STRAUCH, ANNETTE
The Growth of the Museum of Welsh Life Within the European Open-Air Museum Movement. M.A. 1998. 148 S., Abb.
The Growth of the Museum of Welsh Life
within the European Open-Air Museum Movement
Hausarbeit
zur Erlangung des Magistergrades (M. A.)
an der
Philolosophischen Fakultät der
Georg -August-Universität, Göttingen
vorgelegt von Annette Strauch,
aus Neu-Eichenberg
Göttingen, im November 1997
Erklärung
Hiermit versichere ich an Eides Statt, daß ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig verfaßt habe und keine anderen Quellen und Hilfsmittel als die angegebenen benutzt habe. Alle wörtlich oder sinngemäß den Schriften anderer entnommener Stellen sind unter Angabe der Quelle kenntlich gemacht.
Dies gilt auch für die beigefügten bildlichen Darstellungen.
Des weiteren möchte ich darauf hinweisen, daß diese Arbeit noch nicht Gegenstand eines anderen Prüfungsverfahrens war.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to all members of staff at the Museum of Welsh Life, for their invaluable assistance in my study of the growth of the "Amgueddfa Werin Cymru" in St. Fagans and who have given me so much time to talk over the subject. Diolch yn fawr i chi!
I am especially grateful to the following people for their co-operation and help:
Dr. Douglas A. Bassett (former Director of the National Museum of Wales)
Professor Dr. R. W. Brednich (Seminar für Volkskunde, University of Göttingen)
Magali Davies (Warder)
Matthew Davies (Education Officer)
Robin Gwyndaf (Assistant Keeper)
Dilys Jones (Former Warder)
Walter Jones (Former Education Officer)
Arwyn Lloyd-Hughes (Archivist)
Gwyn Rees (Former Gardener)
Christine Stevens (Assistant Keeper)
Beth Thomas (Curator of the Audio Archive)
Hugh Thomas (Marketing Manager)
Delwyn Tibbott (Former Archivist)
S. Minwel Tibbott (Former Assistant Keeper)
Niclas Walker (Librarian)
John Williams-Davies (Head of the MWL today)
Annette Strauch, November 1997
Dedicated to S.M. Tibbott and Delwyn Tibbott.
Abbreviations
AEOM................ Association of European Open-Air Museums
AR...................... Annual Report
EE....................... Ethnologia Europea
ICOM................. International Council of Museums
MJ...................... Museums Journal
MWL.................. Museum of Welsh Life
NMGW.............. National Museums and Galleries of Wales
SWE................... South Wales Echo
WFM.................. Welsh Folk Museum
WM.................... Western Mail
Currency Abreviations
DKR................... Danish Crown
DM..................... German Marks
HUF.................... Hungarian Forints
£......................... Pounds Sterling
ÖS...................... Austrian Schillings
1 Introduction
1.1 "Yng nghegin yr Amgueddfa Genedlaethol"/"Museums Piece"
"Yng nghegin yr Amgueddfa Genedlaethol"
(In the "Welsh" kitchen in the National Museum)
Araf y tipia' r cloc yr oriau meithion,
distaw yw' r droell wedi'r nyddu'n awr,
tawell yw' r baban dan ei gwrlid weithion,
nid oes a blygo tros y Beibil mawr.
Mae' r dresal loyw yn llawn o lestri gleision,
a'r tsieni yn y cwpwrdd bach i gyd,
ffiolau ar ford yn disgwyl cwmni' r gweision,
a' r tecell bach, er hynny, yn hollol fud.
A ddowch chwi i mewn, hen bobol, eto i 'ch cegin,
o' r ffald a' r beudy llawn, o drin y cnwd?
(Brysia, fy morwyn fach i, dwg y fegin
i ennyn fflamau yn y fawnen frwd).
Nid oes a' m hetyb ond tipiadau'r cloc,
ai oddi cartref pawb...dic doc, dic doc.
(Peate, 1957, p. 62)
"Museum Piece"
Slowly the clock is ticking the long hours,
silent is the wheel, its spinning done, quiet the babe beneath its coverlet,
no one bends over the Great Bible now.
The gleaming dresser full of bright blue dishes,
and all the china in the little cupboard, bowls on the board await the
servants' company,
the kettle nonetheless, completely mute.
Will you come again, old people to your kitchen
from fold and cowshed, from tending to the crops?
(Hurry up, my girl, and fetch the bellows
to kindle flames with the glowing peat.)
My only answer is the ticking of the clock,
are they all away from home?...tick tock, tick tock.
(Clancy, 1982, p. 107)
There can be no better introduction to the present thesis than this poem, because the Welsh kitchen was the embryo of the MWL (Owen, 1982, p. 8), although the concept of the MWL was only an ideal in the days when Dr. Peate published his well-known sonnet in 1933. A reconstruction of a traditional Welsh kitchen was prepared in 1931 and remained at the National Museum until 1955 when it was brought to the WFM. The kitchen became very famous. The publication of the poem helped in promoting the reconstruction. This single reconstruction has been replaced by many different kitchens shown at the Museum of Welsh Life today.
1.2 General Considerations Concerning the Subject
The subject of this thesis is the Museum of Welsh Life[1], the open-air museum at St. Fagans, near Cardiff the capital city of Wales[2]. Its Welsh title is Amgueddfa Werin Cymru. Throughout this work, however, the writer will refer to it as the Museum of Welsh Life, MWL, when discussing the developments since 1995 or otherwise as the Welsh Folk Museum, WFM, when interpreting its past history.
The MWL is one of the constituent parts of the National Museum and Galleries of Wales, NMGW, and forms part of the Museums Development Divisions. Furthermore it is one of Wales' most visited heritage attraction.
The museum contains over thirty buildings re-erected from all parts of Wales, a Castle and gardens, exhibitions, craft demonstrations, and there are sometimes festivals which illustrate mainly how the Welsh people have been living over the last 500 years. There is also a Celtic village. The collections include the most important groups of re-erected buildings in the United Kingdom, furniture, household appliances, costumes and textiles and a collection of craft, agricultural and cultural material. In addition there are research departments, administrative and conservation sections in St. Fagans. The Welsh language is used, studied and explained by the staff. Therefore, also the collection of tape recordings is an important component of the work carried out by the staff.
The dissertation outlines the history of the foundation of the Museum of Welsh Life as a branch of the National Museum in 1946 and its subsequent development within the European open-air museum movement. Already the main founder and first Curator of the WFM, Dr. Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate, was of the opinion that such a museum must not come to a standstill (Peate, 1948,p. 59).
The purpose of the MWL is to educate about Welsh life and culture. Since museums are generally understood as academic institutions it is provided in this respect that education is to be seen as the primary goal at the Museum of Welsh Life as well as in all of the investigated places by the writer of this thesis. The first museum of this kind was established in Skansen, not far from Stockholm in 1891. Today there are open-air museums in almost every European country.
In the almost fifty years since its opening the museum has changed, developed and grown. This growth will be analyzed with emphasis on the European context. The work concentrates only on Europe locally. One question to be asked is if the WFM was influenced by Europe and if its creation was influenced by Scandinavia[3].
The first Curator was aware of the foundations of the European open-air museums dating back to the end of the nineteenth-century. This foundation period was the industrial society's response to the loss of its pastoral past which will be clarified. Nationalism especially amongst small nations was another reason for the interest in such museums.
Very often the founder played the first important role in the establishment of such an institution. Dr. Peate knew himself that each open-air museum sprang out of the idea of an individual (Stevens, 1986, p. 62). He himself played a major role in the founding of the WFM[4]. Other international institutions which inspired the founders and staff of the WFM have been the Institute for Folk-life Research, Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, the Folklore Society, London; the Institute for Dialects and Folklore Research, Uppsala, Sweden; the Irish Folklore Commission, Dublin and the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh.
It will be seen that the following three institutes have co-operated closely with the WFM: the University of Wales Colleges, the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth which was opened to the public in 1909 and the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion's project for collecting folklore in 1881.
The role of museums in Europe is also important in this thesis. Each country has its own heritage, but the aim is everywhere the same which is to make known the cultural heritage to present and future generations.
Certain trends have been observed which have rapidly been leading the way in the development of the European open-air museum landscape (Morgenthaler, 1988, p. 163) These will be analysed with a close look at St. Fagans:
· the cultivation of plants
· the considering of ecological connections
· the commercialization
· the obvious more and more effective activities for the visitors.
The inspected museum in St. Fagans is concerned with the folk-life of Wales. Therefore the relation between folk-life studies and open-air museums should be analyzed. It is important to remember that the base for folk-life studies in Wales has been the Museum of Welsh Life and not the University like in many other European countries[5].
The role of the re-erected buildings and their gardens; the demonstration of crafts; the interpretation of houses and exhibitions; education and collection policy at St. Fagans will be dealt with and compared to other European open-air museums.
The writer chose five European open-air museums:
1) Skansen, because it was the earliest in Sweden
2) the Frilandsmuseet near Copenhagen as another Scandinavian example
3) Cloppenburg in Germany as a central European example that was visited
4) Szentendre in Hungary as an example from the east of Europe with whose Director written contacts were made
5) Stübing in Austria as a southerly institution about which information was also received by its Director
International co-operation will be seen in the activities of the Association of European Open-Air Museums, AEOM. The number of conferences is growing constantly. On the one hand, the conventions serve the regional cultivation of contacts and on the other hand, they act as conferences that discuss special issues, very often with international participation (Morgenthaler, 1988, p. 185).
This dissertation will also deal with European open-air museum criticism with a close look at St. Fagans.
The Welsh museum has been chosen deliberately, because of the writer’s knowledge of the museum's site, galleries, archive and library and the staff. This results from several visits since 1991 and performing various tasks at the museum itself[6]. It was decided to use the English language in order to share the contents with the museum's people and others who are interested in the subject.
1.3 Structure
The thesis is in four parts:
1) Definitions of open-air museums
2) Short historical summary of open-air museums in Europe
3) Direct studying of the Museum of Welsh Life which gives an insight to the museum's growth with comparison put on the five selected museums.
4) Criticism and summary
The third point is the main part of the dissertation followed by a summary and final interpretation, as well as further relevant questions in the field of folk-life studies and open-air museums not tried to answer in the work.
A discourse will examine five buildings:
1) the Rhyd-y-car miners' cottages to show that not all the houses are rural
2) the Castle that is a house in situ
3) Llainfadyn farmhouse because it is typical for Wales as all the other buildings
4) Nant Wallter farmhouse as another typical farmhouse.
5) the photographic studio, because it is a reconstruction
Finally a list of references is given and an appendix that contains maps and photographs relevant to the subject of interpretation of the Museum of Welsh Life as explained in this thesis.
1.4 Sources
For the research of the history of the foundation of the Museum of Welsh Life and its subsequent development within the European open-air museum movement literature had to be studied such as publications of the National Museum of Wales for the early ideas, annual reports which explain the work the museum staff has carried out in one year, development studies, observational studies concerning the visitors and a number of press cuttings from the early days of the WFM until of the MWL today.
Another method has been the reading of European open-air museum guides[7]. The writer knows all the books that have been published by the Museum of Welsh Life and has taken a close look on manuscripts from the museum library.
There have been numerous discussions with past and present members of staff of the MWL[8] from all the departments, also with employees from the NMGW and a great many weeks of personal observation and study over the years. One interview has been made with a former museum gardener who had been working on the site for the family who lived there before the time of the museum. A book in Welsh was read about Dr. Peate, Syniadau by Dr. Peate himself which mentions his visions of creating the museum as well as contacts to Scandinavian scholars.
For the chapters on the exhibitions in the nineteenth century, folk-life studies and museum criticism, English and German secondary literature was used. The writer exchanged letters with the curatorial staff at St. Fagans and with staff from several different countries who answered particular questions.
1.5 Existing Master Sources
Many German and English treatises on open-air museums are available. Much has been written on the Museum of Welsh Life. Especially Dr. Peate published his work before and after the founding period and tells about his Scandinavian experiences like in his article Report of the Keeper of the Department of Folk Life on his tour of Scandinavian Museums, Cardiff, 1946. In his book Amgueddfeydd Gwerin/Folk Museums, Cardiff, 1948, Dr. Peate raises the question what the folk museum would be when it is developed.
A former Director of the National Museum of Wales dealt with the developing of the National Museum and dedicated chapters to the Welsh Folk Museum (Bassett, 1982, 1983, 1984). Most writings that have been found, however, give just a brief descriptive account of the museum at St. Fagans and often contain the same gist. The museum library houses articles on the interpretation of buildings, oral history and farming and crafts that discuss how the particular field is important to the museum[9]. Trefor M. Owen often participated the AEOM conferences and lectured about recent developments at the MWL. His speeches are printed in the reports of the conferences which were useful for preparing this thesis. The Museums Journals have also proven to be a valuable source on the subject.
2 What is an open-air museum?
In this chapter, the aims of the open-air museum are explained.
2.1 What is a Museum
First of all, the term museum[10] has to be explained. A museum is a public cultural institution. It therefore intends to serve the public (Lewis, 1980,p. 151). A museum is not a private collection and not a commercial enterprise. The collections are scientific and are not collected incidentally (Lapaire, 1983, pp. 11 - 12). Museums use economic resources and produce "outputs" like education, the preservation of objects and entertainment. Therefore they equal hospitals and companies (Johnson, Barry, 1991, p. 102).
Next three declarations will be given:
1) the declaration of the ICOM from 1957 which was the first definition of an open-air museum
2) the declaration from 1972 about the museum type given of the AEOM[11]
3) the actualized ICOM-declaration of 1982
This will be followed by a description of the purposes of that special museum in general.
2.2 The ICOM-Declaration
A commission met in 1957 when Erik Andrén, Keeper of the Nordiska Museet and Skansen, Frode Kirk, architect of the Frilandsmuseet, Heinrich Ottenjann, Director of the Museumsdorf in Cloppenburg, Dr. Peate and others participated (Zippelius, 1984, p. 86). They prepared the initial declaration of open-air museums.
The first points of this declaration mention the translocation of buildings and the history of open-air museums. The fifth point in the declaration defines an open-air museum as a collection of buildings that is open to the public, that belong to the traditional and pre-industrial architecture, like houses of farmers, shepherds, fishermen, craftsmen, workers with their barns, stables, workshops, mills, potteries and shops. Historic buildings, estates, churches and dwellings from the industrial age are also collected. The interiors are presented with their furniture and items. This area might be complemented with visitor services like audio-visual aids.
The German museologist Adelhart Zippelius who has written widely on European open-air museums claimed that the declaration of the ICOM could be seen as the chart for open-air museums (Zippelius, 1974, p. 28). It gives the meaning and function of such a museum. Buildings that remember well-known people and important historical events should be preserved as well as buildings from the classic and traditional architecture. The best solution according to this definition would be the preservation of a building in situ. If this were not possible, however, one would have to translocate the house to the open-air museum.
2.3 The AEOM-Declaration
"(...) open-air museums are defined as scientific collections in the open air of various types of structures, which, as constructional and functional entities, illustrate settlement patterns, dwellings, economy and technology" (Zippelius, 1973, p. 109).
This definition is very general with the main emphasis on the presentation of entities and the demand for scientific leading, but there are other aspects which are also extremely important. The definition has twelve points that are declared as the tasks of open-air museums. Objectives refer to the possibilities of an open-air museum to re-erect buildings with their interiors in their functional context including that the single buildings with their interiors are put together to a whole in order to gain the utmost approach to the former complex reality[12]. Many articles bear witness that the presentation of entities is not as easily succeeded with and causes more problems as the declaration first of all states.
2.4 The Actualized ICOM-Declaration
To do justice to the changes of the time, a new version of the ICOM-declaration of 1957 was written by a commission of the AEOM in 1982 and these principles were handed over to the general meeting of the ICOM:
Open-air museums are scientifically planned and directed or scientifically supervised collections illustrating settlement, building, living and economic patterns, presented as entities in the open-air in a delimited part of the landscape which is declared to be museum ground. They are open to the public and serve conservation purposes as well as having individually defined scientific and educational aims. According to article 3 of the ICOM rules their purpose must not be financial profit or the support of interests other then those involving the immediate aims of the museum (Ahrens, Ballassa, Zippelius, 1984, p. 104).
This declaration responds also to the commercialization of open-air museums.
2.5 Further Notes towards a Definition
Next it seems adequate to consider some further characteristics The fundamental work-sections in an open-air museum can be divided in the classical function of collecting, researching, preserving and interpreting (Kreilinger, 1991, p. 14). This kind of museum is not only known as "open-air museum", but also as "folk museum", "folk park", "museum of buildings", "ethnomuseum" and "skansen" (Wiliam, 1993, p. 375). In German they are called "Freilichtmuseum", "Freilandmuseum", "Freiluftmuseum", "Bauern-hofmuseum", "Museumsdorf" or "Museumshof" (Lapaire, 1983, p. 22).
Creating such an institution means working in order to give "an overall picture of life in all its variety" (Jenkins, 1969, p. 18 ). The first important difference to other museums as the word "open-air" already suggests is that something can be seen outside. The open-air museum contains buildings, very often farmsteads, sometimes composite that means not all are from the same region, but often the houses are arranged in regional groups[13]. The buildings should be saved from destruction and for the people from next generations (Bedal, 1978, p. 45).
2.5.1 The Characterization According to the Area
Firstly, one can characterise the museum according to the catchment area. It can be thus a national, regional or a local one. National means it collects items of a whole country, regional of one region and local can be a single farmhouse that now functions as a museum.
2.5.2 The Location of the Buildings
The second characterisation can be the question if the museum has buildings in situ that means on its original site, or if the buildings are either translocated or reconstructed (Zippelius, 1974, pp. 10 - 11).
When a building is transferred, the aim is to recreate this for the most possible originality of the structure is a matter of course. In a way, every exhibited building is a new building if one considers the foundation and the basic structure. Moreover, the loss of substance often cannot be avoided when transferring, for example, the roof, flooring, ceiling and fillings of the timber-framed walls (Keim, 1995, pp. 32 - 35). It can only be effective through the transfer of possible big parts of buildings in one piece[14] (Löbert, 1986, n. p.).A copy can be understood as an imitation of an actually existing building.A reconstruction is in this respect the restoration of a building that no longer exists anymore (Keim, 1995, p. 33).
2.5.3 The Presentation of the Buildings
The presentation can be according to the original idea of the house, the changes made to the house can also be shown, the house can represent one time or the house can be shown in a variety of concepts with original parts and temporal changes. Examples of these different types of presentation at the Museum of Welsh Life are given in the main part of the dissertation.
The re-erected buildings are furnished with furniture and work utensils. Therefore they mirror a microcosm of a living- and working community. Every object is placed where it belongs as the following quotation shows:
"The characteristic of those museums, or perhaps one should say the ideal, not always attained, is that each exhibit is installed so far as possible in its natural surroundings. The painted cloth is on the wall, the saucepan by the fireplace, the quilt upon the bed" (Bather, 1930, p. 377).
The buildings with their objects can also show what the people used to do in their spare-time.
2.5.4 Open-Air Museums as Museums of Folk-Life
The majority of European open-air museums consists of pastoral houses (Zippelius, 1974, p. 21). Nevertheless an open-air museum does not have to be entirely rural[15]. The British open-air museums at Ironbridge, Beamish and Black Country are a different breed. They do not see themselves as folk museums, but as industrial and architectural museums.
Because of the buildings and the various aspects of everyday-life, house research, history, sociology, farming, folk-life studies, teaching can become very interesting here which will be seen later. Open-air museums are understood as museums of folk-life, since they are assigned to some of the biggest traditional areas of folk-life studies with their collection and presentation of house types, fittings and utensils (Bausinger, 1971, p. 263). The open-air museum movement is closely connected with the vernacular architecture (Baumhauer, 1988, p. 97). The visitor should be taken out of his usual environment to the people who lived in the past (Jenkins, 1969, p 18).
2.5.5 Open-Air Museum Visitors
The founder of the Norwegian "De Sandvigske Samlinger", Anders Sandvig, believed that visitors should have the opportunity to learn, and so the material must be displayed in a thematic way also. The visitors should understand, but should not be bored. Sandvig saw Maihaugen as a collection of homes where one could almost meet the people who lived there. His aim was to illustrate a whole village[16].
2.5.6 Open-Air Museum Buildings
The buildings that are placed in open-air museums relate, for example, to religion (churches, chapels, graveyards). They can be secular with schools, townhalls, pubs or technical with water- and windmills, those belonging to the craftsmen like the smithy, cooper, potter, or there are estates from landowners or the gentry (Zippelius, 1974, p. 21).
2.5.7 Archaeological Open-Air Museums
There are also archaeological open-air museums like the one in Moesgård in Denmark or the Cosmeston Medieval village in Barry near Cardiff (Ahrens, 1990, p. 33) and the French éco musée.
2.5.8 The "Éco Musée" in France
In France the éco museé is usual[17] and this differs from the conventional open-air museum. Therefore it needs to be defined, because it is not exactly the same as an open-air museum. This museum type will be discussed briefly, because it is also of interest in the context of the modern open-air museum.
It is an anti-pole towards the "musée classique". The aim is to present the everyday culture. The idea came from Georges Henri Rivière[18] who wanted to show the correlation between man and environment in a particular area under the consideration of time and space. The whole system of environmental relations including ecology and economy should be covered. The local visitors should recognize their own life-style, but also tourists should understand the peculiarities of the region. However, the local people are the favoured target group. They should work together with the museum. In connection with this stands the French term "patrimoine" which means cultural heritage. The multi-dimensionality of life and the social background relations should be explained. Components are economical, ecological, historical, geographical, social, technical and aesthetic characteristics.
Parts of these museums are monuments that are suited for depicting the development of the nature and the environment. The eco-musées consist of a centre and several outside places. In the outside places which are called "antennes", nature and culture monuments are kept on their original sites. In the centre is one lasting exhibition in an old or historic building. There is also room for changing exhibitions, for archives, research and conservation. Sometimes there is a library or accommodation[19].
2.5.9 The "Culture Historical Teaching Path"
An unknown variation of the open-air museum is the "culture-historical teaching path" which would be a walk around a living village (Kirk, 1984,p. 183).
2.6 Description of a Folk Museum by Dr. Peate
Dr. Peate called his museum a folk museum and saw it in this respect:
What is a folk museum? A folk museum represents the life and culture of a nation, illustrating the arts and crafts, and in particular the building crafts, of the complete community, and including in its illustration the activities of the mind and spirit - speech, drama, dance and music - as well as of the hand. Such museums are in two parts: a building for the systematic display of the materials of life and culture, where the research student can study the details of folk-life in exhibits emphasizing the evolution and distribution of types, their chronology and many other problems. The environment of the national life is presented in the open-air section (Peate, 1966, p. 5).
3 Historical Background
European open-air museums date back to the nineteenth century and they were part of a wider movement aimed at strengthening the national culture that is briefly discussed in this chapter.
3.1 Industrialisation and the Romantic Movement
During the second half of the eighteenth century it became fashionable all over Europe to place rustic buildings in the parks belonging to castles.
3.1.1 Vernacular Culture
The working class was becoming aware of its roots (WFM, 1982, p. 8). With the industrialisation at the end of the nineteenth century, people re-discovered the richness of vernacular culture[20] and studied it as a subject all over Europe:
(...) the recognition that culture is something that may be expressed not only by literature or art, but also in many different ways in our daily life (...). This has added a new dimension to museum collections and to traditional ethnological fields of study such as houses, costumes and food (Stoklund, 1983, p. 24).
The subject which began to flourish was about the traditional customs of the ordinary people. It was believed that those manners which survived hold evidence of earlier developments of the society (Owen, 1991, p. 20).
3.1.2 Objects
In general it may be said that the rise of the natural sciences, however, and the growing industrialisation from the middle of the nineteenth century promoted the appreciation of objects. For example, vernacular architecture started in the early days of the open-air museum movement (Baumhauer, 1988, p. 97). This extended to an interest in furniture and implements. The question was often about the decoration time of the objects (Stoklund, 1983, p. 8).
3.1.3 Great Exhibitions
The second half of the nineteenth century was also characteristic for its great exhibitions (Michelsen, 1973, p. 11). This feudal rustic fashion obviously had its roots in Jean Jacques Rousseau's idealisation and appreciation of rural life which led to a wrong idyll of never existing living and working conditions (Pöttler, 1991, p. 188).
3.1.4 Britain
Also in the British Isles in the nineteenth century there was an antiquarian movement. Very often objects were shown as curiosity cabinets without any documentation, but with devotion to the specimens (Jenkins, 1969, p. 17). From the beginning there was nostalgia for an idealised past-time (Brown, 1986,p. 62). The collecting was more important than the scientific research. The objects of the past should be preserved before they disappeared. Out of this collecting the folk archives and folk museums developed. They were the first institutions of folk-life studies (Stoklund, 1983, p. 8). or cultural studies to use the modern term. In Britain the importance of the open-air museums in Scandinavia was considered at the turn of the century[21].
3.1.5 Germany
In Germany, the historian and statesman Justus Möser[22] had definite ideas. To him sources of the folk culture were very important. Goethe had a plan of creating a folk museum. But at that time of folk-life research the interest lay at folk narrative like the legend, fairy-tale and folksong.
3.2 The Early Open-Air Museums
Already at the world-fairs visitors had the chance to see and experience ethnographic villages[23]. The world and country fairs dedicated with those villages special interest to vernacular architecture for the very first time (Pöttler, 1991, pp. 190 - 191). Different cultures were presented and household items could be bought there (Köstlin, 1986, p. 14).
The first desire for erecting houses of farmers and fishermen that can be found in literature, however, is that of Karl Viktor von Bonstetten of Switzerland[24] on the occasion of a journey to Denmark in 1799 (Pöttler, 1985, p. 11). Although there were isolated examples of houses being relocated, it is generally acknowledged that the first true open-air museum was Skansen founded by Artur Hazelius[25] in Sweden. He was influenced by G. Hylltén-Cavallius who described an old Swedish province in South Småland. The Swedish King Charles XV who reigned from 1859 - 1872 was interested in old buildings (Rehnberg, 1984, p. 105).
But Hazelius actually founded the first open-air museum with Skansen, near Stockholm, in Sweden with the aim of scientific research in 1891. Before that, in 1873, he had established the first folk museum, Nordiska Museet, in Stockholm (Zippelius, 1974, p. 23). It differed from other museums at that time, because it showed costumes, utensils and furniture of the ordinary people (WFM, 1982, p. 8). Interiors were shown there with wax figures. At Skansen, however, the objects were shown in natural surroundings. It was the plan of Hazelius, to create a park for all the people which would attract wide population circles and also such people who would never go to a museum (Uldall, 1957, p. 68). In Stockholm an Institute of Ethnology was founded in 1918 (Kavanagh, 1990, p. 19). As research scientist and language teacher Hazelius knew the traditional culture was changing with industrialisation (Larsson, Westberg, 1991, p. 5). So the open-air museum Skansen began as an annex to the national collection of objects. From the beginning it showed typical wild life of the country (Armstrong, n. d., p. 93).
In Britain, between World War One and World War Two, many museums devoted themselves to folk studies developed (Kavanagh, 1990, p. 22). First in the British countries, the Isle of Man thought of a folk museum[26].
Whereas in the early days of the open-air museum only the dwelling houses were shown as representative single buildings with fittings in park-like grounds without distinct grouping to one another, it changed in the course of the twentieth century. At first, the experts saw the farm as a living and economic unit. Later, also herb gardens, orchards and fields were added (Kreilinger, 1991, p. 14).
The writer of the thesis believes that it was probably the raising of national consciousness and the lack of a very strongly differentiated class structure that the oldest open-air museums are found in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Other critics see it in a different way[27].
A ground in the open landscape replaced the fields that used to be mainly situated in the European towns. In the beginning, these parks were thought of as funfairs where the rural culture was explained as the national culture of the different countries with buildings, interiors, customs, songs and costumes that were considered representative. This artificiality blurred when the open-air museums became more scientific and had their high claims (ibid., p. 14). Folk-life research generally began with the culture of the peasants (Erixon, 1958,p. 228). It is clear that the museums in the nineteenth century were not interested in showing the working classes (Lumley, 1990, pp. 63 - 85).
In southern Europe there are fewer open-air museums than in the rest of Europe. This is because there have been different levels of awareness, the writer of the thesis believes. Their past is preserved in another way. If you got the Coliseum do you need to move a farmhouse? There are other opinions[28].
Hazelius stands at the beginning of a development with Skansen in Stockholm that was initiated in Scandinavia and spread to other European countries:
In 1901 the Frilandsmuseet ved Sorgenfri in Denmark was founded; in 1902 in Oslo/Bygdøy the central open-air museum for Norway; in 1904 "De Sanvigske Samlinger" in Maihaugen near Lillehammer; in 1909 one at Seurasaari in Helsinki in Finland; 1914 "Den Gamble By" in Aarhus (Pöttler 1985,pp. 13 - 16), just to name a few of the early set-ups in Scandinavia. The above-mentioned institutions are also used for interpretation in other contexts in this thesis. Today one views open-air museums in Latvia, the Czech republic, Poland, Hungary (Szentendre which will be delineated later), Germany (Cloppenburg will be portrayed), Belgium, Slovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Russia, Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Italy and in other countries as well[29].
4 European open-air museums
The next passage introduces briefly six selected museums as a choice from Europe in order to give it a trial to point out the problems of the museums in a summary and by comparing them. The writer likes to start with Skansen, because it was the initial one; then another Scandinavian example, the Danish Frilandmuseet will be given, because of a different early example. For Germany, the "museum village" Cloppenburg is analyzed, since the writer knows it; one museum from the East is the Hungarian "Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum" in Szentendre near Budapest who has been having close contact to the MWL; and the fifth is the Austrian open-air museum Stübing, near Graz, that is a pattern from the South.
4.1 The European Context
For the information about the European open-air museum examples, the writer of the thesis exchanged letters with staff from many open-air museums all over Europe, and because a selection had to be made especially with the following museums analyzed[30].
Today there is still misery in Europe. Museums can be able to remind people of their cultures (Gwyndaf, 1995, p. 12). In Europe there are many different nations and minority groups which all have their own different personality. What they have in common, however, is that they all transmit values from one generation to another. Museums can be described as "trees of culture" which give pleasure to others, to the people from the country and also to the people from outside the country (ibid., p. 13). Robin Gwyndaf, Assistant Keeper at the MWL, puts it like this:
"Museums have a golden opportunity and privileged duty to put into practice the greatest gift of all, namely the gift of caring for others - of sharing with its own people, and the people of Europe and the world, the richness of its national cultural heritage" (ibid., p. 117).
4.2 Skansen
The name Skansen in Stockholm translates to entrenchment, an old military fortification in English and the place where the museum is now situated on the hill had been called that for a long time. The history has been outlined in chapter 3.2 and therefore won't be explained here anymore.
Skansen has been opened to the public in 1891 (Rehnberg, 1984, p. 105). Already in 1939, J. A. Stendal from Ireland had described Skansen like this:
"Each house is fitted with meticulous care for accuracy of detail, and one may even interview the grocer of a century or more ago, standing behind his counter dressed for the part" (Stendal, 1939, p. 402).
4.2.1 The Site
The site is hilly and contains streams and ponds. This makes the setting of the buildings easier than on a flat site, because in this manner different periods can be separated into parts (ibid., p. 487). The size of Skansen is 75 acres and there have been about 150 houses re-erected today in 1997.
4.2.2 The Buildings
The houses are arranged geographically whenever possible. There is a contrast between the urban and the rural society. The buildings come from all parts of Sweden. They comprise a chemist's shop; workers' houses; a bake-house; a bakery; a miner's yard; a bookbindery; a letterpress-house; farmers' houses; a brick observation tower; a house for the youth; a mill; a dairy hut; a tannery; glassworks, an engraving workshop; a goldsmith house; a stonemason house; the Hazelius house; a house for the old, ill, soldiers and craftsmen; a belltower; a hay house; a comb manufacture; a priest's office; the oldest kiosk from Stockholm; a painter's atelier; a pottery; a shop; a Lapp encampment; a sheep barn; a flax manufacture; various garden houses; a Maypole; a market road surrounded by houses; mechanical workshop; milestones; a little café; mission house; plumber's workshop; a post office; a saddler's shop; a church; an estate; a lumberjack's hut; a cobbler's workshop; a barn; a water mill; a smithy; a bank; wind mills and a school to name most of the buildings. There are also gardens on the site.
4.2.3 General Information
Animals are shown, sometimes exotic because there is no zoo in Stockholm and they had been presents to the museum in the early days. Festivals have been celebrated at the museum. Skansen should be a Sweden in miniature (Larsson et al., 1991, p. 5). In the galleries, visitors have been able to see period exhibits. There have been demonstrations of folk dancing. Attendants are employed for security and to explain the buildings.
4.3 Frilandsmuseet
Unless otherwise mentioned most of the information could be obtained through personal correspondence with Mette Boritz in August 1997, one of the present two Curators.
4.3.1 History
The first Danish museums were established in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, often by kings and noblemen. They were curiosity cabinet collections like the German "Wunderkammern" by Renaissance princes (Boesen, 1966,p. 9). The Danish Frilandsmuseet at Lyngby, in the north suburb of Copenhagen, has begun to move buildings 100 years ago at the Castle of Rosenburg in 1897 (ibid., p. 13) and was opened in 1901 when they found the permanent location at Sorgenfri.
The foremost feeling, which must impress itself on a first open-air museum at Lyngby, is probably that here one can see a living picture at the peasant life of Denmark of bygone days. If anyone wishes to study the lives of Danish peasantry, they cannot do better than visit this museum of old dwellings, which have been removed from different provinces of Denmark (Bolingbroke, 1926, p. 17).
The background for its foundation was the creation of other open-air museums. The founder was Bernhard Olsen[31] who was also the manager of the Tivoli. Olsen knew Hazelius and he was also inspired by the world exhibitions. The Frilandsmuseet used to be called "the Department of Buildings" of the Danish Folk Museum. In 1941 it became separate from the Danish Folk Museum. In Denmark at the beginning of the open-air museum movement only the dwelling house was moved. The outbuildings such as barns of a later date were not re-erected (WFM, 1982, p.11). There are also activities[32]
4.3.2 The Site
The site extends to thirty five hectares and includes some forty five houses from various parts of Denmark and the former Danish provinces South Sweden and the south of Schleswig. The buildings are set up geographically (Uldall, Michelsen, Westberg, Stoklund, 1985, p. 1).
"The basic idea of the plan is to make a walk round the rural park a journey throughout the whole country" (Michelsen, 1966, p. 234).
The museum has got some acres outside the museum which the visitors are not able to see.
4.3.3 The Buildings[33]
There is a fishermen's cottage; a skipper's cottage; farmsteads; watermills; windmills; a border stone; houses; a corn-drying house; a milestone; a bridge; fishermen's huts; sheds; barns; a school for lace making; a cobbler's house; a pottery; a weaver's house; a flax kiln; a village meeting place; a smithy and other objects. There is livestock, too. A new village that shows the time until 1960 will be built shortly.
4.3.4 General Information
The museum is financed by the National Museum which is supported by the Danish state, but new buildings are often financed by private fond and companies.
There are employees at the museum mostly in the summer time. Students sell tickets. Ten guides who are all history or ethnology students work on the site. There are also the museum's own craftsmen and conservationists. The museum has got two curators who are both Ethnologists and two Architects. The rooms have been re-created as functional units, therefore signs have seen avoided, descriptions of buildings and objects are found in the guide. Currently, the Frilandsmuseet gets circa 200,000 visitors per year. Between October and December it is only open on some days. The admission is free on Wednesdays. The rest of the week the entry costs 30 DKR for adults, 20 DKR for old people and it is free for children under 16. For schools and kindergartens the entry is free. Courses for schoolteachers are available. The collection is used for teaching material folk culture at the university.
4.4 Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum
The museum's Director Dr. Miklós Cseri gave a much valuable information, especially to questions regarding the recent developments at the Hungarian open-air museum. The writer has known him since 1993 and has received three letters and one telephone call also.
4.4.1 History
In 1873 at the world fair in Vienna, Hungarian houses were exhibited. In 1885, fifteen farmhouse living-rooms were made open to the public, and in 1896 a museum like Skansen, but with re-constructed buildings and original utensils, was built. After only six months already demolished (Füzes, 1990, p. 3). The Budapest Millenary Exhibitions demonstrated the history of Hungary and showed furnished peasant houses (Kecskés, 1989, pp. 4 - 5). At the end of the nineteenth century, the word skanzen was a common word in Hungarian (ibid., p. 5). The establishment of Szentendre became possible in 1965 as part of a cultural-political resolution. It became independent in 1972 and has been operating since 1974 (ibid., p. 6).
4.4.2 The Site
It is situated five miles north from the centre of Budapest. The aim is to show the rural architecture and the living culture from all over Hungary with original buildings and objects. The museum wants to give a representation of the nineteenth century in Hungarian villages and towns (Balassa, 1976, p. 70). The size of the museum is 46 hectares.
4.4.3 The Buildings
The buildings are grouped according to the geographical units of the country[34]. Buildings who are no longer on the Hungarian territory could not have been moved. There are eighty houses, three churches, seven mills, two hundred working quarters like two smithies and a shop and a tannery, also smaller objects. In 1974, the museum opened its first building section. The museum has planned three hundred and eighty buildings in about ten units. At the moment one hundred and sixty four buildings can be seen in 1997. It is the centre for vernacular architecture research in Hungary (Kecskés, 1989, p. 7).
4.4.4 General Information
One hundred and forty one people work in the museum this year, seventeen of them are scientific workers, nine have got ethnologist and historian diplomas. Three persons have got a Ph. D. degree. Visitors are not allowed to enter the interiors of the houses (Cseri, personal correspondence, 22.3.1993).
It has been one of the most important aim of the museum to organise a good co-operation contact with the European open-air museums during the last decade. They are a member of the AEOM and one of their experts is a member of the chairmanship (Cseri, letter from 20.9.1997). The Hungarian open-air Museum has established an exchange relationship in its own financing, with foreign open-air museum, from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Slovenia and Belgium. They also exchange staff with MWL, two members per year. There are festivals celebrated[35]. This relationship includes four important fields of the museological work:
· exchange of issues
· exchange of experts
· common exhibitions
· common research programmes
There was no founder of the museum as Artur Hazelius in Stockholm. The foundation was the collective decision of the Hungarian Ethnology. The entrance fees in 1997 are 200 HUF for adults, 100 HUF for students and 500 HUF for a family ticket. The number of visitors in 1996 was 181,997 (between 30th March and 3rd November). This year it will be about 200,000 visitors.
The museum is financed by the Ministry of Culture. The annual budget is nearly 150 million HUF, 135 million is directly given by the state as a subvention, 16 million has to be produced obligatory by themselves (personal correspondence, Cseri, 20.9.1997).
There are special events beside the festivals.
The collection of the objects is about 40,000, in addition there are 70,000 photographs, 20,000 transparencies and 10,000 documentary items (Kecskés, 1989, p. 6).
4.5 Museumsdorf Cloppenburg
The writer of the thesis knows this museum village from a personal visit in the summer of 1992. Questions for the present thesis were answered by the current Director Dr. Uwe Meiners. It is the open-air museum for the land of Lower-Saxony.
4.5.1 History
Already before the First World War local open-air museums were established in Northern Germany (Ottenjann, 1988, p. 3). The museum at Cloppenburg was founded in 1934. The houses are placed geographically according to the different landscapes.
4.5.2 The Site
The site measures eighteen hectares. The visitor can see fifty buildings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
4.5.3 The Buildings
Most of the buildings are from the area between the rivers Weser and Ems. Amongst barns; farmsteads; a storehouse; houses; a pigsty; a brewery; windmills; a miller's house; a half-timbered church; a baking oven; a school; an estate; a turner's workshop; blue-dyeing works; a bleaching hut; a threshing tower; sheep barns; an animal shed; corn- and hay-sheds; a bake houses; a sacred house; a wood barn; a threshing house; an inn, a pottery; a smithy; a "Gulfhaus"; a "Heuerhaus"; a clay storehouse and a shed with toilets.
There are three house types shown: "Niederdeutsche Hallenhäuser" built according to the tradition of the open-hall houses in Lower Germany, "Gulfhäuser" built according to the tradition of Ostfriesland and day-labourers houses (ibid., p. 3). All in all, seventy buildings are planned (ibid., pp. 3 - 4).
4.5.4 General Information
Skansen was not a direct model for Cloppenburg. The museum is a donation of the land of Lower Saxony. The land together with the local communities (Landkreis Cloppenburg, Stadt Cloppenburg, Landkreis Vechta) take part in its financing. A third of the budget is financed through the museum's own income with the help of entrance tickets. The annual budget is 3,5 million DM. There is one Director, two Education Officers (half-time), one Voluntary Post, one Head of Administration, two Administration Officers, one Cleaner, one Museums Assistant, four Carpenters, one Painter and two Gardeners. The founder was Heinrich Ottenjann.
At Cloppenburg, there have been demonstrations of crafts such as baking and pottering, the demonstration of the historical techniques of blue-dyeing and there have been special "activity days"[36]. Between the years of 1990 and 1996 there have been circa 260,000 visitors to the museum per annum. Special temporary exhibitions have been an important standing leg[37].
For adults it costs 7 DM, students pay 4 DM, pupils 3,50 DM and a family ticket costs 18 DM, whereas an annual ticket can be bought for 35 DM. There are guided tours in German, Low German, English and French which cost 20 DM for school parties and 40 DM for an adult group. Nowadays 50,000 students come to the museum a year. It is open weekdays from 8 a. m. until 6 p. m. and on Sunday and on holidays from 9 a. m. until 6 p. m. between March until October. From November until February the museum is open from 9 a. m. until 5 p. m. on weekdays and from 10 a. m. until 5 p. m. on Sundays and holidays.
4.6 The Austrian Open-Air Museum Stübing
All the information about Stübing comes from the Director Professor Herbert Pöttler, from his essays and a letter written on 4.8.1997.
4.6.1 History
In 1910, the architect Hans Wolfsgruber had a plan for an Austrian open-air museum (Pöttler, 1991, p. 201). It was not before the middle of the 1950s, however, when the "Verein für Volkskunde" thought about the idea again together with the Director of the Austrian Museum for folk-life studies, Leopold Schmidt (ibid., p. 206). The Austrian open-air museum founded in 1962 was opened in 1970 and by 1985 a total of seventy two historic objects have been placed there. It is a national institution and therefore the central museum for the whole of Austria (Pöttler, 1995, p. 2).
4.6.2 The Site
The site is about fifty hectares. The buildings are arranged according to building groups with those belonging to the same house types or from a neighbouring area. The aim was not to create a park museum.
4.6.3 The Buildings
One finds a storehouse; houses; a belltower; a food-storehouse; a hayshed; a dovecote; a pounder and mill for linseed; a charcoal burner hut; a sawmill; cornmill; smithy; shop;, a pigsty; a wine press and storage room for wine barrels; farmyards; chapels; a school; a horse stable; field cross; baking ovens and more. Most buildings are not allowed to enter (Pöttler, 1985, p. 38). The regional placement of the buildings is practized here. The different Austrian house types are presented. Only rural buildings and no industrial houses are shown on the site. Visitors can watch traditional farming and craftsmen (Pöttler, 1995, p. 3). Skansen was considering its age no model for Pöttler who has been responsible for the museum's creation and can be called the founder.
4.6.4 General Information
The open-air museum works on a legal basis of a foundation for the public interest. The financing results from their own income as well as from private and public sponsorships. The number of staff is small because of the bad financial situation. Ten people are concerned for the set-up of the museum and up to five work in the office.
There are activities[38], but no festivals are celebrated at the Stübing open-air museum. The museum co-operates with schools. The highest number of visitors they had was 120,000, but in the last years it has been dropping, so that it now get about 70,000 people per annum. A ticket for adults costs 75 ÖS and there are reductions, too. Visitors can buy a German museum guide and a short guides in English and French as well as an information sheet in Italian. Special temporary exhibitions are shown in two buildings[39] (Pöttler, personal correspondence, 4.8.1997).
5 Wales and the Welsh
Before explaining the country where the Museum of Welsh Life is situated, it has to be said that one of the messages of educational work at MWL is the promotion and the realization of the local, regional or ethnic identity. Already Hazelius talked about the strengthening of the national feeling.
Zippelius alludes to history that there is the danger that national identity can easily turn into nationalism (Morgenthaler, 1988, p. 20). This will not be further discussed here.
5.1 Identity
From the existing records it appears that the first Curator of the MWL,Dr. Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate saw the importance of explaining the everyday life of one country in an open-air-museum. He looks at the museum at Skansen and claims that one can only study all aspects of Swedish life there. As Dr. Peate had pointed out:
"(...) a Welshman need not visit Sweden to become expert in the natural sciences but if he wishes to study Swedish folk-life he must go to Skansen, for there only will he find the complete picture prepared for him by Swedes" (Peate, 1948, p. 59).
A point worth making is that Wales is not a nation-state. Wales has had a Secretary of State with a seat in the Cabinet since 1964. Wales is half the size of Switzerland. The thesis deals only with some important aspects of Welsh history, customs and traditions as well as with the Welsh language which the MWL interprets. Unlike England, Wales is a compact cultural unit.
In Welsh, Wales is called "Cymru". The word "Welsh" derived from the Anglo-Saxon "wealeas" meaning foreign and "Cymru" means comrades (Fishlock, 1972, p. 4). Today many foreigners do not differentiate between the Welsh people with the English as described by the Welsh member of the European parliament Eluned Morgan:
A lot of Germans know of Wales through documentaries or the occasional news bulletin but 99 per cent of Germans would refer to a Welshman as an Englander (sic). And most German people would not refer to Wales even if they were going on holiday there - they would be most likely to call it England (WM, 22.3.1995)
The writer of this thesis had similar experiences in Germany as expressed in this quotation.
Since the Middle Ages, Wales had to live with England. There are many similarities today like the houses, food and also the English language which has been the first language of many people born in Wales (Morgan, 1968, p. 83), but nevertheless it has to be strongly emphazised that the Welsh have their own history and traditions and are by no means English.
5.2 Short Welsh history[40]
The Welsh people are descendants of the Celts living in southern Britain before the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the fifth century A. D. The druids were influential. The Welsh, however, did not became aware of their Celtic background before the eighteenth century (ibid., p. 11).
The present border with England dates back to the eighth century when it was marked by Offa, King of Mercia. The Welsh had to fight against the Normans after the Norman conquest of England. When the Welsh prince Llewelyn refused to recognize Edward I of England as his king, Edward invaded in 1277 and defeated him. By the end of the thirteenth century Wales was under English control. Edward built castles to secure his conquests. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, Owain Glyndwr had established a Welsh state with its civil service, its treasury and legal system and its church.
The Methodist Evangelical Movement began in the middle of the eighteenth century. This Nonconformity produced Welsh scholars and writers.
It should be also borne in mind that Wales was very early industrialized, from 1750 onwards. The time between 1760 and 1850 saw the rapid development of the iron industry (ibid., p. 51). A second period was the time between 1815 to 1870 when iron had been important (ibid., p. 52). In the nineteenth century the Welsh economy was based on coal[41], iron, steel, also on tin[42], though 90% of the land was agricultural. The great coal epoch was between 1870 and 1914, a time of prosperity despite agrarian decline (ibid., p. 52). Then came a time of depression between 1920 with the decline of major industries and emigration Nowadays there are not many coal-mines operating anymore.
The traditional industries have been replaced by electronics which is the largest single employer today. Some critics view that the industry destroyed Welsh traditions with people from England and Ireland coming to Wales (ibid., p. 53), whereas other critics belief that with the industry Welsh culture developed like the great choirs whose audience came by the trains (ibid., p. 54).
5.3 The Welsh Language
The language of the Welsh people is mentioned here, because the character of a culture depends a lot on the language that is spoken (Carter, Aitchison, 1986,p. 1). Welsh has a long history (Davies, 1993, pp. 3 - 13). It is a Celtic language.
The Welsh translation of the Bible was one of the main reasons that Welsh continued to be spoken (ibid., pp. 24 - 26). Today there is a Welsh radio and television channels, Radio Cymru and S4C. One can buy books, published in Welsh. From the national census in 1991 it follows that 18,7 % of Wales' population speak the Welsh language[43].
5.4 Customs and Traditions[44]
In the light of the earlier discussion of open-air museums and their purposes next a chapter on customs and traditions has to be written, because one of the main tasks of the MWL is to study and to interpret the folk-life of Wales in all its different forms.
Wales is a country mainly of hills, mountains and valleys. Considering this, a lot of traditions were sustained by a farming tradition which was ruled by the physical environment, high rainfall and low temperatures (Owen, 1991,p. 1). Mixed farming was practiced, peat cut (Owen, 1991, pp. 4 - 5).
Oats constituted a major element in the traditional diet (Tibbott, 1991,p. 11). In the seventeenth century, cooking on the open hearth was the only method common to all households (Tibbot, 1989, p. 63). The hearth was the centre of a home where many activities took place such as baking, boiling meat and vegetables, telling stories (Owen, 1991, pp. 24 - 37). Food and drink form an important component in studying a country's culture[45] indeed.
Oral and also written folk material witnesses that there was a tradition of storytelling[46]. The centre for folk-narrative research is the MWL where over fifteen thousand examples of recorded narratives are archived.
Wales' premier cultural event is the Royal National Eisteddfod which started in 1176 and was revived in the eighteenth century (Edwards, 1990, p. 5). It is a competitive annual festival of music, literature and arts. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century a lot of Welsh music was played on the harp and on the fiddle (Saer, 1991, p. 23). One successful collection of Welsh folklore was Welsh Folklore by Elias Owen which was published in 1896 (Owen, 1991,p. 121).
5.5 Folk-Life Studies in Wales
Early collectors in the field of folk-life were Edward Lhuyd (1660? - 1709) and Edward Williams, also known as Iolo Morganwg (1747 - 1826) and the two important folklore scholars Sir John Rhys (1840 - 1915), author of Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (1901) and T. Gwynn Jones (1871 - 1949), author of Welsh Folklore and Folk-Custom (1930) have to be referred to. Between 1956 and 1962 the journal Gwerin was published by Dr. Peate. It was intended primarily for folk-life scholars in Britain and Ireland. It has been succeeded by Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies, journal of the Society for Folk-Life Studies, founded 1961.
The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion has been co-operating with the MWL. In 1881 they had a project for collecting folklore. It is quoted in the magazine of the society:
(...) we wish, by way of initiative to take this opportunity of urging our readers, who are resident in Wales, to do all their power to collect and secure what still remains of the popular literature of the country (...) tales and legend (...) songs, verses and ballads (...) as well as all those observances, beliefs, and ideas which are more strictly included in the term Folk-lore (Powell, 1881, pp. 155 - 159).
Another source of inspiration for the WFM and folk-life studies in Wales was the Irish Folklore Commission founded by Professor Séamus Ó Duilearga[47], a very close friend of Dr. Peate. He was a regular visitor to the WFM. The WFM based its classification on the oral material of Seán Ó Suilleabhán's Handbook of Irish Folklore (1942, 1963).
This work on the other hand based on the classification used at the Folklore Archives at Uppsala. Trefor M. Owen was at Uppsala for one year (personal correspondence with Robin Gwyndaf on 26.9.1997, who had also visited Ireland and Professor Delargy in 1965).
Many other studies regarding folk-life such as community studies, aspectual studies like studies about food, changes in regional culture and regional comparisons have been done in Wales (WFM, 1983, p. 27). In 1942, Dr. Peate's book Diwylliant Gwerin Cymru (Welsh Folk Culture) was published. He had described folk-life studies as "a study of the way of life of the community, of man's mental, spiritual and material struggle towards civilisation" (Peate, 1959, p. 102). Dr. Peate knew that Åke Campbell[48], Wilhelm von Sydow[49] and Sigurd Erixon[50] influenced the study of Welsh cultural studies.
In Britain, geographs, historians and literates have taught or researched folk-life studies (Sanderson, 1967, p. 304) whereas European Ethnology and Folklore has been an academic subject at Swedish Universities[51].
So far the attention has been confined to some important general background information before next coming to the main part of the thesis.
6 The Museum of Welsh Life
Changes in the economy, the introduction of electricity and car industry, mass production among other things played an important part in the development of an open-air museum in Wales. The museum movement belonged to a response of the new industrial society to the loss of its pastoral past before the industrialization (Brown, 1986, p. 66).
The writer of the thesis has been told by the present Keeper of the MWL, John Williams-Davies, that Iorwerth C. Peate saw three things as the main threats to the "Welsh way of life":
· Industrialization
· Urbanization
· Anglicization
(personal discussion, 28.8.1997).
6.1 The Idea and the Beginning
The earliest suggestion for a National Museum of Wales was made at the National Eisteddfod at Llangollen in 1858 with a desire for establishing a museum and record office for Welsh manuscripts and books (Bassett, 1982,p. 5).
The National Museum was granted a Royal Charter in 1907[52] (ibid., p. 3). The purpose of the National Museum of Wales should be as Lord Pontypridd, the first President in his address on the occasion of laying the foundation stone by King George V proclaimed: "I ddysgu'r byd am Gymru a'r Cymry hwythau am wlad eu tadau", in English "To teach the world about Wales and the Welsh people about their fatherland" (Bassett, 1983, p. 4). The National Museum of Wales became the National Museums and Galleries of Wales in 1995. Their new mission statement is
(...) to promote the wider knowledge and better understanding of Wales, its history, culture and place in the world, through its knowledge and multidisciplinary collections and their interpretation strives to deepen and extend the awareness of Wales, including the Welsh language and its rich cultural heritage (Ford, 1995, n.p.).
The original thought was that all departments would be housed in one building. The first exhibitions were taking place in 1913 in the City Hall in Cardiff (Basset, 1983, p. 8). The museum' s first building came in 1922.
6.2 The Exhibition of "Welsh antiquities"
In 1913 the "Exhibition of Welsh Antiquities"[53] at the Temporary Museum in the City Hall was opened (Amgueddfa, Spring 1993, p. 6). The organisers feared, however, the word "antiquities" could imply a greater age of the objects than they had. Those articles illustrated customs of Wales[54].
At that time there was general interest in the formation of a British Folk Museum at the Crystal Palace near London (Bassett, 1982, p. 33)[55].Dr. W. Evans Hoyle who was the first Director of the National Museum of Wales was interested in an open-air museum (Peate, 1971, p. 161). He belonged to a group who had ideas about the Crystal Palace. Among the recommendations of the Royal Commission on National Museums was the creation of a folk museum (Bather, 1930, p. 377):
"To consider the recommendation of the Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries that a National Folk Museum should be established, if possible in London, and to advice as practicability and cost of establishing such a Museum" (Bather, 1931, p. 300).
The government at that time would not sponsor open-air museums. Individual people worked very hard in order to fulfil the aim of establishing such an institution.
In 1934 the discussion about an outdoor museum continued (Wheeler, 1934,p. 192). In 1939, Stendal in his essay on Scandinavian open-air museums stated:
"The success of the Scandinavian folk parks makes our the more aware of England's backwardness" (Stendal, 1939, p. 491).
There is still no national English Folk Museum in 1997. Even so a number of regional open-air museums in England have emerged during the last forty years. They either predicament the industrial society, for example Ironbridge[56] and Beamish[57] or are museums of buildings like the Weald and Downland Museum[58] and Avoncroft[59].
6.3 The Welsh "Bygones Gallery"
Folk-life and Industrial Research have originally been a section of Archaeology. In 1920, a scheme was prepared to collect folk-life material in schools in Wales (WFM, 1983, p. 33). The reconstruction of a "Welsh kitchen" was prepared at the Royal Institution in Swansea in 1920.
In 1926, the Welsh Bygones Gallery was opened at the National Museum. The collection sought to represent the every day life. Here, a kitchen and a bedroom were shown with the material used in those rooms (Bather, 1932,p. 531). More chambers were opened afterwards which were there to show the interior of a farmhouse of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Wales. The public was not allowed to enter the rooms:
The public are allowed to view these two rooms from a vestibule, two walls of which open upon Kitchen and Buttery, low sills, forming a barrier to prevent the visitor from entering. The Parlour and Bedroom which are connected by a doorway, have been so built that a corridor runs in front of them, with sills in the opening to act as barriers. The general effect is to give a view of these rooms from openings similar to unglazed shop windows (ibid., pp. 532 - 533).
The chambers were lit by overhead windows. The walls had to be prepared to appear of stone-walling and stone floors were used. (ibid., pp. 533 - 535).
Details were given:
"A pair of spectacles on the open Bible on the master's table, dried herbs hung from a beam, the drip of wax on a candlestick-" (ibid., pp. 535 - 536).
Dr. Peate began his work as Assistant Keeper in the Department of Archaeology at the National Museum in 1927 with the cataloguing and classifying the Bygones Collection (Peate, 1971, p. 161). It was appreciated in Wales and with it the systematic collecting of folk-life material began (Bassett, 1984, p. 242). In 1929, a guide was published by Dr. Peate[60] which had the title Collection of Welsh Bygones: a descriptive account of old-fashioned life in Wales. The guide contains material from the 1890s.
In the 1930s, there were discussions about an establishment of a new museum discipline, the study of Folk Culture and Industries (Bassett, 1984,p. 25). Sir Cyril Fox, who was the National Museum of Wales' third Director, together with two other people made a visit to Swedish open-air museums in 1930. With their work, the idea of an open-air museum in Wales was first fossilized. Afterwards it was decided to acquire a house and land in order to construct a similar open-air museum.
In 1931, the re-creation of a kitchen, buttery, parlour, bedroom to explain a Welsh farmhouse were made as well as a woodturner's shop and smithy to explain a Welsh village at the National Museum. This was known as the Folk Culture Gallery.
6.4 The Sub-Department of Folk Culture and Industries
In 1933 the Folk Industries Gallery opened from a new collection of Folk Culture and Industries. From this a Sub-Department in 1934 with Dr. Peate as appointed Assistant Keeper-in-charge and a Full department was established in 1936 (Brown, 1986, p. 61). It was the first Department of its kind in Britain and the Commonwealth (Amgueddfa, Autumn 1993, p. 12). This was influenced by the visit of Peter Holm, the founder of the open-air museum "Den Gamble By", in Aarhus in Denmark, and of Séamus Ô. Duilearga, Director of the Irish Folklore Commission, and the Swedish Ethnologists Åke Campbell andCarl Wilhelm von Sydow. They were all surprised that there was no national open-air museum in Wales, since there was so much material on Welsh folk-life (Peate, 1971, p. 162).
When in 1936 the Department of Folk Culture and Industry was founded, Dr. Peate was appointed Keeper and Ffransis G. Payne Assistant Keeper. The first loan exhibition under the title "Welsh Furniture from Tudor to Georgian times" was shown in 1936. There was money spent by Sir Leonard Twiston-Davies[61] for general research purposes (Bassett, 1984, p. 28).
In the late thirties, eyes were kept open for a possible site, but first money was needed. At that time an open-air annex to the National Museum was proposed. By 1940, a folk museum had become the highest priority of the National Museum. Finally in 1946, Earl of Plymouth offered St. Fagans Castle and Gardens for that purpose.
The next part of the thesis will outline the character of the first Curaor of the WFM, before afterwards coming to the establishment of this new museum in Wales.
6.5 Dr. Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate
Many European open-air museums had their ambitious and industrious founder like Dr. Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate[62].
6.5.1 His Life and His Work
Dr. Peate was a Geographer and Anthropologist[63] at the University of Aberystwyth who was greatly influenced by his teacher H. J. Fleure and was very interested in the language which led him to folk-life studies[64]. He was very proud of his native village Llanbryn-Mair where Welsh was the main language spoken (Stevens, 1986, p. 5).
To Dr. Peate, folk culture was characterized by the important role of the craftsman. His father[65] and grandfather were carpenters (Owen, 1983, p. 5)[66]. He often referred to the confusion in the meaning of the term "folk" (Bassett, 1984, p. 47):
"It is a much abused word, so abused that some scholars avoid it (...). When Langland in Piers Plowman wrote of a 'fair field full of folk' he had no class distinction in mind, and gwerin in Welsh represents the people in general, not a lower class in particular" (Peate, 1959, p. 99).
In addition to being the Curator he was one of Wales' foremost literary figures[67]. From the 1920s to the 1940s, he wrote scholarly works, but also verse and essays. He travelled through all parts of Wales, collecting material for his research.
A journalist described him thus:
"It has been said of Dr. Peate that Wales is his field of work and his only love, and to the life of Wales and its people he is dedicating his whole life" (Swansea Post, 6.9.1956).
Dr. Peate wrote about corn customs, the Mari-lwyd, an open stand pottery lamp and more.
In the mid-twenties he got to know the Norwegian Alf Sommerfelt[68] who was learning Welsh and who taught Dr. Peate about dialectology and the open-air museum development in Scandinavia (Stevens, 1986, p. 14). Scandinavian folk-life research tradition influenced the folk-life research in Wales heavily, and also Sigurd Erixon with his journal Folk-Liv, which was the first folk-life journal for Europe (Lloyd-Hughes, 1979, p. xii), had an impact on Dr. Peate (Owen, 1981, p. 5). Dr. Peate worked on the editorial board of Folk-Liv until the Second World War. In 1956, he edited the English-language half-yearly periodical Gwerin. Later the journal Folk Life developed out of it and the Society for Folk Life Studies was founded in 1962 (Owen, 1971, p. 19). The society's journals and annual conferences have served as one meeting ground for professionals, independent researchers and amateurs in the field of folk-life studies (Sanderson, 1967, p. 304).
In the year 1956 until 1957 Dr. Peate visited Scandinavia: he lectured at the University of Oslo, the open-air museum at Bygdøy and was at conferences concerning open-air museums in Copenhagen, Århus and Stockholm (AR,1956 - 57, p. 39). This Norwegian newspaper article shows that Dr. Peate was inspired by the Scandinavian open-air museums:
Grunnleggeren as det valisike folkemuseum. Oslo får i uken 6. - 11. mai besøk as den kjente valisike vitenskapsmann dr. Peate, grunnlegger og direktør for "Folke museet" i Cardiff. Dr. Peate, inspirer, as de nordiske folkemuseer som han has studert meget ingående, has grunnlagt et museum i Cardiff etter liknende prinsipper ag er nå ifull gang med å bygge det opp (Dagblackt, 7.5.1957).
In the year 1961, Dr. Albert Eskeröd from the open-air museum at Skansen visited the Museum of Welsh Life (AR, 1961 - 62, p. 43). In 1962 Peter Michelsen from the Frilandmuseet was a guest (AR, 1962 - 63, p. 47).
Moreover, Dr. Peate gave many lectures in Wales (Stevens, 1986, p. 22). In these speeches he wanted to explain the National Museum's function and the idea of an open-air museum of Wales (ibid., p. 23). To Dr. Peate, folk-life studies in Wales consisted besides the material culture of recording and studying the language with its many technical terms which were in danger of disappearing because of the new technologies (Owen, 1983, p. 5).
Dr. Peate did not pay much attention on industrial Wales which the following quotation shows:
"It is significant and a measure of his influence that for the next - thirty-five years his adopted term 'folk life' predominated in museum practice, and similarly concentrated on the rural than the urban experience" (Kavanagh, 1990,p. 24).
Gwyn Rees who used to be a gardener at the museum grounds before and after the establishment of the WFM remembers Dr. Peate very well. He was interviewed by the writer of this thesis and was 82 years of age at the time of the meeting. The interview took place in his living-room at his home Twyn Cottage in the village of St. Fagans.
Gwyn Rees described him thus:
Dr. Peate. It is a funny thing to say, but it was pleasant to go to work. We used to say to him coming when he came out what's this old bugger coming now for. Its proof you've got to have a man like that. He was straight, and if he had anything to say to you, he'd say it. And he held everybody like that: the office staff, everybody, and what he had to say, he'd tell you straight, and no messing, no messing. And he was very fair. He was very fair. He was a very fair man to work under (personal correspondence, 2.9.1993).
In 1971, Dr. Peate retired (AR, 1970 - 71, p. 33).
6.5.2 His Successors
The following heads of the museum in chronological order have been:
· Trefor M. Owen: 1971 - 1987[69]
· Geraint Jenkins: 1987 - 1991[70]
· Eurwyn Wiliam: 1991 - 1996[71]
In 1996 an internal re-organization took place, so that there is now a Keeper which has been John Williams-Davies[72].
6.6 The Welsh Folk Museum
From the exhibitions at the National Museum of Wales grew gradually the Museum of Welsh Life.
The task is now to show how the MWL developed and the writer likes to start this long chapter and main part of the thesis with a quotation by the second head of the WFM, Trefor M. Owen who was of the opinion that a museum could mature in two different ways:
There are two main ways in which it is possible to develop a Museum. One is to acquire the site, build all the necessary stores, galleries and offices, and then open the Museum to a visiting public; the second way is to acquire the site, to open it to the public as a going concern and to develop the museum by adding exhibits, galleries and offices as the opportunity arises over a period of years (Owen, 1988, p. 129).
In the following part it will be seen that the development of the MWL followed a plan.
6.6.1 The Questionnaire on Welsh Folk Culture
A questionnaire prepared by Dr. Peate on Welsh folk culture sought information on material culture. It was handed out in 1937 in order to represent a national collection or as Dr. Bassett puts it "to help the various people contributing towards the growth of the new discipline" (Bassett, 1984, p. 29). This questionnaire was looking for information on domestic life such as house types, cooking customs, utensils and appliances, dairying, laundering and dress. It was moreover searching for material on corporate life which was according to the memorandum civil development, ecclesiastical material and transport. Furthermore, data on cultural life concerning education, entertainment, folklore, customs and institutions were regarded as a useful source. Crafts and industries like agriculture, corn-milling, smithing, fishing, quarrying and more were also significant for the representation of the national collection. The aim of the memorandum was explained by Sir Cyril Fox:
"(...) that persons in each parish will study the life of that parish on the lines indicated therein and will impart the information collected to the Department of Folk Culture in the National Museum of Wales" (Fox, 1937, n. p.).
In 1945, a Committee on Welsh Calendar Customs was set up by the Council of the Folklore Society of London. Later, in the sixties answer books were sent to people who were thought to have a special knowledge in one or more areas (Lloyd-Hughes, 1979, p. xii).
6.6.2 The Offer from the Earl of Plymouth
In 1946 the museum was offered a site from Other Windsor Clive, 3rd Earl of Plymouth. It was in the village of St. Fagans[73]. Correspondence between the National Museum and with HM Treasury was made regarding the financing of the museum project. The museum was to receive a grant for maintenance costs and for costs of the outside section, but it would not obtain capital grants (Bassett, 1966, p. 18).
Dr. Peate described the purpose to show the old way of life and the continuity of the culture of the WFM as following:
"As a picture of the past and a mirror of the present, it will be an inspiration for our country's future (...) so that we may attain new standards in our life and culture and serve civilization yet again for long centuries to come as a small nation which is conscious of its part in a larger world" (Peate, 1948, pp. 60 - 61).
Dr. Peate was aware of the European open-air museum movement (Brown, 1986, p. 61). In 1946, Dr. Peate visited Swedish museums where he saw the administrative offices, workrooms, storage accommodation, library and more. He showed great interest in school service (Peate, 1946, p. 9).
6.6.3 The Memorandum
"From the very outset, like the great Scandinavian-folk museums which were its model, it has been actively concerned in the various tasks of collection, conservation, study and exhibition within its allotted area of responsibility, namely the folk life of Wales" (Owen, 1971, p. 19).
In the same year when he came back from Scandinavia, Dr. Peate prepared a memorandum together with Cyril Fox on the policy of acquisition, siting and reconstruction of the buildings. This notation says that the museum should present the culture of Wales. It furthermore stresses the importance of the lay-out, architecture, construction materials and techniques, furnishing of houses, shops, workshops, mills and farm buildings that are architecturally, historically and socially significant of Welsh culture. Maintaining the living order was also emphasized. The memorandum has been the basis for the development of the museum (Bassett, 1986, p. 47).
6.6.4 Aims of the Welsh Folk Museum
Aims of the Museum of Welsh Life, for which Scandinavia set examples are given in a booklet prepared by Dr. Peate in 1946[74]. A "Wales in miniature" should be shaped "where the visitor can wander in the confined area of a hundred acres through time and space, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, from Anglesey to Monmouthshire" (Peate, 1946, p. 6)[75].
The Castle, gardens and grounds at St. Fagans opened permanently from 23rd July until 21st September 1948 for only thirty-one afternoons. The total attendance was 8,914. The general satisfaction was expressed at the display of flowers (Fox, 1947, n. p.). The title of the new museum has been bilingual from the beginning: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru in Welsh and Welsh Folk Museum in English as the old name which has been replaced by Museum of Welsh Life for the new term.
6.6.5 Appeals for Funds
The line of growth has depended tremendously on the fact if a site could be found and on the funding. County Councils have given money to the WFM. There have been appeals for funds like this:
"Money is urgently needed for the establishment of craft workshops, for the transport and reconstruction of houses, (...) and for the erection of the Museum building" (Peate, 1966, p. 32).
6.6.6 The Welsh Folk Museum and its Relation to the National Museum of Wales
The Museum of Welsh Life is today, in 1997, one of the eight sites of the National Museum of Wales[76].
Sir Cyril Fox suggested in the memorandum that the National Museum and the WFM should become two separate institutions. Dr. Peate always supported the view of an independent open-air museum, since all national folk museums he knew were administratively independent. There should be a Director for the open-air museum as well, but instead the main officer was given the title Keeper-in-charge in 1948 which was replaced by the name Curator in 1953 (Peate, 1967, p. 1) and Keeper again in 1995[77].
The government dealt with the National Museum and the National Library only, Dr. Peate claimed. The WFM at St. Fagans was seen as a Department of the National Museum of Wales by the Museum Council, although the number of staff at the National Museum and at the WFM has been similar as well as the number of visitors. A plaque unveiled by Princess Margaret in 1954 set the Royal seal on the MWL. In 1955 the Welsh Folk Life Survey Committee was formed[78] and in 1949 the Welsh Folk Museum Society. This will be described in chapter 6.6.9 of the thesis.
6.6.7 The Site
The MWL has a site of around one hundred acres, formerly the garden and parkland of the Plymouth family in the village of St. Fagans[79].
6.6.7.1 The Earl of Plymouth
The Earl of Plymouth[80] wanted to have a happy ground for his spare-time and for family picnics when he lived there, he also wanted to observe the trees and to have a sanctuary for wild birds (Linnard, 1976, p. 30).
Following the writer's interview with Gwyn Rees, he recalls the time before the museum vividly when the Earl of Plymouth and his family used to visit their Castle and gardens in St. Fagans:
Yes, the biggest part was in August - their children, horses, goats and everything came down, all through the month of August (...) There was always the housekeeper, and I'm not sure three or four servants kept in the house altogether. But they used to bring their servants down from the other place, all down with them: butlers and everything! (...) And nobody lived in that village except those who were working on the estate (...). I worked for the Earl of Plymouth. I started working there when I was fourteen years of age. (...) But when we came out it had gone over to these people, when we came out of the army (personal correspondence, 2.9.1993).
6.6.7.2 The Village of St. Fagans
The village where the MWL is situated is four miles away from central Cardiff and close to the motorway network. One can compare it to Skansen outside Stockholm, Bygdøy near Oslo and Seurasaari Island near Helsinki (Stevens, 1989, p. 65). One journalist wrote that the beauty of the site alone would be worth a visit (Cardiff Times, 29.8.1953).
The village people were not very impressed when they first heard the news that there would be a museum in their village and that the Castle leaves the Plymouth family as the following quotation shows:
"St. Fagans won't be the same, say villagers" (SWE, 22.2.1946).
6.6.7.3 The Transformation into the Museum
In 1948, Dr. Peate published his bilingual book Amgueddfeydd Gwerin / Folk Museums. Here he stresses again that the word folk should stand for the whole nation (Peate, 1948, p. 13).
The book shows how the Scandinavian museums Skansen, Bygdøy and Maihaugen influenced him.
"To our friends the Swedes belongs the distinction of having first developed this new type of museum" (Peate, 1948, p. 15).
In this book he writes what the site should consist of: There was his plan of a modern building block for exhibitions of the materials of life and culture as well as of an open-air section for the buildings to be re-erected in their environment (ibid., p. 47). The individual buildings should be looked after by attendants. The visitors would be allowed to go into all houses (ibid., p. 55).
All members of staff, Dr. Peate also explained, must be Welsh-speaking, because the language was a very important means of access to the Welsh tradition (ibid., p. 59).
"The story of those early days can never be adequately told: we were essentially a family team working at all hours of the day and night" (Peate, 1971, p. 165).
6.6.8 The Museum Policy
Technically, the NMGW is a Non-Departmental Public Body. It is funded by Central Government via the Welsh Office, but has a very high degree of autonomy. This will not be further discussed in this thesis, because it alone could be the subject for another documentation. Its importance, however, is not underestimated by the current writer. The money for the MWL goes into the National Museum budget first.
In the beginning as today, the WFM has been given private funds for the development. It has been making public appeals. Patrons can help to preserve the heritage because they have to raise funds. The MWL gets grants from the National Lottery out of the Heritage Lottery Fund and from other sources. It got government grants in the 1960s and 1970s for the expansion.
The national museums in Britain are financed from central government funds (Kirby, 1990, p. 89). The Ulster Folk Museum is the only other state-funded open-air museum in Britain.
The MWL works towards registration under the Museums & Galleries Commission in Registration Scheme.
6.6.9 The Museum Staff[81]
One striking difference to other European open-air museums is the large number of full time staff belonging to the MWL. The first members of staff were working on the museum site in 1948. They were the Carpenter Albert Jones, Stonemason Garfield Evans, Woodturner W. R. Evans, a few Attendants and three Gardeners.
When appointed to the staff of the Folk Museum, one did not merely take up a job but became a member of a community which was unaffectedly Welsh in its language and interests. Indeed, Dr. Peate looked upon that closely-knit society as a family of attendants, gardeners, office staff and above all, craftsmen (Owen, 1982, p. 11).
In 1949, the WFM Society was founded. Now it is called Staff Club. Its function is to organize social events for the staff such as St. David's Day celebrations. The majority of the staff contribute monthly from their salary (personal correspondence with Robin Gwyndaf, 26.9.1997).
In 1963, the Department of Material Culture was formed as well as the Department of Oral Traditions and Dialects and of Folklore and Dialects. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was severe contraction in the academic staff, the writer has been told by Christine Stevens.
In 1976, the Departments were re-organized, so that there were then the Department of Buildings, of Farming and Crafts, of Domestic and Corporate Life, of Folklore, of Dialects and the Department of Documentation.
In 1984, there were the Department of Buildings and Domestic Life, of Farming and Crafts and of Cultural Life.
In 1991, there were the Department of Buildings and Domestic Life, the of Farming, Crafts and Cultural Life.
In 1996, the Departments have been re-organized again at the MWL which will next be discussed.
At the moment, the Head of the MWL is the Keeper John Williams Davies. He has a Secretary and an administrative office. There is also a Keeper of Social and Cultural History who is Elfyn Scourfield. He has a Secretary and two Typists who are also responsible for Gerallt Nash, Christine Stevens and Robin Gwyndaf.
All in all, there are six Units which will be outlined next:
1) The Unit of Historic Buildings and Commerce with the Curator Gerallt Nash. In it work an Assistant Curator, a Senior Conservation Officer, a Conservation Officer, six Technicians and one Labourer.
2) The Unit of Domestic Life and Rural Economy with the Curator Christine Stevens, two Museums Assistants, three Assistant Curators (one for domestic life, rural collection, furniture), one Textile Conservator, two Conservation Officers, one Documentation Assistant, a Housekeeper, a Wheelwright and two Assistant Conservation Officers.
3) The Unit of Cultural Life with the Assistant Keeper Robin Gwyndaf, the Curator of the audio-visual archives, Beth Thomas, one Museum Assistant, one Audio-Visual Technician and one Assistant Curator.
4) There is an Education Officer, Matthew Davies, one Secretary and three Education Assistants.
5) The Visitor Services Manager is John Owen Huws. He works with the Head Warder, the Supervisor, three Shift Supervisors, Deputy Head Warder, two Supervisors, the thirty-six Warders and twelve Seasonal Warders, a Head Cleaner and fifteen Cleaners and two Toilet Attendants, two Site Handymen and Celtic Village Interpreters.
6) The Estate Manager, Andrew Dixie is responsible for the Head Gardener, seven Gardeners and five Seasonal Gardeners.
Juli Paschalis is the Assistant Events Officer. There are also three Telephonists.
The Librarian for 20 years has been Niclas L. Walker, the Archivist has been Arwyn Lloyd-Huges who gets help from the Archival Assistant. There are five Craftsmen, three people are working in the field of Agriculture and Forestry and three others in the Maintenance Unit. There are Franchise Holders who are the staff of the Restaurant, the Baker, the Blacksmith and the Potter. The museum shop consists of the Shop Manager and all in all, ten Shop Assistants. The current number of staff is 170 people without the Franchise Holders.
6.6.10 Infrastructure
The museum consists of two parts:
1) the modern building block where the office staff is accommodated, the library and the archives are housed and where the exhibition galleries are
2) the open-air section.
6.6.10.1 Opening Times
The museum is open the whole year except on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. From July until September it is open from ten in the morning untilsix o' clock in the evening. During the other months it already closes atfive o 'clock. Unlike some European open-air museums it doesn't close during the winter months.
6.6.10.2 Admission Fees
Until 1980, it cost ten pence for adults, five pence for children to enter the museum. When the fee rose on 1st June 1985, the cost was £ 2 for adults (Brown 1986, p. 90). This was the first really significant increase in admission charges.
"From being an institution entirely financed by Government funds with a built-in dis-centive to any form of commercialism, the museum is now expected to contribute to its financing by maximising its takings from the visiting public" (Owen, 1986, p. 130).
The entrance fee in 1997 is £ 5.25. A whole range of season ticket and concessionary schemes are available. As explained before, the MWL is a nationally funded museum. From that point of view it should not keep poor people out.
6.6.10.3 Information Centre
At the entrance in the gallery block is an information centre with a video shown about the museum.
6.6.10.4 Museum Shop
There is a museum shop where a guide, museum publications, cards, Welsh gifts and more items are for sale. Inside this building one can find the exhibition galleries and the restaurant.
6.6.10.5 Restaurants
In the first open-air museum at Skansen there have been restaurants from the beginning (Peate, 1948, p. 21). The restaurant of the MWL is self-service.A waitress-service can be found in the 1920s Gwalia tea room and in the Victorian tea room at St. Fagans Castle.
6.6.10.6 Outside Facilities
Outside where the buildings are, there is a snackbar and picnic areas where the visitors can eat their own food they brought from home for themselves. There are ways for disabled visitors throughout the museum, both inside the building block and outside as well.
6.6.11 The Building Block
The modern building block was not to be built at first because of financial difficulties[82]. The museum has not had enough room for staff and storing specimens. There was no restaurant and no exhibition galleries (AR, 1961 - 62, p. 40; see also AR, 1965 - 66, p. 40). Dr. Peate had the idea that in the building will be galleries that explain different aspects of Welsh life:
In short, while the visitor will see, in one of the re-erected houses in the open-air section, a candlestick, let us suppose, (...), he will find in the galleries comprehensive series of the same objects illustrating their historical development and the variations in types in different parts of our country at different periods (Peate, 1948, p.49).
A usual museum is also an adjunct to Skansen with the Nordiska Museet.
In 1968 the administration offices, the library and archive, the conservation workshop, an additional store, toilets, one gallery block, and the so-called "builder's yard" housing the technical workshop were completed. This was financed mainly by the government.
"As with the Swedish Folk Museum models, this was to be the academic powerhouse for the whole museum: a national centre for teaching as well as research" (Kavanagh, 1990,p. 33).
A parallel is the library and research centre at the Nordiska Museet (Kavanagh, 1990, p. 17).
The accommodation of the collection material became a problem, so this new building was really needed desperately. In 1962 only five per cent of museum objects could be shown and they had to keep on collecting material before it would have been lost (WM, 5.6. 1962).
6.6.12 The Galleries
There was a Folk-Life Gallery in the sixties illustrating lighting, dairying, music, sports and agriculture and five interiors which were a saddler's shop, an early Victorian drawing room, an early eighteenth century room, a late Victorian parlour and a cottage kitchen (Peate, 1966, p. 18).The interiors were soon to be replaced by the raised buildings in the open air.
6.6.12.1 The Gallery of Material Culture
The Gallery of Material Culture opened in 1969. It is the oldest established gallery. It shows household objects, cooking utensils, dolls, bardic chairs, music instruments like different Welsh harps and more.
6.6.12.2 The Gallery of Agriculture
The Gallery of Agriculture[83] opened in 1973 (AR, 1973 - 74, p. 36). It contains amongst other things a collection of implements. Draining tools for draining the land have been shown there, ploughs, farm tractors, harrows and cultivators. Peat cutting has been explained as well as corn harvesting and hay harvesting. In addition, items for the treatment of farm animals have been shown.
Today in 1997 the Gallery of Material Culture and the Gallery of Agriculture has not changed and does not appeal to the public so much, because of the old presentation technique with items behind glass cases. The museum would like to completely renew it as soon as it will have the money for the project.
6.6.12.3 The Costume Gallery
The Costume Gallery opened in 1975 and was re-fitted in 1995 and 1996 (personal correspondence with Christine Steven, 25.9.1997). At present a small representative selection of quilts and patchwork as well as embroidered textiles and items of lace from the collection are on display. The costumes are exhibited in groups of distinct periods, from the middle of the nineteenth century until today, and include the appropriate underwear where possible. The costumes shown were either made in Wales or worn by Welsh people, although most belong to mainstream fashion. In this gallery there is a multi-media display.
6.6.12.4 Exhibitions
Exhibitions can keep a museum attractive and mean work for members of staff. Currently the MWL is staging an exhibition which tells the story of Welsh folk dancing. Its title is "A Step in Time". It was opened on 21st June 1997 and will close on 11th January 1998. There is also a programme for future exhibitions[84].
A permanent Welsh Language Exhibition is planned from 1998 onwards. Symbols like the leek, the daffodil and the red dragon will be interpreted on a lasting basis.
6.6.13 Collection Policy
As far as the museum's collection policy is concerned it is directed at material made or used in Wales.
The first attempt at the classification of the collections was in 1913 at the National Museum. S. Minwel Tibbott did field-work in the Bala region on traditional foods and cooking in 1970 (AR, 1970 - 71, p. 37). One recent example of field-work collecting was that carried out from April 1994 until October 1996 by an Assistant Keeper for about thirty days in order to fill in gaps in existing collection. This will not be further explained in this thesis.
6.6.13.1 The Classification of Objects
The MWL Classification has much in common with Classifications in Scandinavia. It is divided into:
· Domestic Life,
· Corporate Life,
· Cultural Life as well as
· Crafts and Industries.
An Index of Donors is kept. The Classification determined the departmental structure which was organized in 1976 (Owen, 1982, foreword).
6.6.13.2 The Accession
The writer of this thesis has been explained about the accession by Christine Stevens that when the object[85] comes to the museum it goes to the workshop and waits there for registration. The object can either be a gift, a loan, a purchase or a bequest. An accession card must be typed with relevant information. The accession also has to be noted in the museum central register which is the legal record. Each object furthermore is filed according to classification, location and stores location. The objects carry a label with the accession number. The collected items are also conserved and documented.
Dylan Jones transfers the card indexes of objects onto the computer, because an computerized database is in process. The accession correspondence and index[86] of donors are kept. Every now and then the objects have to be cleaned.
The collection is presented through publications, sound cassettes, exhibitions, lectures, radio and television, and also to the visitors and scholars who make enquiries.
Another task arises that they are for loan to other museums. Many objects are on display elsewhere, for example at Ty Mawr Wybrnant in Penmachno.
All in all, there are approximately 180,000 objects at the MWL of which 35,000 have been classified and described on the Collection Management System, CMS, on the computer. How important the documentation is shows the following quotation:
Items cannot be collected without being conserved and documented. In addition to the vital and routine tasks of cleaning and auditing and reboxing parts of the collections, there were particularly heavy demands during the year in terms of cleaning, auditing and preparing objects for exhibition and especially for loan to other museums (AR, 1992 - 93, pp. 42 - 43).
6.6.13.3 The Manuscript Archive
The Manuscript Archive at the MWL has original sources such as letters, notes, cards, diaries, account books, plans of buildings and more (Lloyd-Hughes, 1979, p. xiv). The total collection of manuscript is 4,000. Each collection may have many items never counted. In the library there are 40,000 - 45,000 books and 45 files of press cuttings.
6.6.14 Buildings
Only at the MWL, Welsh vernacular buildings have been preserved and documented for and in Wales. The museum's acquisition policy states that:
The aim of the Folk Museum should be to present the culture of Wales as illustrated in the lay-outs, architecture, constructional materials and techniques, and furnishings of houses (including shops) and workshops, mills and farm buildings; these should be architecturally historically or socially significant of Welsh culture (Fox, 1946, n. p.).
The MWL therefore has collected suitable representative buildings in order to have a national collection of architecture and historical building methods.
6.6.14.1 The Reasons for Locating Houses on the Ground
The central acting scene in human life is the house. That is why the erection of houses has also become one of the major tasks at the Museum of Welsh Life shortly after its foundation.
Soon work started to transform the estate into a museum (Bassett, 1984,p. 46)[87]. The memorandum from 1946 considers the re-erection of buildings[88]. Thus the tradition of the gentry and squireen, peasant and craftsmen should be shown. It is necessary, the memorandum explains, to secure farm complexes. Carts, wagons and farm-implements have to be beside the houses. The buildings at the MWL have been chosen because they are typical, not special.
"The first essential is significance in relation to Welsh folk life. But if there is a good example of a well-known type it should be welcomed" (Peate, 1971, pp. 167 - 168).
Many of the houses collected were selected because they were good examples of regional house types or of traditional building techniques, e. g. Cilewent (upland longhouse); Y Garreg Fawr (north-west regional type); Abernodwydd (east Wales layout); Kennixton (south Wales layout); Hendre 'r ywydd Uchaf and Stryd Lydarn barn (cruck and timber-framed construction). In the early 1980s came a change in emphasis with more "village-type" buildings being built e. g. the school, the baker, the tailor's workshop and the post office. In 1987 with the re-erection of the Rhyd-y-car houses the WFM made a shift towards acknowledgement of urban and industrial communities. The area behind the Gwalia Stores and Oakdale were developed as a small urban area.
It is important to note in this context that all the buildings that have been moved to St. Fagans have been endangered buildings that would not have otherwise survived at their original location. Whenever a typical building has been in a state of decay, the museum should be told (The Pioneer, 30.10.1952).
In the sixties, the MWL had an interest in a mill from Anglesey. The owner preferred to have it restored on its original location. It remained on Anglesey (Liverpool Daily Post, 12.8.1966). This is an example of a building that could be preserved in situ and didn't come to the MWL.
When the Museum took over the parkland from the Earl of Plymouth much of it was wooded. This has been progressively clear felled from 1950 on, because space for the re-erected buildings was needed (WFM, 1981, p. 56). Later, in the seventies a Development Plan was prepared by a Welsh firm of landscape architects, because more woodland was needed for the location of more buildings (Owen, 1988, p. 129).
6.6.14.2 European Examples
Other European open-air museums follow the same principle of showing representative houses of the area or the country:
At the "Erzgebirgisches Freilichtmuseum Seiffen" in Germany buildings are dominant that explain the history of everyday life of toy-makers (Schmidt, 1992, p. 2). The museum in Cloppenburg represents the essential types of houses from Lower Saxony (Ottenjann, 1988, p. 4). At the Swiss open-air museum Ballenberg in Brienz types of characteristic farmhouses are shown (Führer durch das Schweizerische Freilichtmuseum, p. 5). The Hungarian open-air museum in Szentendre has the task to show the life conditions of the rural society. The architecture is rural (Füzes, 1990, p. 5). The Frilandsmuseet in Copenhagen in Denmark holds different house types. The museum has the task to show the life conditions of the rural society (Udall, Michelsen, Stoklund, 1985, p. 4).
The nature of the houses depended on the geology, geography, economy and on social factors. The people who built a house in the past considered the utility of it. In the nineteenth century the poor had still mud-walled cottages, but stone buildings became more and more common (Jenkins, 1992, p. 122). In the east of Wales, the half-timbered house developed, because there were oak trees. The single room dwelling has been a feature of Welsh houses (Jenkins, 1992,p. 125).
6.6.14.3 Re-erecting Buildings
To begin with, every museum needs a transfer concept. The question is what condition and which time the building should show when re-erecting (Kreilinger, 1991, p. 18). A prerequisite for a transfer of an old house is always a thorough documentation (Schuberth, 1982, p. 33). Dendochronology has been used for the dating since 1990 at the MWL (AR, 1990 - 91, p. 29).
Before the dismantling of a building for the Museum of Welsh Life, the recording of it takes place with photographs and plans and numbering of the building material. Plans are prepared for obtaining planning permission and sometimes building registrations. The elements then go to the museum. Important for the re-erection is the use of traditional material and old techniques (Wiliam, 1991, pp. 40 - 41).
It has already been claimed that many Welsh houses were built of stone. At most open-air museums in Europe, however, the buildings are of timber. In the end, a number of museum-technical demands, such as lightning conductors and outlets to fire-and theft alarm, have to be fulfilled. A good building supervision and a skilful team of workmen is necessary (Kreilinger, 1991, p. 20) which the MWL has.
It is vital to remember that predominantly the homes of the rich people have survived since they had the best building materials. Therefore the full social row of buildings can't be revealed. One has to bear in mind that in Wales were only a few villages and few large towns before the middle of the last century (Wiliam, 1993, p. 376). Llainfadyn is plain, but it was typical of the quarrying districts of north Wales (Jenkins, 1969, p. 18).
The basis of the collection of the buildings has to be defined. It can, however, change with time. Since the erection of the Rhyd-y-car cottages and the Oakdale Workmen's Institute, the Gwalia store, the cockpit, the tailor's workshop and the tollhouse the MWL is not entirely rural anymore. Buildings where farmworkers lived are shown at Llwyn-yr-eos farm with the cottage next to the stable (Wiliam,1991, 1993, p. 15).
Most buildings[89] have names. Those Welsh names all have their meaning: "Llainfadyn" is "fox's patch". The name "Cilewent" comes from "Ciloerwent", meaning the house out of the cold wind.
A collection of re-erected buildings can do a lot for education, though that in itself should never be taken as an excuse to transfer a building (William, 1993, p. 374). It was pointed out twice before that all the buildings have been in danger. At the Museum of Welsh Life the houses have been taken as far back in date as the structural evidence allows (Peate, 1971, p. 169). Maintanance work on the buildings which have been at the museum for longer than forty years have become necessary (AR, 1991 - 92, p. 35).
The Welsh Committee of the Festival of Britain supported the museum financially and by the time of the Festival in 1951 they were re-erecting two buildings (Amgueddfa, 1993, p. 15). All the buildings raised have been donations (Peate, 1971, p. 167). Buildings must be offered to the Museum. All in all, approximately fifty buildings are planned.
Next the buildings at the Museum of Welsh Life which can be seen today are listed according to their chronological re-erection, before five selected houses will be interpreted more closely. The information unless otherwise mentioned comes from the latest Museum Handbook[90]:
6.6.14.4 Buildings at the MWL
· 1951: Stryd Lydan barn originally built about 1550. It is a timber-framed barn for threshing corn and storing hay.
· 1953: Esgair-moel woollen mill, built 1760, one of the small mills where farmers took their wool to get cloth[91]. It is a working mill.
· 1953: Kennixton farmhouse, built 1610, is a prosperous farmhouse from south-west Wales. This yeoman's house is red and thatched. The house represents 1790.
· 1955: Abernodwydd farmhouse is a timber-built building, built 1678 from mid-Wales. The furniture is of around 1700[92].
· 1956: Pen-rhiw Unitarian chapel, built 1777 shows an early Welsh Nonconformist architecture. There is no altar, but a pulpit for the preacher.
· 1959: Cilewent farmhouse, built 1470, rebuilt 1734, a long-house which gave shelter to people and animals under one roof, is typical for mid- and south Wales[93].
· 1962: Hendre'r-ywydd Uchaf farmhouse, a timber built building, built 1508 is a better class of farmhouse[94].
· 1962: Llainfadyn, a quarryman's cottage, built 1762, is a home of people who did not have enough land to live off.
· 1968: Tollhouse, built 1772 by the local gentry who built private roads and needed money for them. The house represents 1843 when a series of disturbances against toll roads known as the Rebecca Riots also took place and when tollgates were broken. This is a good example for the siting of a building at the Museum of Welsh Life. The Aberystwyth tollgate house stood at the junction of five roads and it is done so at the museum.
· 1968: Tannery from Rhaedr built in the late eighteenth century. It is the last traditional oak-bark tannery to work in Wales, specialized in heavy leather for boot soles and horse harness[95]. It is not working because of the smells that would develop.
· 1970: Cockpit from Denbigh, Clwyd, where cockerels fought to death after they were trained. It was built in the seventeenth century. Cockfighting used to be a sport.
· 1972: Llawr-y-glyn smithy from Powys was built in the eighteenth century. Horseshoes and household items were made there[96].
· 1977: Circular pigsty from Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan built of dry stone about 1800.
· 1977: Melin Bompren cornmill from Cross Inn, Dyfed, built in 1852. Most cornmills in Wales like this one were operated by water. Dried oats were ground in the mill[97].
· 1977: Hayshed built around 1870 which is a feature from Maentwrog, Gwynedd. Only the richest landlords created such sheds for their tenants.
· 1982: Hendre-wen barn from Llanrwst, Gwynedd, built around 1600.
· 1984: Y Garreg Fawr farmhouse from Waunfawr, Gwynedd, built 1544, has massive slate-block walls.
· 1984: Maestir School from Lampeter, Dyfed, which was used from 1880 until 1916[98].
· 1986: The saddler was important before horses were replaced by cars. The saddler's shop is from St. Clears, Dyfed, built in 1926 and used until 1982.
· 1987: Rhyd-y-car houses from Merthyr Tydful, Mid Glamorgan, built about 1800. It is a row of cottages where iron workers lived. All six houses represent different periods which will be explained in detail later in this thesis in Chapter 6.6.14.4.1.
· 1987: Derwen bakehouse from Aberystwyth, Dyfed, built 1900, is a house where people from the town could bake their bread[99].
· 1988: The summer house which comes from the Cardiff Castle ground and was built about 1880.
· 1988: Ewenni Pottery from near Bridgend. The kiln was built around 1900.
· 1991: Gwalia Stores[100] from Ogmore Vale, Mid Glamorgan.
· 1992: A tailor's workshop from Cross Inn, Dyfed, built 1896, enlarged 1920 where clothes were made. The shop looks as in the beginning of the 1950s.
· 1993: Nant Wallter farmhouse from Taliaris, Dyfed, is a home for poor labourers which would have lived here. The walls are made of mud. It was created around 1770[101].
· 1993: Post office named Blaenwaun from Blaenwaun, Dyfed, was built in 1936. The building in this case is of little architectural interest, but the post office like this was important and typical for Welsh villages (AR, 1992 - 93, p. 39).
· 1994: Sawmill from Llanddewi Brefi, Dyfed, from 1892.
· 1995: The last major re-erection was that of the Oakdale Workmen's Institute from Oakdale, Gwent. It was built in 1916 and was an early form of leisure centre. Miner's Institutes were common during the last century in the south and north-east Wales. This has been the largest and most complex project at MWL (AR, 1994 - 95, p. 21).
· War Memorial to commemorate the First and Second World War re-erected in 1995
· 1992: Celtic Village. Scandinavian open-air museums sometimes interpret Viking times. The site at MWL is surrounded by a palisade and a ditch. Three Iron-Age dwellings based on archaeological evidence have been reconstructed. The Celtic Village projects involved the re-construction of three Iron-Age dwellings.
· In addition a boathouse and a nethouse have been re-constructed on the lines of actual examples, to exhibit fishing gear and boats near a former swimming pool in the seventies.
· Photographic Gallery re-constructed in 1994.
The MWL has a village centre which is located in the position by the smithy, tannery and the tollhouse. The buildings have not been placed to follow a regional pattern, because the museum ground was wooded and the resources to clear-fell it were not available (WFM, 1982, p. 75). It was explained that one often finds a regional layout in European open-air museums such as at Skansen and Cloppenburg.
From the outset the Museum of Welsh Life would contain only re-erected buildings. This is what the memorandum affirms. But later houses were reconstructed such as the boat-house and net-house. The Department of Buildings acquires, removes and re-erects the houses.
The houses accommodate furniture[102] and objects of the period represented inside like tables, chairs, cooking utensils, beds and more. In different buildings fires are lit.
The principle governing the furnishing of re-erected buildings are:
1) All furniture has to be the same period as the house
2) The furniture has to come from the same area as the building
The interiors form an important part of the presentation. Each building is refurbished to a different period. The buildings should appear lived-in and should not look like static exhibits.
Now details of the five chosen houses at the MWL follow.
6.6.14.4.1 The Rhyd-y-car Cottages[103]
The Rhyd-y-car cottages were originally built for workers in an iron-ore mine about 1800 in Merthyr Tydfil which was the most important iron-manufacturing town in the world during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The housing was for workers at the Rhyd-y-car mine by the English ironmaster Crawshay ( Wiliam, 1987, p. 2). All in all, there were twenty-nine Rhyd-y-car cottages which were separated from the town by the Glamorganshire canal (ibid., p. 14). They were of two storeys with an extension to the back (ibid., p. 3). A pigeon loft can be seen and a pigsty as well as the communal bakehouse. They were of better condition than the farmhouses where their inhabitants had lived before (ibid., p. 6).
S. Minwel Tibbott, former member of staff at the Museum of Welsh Life interviewed past inhabitants[104].
In 1979, the houses were damaged by flooding. New homes were given to the families. It was not possible to leave the houses in situ (WFM, 1982, p. 57). Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council offered the houses to the MWL. When they were demolished it was decided to take six.
The re-erection of the house-row at the MWL is important, since it is a turning point from showing mainly rural houses[105], although the museum had collected industrial material before (ibid., p. 57). The interpretation is inspiring, inasmuch as the six houses are shown at different periods: 1805, 1855, 1895, 1925, 1955, and how it would have probably looked like in 1985. In this way, interior changes as well as living alterations can be shown like in the parlour, kitchen, toilets. The changes in the building material and in the gardens are also presented. With this technique it can be explained that a culture is not static (Wiliam, 1987, p. 1). The cottages have been furnished to reflect the changes in the living condition of the working classes in the South Wales industrial valley during the last two hundred years:
The first house at the MWL represents 1805. The inhabitants would have been working as iron-miners. There was no toilet and one could not open the windows. There is a pigsty in the garden (ibid., p. 24). There would be twelve people living in the house, sometimes there were ten children. They used a community baker. Behind the house there was a charnel for washing, cooking and also as a sewage drain. Thus many diseases developed.
The second house displays 1855 where the widow Magaret Rosser lived at that time. She was a milkwoman (ibid., p. 25). There is a small tea-caddie on top of the fireplace. It was very expensive and had cost almost a fortnight's wage. The people of Rhyd-y-car at that time were mono-lingual and devoutly believed in God.
A railway signman lived in the third house of 1895. The trains went to the iron mines. Their home had a toilet in the garden and windows one could open. The inside is Victorian (ibid., p. 26). Yellow brass became popular and decorated this house. Chewing tobacco was popular. In the mines it was absolutely non-smoking, because there was danger of explosion. The families became smaller. The English language influenced the people more. English books could be found inside the houses. There is a water drainage in the house for the first time.
The inhabitants of the first three houses were known then. The last three houses, however, represent hypothetical families and don't explain houses of individuals, because they are still alive or have relatives.
The fourth house represents 1925. The house is divided, one part was simple and the other looked nice for guests. This is known as the "best side" which is one living room. This was fitted with linoleum. There is wallpaper in the main room and tap water is now in the house (ibid., p. 26).
The next house which is the fifth is of 1955 with water in a kitchenette. The family had one child or two children only. There was a small television set. In the garden there is a shed for living, too, while the house is kept for best use (ibid., p. 27).
The sixth house's interior is modern. There is a fridge in the kitchen and a television set in the living room. The roof, windows, rainwater pipes and doors are new. This last house is the first clear contrast of the modern age with the past.
The houses have in common that they are of the same size and have one room under the roof where a spiral staircase leads to. All front doors have been very low, about 1,80 metre.
Thus, the Rhyd-y-car cottages received the Carnegie 'Interpret Britain' Award 1988 for the excellent interpretation (AR, 1988 - 89, p. 25).
6.6.14.4.2 St. Fagans Castle
This is one of the buildings in situ which means that it was shown on its original site (Zippelius, 1974, p. 32). The other in situ house at the MWL is the Llwyn-yr-eos farm which was built from 1820 on and was opened in 1989 (Wiliam, 1991, 1993, p. 14)[106].
"It is obvious that buildings in situ offer clear advantages when used as open-air museums: their original environment remains an integral part of the exhibit" (Ahrens, et al., 1984,p. 107).
On the ground where this Castle now stands there used to be a Norman Castle.
St. Fagans Castle was built in 1580, probably by a lawyer. When seeing it from the air the house looks like the letter "E". This followed a typical Elizabethan plan.
The different histories of the families who lived in the Castle at different times can be told. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, six Earls of Plymouth owned St. Fagans Castle (Wiliam, 1988, p. 32). At one time the children of St. Fagans used to go to school in the Castle. In the nineteenth century they made changes to the building (ibid., p. 37). From 1852 until 1946 it was lived in by the Plymouth family.[107] The Castle was used as a residence in the summer from the beginning until the middle of the twentieth century (ibid., p. 46).
Gwyn Rees, who was interviewed by the writer of this dissertation remembers the time when the the Plymouth family came:
I worked for the Earl of Plymouth. I started working there when I was fourteen years of age. In the gardens all the boys started at fourteen-year-old. We were all youngsters then. And when we started, do you know the house in the gardens, up by the Plymouth Arms? In there that was the head gardener's job. The boys had to go in there in the morning and clean the head gardener's boots and all the family boots, a great range we had to clean, black lead, and we had to wash the kitchen and the back kitchen out, then we had to go, after we done that, we had to go all the way down to the home farm, down by the cricket field, what they call the home farm there and get the milk (...) I lived a mile and a half away. St. Brides. I used a pushbike, it's only a mile and a half. You know where the crossroad is in St.Fagans? You turn left there and it is the next little village: St. Brides-super-Ely it's called (personal correspondence, 2.9.1993).
In a newspaper article from 1965 Mary Ann Dodd describes her thirty years of working at the Castle as a room-maid for the Earl and the Countess of Plymouth (Hereford Evening News, 27.5.1965).
The Prince of Wales and Queen Mary were there in 1938 (Wiliam, 1988, p. 46).
At first at the Museum of Welsh Life, the museum's displays were to be seen inside the Castle in different period rooms (ibid., p. 48). When the museum opened in 1948, it was the main attraction. Then the life of a gentry household of 1730 was told.
Dr. Peate stressed that it was wrong to refer to St. Fagans Castle as the museum, what many people did, because the Castle was only a part of the whole museum.
It was refurbished in 1988 and was re-opened on 1st July by Irene, Countess of Plymouth to mark the fortieth Anniversary of the Museum of Welsh Life. Six other members of the Plymouth family were also present for this occasion (AR, 1988 - 89, p. 24).
Suggestions of new displays were made in 1993, because the tapestry had been wearing away. The Castle could have been shown in seventeenth century style. It was also thought of the early Victorian style, but the most attractive possibility would be the late Victorian period. Galleries of gentry life were suggested in 1992 (Internal Report by T. Alun Davies, 29.1.1993, n. p.). At the museum the Castle represents now the early nineteenth century. Around one can find formal gardens and fields with trees, also fishponds containing carp, bream and trench (Wiliam, 1991, 1993, p. 60).
With this house the museum does not only show the rural life or houses of industrial workers, but also how the rich class of the society lived. Thus the MWL embraces all strata of Welsh society:
(...) it would never have been possible nor desirable to re-erect a house such as St. Fagans, divorced as it would have been from its ancillary structures, gardens and grounds. Today, the term 'Folk Museum' might suggest an institution interested in the deeds of the poor, but a true folk museum should embrace the life of all classes of society, rich and poor alike. The life of the tenant can only be viewed in its proper perspective when compared with the life of the landlord, and as a consequence St. Fagans Castle has always been one of the Folk Museum's premier exhibits (Wiliam, 1988, p. 5).
In the evening lights illuminate the Castle. This was suggested by Geraint Jenkins in 1987 and was translated into action by the former Electrician Gwilym Jones (personal correspondence, 11.10.1993).
The manor-house of Skogaholm in Skansen is similar to the Castle at St. Fagans, but it is only a re-erection.
6.6.14.4.3 Llainfadyn Cottage
This is a one-roomed cottage, typical of the Snowdonia region. It dates from the middle of the eighteenth century (Jenkins, 1992, p. 127). The date 1762 itself is on the fire-place beam. The garden and dry stone walls follow the traditional layout. It was the home of a slate quarryman in Rhostryfan in North Wales. It is furnished in the style of about 1880 which was the "golden age" of the North Wales slate quarries when quarryman Hugh Williams and family lived there. His family was very big. The oldest girl looked after the younger children, the grandparents lived in the house as well. The life expectancy was forty five years[108].
Llainfadyn has been rebuilt in 1962. There are two explanations for the translation of Llainfadyn into English, one is that Llainfadyn is a person's name, second, "llain" in Welsh means a piece of ground and "fadyn" means a female fox, so that "llainfadyn" would be a foxgrove.
6.6.14.4.4 Nant Wallter
Nant Wallter cottage from Taliaris near Llandeilo in Dyfed dates from the mid-eighteenth century. A high amount of building material was required. Its walls are of clom, a mixture of clay, gravel, lime and straw. It is built upon a low foundation of stone. It is a house for people with very little land. It was a smallholding. It is called a cottage and the people were known as cottagers who had built this themselves from poor building material (Wiliam, 1993, p. 10).
Nant Wallter is divided into two rooms by means of a daubed wattle partition, one larger room is the main living area with a large fireplace, and the smaller one is the unheated bedroom. A crude loft above the bedroom may also have been used for sleeping by the children or for storage. The poor quality of furniture reflects the hardship that so many country dwellers faced before the agricultural improvements of the nineteenth century.
Seven acres of land were attached to the house in 1814 when it was occupied by Daniel Daniel and family. Outside there is a pigsty. This was commonly found near cottages for salted bacon which was the staple meat of most country families in those days. Later, a six acre field was added to the smallholding and a small cowshed was built onto the house. During the nineteenth century, the ground floor was re-designed with a small entrance hall giving access to a living room, pantry and bedroom. The last person who lived here, worked on the road and was often drunk. He used to throw mugs inside to see if his wife was still awake. If the mug was thrown back, he had to sleep outside, if not he could sleep in the bed (personal correspondence with Gareth Thomas, 19.8.1997).
The cottages only survived one or two centuries. It is important to note that in the seventeenth century cottagers were half of the population of Wales (Wiliam 1993, p. 11). The cottage took two to three men about a year to complete.
This building has a parallel at Szentendre. The architectures of the Carpathian Basin contains walls built of mud (Balassa, 1976, p. 70).
6.6.14.4.5 Photographic Studio
The photographic studio is a re-creation based on typical late-nineteenth century buildings[109].
Another reconstruction at the Museum of Welsh Life is a cider mill and a press[110] (Wiliam 1991, 1993, p. 53). In this respect it is important to remember what the acualized declaration states about re-creation or replicas:
"Replicas of buildings should not be used in open-air museums except when the originals are not transferable, (...)" (Ahrens, et al., 1984, p. 108).
In the portrait studio there are Welsh period costumes and hats. You can have your photograph taken against the background of Castell Coch. The photograph is mounted sepia toned and the prices vary between £ 10 and £ 18. The studio has been leased to photographer Jonathan Moss-Vernon who has diverse photographic studios at other museums and institutions.
6.6.15 New Building Projects
The medieval Church from Llandeilo Tal-y-bont is being rebuild at the moment. This is St. Teilo's Church. Conservationists were made aware of it in 1982, and the building was dismantled in 1984. It will be refurbished as 1520. The Church dates from the thirteenth century. A number of paintings from the Middle Ages were uncovered from the walls:
"One of the germs of St. Teilo's was the sequence of Biblical walk paintings hidden under the layers of whitewash. The depiction of the Mocking of Christ showing two ugly men spitting at Christ, is thought to be the only surviving wall painting of this scene in the U. K." (South Wales Evening Post, 7.2.1997).
One painting was over the other separated by a limewash layer (Calendr, 1997, p. 8).
Also intended is a late mediaeval Haverfordwest house, farm buildings for Kennixton, Abernodwydd and other farmsteads, a bank, another Chapel, a police station, a pub, shops and an Italian café.
Around the buildings period gardens are sometimes re-erected. Gardens were of great importance in rural life for growing vegetables and herbs.
6.6.16 Interpretation
The question is now if there is interpretation of the buildings and the objects displayed. The visitors should be told about the people who used the cottage. Aspects of the houses need to be explained. At all big open-air museums are museum guides available, sometimes detailed guide and also short guides (Zippelius, 1976, p. 61).
6.6.16.1 Presentation Philosophy
· no glass cases
· no ropes
· no labels
Visitors enter the house of the period. No labels are visible in a re-erected building at the Museum of Welsh Life, and ideally there are no barriers or ropes except in the Castle.
6.6.16.2 The Guide
The main medium at MWL is also the guide and there are other museum publications on individual houses and on traditions available.
At Skansen, Szentendre, Cloppenburg and Lyngby are monographs as well as the guides.
Personnel in large open-air museums should be able to accompany museum visitors as guides. At some museums there are guided tours like at Skansen through the whole museum grounds or tours with one feature like at Avoncroft (Zippelius, 1976, p. 62). At open-air museums could be information centres where lectures could be held and films could be shown (ibid., p. 62). Sometimes special lectures are arranged at the MWL and films can be seen.
There is a reference book at MWL kept in every house with more detailed information. Before one enters the buildings at St. Fagans, there is an information board outside for the individual house. All explanations are bilingual with the Welsh text on the left side and the English equivalent on the right. In almost every building there is a warder who has to look after the house and to talk to the visitors.
6.6.16.3 The Warders
The Welsh word for warder is "gofalwr" which means the one who takes care of. It can be interpreted as the one who takes not only care of the building, but of the visitors also. The warders were called attendants for some time.Dr. Peate received letters congratulating the museum on the courtesy and helpful guidance of the warding staff (WM, 17.3.1966). They used to wear uniforms, now they wear bordeaux-red coloured suits. Today, they are there mainly for security, but the majority of them also talk to the visitors. There is emphasis on interpretation.
"Our warding staff are on one hand to provide help and information, and to safeguard the collections on behalf of the public. Please ask them for any help or information you require, and be prepared to follow any instructions they may give" (Ford, 1995, p. 6).
A little survey was carried out by the writer of the thesis in August 1997. Questionnaires were distributed to twenty of the warding staff which should make clear their role at the museum. The answers should give an insight into their views on the MWL. This survey is not representative, because of the small scale. Only five questionnaires have been filled out and returned to the writer which was very disappointing.
They all regard one of their main functions the safeguarding of the individual house and contents. Some also feel they have to act as an interpreter, which is to those who have answered the questionnaires even more important than the security. This means they are all aware that they can play an important role concerning customer service. They should make every effort towards ensuring that visitors will regard their stay at the MWL as a most enjoyable and memorable one. It was also found out through the questionnaires that those who answered them all feel confident when answering visitors' question. Most found the co-operation between the warders and the office staff helpful and quite good. Nevertheless there were also complaints that some office staff were living in "ivory towers" of academia, totally disparaging warders' opinions. This would result in an erosion of interest from warders if their comments were ignored. The archivist Arwyn Lloyd-Hughes himself said to the writer of the thesis that the warders were only there for the security which is a contradiction to the statement in the new museum charter quoted above.
6.6.17 Recording Oral Traditions
Wales has undergone a great cultural transformation with the decline in the Welsh language.
Radio, television[111] and bus communications have influenced the Welsh community which means that many Welshmen became bilingual who once used to speak only Welsh at home and in their villages. The medium of television came into people's houses in the 1950s[112]. Surveys of oral traditions were begun at the WFM late in 1957.
Dr. Peate thought:
"(...) it is not enough to have a plough without also knowing the dialect names for all its parts" ( Stevens, 1986,p. 70).
Already in the mid-thirties Dr. Peate saw the importance of the systematic collection of Welsh terms:
May I emphasize too that there is much to be done as a corollary to the collection of actual museum exhibits. In Wales, we have the Welsh language with its dialects, in them we find agricultural and craft and technical terms varying from region to region, and the systematic collection is of the greatest importance for the elucidation of our history (Peate, 1935, n. p.).
This was to accomplish the study of the material culture. Geraint Jenkins, for example, stresses the relationship between the oral traditions in the community and the life of the people:
"I do not of course think for one moment that the oral traditions of a given community can be studied in isolation from the life of that community as a whole, (...)" (Jenkins, 1963, p. 77).
6.6.17.1 Field Work
This survey is known as field work which is the systematic inquiry of own data on the spot where it occurs (Brednich, 1988, p. 82). Social research understands an interview as a methodical attempt with scientific aims, where the informants should give verbal information through direct questions (Brednich, 1988, p. 85). An alternative affords the open interview (ibid., p. 86). At the Museum of Welsh Life the method of the structured interview has been used in field work.
Domestic and agricultural words were regarded as important as well as those concerning crafts and the cultural life of Wales (WFM, 1983, p. 4).
6.6.17.2 Field Work in Wales
The Welsh Survey of Oral Traditions begun in 1957. In 1963, the Departments of Oral Traditions and Dialects and of Material Culture were arranged at the WFM (WFM, 1983, p. 47). An example of recording are the works carried out by D. Roy Saer who specialized in Plygain carols and by Robin Gwyndaf who collected material on folk narratives (AR, 1966 - 67, pp. 42 - 43).
The research became urgent, because word forms disappear faster than material objects. The same was the case in Scandinavian countries where new staff had also been employed (AR, 1959 - 60, p. 38). Artur Hazelius stressed the importance of oral traditions[113]. In Sweden, they were looking for words in the second half of the nineteenth century, because at that time changes in society had started to become apparent:
"Generally, we have concentrated upon the latter half of the 19th century as being the epoch when modern transformation begun but did not yet succeed in destroying all ancient local features" (Erixon, 1956, p. 50).
In the middle of the last century, philology and linguistics had been studied in Sweden and Swedish dialects were investigated. Poetry, legends and tales were studied, too (WFM, 1983, p. 14). It was the same case in Norway and Finland that legends, tales and song had been recognized as important subjects.Dr. Peate saw the necessity of surveying the oral traditions. His belief was strengthened by the institutes at Stockholm, Uppsala and Lund (Peate, 1971,p. 171).
The material at the MWL has been classified in the archive according to the Swedish pattern of the Lansmåls-och Folksminnesarkivet in Uppsala where Trefor Owen studied the classification (ibid., p. 56). Robin Gwyndaf has also visited Scandinavian centres of folk life studies. Discussions took place with members of folklore and dialect archives (AR, 1966 - 67, p. 44). In 1970, the archivist Delwyn Tibbott, participated at the Annual Conference of the Society for Folk Life Studies, where he visited the archive of the Irish Folklore Commission (AR, 1970 - 71, p. 33).
6.6.17.3 The Recording at the MWL
For Trefor Owen it was "the recording of past social conditions" (Owen, 1966, p. 85). It is believed that the traditions of the rural British society before the First World War can be linked to an ancient society (Jenkins, 1969, p. 8).
In 1956, Vincent H. Phillips was appointed Assistant Curator at the WFM. He was responsible for the recording of oral traditions and dialects. The recording can be divided into three sections:
1) Pattern of livelihood and household support. This can be subdivided into:
a) Domestic life and economy: food system, folk medicine,
b) the pattern of agriculture,
c) crafts
2) The lore of everyday life, e. g.: customs, believes, songs. tales, rhymes and games. Research has been done on narratives, legends, anecdotes, proverbs, ballads.
3) The language of everyday life:
a) dialects
b) vocabulary of agriculture, crafts and domestic life (WFM, 1983, pp. 41 - 42).
In the beginning the work was only carried out by Vincent Phillips[114] and the archivist, together with some voluntary collectors (AR, 1959 - 60, p. 38). For this completion, however, more staff was employed. They had to travel through Wales and visited villages in order to gain information from the local people and made interviews with tape recordings. In 1958, a radio appeal by Prof. Griffith John Williams, on behalf of the Survey of Oral Traditions of the WFM was made:
"We have in St. Fagans one of the half dozen best national collections in the world. This is a great achievement. But a folk museum must illustrate not only the material side of life and culture, but also the activities of the mind and spirit (...)" (tape MWL 71 G1C 570 - 24).
6.6.17.4 Presentation the Collecting of Oral Traditions
The collection can be used by the public and by researchers alike. It has been used by the students of folk studies (AR, 1992 - 93, pp. 36 - 37) in an MA course which the MWL has offered together with the University of Wales Cardiff since the autumn of 1992. Moreover the museum has the chance to present the Welsh language to visitors from abroad.
Of each recording a master-copy has been made which is stored outside the museum. Advice in several archives in Europe was sought (AR, 1965 - 66,p. 43).
6.6.17.5 Examples of Recording Oral Traditions in Wales
One example of recording oral traditions is the study of the Tre-lech area of west Carmarthenshire where the cultural development from childhood to manhood was made (Scourfield, 1972, p. 55 - 58). Here difficulties in the method of recording became obvious that the informants cannot remember the whole story or that they select material.
Between 1991 and 1992 recording has been made in Dyfed, Gwynedd and Clwyd (AR, 1991 - 92, p. 38). In the year 1992 and 1993 the Department of Farming, Crafts and Cultural Life copied the whole tape collections. The old tapes were suffering from deterioration (AR, 1992 - 93, p. 43). A computer database documents this conservation work and audits sound archive transcriptions[115]. In 1993 there was a binder breakdown problem with polyester-based tapes. Some tapes could not be played anymore. With DAT[116]-recorders many tapes have been digitally recorded (Amgueddfa 17, 1994, p. 7).
There is a Sound Studio at the Museum of Welsh Life, but the staff prefers to make interviews at people's homes. The collection of tape recordings at the MWL is the definitive oral record of the Welsh language and its dialects.
The number of field-work/archive tapes is 8,600. A second copy of the tapes is stored outside the MWL. A digital copy (DAT) of the tapes is also available, stored at the museum. 2,600 of the tapes have been fully transcribed. There are 1,200 off-air recordings of radio broadcast, 1,000 disks/cassettes (mainly commercial) and 200 phonograph cylinders.
6.6.18 Films and Photographs at the MWL
Films and photographs are complement material to the oral recordings. The systematic photography programme collection has begun in 1994 (AR,1994 - 95, p. 23).
There are 260 off-air video copies of television broadcasts. Furthermore there are circa 150,000 black and white prints, more than 150,000 negatives and 28,000 coloured transparencies.
6.6.19 Events
The MWL has organized special events. Juli Paschalis is the Events Officer. She has been appointed to the staff in 1996 and organises the events and the fairs. There have been a number of events which can be understood as interpretatory help for the contents of the museum. In this place belong events such as showing working craftsmen, including farming, traditional customs that are celebrated every year at the museum.
The idea of filling the European open-air museums with life has been kept from the beginning until today.
6.6.19.1 Events at Skansen
Dr. Peate wrote:
"Do not ponder over the reason why the old houses and rooms at Skansen give you so much pleasure! They are comforting and stimulating because they suggest life, not death, life not only in the houses but also outside, for Skansen attracts people who are full of zest for living" (Peate, 1948,p. 21).
Hazelius had the idea of showing people in costumes inside the buildings[117]. This is not practiced at the MWL.
6.6.19.2 Events at the MWL
At the MWL there are craftsmen on which a separate chapter has been compiled, sports and competitive games can sometimes be seen. Visitors have also been explained about traditional Welsh baking and cooking, using old recipes and utensils.
In the middle of the 1980s the Curator Geraint Jenkins wanted to bring the museum to life with people inside the buildings, as the following quotation shows:
"The best way to interpret is a human touch", said Dr. Jenkins, "We need people in the re-erected buildings to bring them to life for visitors with tales about former inhabitants and the history of the buildings themselves" (WM, 23.3.1987).
6.6.19.2.1 Ponycart and Train
There have been rides in a four wheeled trap since 1987 and there has been a train going round the site since 1993. The idea of the train was to make it better for people who are not able to walk such long distances to get more easily from one part to the other at the museum.
6.6.19.2.2 Theatre
Live interpretation has been introduced at the Castle at MWL in 1994 with actors performing role plays and guided tours through the castle (AR,1994 - 95, p. 22). Solo performances called "Characters in Cottages" have been introduced in spring 1997 where the lives of people who could have lived in the buildings are re-created. The buildings chosen for this are Cilewent farmhouse[118], Pen-Rhiw Chapel[119], the Cockpit[120], Abernodwydd farmhouse[121], Nant Wallter Cottage[122] and Kennixton farmhouse[123].
6.6.19.2.3 Storytelling
Since the summer of 1995 two storytellers tell Welsh stories in English and in Welsh at Nant Wallter Cottages three times every Monday and Friday[124].
6.6.20 Crafts
The museum is the foremost centre of collection[125], research and display of rural crafts in the British Isles. Over sixty five crafts are represented in the collection (Williams-Davies, 1989, p. 215).
6.6.20.1 The Craftsman
The craftsman was a specialist who supplied the people with everyday utilities. He worked without machines in an old tradition (Jenkins, 1978, pp. 1 - 5). With the modern production methods, advertising and also with transport, the work of a great number of craftsmen died (ibid., p. 13). The museum has been recording disappearing crafts and since the early 1950's, craft demonstrations have belonged to the museum's programme. In the Middle Ages the Welsh craftsmen were honoured by having a seat at the Prince's court next to the poet and the priest (Williams-Davies, 1989, p. 215). The craftsman fulfilled the society's needs who supplied it with everyday requirements. In his items beauty and utility can be found together. He works in an old tradition. With the coming of the mass production, advertising and transport the death for many craftsmen came (Jenkins, 1965, pp. 1 - 13).
6.6.20.2 The Crafts at the MWL
In his book Amgueddfeydd Gwerin/Folk Museums he writes:
"In the craft workshops, each significant craft in Welsh life will be represented in the course of time" (Peate, 1948, p. 55).
Here a list of all the crafts displayed at the MWL today is given. A distinction has been made between staff and franchise holders:
1) Staff:
a) the cooper who has been producing domestic woodwork,
b) the woodturner who must make watertight casks and ensure that they hold exact contents of liquid (Jenkins, pp. 89 - 103).
c) the woollen miller,
d) the flour miller,
e) the saddler. Also in 1988, a saddler began to work at the MWL who mainly makes saddles and repairs them.
2) Franchise:
a) the baker who produces cake and bread. Christine Gough's bread is organic. Her large white, crusty loaf can last up to two weeks.
b) the blacksmith who shoed the horses, made and repaired farm and domestic equipment. A blacksmith was employed in 1988. He makes traditional rush-light holders and hinges for old gates to tools.
c) the potter who made day-to-day necessities like drinking mugs.
d) the clogmaker who produces footwear from wood. Clog-making has been shown since 1988. Hywel Davies who has been working at the MWL is the last professional clogmaker in Wales.
e) the tannery can't be in production because of the smells.
The tools of the tannery, however, as well as of the mills are equipped with their original tools and machinery. The smithy and saddler's shop contain material from the collection. It is also important to note that the craftsmen use the tools appropriate to the period of the buildings
One of the most important industries until the First World War, was the woollen-industry, but also the cooper, the saddler and the woodturner played an important role in the Welsh villages (Wiliam, 1988, p. 20). They produced farm equipment and tools. The pottery industry was also important. There was clay near the coalfields where enough fuel for the firing of kilns was (Jenkins, 1992, p. 35).
Many rural workshops disappeared, because they were distant from the bigger towns. In the Castle yard the visitors can watch the craftsmen such as the woodturner (who has been working on the traditional pole lathe and also on a modern electrical lathe; the bowls are based on traditional designs), the cooper and the clogmaker at work. It was thought in the beginning of the eighties to transfer them into re-erected buildings. The museum staff at that time, too, wanted to have a charcoal-burners' hut, a lime kiln and a corn kiln (WFM, 1982, p. 66).
Dr. Peate was interested in the craftsmen. He described them in his poetry[126] (Stevens, 1986, p. 18). He had nostalgic views about them which has been criticized (Bassett, 1966, n. p.). The criticism was about the craftsman being a lonely man.
There have been regular programmes of demonstrations by outside craftsmen. For example, twenty eight demonstrations were arranged extra by the MWL in 1992 (AR, 1992 - 93, p. 40).
Some open-air museums expect much of the active inclusion in those working procedures (Zippelius, 1991, p. 38). The visitors at St. Fagans have thus the opportunity to grind corn in the Bompren corn mill and can make their own pottery.
6.6.20.3 The Showing of Crafts
It is a matter of demonstrating the techniques of the various craftsmen assisted in the interpretation of the craft and not the bringing to life of ostensible presentation. The showing of crafts miss their meaning when set under the pressure of commercial interests. Still craft- and cooking demonstrations can convey an impression of the various everyday life processes. These activities, however, are in every form entertaining accessories that do not replace the historical workaday routine, since some aspects are lost forever. One cannot offer smells, the inhabitants do not live anymore and the dirt that springs up when working is not there anymore. Everyday life does not take place, it is just enacted. The third Curator of the WFM realized the problem as the following quotation shows:
"A slowly revolving water-wheel driving creaking mill machinery; sparks flying from a blacksmith's anvil, (...), all add up to the nostalgia that one associates with the leisurely pace of 'ye olde country life' " (Jenkins, 1992, p. 31).
Nowadays, John Owen Huws, the visitor service manager looks after the craftsmen on the site.
6.6.21 Farming[127]
Besides the explanation of crafts, farming has also been interpreted at the MWL. Welsh Black cattle can be seen as well as Black Welsh Mountain sheep[128] and Hill Radnor sheep, which have replaced Llanwenog sheep[129], and geese, ducks, hens, cockerels, pigs and piglets. Sheep-shearing can be witnessed on special days. The sheep also serve a practical purpose, because they spare the cutting of the fields they graze on.
Beekeeping played a very important role in farming in Wales. It was the only type of sweetener until sugar was imported. Therefore beekeeping is explained in the garden of Llwyn-yr-eos farmhouse (Toulson, 1977, p. 24).
6.6.22 Festivals
The first festival was in 1951. It was a result of an invitation from the Welsh Committee of the "Festival of Britain" to hold a "Festival of St. Fagans" (Amgueddfa, Autumn, 1993, p. 24). For five weeks there were concerts, lectures, folk dance and exhibitions of crafts and quilting. The celebration of festivals marks the occasion of importance according to the Welsh calendar:
· Ffair Fai - The May Fair
· Gwyl Ifan - The Summer Festival
· Gwyl Fihangel - The Harvest Festival
· Y Goeden Nadolig - The Christmas Tree Celebration
Folk dancing, craft exhibitions, demonstrations, competitions, lectures, theatre were merged in the permanent programme of the Museum of Welsh Life (Bassett, 1984, p. 49). In 1997, there was an open-air museum promenade performance by the English Playtour Theatre of the Lord of the Rings Part 111 Return of the King from the book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was a walkabout performance where the audience walked approximately 1,5 miles.
6.6.22.1 The May Fair
The May Fair has been celebrated since 1986 now. Geraint Jenkins saw the May Day as an occasion of great importance in Welsh history, because it marked the beginning of summer when people depended on the nature (WM, 28.4.1987).
Music and folk dancing is made then.
"Folk dance in Wales which provided entertaining whilst the ritual dance was associated with rites like the raising of the Maypole on Mayday" (Wiliam, 1988, p. 3).
The May Fair 1997 was celebrated on three consecutive days, starting at ten in the morning until five o 'clock in the evening. In the entrance hall were craft demonstrations such as spinning, making rocking horses and the making of corn dollies was shown as well as wood carving. Also there are numerous groups of folk dancers. Music and folk dancing was performed outside the Llwyn-yr-eos farmhouse while inside in the kitchen, traditional baking was explained.
In front of the farmhouse Cilewent there were the following attractions: children's workshops, balloon modelling, percussion drumming (Brazilian boxed percussion), circus skills, comedy and a band. There was a Victorian fairground, an agricultural machines display, horse and trap rides. On the village green they were raising the Maypole. There were activities for children in the school and in the tannery. More attractions could be found in some of the other houses and near the castle. Other open-air museums set up their maypole, too. Here just two examples should be mentioned which is the open-air museum in Salzburg and the one in Glentleiten in Bavaria (Conrad, 1988, p. 47).
6.6.22.2 The Summer Festival
Every year they have the midsummer festival Gwyl Ifan when the summer birch is raised (AR, 1992 - 93, p. 40).
On 30th October 1993, the museum took part in the national "apple day" celebrations. Attractions were baking and cooking with apples and upkeep of apple trees. Cider-making was shown (ibid.).
6.6.22.3 The Harvest Festival
It was celebrated in 1987 for the first time. Visitors have been able to watch the harvest being threshed, corn dollies being made and see rope weaving from straw and hay. Tractors and engines have been shown and rag rug making. There is also a Harvest Thanksgiving Service held in the chapel. Furthermore, there are special exhibitions. In 1997, on 31st October, Halloween celebrations were held for the first time with ghost tours on the site, Iron Age re-enactment in the Celtic village and more.
6.6.22.4 The Christmas Tree Celebration
In 1987, the Christmas Tree Celebration were held for the first time. There has always been a big Christmas tree brought into the museum[130].
For three nights every house is decorated with periodic Christmas decorations[131]. Folk dancing can be seen and craft exhibitions, visitors have the chance to attend a Welsh carol singing service in the Chapel. At the Llwyn-yr-eos farmhouse, cooking is demonstrated. There are workshops for children and bands play Christmas carols. At Cilewent there is Siôn Corn, the Welsh Father Christmas, handing out treacle toffee and stalls are at the MWL.
In the autumn of 1995, Juli Paschalis started to work as an Events Officer. She is organizing the festivals now. Moreover, she is responsible for the summer storytelling, has to arrange the Craft Saturdays when craftsmen display their objects once a month. Juli Paschalis also plans holiday workshops for the children (Personal correspondence, 13.10.1997).
Lately the re-enactment of weddings into open-air museums enjoys some popularity at the MWL since 1995.
A tendency begins to show of making culture more attractive to museum visitors. There are two reasons for this. One can be the honest pursuit of cultural interest in a hasty twentieth century and to drag the visitor out of his everyday life. The second objective can be the striving for acquiring financial means in order to cover at least a part of the arising costs (Otakar, 1988, p. 45). Here lies the danger that these tendencies become predominant. The attractions used in this manner can be harmful for the education and aims of the institution.
There have been festivals at European open-air museums since the foundation period. At Skansen, annual celebrations have always taken place with performances on the stage and the exhibition of Nordic animals as well as exotic animals (Larsson, et al., 1991, p. 6). At Skansen in its early days Swedish theatre plays were shown (Peate, 1948, p. 21).
It was to include not merely varying regional forms of vernacular building, but typical wild life of the country. The zoo which now has little relation to indigenous wild life, together with folk dancing, youth festivals, and other organized events, attracts far more people than the buildings for which the museum was originally planned - a major tourist attraction, but hardly what its first promoters intended (Armstrong, n. d., n. p.).
6.6.23 Marketing
The museum staff has to communicate with the visitors. Publicity and marketing are important. The marketing staff investigates the visitor's needs. They want to bring visitors to St. Fagans. In the beginning there was no Marketing Department and that was because there were no admission charges and marketing was a new subject.
The MWL has to compete with other visitor's attractions. It sees itself in main competition with:
· Llanciach Fawr
· Rhondda Heritage Park
· Cardiff Bay
· Castell Coch and the
· bay developments in Bristol
(personal correspondence with the head of marketing at the NMGW,Huw Thomas, 27.8.1997).
Nowadays, the Marketing Department produces leaflets with people on them, with more details on the events to make the museum look more interesting and appealing. Sometimes the Department does not don't have the money to do the work. For example, posters can be very expensive.
First, the WFM had its own Marketing Department, then it was all done by the National Museum's Department in Cathays Park in central Cardiff. In 1996, the Marketing Department came to St. Fagans and works from the Garden House. It is responsible for the whole NMGW. In 1985 there was a small marketing department in St. Fagans. Then they moved to Cathays. Seven people together with the press work in the marketing department. This information has been given by Hugh Thomas, the Marketing Manager.
The NMGW has got a Corporate Identity (Cf. Runyard, 1994, p. 27). Each of the ten icons represents one of the museum's subject areas: Archaeology and Numismatics, Art, Botany, Folk life, Geology, Industry, Maritime, Slate, Craft and Zoology. The MWL is represented by the house and the spinning wheel. To reach audiences the museum advertises its activities (ibid,. 1994, p. 17). There have been many press reports[132] since the foundation of the WFM.
Broadcast media reports give an idea of bi-media, namely television and radio publicity attained on a weekly and monthly basis[133].
6.6.24 Visitors
The museum is intended to serve the visitors. The exhibits should appeal to them and they should learn something and enjoy the stay. One has to bear in mind that some visitors might have a previous knowledge of an exhibition whereas others are uninformed. Also Geraint Jenkins was of the opinion that the MWL is for its visitors:
"I want people to come to the museum and use it; I want it to have a lived-in atmosphere" (WM, 22.5.1987).
6.6.24.1 Visitor Surveys
A survey between June and September 1973 has been carried out by the Wales Tourist Board in order to find out what kind of people visit the MWL. For this a questionnaire was compiled and 828 interviews have been done. The result was that more than half of the visitors are holiday-makers and that they had an upper-market socio-economic profile, tended to be family groups with children.
The most important source of holiday visitors was the South East of England, but the majority of day visitors were living in Wales. A high number came from abroad. They came because they were interested in folk museums, wanted to find out about Welsh life and history, because of the weather, somewhere to take the children and other reasons (Brown, 1973, p. 7).
Another survey investigated the amount of time spent at the Museum of Welsh Life. A third of the visitor survey respondents had spent less than two hours there, but a fifth had spent four hours or more. The lengths of time spent inside each building were short: most visitors spend around three minutes in the chapel, and two and a half minutes in the woollen mill. They spent a long time in the Castle gardens (Brown, 1986, p. 127).
The Internal Site Management Team from July 1986 reviews the day-to-day running of the museum's activities from the standpoint of visitors.
Every museum is used by different groups in different ways (Hooper-Greenhill, 1990, p. 230). Difficult is the question of education for clubs and societies whose members do not really want to gain any new insights, but at the most get a general idea or simply relax instead or who just wanted to have been there once (Eugen, 1984, p. 134).
The type of visitors to museums has been changing over the years:
"By 2000, every one over 50 will have been brought up in an era of wider access to education and training, rising standard of living and expectations, increasing leisure time and access to cars, (...)" (Middleton, 1991, p. 140).
Museums work in a new agressive leisure market (Hooper-Greenhill, 1990, p. 230). No museum gets around referring to the development of the number of visitors as an important indicator for the success of the institution. At the same time, one has to take into consideration that those numbers might reflect many influences that are independent of the museum like the political situation, the general economic situation, the exchange rate situation, competition of other attractions and events or the weather.
The number of visitors is also dependent on the attractivity of the annual programme. At the MWL, as at other European open-air museums, it is very busy in the summer and quiet more in the winter.
6.6.24.2 Personal Study
Visitor's questionnaires were distributed on the museum site on three sunny days in the middle of August by the writer of the thesis and were explained to the people by the writer. It was hoped to achieve some new and most of all own understanding of visitors through field work. Sixty five of three hundred distributed notes were returned and could finally be analyzed. It has to be stressed, however, that because of the small scale of the questionnaires, the results give only a very limited declaration and are under no circumstances representative.
This is what the writer of the thesis found out:
More than half of the people interviewed were from Wales, the second biggest group from England. Visitors from the USA, Ireland Japan, France, Belgium and Germany also filled out the questionnaire.
The first question wanted to know the reason for their visit. Many claimed that they wanted to have a good day out; were interested in Welsh history (to see their heritage and history on display); others brought visitors; some wrote that the museum was recommended (e. g. in a Briton magazine "Ar Men" or by a B & B landlady), one person wanted to see the exhibition on folk dance. Some came for a second visit or had even visited the museum frequently over the years.
The second question was what they saw. Most looked at the buildings and some saw the exhibitions on folk dance; some had mainly visited the Castle gardens.
The third question was if what they saw was what they had expected they would see. Most answered with yes; some wrote no - it was much better; there were no craftsmen that day and people were disappointed; Americans would have enjoyed people wearing costumes; one family expected just a museum building.
Most claimed that they were generally interested in museums and social history, but some said they were not as a rule.
Most people stayed for five hours; some spent a whole day and four claimed to have been there for only two hours.
Another point the writer was interested in was what they liked most. Twelve people said their favourite part were the Rhyd-y-car miner's cottages; one man enjoyed the old dental equipment; the Oakdale miner's institute was what other people were interested in and enjoyed most; others claimed the gardens; the Esgair moel woollen mill; the school; the pottery; the warder from Llandysul with the coracles; Christine, the baker; storytelling; costume gallery; ponycart ride and animals.
Visitors knew other places like the MWL. Those were the Weald and Downland open-air museum (but thought the MWL was better); Ironbridge Beamish; Avoncroft; Meiji-mura in Japan; Colonial Williamsburg; Ballenberg in Switzerland; Maihaugen in Norway; Skansen; Upper Canada Village Morriston; Glentleiten in Germany; the Estonian Folk Museum and Bokrijk in Belgium.
The last question was about the name of the museum: "The Museum used to be called the WFM and changed to MWL. Which name do you find better and why?" Twenty seven wrote MWL. The reasons were that the name MWL gives a true picture of all aspects of life throughout Wales and that it does not refer just to folk; MWL covers the industrial and agricultural past and present. One man said to the writer that the term "folk museum" seems a little dull. Seventeen of the people favoured WFM, because it was a better description of its objectives; people were used to the old name; some wrote WFM was a better translation of the Welsh; WFM suggested cultural inheritance. One woman said that Welsh Folk Life would sound best. One answer was that a MWL would suggest a stereotypical image of Wales in a Walt Disney setting; somebody stated that the name St. Fagans should be retained - not only as it is familiar, but also as an identity. For the rest of the people the name was not important or they found both terms appropriate.
6.6.24.3 Number of Visitors
The numbers of visitors has grown over the years of the existence of the MWL. School parties also boosted the visitor's figures up.
6.6.25 Education
As said before, the museum is an educational facility. Among the private visitors are also students and school children.
Already Dr. Peate had dreamt of a University connection, a Department of Folk Life Studies like in Scandinavia at Uppsala and Lund, and he lectured at Welsh Universities in the 1930s (Stevens, 1986, p. 71). But it was not before 1992 when the museum started to offer an MA in Welsh Ethnological Studies together with the Department of Welsh at the University of Wales[134].
6.6.25.1 The National Museum of Wales School Service
The "National Museum of Wales School Service" has been in existence for over forty years. Its aims are: "to teach, to interest and to inspire, through objects" (Winstanley, 1967, p. 28). But the education service at MWL itself began in 1972 with the appointment of a Schools Officer (Owen 1976, p. 101). The size of school groups has a limit. Only one group is allowed to come in per day. Museum material such as models and duplicate objects are also send to Welsh schools. Pupils visit the museum with their teachers. Between 1995 and 1996, 90,000 children in organized school groups have visited. The teachers have to concentrate on a specific theme before visiting which relates to school work (Ambrose, 1987, appendix). Free preview visits to St. Fagans can be arranged for teachers. It has to be a working day and not a day out, the writer has been told by the Education Officer Matthew Davies (personal correspondence, 28.8.1997).
The Report on the Conference of the Association of European Open Air Museums 1966 - 1972 mentions that the Belgian museum at Bokrijk has regular contact with a school for teachers (Zippelius, 1973, p. 15). At the MWL there are teachers who come on placement for a whole week, the writer of this thesis has been told by the former Education Officer Walter Jones. The courses are called "INSET-courses"[135] which means in service training for teachers. Some activities on the site such as the Maestir School Role Play where children can wear the Victorian costumes and attend a Victorian lesson and the Celtic Village Workshop are only available to teachers who have attended the course. The teachers get a teaching pack like on the Gwalia store. There are a large number of packs for children up to fourteen years of age.
The Education Department aims to develop an awareness of the past by comparing buildings and artefacts in the collection to the homes and objects of today compare it with today. The pupils get work-sheets which they may use in the museum to help with their studies. There are work-sheets in the Welsh language, in English, French and in German, which the writer of this dissertation had translated. The school groups can see the theatre performances under the title "Characters in cottages" and demonstration sessions of craftsmen. A folk dancing training is to be arranged for teachers, so that they could teach folk dancing at school. Other study days have been arranged[136]. It is a change for children to learn at the museum instead of studying at school as this quotation shows:
"Work-sheets provoke questions and discussion and so provide a far more valuable vehicle for imparting knowledge than the formal lecture given in a classroom atmosphere with children sitting in rows" (Ambrose, 1987, p. 27).
Moreover, the original objects are very valuable in order to explain their meaning.
The teachers are told by museum staff how the visit can be supplemented by using objects in class (AR, 1992 - 93, p. 55).
At the MWL role-play activity is embedded in the educational programme of the museum aimed mainly at school classes. Teachers are trained in the Maestir school to enable the performancing (AR, 1992 - 93, p. 55). Acting can ease the access to the institution museum. It can also help to motivate the children for the subject of history in school or promote the co-operative behaviour between pupils. Through playing, history can come alive (Zippelius, 1981, p. 38).
The museum now has a theatre which is currently developing performances for the site of MWL. The Education Department develops a range of exciting activities for school parties which include role play (Maestir School), "hands on" workshops (Celtic village), demonstration sessions (Grandma's Washday) and handling artefacts. The Education Department at MWL intends to develop unique educational resources to facilitate learning in schools and to answer the requirements of the Curriculum Cymraeg[137]and the National Curriculum[138].
Not expected in open-air museums is the oppressed whispering which used to be typical in museums of the past (Eugen, 1984, p. 138). Instead, entertainment at MWL is used as an educational method, because the staff believes that learning is best done when people are enjoying themselves.
7 COMMERCIALIZATION
Starting point of the commercialization was the success of the open-air museums in the sixties (Bedal 1996, p. 36). The discussion about business-making in open-air museums seems to be piquant, because the cultural historical institutions have tried at the same time to appeal to a broader strata of society.
The visitor boom woke the economical desires to see open-air museums as lucrative revenue sources. The term commercialization means to subordinate one area purely to economical interests in order to make profit (ibid., p. 37). Admission fees, publications are connected with the immediate contents of the museum and cannot be seen from the sole angle of profit-making. Here the money is needed in order to decrease the museum deficit and the education plays the most important part.
The orientation towards consumption does not agree with the museum's purposes. The rural people in the past were not consumption-orientated, but were a self-supporting society instead which means it was not an affluent community, but a shortage one (ibid., p. 38).
The sale of souvenirs needs to be mentioned in this context. With the buying of such products, the sale inevitably pushes the information in the background. Visitors like to take something from the museum at home with themselves.
At the German museum in Cloppenburg they did an experiment once a year since 1975 where they placed the museum at the disposal of a family with children. They could live in one of the museum's buildings and spent their holiday there without having to pay for it. The condition was that all members of the family dispense with every comfort modern life offers. The social group was changed every year. In doing such a thing it can be feared that the adventure covers up the historical truth.
Also at the MWL the facilities are used for commercial purposes like corporate hospitality and weddings. Inside the Gwalia there is a shop where the visitor can buy posters, postcards and Welsh gifts. Historic buildings at the MWL in the future will be re-erected with a commercial interest, such as a pub, the writer of the thesis heard staff saying.
In Britain it is viewed that museums should be open to social changes, whereas in Germany it is thought that activities should be in accordance with museum definitions in times of shortage of money (AEOM, 1993, p. 17).
8 The Criticism of European Open-air Museum
Now the writer of the thesis will write about open-air museum criticism in general with a closer discussion of positive and negative points at the MWL.
Bibliographies, memories, working and living in the past, family life in the house, the story of food and drink find acceptance among open-air museum visitors. An identification with their own history can become possible through this form of history that contains every-day life and names concrete things.
8.1 The "Living Museum" or the Dead Interiors
The presentation should be real, some museum staff would say as real as possible. Here the experts argue. One can be of the opinion that the visitors should get the impression the owners of the buildings were still at work on the fields and could be coming back every minute. Another view is that one has to make clear that the interiors are dead. The first view is about a "living museum" whereas the second means that life and work are under no circumstances reproducible and as Stefan Baumeier remarks that research and documentation of the historic truth has its limits (Handschuh, 1990, p. 3).
8.2 The Presentation
Geraint Jenkins anticipates that no labels at all should be visible in a re-erected house and no barriers, ropes or plate glass to forbid visitors from going some parts of the building (Jenkins, 1969, p. 18). In some open-air museums, however, the objects are named, the rooms are described, and sometimes in museums there are information corners and small exhibitions such as at Glentleiten in Bavaria (Kreilinger, 1991, p. 23).
The other visitors can be regarded as an alienation. It is very difficult to interpret the subjective feeling of relaxation, breaks from work, celebrations, illness, fears and hope as well as success, that means the feelings of a group or one single person in the past.
One reason for the quality of an open-air museum therefore can be measured in the honesty of its presentation. The visitor must understand that the presentation is one of the contemporary knowledge coined approach to the past reality (Löbert, 1986, n. p.). The transfer history of the objects could be told as well as about gaps in the presentation. People who bake bread in peasants' costume look very picturesque, but they cannot explain the feeling of drudgery. As Utz Jeggle illustrates, the sentence that it was more pleasant in the past, but that today we are feeling better can be often heard. The work became easier, but the worker was taken away from the closeness to the nature and the products today are not familiar anymore. At festivals or in rural clubs, the nice pastime is very highly praised today without bearing in mind that the nearness to the nature was very high. The sentence according to Jeggle must be: In the past, our situation was far worse, but today strangely it is not more pleasant (Jeggle, 1987, p. 228).
8.3 The Interpretation
Good interpretation is necessary, because the objects do not speak for themselves. The visitor is likely to obtain just a superficial understanding without this interpretation, because he very rarely has a background knowledge of the social structures:
"Ein Tisch spricht nicht, er erklärt seine Tischordnung nicht selbst, vor allem erklärt er nicht, warum sie so war, was sie wollte und bewirkte (Scharfe, 1972, 1976, p. 230).
8.4 Demonstrators in Period Costume
The attempt to create a pseudo-peasantry through people wearing period costumes is not scientific and destroys the aims of the cultural-historic museums one often finds interpreters and demonstrators in period costume[139]. Critical voices talk about "Disneyland" in this respect, especially when the social and economic necessities collide with the pleaded educational orders of the experts of the museum.
8.5 Reconstructions
With the reconstructions one comes very closely to a fairground attraction, because entertainment here comes first. The education should be entertaining instead. The negative exampe at the MWL is the photographic studio.
8.6 Folklorism
Another problem are the craft demonstrations, because the work of the craftsmen is sometimes shown without a chronological depth of focus in a contrast to the work today. To commercialize the past in addition to that with selling their products is wrong. Köstlin thinks that the open-air museum is coined from the beginning with the thought of strolling along which suggests folklorism[140] and entertainment. If one looks at the history of open-air museums when ethnographic villages had been re-erected at world fairs, it can be seen that many visitors experienced them as fun fairs.
8.7 Education "En Passant"
Open-air museums are sights. Often groups come there. They are visited like a television tower or a famous ruin. The family's visitors are taken there to present the native country. Education happens "en passant", by the way, with more emphasis on walking in a nice surrounding (Köstlin, 1986, p. 13).
8.8 Events and Festivals
The various thoughts nevertheless one had about the conception of this museum type of the open-air museum show that one wants to get the museum visitor away from just running passively through the museum. Furthermore a number of new attractive ideas are necessary in a time of an exposure to an incessant flood of stimuli, because the museum does not come into the house like the television. Instead one has to try to get to the museum itself. It is also important to support open-air museums with an urban character, because towns and cities are changing more and more, if one takes the flats and concrete constructions, so that future generations perhaps won't be able to imagine anymore how life in a mediaeval town with an infrastructure would have looked like which is the basis of the old city today. This is as the writer of the thesis sees it.
Theatrical performances and musical events can be useful in an open-air museum if they relate to the contents of the museum and if the relation between the acting and the museum can be made clear. But to perform something simply to have a theatre play is not useful at all (Zippelius, 1981, p. 43).
8.9 Visitors
Most visitors who returned the visitor's questionnaires to the writer claimed they were interested in social history and in Welsh history. People moreover came because they were on holiday, to have fun or in order to enjoy the tranquillity of the gardens. Some brought visitors. They found the buildings very interesting. The favourite building was Rhyd-y-car. Visitors were also thrilled about the craft displays, the baker and the ponycart. From the correspondence the writer had with men and women it follows that the children expected to see animals at the MWL. Trefor Owen asked himself if the visitors want to learn anything:
"(...) one sometimes wonders how much of what is offered is appreciated as a museum rather than as a pleasant place to spend the afternoon" (Owen, 1978, p. 105).
This is not only the problem of the MWL, but it is found at all museums. An open-air museum can nevertheless encourage its visitors to learn something through good interpretation and interesting displays. It has to be written again that the museum should not offer fun park-like events. It is so easy to regard the buildings only as "lovely old-looking houses". This is also against the definition of an open-air museum. There are no guides in period costume at the MWL. Costumes are not worn to be nice looking, but sometimes as an interpretatory help, for example in the Maestir School where pupils can wear a Victorian dress. Here the children can compare the costume with their own school uniform of today.
8.10 General Criticism concerning the MWL
To be criticized is the museum guide. Some information is too brief and the guide does not explain enough about the vernacular architecture, objects and the people who lived there for the more interested visitor. Individual handbooks of most of the buildings exist. It is unlikely, however, that when a visitor comes to the museum for the first time buys them all. He would have got too many books and it would also be fairly expensive. Some visitors expect guided tours. The warders can't answer all the questions, especially if it is very busy during the summer months. Most people buy the museum guide, because the old information boards containing the map of the site look very old, faded by the sun. They buy the guide to get some of information from it. It has to be stressed though that the warders are very good indeed in answering questions.
For people in the Marketing Department the main interest is to bring the number of visitors up. This can lessen the quality of the museum. When there are too many people, the individual can't enjoy the visit so much. There is the move to have more things happening to attract more people. When a wedding is held, certain buildings are closed to the general public. The wedding brings money in, of course, but it is not fair on the visitor to close a building like the Castle or the Oakdale Miner's Institute for particular hours, because of a wedding celebration.
An Events Officer has been appointed to the staff in the autumn of 1996 who is responsible for the events and she organises the festivals. Unfortunately, the events are not changing much in content, but they become more. There are theatre performances, but sometimes English plays have been performed like the ones by Shakespeare and Tolkien. The MWL should perform something with a "Welsh flavour", otherwise visitors from abroad would not realize that the museum is in Wales at all.
Three other weaknesses are: First, depending solely on the money that parts of the collection are stored in a poor condition. Second, that the gallery displays except the costume gallery are outdated and do not appeal to the modern visitor. Third, the condition of St. Fagans Castle is deteriorating.
9 SUMMARY AND PROSPECT FOR FURTHER
RESEARCH
In conclusion, the following chapter may give a brief synopsis of the main aspects of the thesis.
As seen, the growth of the MWL has resulted from the growing collections and also from growing social expectations.
The main theme of this paper was how the MWL has developed over the years. It could be observed that there have been many changes since its beginning. More and more houses have been re-erected. Since 1987 there have been special festivals celebrated at the museum.
The present thesis aimed to make a contribution towards museum research. It can be stated that the MWL is an open-air museum in the sense of all the three given definitions in the text.
Firstly, the historic development was granted wide space, because it makes clear the ideas and expectations which stood behind this new development in Wales, the evolution of the open-air museum.
Secondly, the comparison with other open-air museums from European countries was necessary which yielded their own conceptions under different circumstances and conditions. In comparison, the MWL employs a large number of staff. It has been mentioned that many of the European open-air museums were founded in the last decade of the last century or in the first years of this century. In Wales, the foundation was not possible, however, before almost the middle of the twentieth century, although there had been early ideas dating back to the nineteenth century.
It can be said that it is a national open-air museum since it illustrates the past and present way of life of a country, that means that of Wales as a whole. That is why thirdly, the chapter on Wales and the Welsh had been written.
Fourthly, the main part of the thesis, the direct studying of the MWL has shown that what began with the re-creation of a Welsh kitchen at the National Museum grew with the gift from the Earl of Plymouth into the Welsh Folk Museum which is now called the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans.
The assertion which has been put forward in the introduction that the MWL was influenced by Scandinavian open-air museums can be verified. The Scandinavian influence has been the of the utmost importance, but more in the earlier days than today. Nowadays European staff sometimes give lectures.
Not only the name has changed, but there have been many different developments since the beginning.
The major change is of course the number of re-erected houses that have been raised. The museum has grown which explains the title of the thesis. It has not only become larger in the number of buildings, but besides in content from the portrayal of rural houses into the showing of urban buildings as well. In this thesis therefore, five different houses were described.
It has been pointed out that the MWL is basically concerned with the cultural life of Wales and from what has been written it is clear why it is the centre for cultural history or folk-life studies in Wales.
Another important aspect had to be mentioned, namely the attractions to appeal to the visitors and to the children.
This is why further result lead to the statement that the museum's growth is also reflected in the events and annual festivals.
The writer was referring to the point that the growth has been depending largely on the financing and on the appropriate site in the village of St. Fagans. The question is now if more land could be acquired for future projects?
In the beginning more and more staff had been employed. The new office building was occupied in 1968. In the 1980s severe contraction in staff caused many problems and reduction in research.
Another survey led to the commercialization at the MWL where today family celebrations like weddings can be arranged or where some buildings are mainly planned in order to make business.
It has been stated that since its foundation the WFM has been part of the National Museum of Wales. Many members of staff would like to see the MWL to become a separate entity from the NMGW today as they have wished in the past.
The management could be analyzed in full detail in another document as well as the museum policy. These two subjects were just dealt with in marginal notes.
In the future years the growth of the MWL will continue. In the years to come , the bilingual nature of the MWL will be emphasized more in order to attract Welsh learners. Additional fieldwork will be done to fill gaps in the collections. Popular as well as traditional culture could be studied and fieldwork in anglicized areas could be done. The collection will be presented by using more multi-media displays. Here tape and video recording become important as well as the the new medium of the internet.
The MWL now makes every effort to produce new concepts in order to stay attractive, because there is cultural competition as outlined.
How much does it cost and how many visitor figures will it bring in. These are two important questions today.
The thesis can be seen as valuable for insight it provides...
[1] The title of the museum is bilingual. The Welsh name is Amgueddfa Werin Cymru. The meaning of amgueddfa literally is a collection of treasures (Amgueddfa, Autumn 1993, p. 15). The word gwerin in Welsh, folk, originally meant the whole community, the mass of people and is akin to the German word Volk. Gwerin can be seen as a key to understanding the basic nature of Welsh life. It means something good (Morgan, 1968, p. 35).There has not been a rich middle class in Wales. For details, see Williams, Glyn: On class and status groups in Welsh rural society, Bangor, 1977. Cymru means Wales. The English title used to be Welsh Folk Museum from the beginning until 1995. The word folk in English has been a problem in Britain. In the English mind it equates with the peasants or with yokel and country bumpkin. This interpretation results from customs of daily use coming down from the top of the social strata and being preserved in the lower strata (Bather, 1930, pp. 378 - 379). Cf. also Jenkins, 1972, p. 187. The writer of the thesis here uses the name "folk" for the German meaning of "Volk" and the term "folk-life studies" as the English version for the German subject "Vokskunde" or "Europäische Ethnologie".
[2] Geographically, Wales is one of the western peninsulas of Britain between the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea. Cornwall and Cumbria are the others.
[3] Its second Curator wrote: "From the very outset, like the great Scandinavian folk museums which were its model, it has been actively concerned in the various tasks of collection, conservation, study and exhibition within its allotted area of responsibility, namely the folk-life of Wales (Owen, 1971, p. 19).
[4] "The museum became a tangible memorial to his vision and mission throughout his life" (Stevens, 1986, pp. 2 - 3).
[5] Folk-life study had been an appeal to amateurs, but not a serious academic discipline (Jenkins, 1961, p. 186). The Second World War ended the attempt to introduce the subject into the universities. Dr. Peate forged links with similar European museums like the WFM in order to establish the study of folk-life as a respected academic discipline in Wales. In the seventies it was slowly becoming institutionalized. Robin Gwyndaf, appointed Honorary Lecturer, Department of Welsh at the University of Wales in Bangor 1982, has been responsible for a folklore course. There has been a joint university course at the University of Wales in Cardiff given by Tecwyn Vaughan Jones and members of staff at the MWL from 1992 until 1995.
[6] The writer observed and participated in general curatorial duties, in documentation work, conservation and weekly housekeeping duties, translated questionnaires for the Education Officer from English into German, supervised children in an exhibition, accompanied an Assistant Keeper and a Museum Photographer on a house visit to record a small Victorian building comprising a built-in wall oven and wash house, assisted the preparation of a temporary exhibition entitled Cadw Ty/Good Housekeeping, 1895 - 1955. The writer is familiar with the Welsh culture and has acquired a grasp of the Welsh language in conversational and literary forms.
[7] The ADAC Freizeit-Atlas, 1992, gives addresses of some European open-air museums.
[8] Disappointing was the fact that some sources of information were not made known to the writer and were found out indirectly through members of staff, for example, that Dr. Peate had created his own private library in the present Committee Room where one could find valuable information on Scandinavian open-air museums.
[9] Welsh Folk Museum (Discussion Paper) (1981): The Interpretation of Farming in Wales, Cardiff, 1981. Welsh Folk Museum (Discussion Paper) (1982): The Interpretation of Vernacular Architecture in Wales. Part 1, Cardiff 1982. Welsh Folk Museum (Discussion Paper) (1983): Tape Recording and Welsh Folk Life, Cardiff, 1983.
[10] In most European languages forms derived from the Greek mouseion such as museum in English, meaning seats or home of the Muses.
[11] The AEOM intends to exchange "scientific, technical, practical and organisational experience relative to open-air museums, and the promotion of the activities of open-air museums in general" (Zippelius, 1966 - 72, p. 109). This Association was formed in Bokrijk in Belgium in 1966. There have been meetings always in a different country every two years. In 1978 it has been held at the WFM. The minutes of all the conferences have been kept and were published. The last seminar was in Baltikum in 1997. The current president is Gunnar Elfstöm. The only summarized description of the European open-air museums is the book by Adelhart Zippelius from 1974. This is not up-to-date. A more recent publication, however, does not exist. In 1950, the study group for vernacular architecture was founded in the German town of Münster. Here, experts are lead together from various disciplines in a European scope annually (Löbert, 1986, n. p.).
[12] The so-called additive presentation procedure is another technique. One understands additive buildings as individual houses that each have their own workshops or early industrial businesses and can stand next to each other. Here one does not strive for a coherent entire settlement picture which in one form or another never really existed. Examples for this can either be the urban quarter at Skansen or Avoncroft, which sees itself as a purely architectural museum. This is not possible with other museum types which exhibit single objects.
[13] One can distinguish between a park museum and a village museum that should show a whole village.
[14] This has been done in one German open-air museum in Bad Windsheim.
[15] In this connection a few museums that are not wholly rural should be mentioned. In Skansen one finds towns interpreted. At the open-air museum at Maihaugen in Norway there is an urban section. In Hagen, Germany, there is a technical open-air museum. The Museum of Welsh Life holds a row of miner's cottages and a workmen's institute, the Gwalia shop, the cockpit, the bakery and the tollhouse.
[16] Leaflet: De Sandvigske Samlinger. Maihaugen. Et levende museum.
[17] An example is the Parc Naturel Régional des Landes de Gascogne, in Sabres. The first French open-air museum in a narrower sense was opened in Ungersheim, Dep. Haut-Rhin though in 1984 where buildings from the fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth century are shown.
[18] Georges Henri Rivière was for many years the chairman of ICOM before the Second World War.
[19] For further information, see Edeler, Ingrid, 1988.
[20] Cultural history derived from the name culture. It used to mean cultivation of the earth. In the Age of Enlightenment it was used in a sense referring to human society and way of life (Stoklund, 1983, p. 9). The Welsh word culture derives from the word diwyllio < di + twyllt + io, meaning to tame the wild, to cultivate. "Diwylliant Gwerin" means folk culture in Welsh and the spiritual and material culture (Peate, 1942, p. 45); see also Williams, 1939, pp. 157 - 163. Cf. Kulturen museum in Lund, the museum of cultural history founded in 1882. It has about thirty buildings and wants to show how people in southern Sweden have been living. It lies between Veberöd and Blentarp.
[21] "If there be one kind of museum that is attractive, a fosterer of art, and remunerative withal, it is the open-air museum as it flourishes today in Scandinavia" (Howarth, 1904, p. 122).
[22] Justus Möser (1720 - 1794) attends to an organic understanding of history, opponent of the enlightenment and of the absolutism.
[23] Examples are the world-fair in Vienna 1873, the colonial exhibition 1883 in Amsterdam, the "dörfly" at Swiss exhibitions since 1896. Some ideas for presentation were developed at these exhibitions. Often the buildings presented here were reconstructions.
[24] Karl Viktor von Bonstetten was born in 1745 and belonged to an old patrician family. He was politically and legally active.
[25] Artur Hazelius (1833 - 1901) was the son of a Swedish army officer. He was a romantic patriot and had identified himself with the Pan- Scandinavian movement. The impelling force Hazelius gave was such that in 1918 an Institute of Ethnology was made permanent in Stockholm (Cf. Kavanagh, 1990, pp. 16 - 19). His motto was that the day might come when all our gold won't be enough to form a picture of the vanished time (Pöttler, 1985, p. 24).
[26] Cottages were opened to the public in 1938 as the Cregneash Village Folk Museum.
[27] It might be a result of the early mechanization in Scandinavia (Conrad, 1988, p. 15). The writer does not agree, because the mechanisation was far more advanced in other areas.
[28] That there are fewer open-air museums in the European south might be due to the fact that houses of wood can be much more easily re-erected than stone-made buildings that have been common in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece (Zippelius 1974, p. 16). One has to bear in mind that many of the raised buildings at St. Fagans are likewise built of stone.
[29] The guide ADAC Freizeit-Atlas 1992 has nineteen open-air museums. Many places are given by Pöttler in his Austrian museum guide from 1985. Zippelius has published a handbook of European open-air museums in 1974 and lists 183 such grounds from 21 European countries in alphabetical order. He gives the official name, the address, means of transport, opening times, the leader, scientific staff, buildings, crafts, guide and publication. At times photographs, illustrations and maps are recorded in his handbook. In this case, a strong north-south drop can be noticed. Half of these museums are situated in Scandinavia.
[30] The writer has been disappointed with the Director and other scientific staff at Skansen, because of two long written letters, no answer was returned between the months of June and November 1997.
[31] Bernhard Olsen (1836 - 1922). For details, see Rasmussen, 1979.
[32] Activities in September 1997 were folk dancing, brush-making, basket word, coiled basketry, flax progressing and others.
[33] See also, MJ, 1961, pp. 113 - 116.
[34] The houses come from the Upper Tisza region, Central Tisza region, a market town in the Great Hungarian Plain, Southern Transdanubia, Central Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia, the plain in Northwest Hungary (Little Plain), the north-east region of Hungary, Northern Hungary and a highland market town. This illustrates the museum guide.
[35] One festival is on the National Day, 20th August, St. Steven's Day and in June theatre, the "commedia - dell' arte" is performed.
[36] Courses about milk, food, school and a writing course for example.
[37] The treshing exhibition since Easter 1997 and an exhibition about the landscape history in the south of the North Sea since February 1997 were on temporary display this year.
[38] Activities are for example lace making, spinning and wood-turning.
[39] An exhibition from 1st April until 31st October 1997 was the one on rural vehicles and tools.
[40] Much detail is available on Welsh history: At the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth the Bibliotheca Celtica has been established in 1910. It is a register of publications relating to Wales and the Celtic peoples and languages. The following books provide an excellent introduction to the history of Wales: Gregory, Donald: Wales before 1066: A guide. Gwynnedd, 1989; Curtis, Tony (ed.): The imagined nation, Bridgend, 1986; Smith, Dai: Wales! Wales?, London, 1984; Vaughan, Thomas: Wales Geschichte. London, 1985; Williams, Gwyn A.: When was Wales? A history of the Welsh. London, 1985. For more information on Welsh history see: Davies, John: Hanes Cymru, London, 1990. This book chronicles the Welsh history in the Welsh language from the earliest times to 1990 in detail. There is an English translation of it: Davies, John: A history of Wales. London, 1990, 1993. See also Davies, R. R.: Conquest, coexistence and change. Wales 1063 - 1415, Cardiff, 1987 and the pocket guide by Graham Jones, J.: The history of Wales, Cardiff, 1990.
[41] Jones; Thomas: Teyrnas y Glo / Coal's Domain: Historical glimpses of life in the Welsh coalfields. Cardiff, 1993.
[42] Jones, Graham J.: Hanes Cymru, Cardiff, 1994, pp. 137 - 157.
[43] Hanson; John Ivor: We also speak English: A study of the speech mannerisms of the Welsh. Port Talbot, 1978. At the MWL a lecture was delivered in 1951 about the origins and history of the Welsh language. Characteristics of the Welsh language are that the spelling is phonetic, the alphabet consists of twenty eight letters and that the vowel sounds are pure. There are mutations which means that a sound at the beginning of a word changes or disappears.
[44] Etheridge, Ken: Welsh costume in the 18th and 19th century, Swansea, 1977; Gwynn Jones, Thomas: Welsh Folklore and Folk-Custom, London, 1930; Harris, Mary Corbett: Crafts, customs and legends of Wales, Newton Abbott, 1980; Owen, Trefor M.: Welsh Folk Customs, Llandysul, 1987. For an introduction to Wales' culture, history and literature, see also Alchin, A. M.: Praise above all: Discovering the Welsh Tradition, Cardiff, 1991 and Stevens, Meic, (ed.): The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales, Oxford, 1986.
[45] For further discussion on the traditional Welsh diet, see Tibbot, S. Minwel: Welsh Fare. A Selection of Traditional Recipes, Cardiff, 1991.
[46] Much research has been done and there is now an extensive literature on Welsh folk-narrative especially by Robin Gwyndaf, but also by others. Gwyndaf, Robin: The Welsh Folk Narrative Tradition: Continuity and Adaption, Cardiff, 1988 and Gwyndaf, Robin: Welsh Folk Tales, Cardiff, 1992; Holland, Richard: Supernatural Clwyd: The Folk Tales of North East Wales, Llanrwst, 1989; Humphreys, Emyr: The Taliesin Tradition: A gust for the Welsh identity, Bridgend, 1989; Jackson, Kenneth Hurlestone: The international popular tale and early Welsh tradition, Cardiff, 1961; Loomis, Roger Sherman: Wales and the Arthurian legend, Cardiff, 1956; Matthews, Caitlin: Mabon and the mysteries of Britain: An exploration of the Mabinogion, London, 1987; North, Frederick John: Sunken cities. Some legends of the coasts and lakes of Wales, Cardiff, 1957; Parry, Jones Daniel.: Welsh legends and fairy lore, London, 1953; Powell, Roberta Ross: Welsh tales of the supernatural, Cardiff, 1979; Radford Ken: Tales of South Wales, London, 1979; Trevelyan, Marie: Folk-lore and folk stories of Wales, Norwood, 1973; Walton Evangeline: Die vier Zweige des Mabinogi, Stuttgart, 1983 and others.
[47] Director of the Folklore Commission in Ireland who visited the National Museum in 1934. He convinced Sir Cyril Fox of the importance of the subject folk-life studies (Bassett, 1984,p. 25).
[48] Åke Cambell was a scholar for folk-life studies at Uppsala in Sweden until he died in 1957. He studied Lappish problems, the history of bread and more.
[49] Wilhelm von Sydow was a folklorist at the University of Lund. He paid special interest to the Celtic peoples.
[50] Sigurd Erixon was a scholar for folk-life studies, "folklivsforskning" at the University of Uppsala. He has contributed to the Swedish house. Cf. Peate, 1958, p. 102.
[51] The Swedish title of the subject is Nordisk och jämförande folklivsforskning (Bringéus, 1967, p. 306).
[52] In 1907 the National Library, a Welsh Department within the Board of Education and the South Wales District of the Worker's Education Association were also created (Bassett, 1984,p. 7).
[53] A guide book was compiled by the Keeper of Archaeology, John Ward. The aim of the exhibition was "to illustrate old fashioned life, and especially that of Wales - the life which is slowly passing away".
[54] The collection of folk-life material was possibly be started in 1891 with donations from Robert Drane and others (Bassett, 1966, p. 5).
[55] In the years shortly before World War One there was interest in a folk museum in Britain. The Crystal Palace was thought to serve as the museum gallery where historic interiors were to be re-created and in the museum grounds buildings should have been re-erected (WFM, 1982, p. 18). One member of a project for the National Folk Museum, W. Ruskin Butterfield of Hastings Museum said: "In no country is a National Folk Museum so necessary as in England, because in no other country is there such a dearth of distinctively national objects, and also because no other country has outgrown its past so rapidly and so completely in regard to indigenous customs, amusements, and modes of life generally" (Butterfield, n. d. but 1912, n. p.). The Final Report of the Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries in Britain (1926 - 1929) published in 1929, stresses the need for folk museums.
[56] Fifty kilometres north-westerly from Birmingham. Especially the industrialization is explained here. It is a complex of six museums spread over a three mile area.
[57] Beamish, County Durham, is called the North of England open-air museum.
[58] The museum was opened in 1971 on a thirty five acre site. Smaller houses were to have precedence over large buildings. For some further information on the Weald and Downland open-air museum, see Michael, 1988.
[59] The Avoncroft Museum of Buildings is situated at Bromsgrove near Birmingham. The museum is a collection of buildings.
[60] The preface for the guide was written by Sir Cyril Fox.
[61] Sir Leonard Twiston-Davies was the tenth President of the National Museum and Treasurer, also Vice-President of the National Library of Wales.
[62] The Murberget Museum in Sweden was founded by Th. Hellmann, Maihaugen in Norway by Anders Sandvig who wanted to preserve the Gudbrandsdalen culture (Houglid, Harrison, 1989, p. 5). C. Wellens was responsible for the first buildings at the Belgium Bokrijk (Laenen, 1989).
[63] Peate, I. C.: Syniadau. , Llandysul, 1969.
[64] Iorwerh Cyfeiliog Peate was born on 27 February, 1901. He went to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth where his former teacher had guided him to the Geography and Welsh Departments. He was awarded a postgraduate degree and his research concluded that anthropometrical records and dialect distribution follow identical physical boundaries. On his journey he noted local vocabulary, place-names and folklore and began to value the significance of recording spoken Welsh. Peate was a pacifist. He married in 1929 and had a son born in 1936 who died in 1980. Peate himself died in 1982 and was cremated before his ashes were scattered in the grounds of Pen-rhiw Chapel at the MWL.
[65] His father George Howard Peate was a perfectionist in his work. For details on him and on Dr. Peate’s grandfather Dafydd Peate and the life at Llanbryn-Mair, see also Bassett, 1996.
[66] Peate, I. C.: Y Crfftwr yng Nghymru. Aberystwyth, 1933; Guide to the Collections illustrating Welsh Folk Crafts and Industries. Cardiff, 1935; 1945 2nd edition.
[67] A list of Dr. Peate's published books was compiled by Emrys Bennett Owen (National Library of Wales catalogue number X2T6909097).
[68] The Norwegian Alf Axelsson Sommerfelt had studied Welsh and spent much time talking to Dr. Peate with whom he stayed in Llanbryn-Mair. Dr. Peate realized that Sommerfelt was interested in the history and in the future of the Welsh language. Undoubtedly, their talks must have coined the latter in his interest in studying and preserving the Welsh language. For matters of their friendship, see Bassett, 1996.
[69] Trefor M. Owen was Assistant Keeper at MWL. He was later a lecturer in Social Theory and in institutions at the University College, Bangor.
[70] John Geraint Jenkins is a native of Llangranog. He was a student at the University College of Swansea, 1947 and at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1949. In 1953 he was appointed Assistant Keeper and lecturer at Reading University. In 1960, he was appointed to the staff of the WFM. He published many books and articles (Roberts, 1988, pp. 40 - 41).
[71] He is from Mynytho, Pwllheli. Dr. Wiliam got his first job in 1971 at the WFM after doing his degree in Archaeology at Cardiff University.
[72] John Williams-Davies was born in 1949. He was a student in Aberystwyth where he received his B. A. in Geography. He did research in Social Geography about the "Population Replacement in the Teifi Valley". In 1973, he was appointed Research Assistant at the WFM in the Department of Oral Traditions and Dialects. In 1981, he became Assistant Keeper in the Department of Farming and Rural Life, later in 1991, Keeper at the Department of Buildings and Domestic Life. He belongs, moreover, to a number of external organizations. Between 1996 and 1998, for example, he has been acting as President for the Society for Folk Life Studies. He has an extensive experience of lecturing both in English and Welsh on topics related to the WFM. John Williams-Davies has published books and numerous articles. His research interests are the Agriculture in nineteenth century Wales, the changing role of the rural craftsman, workplace customs and beliefs, folk art, the development of folk-life studies in Wales and Welsh identity and material culture. The writer of the thesis sees him as a hard task-master with very high standards. The co-operation with him has always been very worthy over the years. To the writer, he seems to be more open and engaged in his work than his predecessor.
[73] Local historians of the second half of the nineteenth century give details of the history of St. Fagans. The village is named after the saint called Fagan who came to Britain to confer baptism on the notion of the Welsh at the end of the second century. An old record says: "Saint Fagan was Bishop in Llansanfagan, and there is his church" (David, 1892, n. p.). In 1648 there was a bloody battle in the village between the Parliamentary army and the king. It was won by the Parliamentary army (Morgan, 1866, n. p.). The Welsh word of the village is Sain Ffagan (Peate, 1948, p. 5). This was the last significant battle of the English Civil War in Wales.
[74] Peate, Iorwerth C: St. Fagans Castle: A Folk Museum for the Welsh Nation. Cardiff, 1946.
[75] The parallel can be said of Skansen which should show the life of Sweden through its history. Peate wrote: " That is Hazelius's achievement: he clothed with flesh the dry bones of his country's past and breathed life into his creation so that Skansen is a warm and living picture of all that is most characteristic in the long history of the Swedish people" (Peate, 1948, p. 19).
[76] The organization is now The National Museums and Galleries of Wales, NMGW. It is an independent institution founded by Royal Charter and funded in the main by the Welsh Office. The NMGW welcomes some 800,000 Visitors a year. There are over fivehundred employees under its Director and is accountable to its Court of Governors and Council get up under Royal Charter. Today it encompasses eight outstation museums: the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum which is also in Cardiff, the Turner House in Penarth, the Roman Legionary Museum in Caerleon, the Welsh Slate Museum in Llanberis, the Segontium Roman Fort Museum in Caernarfon, the Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry at Dre-fach Felindre, Llandysul. The Graham Sutherland Gallery in Haverfordwest has been closed in 1994 and the Museum of the North in Llanberis closed in 1995. These specialist museums have been visited by the writer of this thesis. The are plans for an art gallery at St. Davids in West Wales. The National Museum itself is centred in Cardiff.
[77] Professor Hywel Teifi Edwards wrote a Letter to the editor recently which was published under the title Give the jewel a curator. This article shows the topicality of the subject still today as the following quotation from it shows: "(...) a post which has in the past been filled by acknowledged Welsh scholars who secured the museum's international reputation, and restoring the Department of Oral Traditions and Dialects which was previously staffed by proven experts who recorded, interpreted and published materials of great value to all students of Welsh culture "(...) (WM, 11.3.1997).
[78] See, Peate, I. C.: 1946 and Folk-Lore 68, 1957. Dr. Peate was Chairman of this Committee. The National Librarian and all four Professors of Welsh were members.
[79] In 1982, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the creation of the Sub Department of Folk-Life Studies, poems about the WFM were written, like Sain Ffagan 1982 in traditional metre by Islwyn Jones, translated by Ann Jones into St. Fagans 1982. It is quoted here because it mirrors exactly the atmosphere of the museum still in 1997:
St Fagans 1982
On the banks of the river Elái are homes full of treasures.
On a gentle lea, lies an estate wherein is preserved our
heritage. It is a storehouse which nourishes - a place of
beauty, where the old world, worn away by time, lives
again.
For the fine remains of our material culture our golden
songs and our oral tales, a sanctuary is offered, as in the
Wales of old. Rare crafts and the true qualities of a
people's life still flourish there.
When we wander freely along the fair, winding lances, the
worthy court of Dr. Iorwerth extends to us the succour of
its cultured strength. Once again, we experience the
enchantment and richness of all our yesterdays.
The Welsh countryside and its buildings live again in
pleasing form; there in their resplendent glory stand the
old farmhouses and fine workshops of our land. Today,
men practize their art to recapture a bygone age.
In a gentle, tranquil gallery, the ways of yore are called
to mind; the wonder of our very existence is re-created
with perfect accord. And the profusion of exhibits bear
witness to a pleasant and leisurely age.
Today, on this your anniversary, the whole country sings
your praises - the day is yours. Renowned stronghold,
on reaching your fiftieth year, your just rewards are
bestowed upon you. Our song and much, much more we
gladly give to you.
[80] Currently, Christine Stevens, Assistant Keeper at the MWL writes her Ph. D. thesis about the Plymouth Estate. She investigates the period 1850 to 1950 and the relationship between the landowner and tenant. The Plymouth family owned land elsewhere. St. Fagans was not intended as a family home before 1852. To the village, it was a very important decision of the Earl to give the Castle and gardens to the National Museum, Christine Stevens claims in her introduction to the thesis.
[81] For information on the first Assistant Keepers who had joined the museum staff in the sixties and seventies, see Bassett, 1984, p. 93.
[82] See also, Empire News, 23.11.1958 where Dr. Peate regretted that so many objects could not be displayed and did not know where the money was to come from.
[83] For the opening of the Agriculture Gallery and the first Costume Gallery, see also: "New Galleries at St. Fagans", In: Amgueddfa 21, 1975. For details on the Agriculture Gallery, see Scourfield, Elfyn, 1976.
[84] One future display is going to be about contemporary furniture makers in Wales, "Made in Wales". Another will portray the 50th anniversary of the MWL in 1998. In 1999, a post office exhibition is planned and in the year 2000 a Millennium Exhibition followed by a European exhibition which is an exchange exhibition with the Szentendre open-air museum.
[85] Objects can be offered by letter and telephone. They can be brought to the museum or can be discovered by staff.
[86] Card Indexes measure 5 " x 3 ".
[87] See, Peate, 1953, pp. 74 - 76.
[88] The standard works of references on traditional houses in Wales are: Peate, Iorwerth C.: The Welsh House. A Study in Folk Culture, London, 1940; Smith, Peter: Houses of the Welsh Countryside, London, 1975, 1988.
[89] The design of the outdoor areas of the site and some buildings was prepared by two firms: Wyn Thomas & Partners and the Percy Thomas Partnership (Brown, 1986, p. 103).
[90] Wiliam, 1991, 1993.
[91] Jenkins, J. Geraint: Esgair Moel Woollen Mill. Cardiff, 1975.
[92] Nash, Gerallt D.: Timber-framed buildings in Wales. Cardiff, 1995.
[93] For details, see Wiliam, Eurwyn: Welsh Long-houses. Four centuries of farming at Cilewent. Cardiff, 1992.
[94] For further discussion, see Peate, Iorwerth C.: The Welsh House. A Study in Folk Culture. London, 1940.
[95] Jenkins, Geraint: The Rhaedr Tannery, Cardiff, 1973.
[96] Williams-Davies, John: The Craft of the Blacksmith, Cardiff, 1991.
[97] Wiliam, Eurwyn: Melin Bompren corn mill, Cardiff, 1982.
[98] Nash, Gerallt D.: Victorian School Days: Ysgol Maestir, a Welsh Country School.
[99] Tibbott, S. Minwel: Baking in Wales, Cardiff, 1991.
[100] Tibbott, S. Minwel, Thomas, Beth: The Gwalia. The Story of a Valley's Shop, Cardiff, 1991.
[101] Nash, Gerallt D., Davies, T. Alun, Thomas, Beth: Workmen's Halls and Institutes/Oakdale Workmen's Institute, Cardiff, 1995.
[102] The Welsh Dresser is a piece of typical Welsh furniture For further details, see Davies, T. Alun: Y Ddresel Gymreig a chypyrddau perthynol/The Welsh Dresser and associated cupboards, Cardiff, 1991.
[103] Donations from the Rhyd-y-car houses came to the museum in 1986, for example sixty six specimens including furniture and domestic utensils were given (AR, 1986 - 87, p. 70).
[104] The recordings are in the sound archive, but there is also a tape with memories of Janet Davies and Lorna Rubbery for sale: On the best side. Memories of Life in Rhyd-y-car which gives an idea of life from the turn of last century to the 1930s. The women here talk about the food the miners would have eaten, the miner's washing in the tin bath before the fire and the housework. The living-room was called "the best side", because the best furniture was arranged in there as a show case and they had a couch, table, table cloth in the parlour. They recall the break on Sundays. Furthermore, pig-killing day is remembered.
[105] At the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Ireland, a terrace of Belfast houses can be visited, since it would not be complete without some reference to town and city dwellings (Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Year Book 1977 - 78, p. 1).
[106] This farm with a double roof, typical of style of Glamorgan, belonged to the Earl of Plymouth and to the Plymouth estate until 1980. The Thomas family and then the Williams family lived here. Now it shows life on a rich farm from the 1930s with gas light, stables and tractors. Eighty per cent of the furniture is oak. The house next to the stable was inhabited by the farm labourer and his family (personal correspondence with Denis Jones, 28.8.1997).
[107] Wiliam, Eurwyn: St. Fagans Castle and its inhabitants, Cardiff, 1988.
[108] The information about the Williams' family comes from personal correspondence with the warder Gareth Thomas in August 1997. He was a pupil of the teacher who belonged to the Williams' family.
[109] The studio is sponsored by Agfa.
[110] Williams-Davies, John: Cider Making in Wales, Cardiff, 1984.
[111] Cf. WM, 2.9.1958: "Languages Survey urgent. Dialects being killed by tv".
[112] Remember that the Welsh Folk-Life Survey Committee was shaped in 1955. Its members were from the University, from the museum and other people.
[113] Philips, Vincent H.: Oral Traditions and the folk museum, Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, II, 1963, pp. 13 - 19.
[114] Vincent Phillips is an expert Welsh scholar. He has got a diploma in Phonetics. In Folklore 68, 1957 the importance of his work was already treasured and prophezied by Dr. Peate: "It appears probable that with Mr. Phillips appointment, the Welsh Folk Museum will become the home of a national institute for dialectology and folklore studies, and we hope that in this work the full co-operation of the University of Wales will be forthcoming" (Peate, 1957,p. 472).
[115] Topic Index: ABC (song), children’s games, pig keeping, Plygain singing, pot loaf, shearing day, the cadi ha, the cart, the coalfield, the conjurer, the red waistcoat (folk song) the sea, the slate quarry, the Sunday school trip, the triple harp, toffee making, wedding customs.
[116] Digital Audio Tape. A very small cassette for recording in digital format.
[117] One often finds people wearing period costumes in North American museums.
[118] The performance is about the Rebecca riots in the middle of the nineteenth century.
[119] The play is about the nineteenth century excentric character, William Price.
[120] Cockfighting is acted.
[121] Life in Wales of the seventeenth century is acted.
[122] A Welsh performance of the difficulties faced by Gwyneth, a woman of the Victorian period.
[123] Servant Elinor Evans has been refused her annual wage in the eighteenth century.
[124] This is supported by the Arts Council of Wales.
[125] Most important in the studying of crafts is to investigate which crafts are still abailable in one region (Jenkins, 1974, p. 8).
[126] "Let the carpenter sing a chant of praise, (...), And you the blacksmiths, join in song, (...). From: Peate, Canu chwarter canrif, p. 48.
[127] For the interpretation of farming see also, William, Eurwyn: Adeiladau Fferm Traddodiadol yng Nghymru, In: Amgueddfa, vol. 15, pp. 2 - 14.
[128] Originally this breed was for ornamental use, but later became important also as a meat producer.
[129] These sheep are named after the area in the Teifi Valley in West Wales. Their wool is very good for tweeds and knitting yarns.
[130] The South Wales Electricity Board provides the lights. In 1987, the tree had been donated by the Swedish company Tetra Pak which is based in North Wales.
[131] For the Christmas Celebrations, Minwel Tibbott interviewed families in 1987 from the Rhyd-y-car cottages to find out how there homes were decorated.
[132] For examples the following articles were published:
· Folk Museum Development (Liverpool Daily Post, 4.1.1954),
· Farmhouses that no one will live in (The Farmers Weekly, 24.6.1955),
· Moving a house of boulders (WM, 30.10.1956),
· Folk Museum will record dying crafts,(WM, 20.1.1961),
· Folk Museum is refused old windmill (WM, 27.4.1961),
· £ 150,000 appeal fund for Welsh Museums. So much to show, but so little rooms (WM, 26.9.1962),
· Act before dialects go, plead museum (WM, 29.10.1966),
· They don't make cakes like this anymore (WM, 23.9.1971; cf. SWE, 23.9.1971,Y Cymro, 29.9.1971, Y Cyfnod, 1.10.1971),
· New curator's ideas to boost folk museum (WM, 23.3.1987).
[133] Examples between June 1997 and August 1997 are the following circa 3,5 minutes long reporting. There were on the radio: item on Summer and Autumn events at the MWL; Interview with Ken Brassil; two news bulletins - "A Step in Time" exhibition opening, News item - "A Step in Time" exhibition opening; "Ram Jam" - "A Step in Time" exhibition opening; Rhaglen Hywel Gwynfryn - "A Step in Time" exhibitio; Post Prynhawn - "A Step in Time" exhibition. On television the following examples were shown: item on the MWL's visitors' figures and an insert from the MWL as part of Newsnight's coverage of the devolution debate.
[134] The course contained Welsh community life, music and customs, homes and home life, folk narrative research, language and literature. It was an M. A. postgraduate course for a year.
[135] Example of courses: "The earliest peoples" is a course on the Stone and the Bronze Age. There are courses on the Celts, the Tudors and Stuarts, a Victorian lesson can be given and there is a course on artefact handling and storytelling.
[136] On 12 November 1997 there has been the subject "Wales. The Spanish Civil War and the International Brigade". This was held for sixth formers and for university students with an exhibition, lectures and performance of the play "No other way" by Outlaws theatre company.
[137]
[138]
[139] Colonial Williamsburg
[140] The German scientist Hans Moser defines the term folklorism. According to him customs are taken out of their functional frame and are changed mostly or are presented falsified in a new context. Folklorism in his view is characterized by the primary commercial aim (Moser, 1962, pp. 177 - 209).
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