St Fagans National History Museum

St Fagans National History Museum

Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru
St Fagans Castle in its grounds
Location in Cardiff, Wales
Established	1948
Location	St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales
Coordinates
Visitors	610,155 (2010) Ranked 21st in the UK
Website	www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/

St Fagans National History Museum (Welsh: Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru), commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.

It consists of more than forty re-erected buildings from various locations in Wales, and is set in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, an Elizabethan manor house. In 2011 Which? magazine named the museum the United Kingdom's favourite visitor attraction.

History

The museum was started in 1946 following the donation of the castle and lands by the Earl of Plymouth. It opened its doors to the public in 1948, under the name of the Welsh Folk Museum. The museum's name in Welsh (also meaning "Welsh Folk Museum") has remained unchanged since that date, whereas the English title was modified once to Museum of Welsh Life, and again to its current nomenclature.

The brainchild of Iorwerth Peate, the museum was modelled on Skansen, the outdoor museum of vernacular Swedish architecture in Stockholm. Most structures re-erected in Skansen were built of wood and are thus easily taken apart and reassembled, but a comparable museum in Wales was going to be more ambitious, as much of the vernacular architecture of Wales is made of masonry.

Buildings and exhibits

Interior of late 19th century terraced house (Rhyd-y-Car ironworkers' cottages)

The museum includes more than forty buildings which represent the architecture of Wales, including a nonconformist chapel (in this case, Unitarian), a village schoolhouse, a Toll road tollbooth (below), a cockpit (below), a pigsty (below), and a tannery (below).

The museum holds displays of traditional crafts with a working blacksmith forge, a pottery, a weaver, miller, and clog maker. It also includes two working water mills: one flour mill and one wool mill. Part of the site includes a small working farm which concentrates on preserving local Welsh native breeds of livestock. Produce from the museum's bakery and flour mill is available for sale.

The medieval parish church of Saint Teilo, formerly at Llandeilo Tal-y-bont in west Glamorgan (restored to its pre-Reformation state), was opened in October 2007 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. A Tudor merchant's house from Haverfordwest, opened in 2012, is the latest building to be added to the museum's collection. Future plans include the relocation of the historic Vulcan public house from Newtown in Cardiff.

Although the museum was intended to preserve aspects of Welsh rural life, it now includes several buildings that depict the industrial working life that succeeded it, that being almost extinct in Wales. There is a row of workers' cottages, depicting furnishing from 1800–1985, from Rhyd-y-car near Merthyr Tydfil (below), as well as the pristine Oakdale Workmen's Institute (below). Even a post-war prefabricated bungalow (below) has been erected on the grounds.

Since 1996 the museum has hosted the Everyman Summer Theatre Festival when it re-located from Dyffryn Gardens. This festival, which includes a Shakespeare play, a Musical, and a Children's Show has become part of Welsh theatrical calendar since its founding at Dyffryn in 1983.

Scenes from the Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" were filmed at the museum.

It is planned that The Vulcan Hotel that was originally located in Adam Street, Cardiff, will be rebuilt on the site. It had originally opened in 1853, but closed for the last time in May 2012, but was dismantled in 2013 and is now in storage. It is hoped to restore the pub as it would have looked in 1915.

List of structures

Image	Name	Date	Re-erected	Original site	County (historic)	Unitary Authority (modern)	Listing
	Main entrance and administration offices (Percy Thomas Partnership architects).	1968–74	—	St Fagans	Glamorgan	Cardiff
	St Teilo's Church	1100–c. 1520 c. 1100–c. 1520 (present form: c. 1520)	2007	Llandeilo Tal-y-bont, near Pontarddulais	Glamorgan	Swansea	—
	Cilewent farmhouse	begun 1470 (present form: 1734)	1959	Cwmdauddwr	Radnorshire	Powys	Grade II
	Tudor Trader House	16th century	2012	Haverfordwest	Pembrokeshire	Pembrokeshire	—
	Hendre'r Ywydd Uchaf farmhouse	1508	1962	Llangynhafal, near Llandyrnog	Denbighshire	Denbighshire	Grade II
	Y Garreg Fawr farmhouse	1544	1984	Waunfawr	Caernarfonshire	Gwynedd
	Stryd Lydan barn	1550 c. 1550	1951	Penley	Flintshire	Wrexham	Grade II
	St Fagans Castle	1580	—	St Fagans	Glamorgan	Cardiff	Grade I
	Hendre Wen barn	1600 c. 1600	1982	Llanrwst	Denbighshire	Conwy	—
	Hawk and Buckle Inn cockpit	17th century	1970	Denbigh	Denbighshire	Denbighshire	Grade II
	Kennixton Farmhouse	1610	1955	Llangennith	Glamorgan	Swansea	Grade II
	Lead cistern in east forecourt of St Fagans Castle	1620	—	St Fagans	Glamorgan	Cardiff	Grade II*
	Abernodwydd farmhouse	1678	1955	Llangadfan	Montgomeryshire	Powys	Grade II
	Smithy	18th century	1972	Llawryglyn	Montgomeryshire	Powys	Grade II
	Tannery	late 18th century	1968	Rhayader	Montgomeryshire	Powys	Grade II
	Esgair Moel woollen mill	1760	1952	Llanwrtyd	Brecknockshire	Powys	Grade II
	Llainfadyn cottage	1762	1962	Rhostryfan	Caernarfonshire	Gwynedd	Grade II
	Nant Wallter cottage	1770 c. 1770	1993	Taliaris, near Llandeilo	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire	—
	Southgate tollhouse	1772	1968	Penparcau, Aberystwyth	Cardiganshire	Ceredigion	Grade II
	Pen Rhiw Unitarian chapel	1777	1956	Dre-fach Felindre	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire	Grade II
	Cae Adda byre	18th–19th century	2003	Waunfawr	Caernarfonshire	Gwynedd	—
	Pigsty	1800 c. 1800	1977	Hendre Ifan Prosser	Glamorgan	Rhondda Cynon Taf	—
	Rhyd-y-Car ironworkers' cottages	1800 c. 1800	1986	Rhyd-y-Car, Merthyr Tydfil	Glamorgan	Merthyr Tydfil	—
	Llwyn-yr-Eos farmhouse	begun 1820	—	St Fagans	Glamorgan	Cardiff	Grade II
	Gorse mill	after 1842	1983	Dôl-wen	Denbighshire	Denbighshire	—
	Melin Bompren corn mill	begun 1852	1977	Cross Inn		Ceredigion	—
	Hayshed	1870	1977	Maentwrog		Gwynedd	—
	Summerhouse	1880 c. 1880	1988	Bute Park, Cardiff	Glamorgan	Cardiff	—
	Gwalia Stores	1880	1991	Ogmore Vale	Glamorgan	Bridgend	—
	School	in use 1880–1916	1984	Maestir, near Lampeter	Cardiganshire	Ceredigion	—
	Sawmill	1892	1994	Tŷ'n Rhos, near Llanddewi Brefi		Ceredigion	—
	Tailor's shop	1896 (extended 1920s)	1992	Cross Inn		Ceredigion	—
	Ewenny Pottery	1900 c. 1900	1988	Ewenny	Glamorgan	Vale of Glamorgan	—
	Derwen bakehouse	1900	1987	Thespian Street, Aberystwyth	Cardiganshire	Ceredigion	—
	Urinal	1901–10 c. 1901–10		Llandrindod railway station	Radnorshire	Powys	—
	Oakdale Workmen's Institute	1916	1995	Oakdale	Monmouthshire	Caerphilly	—
	Saddler's workshop	1926	1986	St Clears	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire	—
	Post office	1936	1992	Blaenwaun, near Whitland	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire	—
	War memorial	1936	1996	Caetwmpyn Park, Newbridge	Monmouthshire	Caerphilly	—
	Anderson air raid shelter	1939–45 c. 1939–45					—
	Prefab bungalow	1948	1998	Gabalfa, Cardiff	Glamorgan	Cardiff	—
	Iron Age roundhouses		2015 (Reconstruction)				—
	The Vulcan Hotel	1853	in progress	Adamsdown, Cardiff	Glamorgan	Cardiff	—

Future developments

• Scheduled to open by 2016 is a £24m revamp of the main museum building, together with the construction of two new gallery or exhibition buildings
• Based on archaeological findings, the construction of an Iron Age farmstead from Anglesey, and Llys Rhosyr, a thirteenth-century court of the princes of Gwynedd
• The rebuilding of the Victorian police station from Taff's Well, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
• In 2012 it was announced that Raglan railway station would be rebuilt at the museum.

External links

• Official website
• BBC Wales site including panoramic views of buildings in the museum
• Everyman Theatre
• Geograph.co.uk, photographs of St. Fagans Museum
• St Fagans National History Museum at Gathering the Jewels
• Celebration of St Dwynwen's day in Wales