for this element of the project, and its title.
This last phase may have also included a visitors and interpretive center.

With these constructs the project would have aimed to generate enthusiasm towards historical culture through the provision of a complete interactive learning environment, incorporating national curriculum requirements, with hands on experience, craft work, sustainable agricultural methods, and preservation of rare traditional breeds of livestock, ongoing building maintenance and the general living skills of the people of the middle ages. Therefore the end purpose was to create the atmosphere of an authentic medieval working community, where groups, parties and individuals could participate in and view a range of activities typical of the period.

It was intended to develop the site as a physical base from which to work with visiting schools, community groups and the tourist industry.

The projects personnel were be able to participate with these groups in the dissemination of Welsh heritage, history and culture through interactive demonstration and other educational techniques for the benefit of students at all levels, the general public and the tourism sector economy.

Project members range from archaeologists, conservationists, traditional builders, carpenters, educators, “living history” demonstrators, timber and forestry specialists, and craft workers. The initial members where drawn from a locally based group of living history demonstrators, educators and re-enactors of the 12th-15th C. who have undertaken public demonstrations for the heritage industry at monuments, museums and history events throughout the U.K.

Many of the steering group had been involved with a late Tudor/Stuart period farm reconstruction in south Wales for over a decade. Here a 15 acre site has been restored and reconstructed to reflect the agricultural practices of the period, farming the field systems, orchards, livestock and managing coppice and woodland. This project has resulted in the current BBC documentary “Tales From The Green Valley” that records the farming year as experienced by the participants who had to “put their specialist period knowledge to the test” with early 17th C. materials, methods, tools and practices.

However the project had as a central theme to membership that of open access, taking these experiences away from the sole domain of specialists, academics and television documentaries. This allows interested members of the local community, the region and members nationally to volunteer their time to participate in the activities undertaken by the project, assisting in the construction of the buildings, to be able to “learn by doing”.

To this end a pilot project began in August 2005, where over 40 volunteers from throughout the U.K. provided in excess of 1000 hours work to build a 3 bay barn and experimental clay bread oven in just 21 days. The site is within an area of ancient semi-natural woodland, wind fallen and coppice timbers being used to construct a three bay ridge post and ridge tree “shelter shed”. The posts and beams being split or hewn and dressed with traditional hand tools, some timbers being used “in the round”. Hazel wands where used to wattle the gable end and then daubed. The roof was planked and corked with moss and the rear wall planked vertically. A smaller shelter was added to the gable end that is being thatched with rushes of sedge grass, a traditional roofing material to the area. The oven, constructed from clay and straw daub formed over a woven hazel frame of withies and wands was fired over 3 days, successfully producing bread. This work resulted in a promotional event, a “Medieval Woodlands weekend” over the august bank holiday where costumed demonstrators presented a living history display of mid 14th C. building practices, tools, crafts, cooking, baking, arms, armour and archery. With over 100 visits to the site the project attracted many new members and requests for educational visits from local schools. We also aimed to undertake coppicing, experimental charcoal production, building maintenance and facilitate educational visits to the site. It was eventually deemed un suitable to continue on this site and this project has now been officially transferred to the Bryn Mawr Heritage Trust and is focused on the restoration of an original medieval cruck framed longhouse and farmstead.