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Carmarthenshire Museums

Carmarthenshire Archives (and more) Revisited

13/03/2017 by J D Davies

Regular readers will remember that, some eighteen months ago, this site built up quite a head of steam about the dire state of Carmarthenshire’s county archives. To cut a long story short, a serious outbreak of mould was discovered in the strongrooms, leading to the closure of the record office, the records becoming completely unavailable (initially because of our old friend elf ‘n’ safety, then because they had to go away for cleaning), and serious suggestions that the county’s archives would end up in a shared facility completely outside the county, e.g. in Swansea. Obviously, this had a huge impact on those who wanted to work on the archives; and one of those, a normally mild-mannered historian who’d been researching the fascinating and eccentric Stepney baronets of Llanelli for many years, but whose book about them was now completely stymied by the closure, decided to investigate further. Following a crash course in Freedom of Information requests and the like, a sorry saga emerged of a local authority that, over many years, had simply refused to spend money on maintaining the correct conditions in the strongrooms, which blatantly ignored warnings from the national regulator, and which then simply didn’t communicate on any meaningful level with any of the stakeholders in the record office once the inevitable crisis developed. This all eventually got picked up by the press, and strange to say, the council then did begin to engage with those whose persistent requests for answers had fallen on deaf ears, most notably the Friends of the Archives, and to work towards a new facility in the county. For those interested in tracing the entire affair, or who are otherwise in a particularly masochistic mood, go to this website’s search facility on the main menu, type in ‘Carmarthenshire Archives’, and then follow through the sequence of posts.

Since then, things have been relatively quiet. The County Council committed itself to spending over £2 million on a new records office in the centre of Carmarthen, and that should be going ahead over the course of the next year or two. Meanwhile, the irreplaceable documents themselves are being cleaned, albeit at a staggering cost which would not have been necessary if the council had invested a tiny fraction of it in properly maintaining the archives over the last fifteen years or so. When they’ve completed the process, the documents are going to Glamorgan Archives in Cardiff and the Richard Burton Archives at Swansea University for temporary storage, and are being progressively made available once again for public access. For my part, I’ve been keeping my powder dry (and any further potential FoI requests, etc, on the back burner), giving the council the benefit of the doubt – and, if truth be told, my work schedule has militated against getting more actively involved.

The old bishops’ palace, home to Carmarthenshire county museum

Meanwhile, though, the wider heritage situation in Carmarthenshire has seen some dramatic changes. There’s also been considerable concern in recent years about – to give but two examples – the state of the county museum in the former bishop’s palace at Abergwili, and Parc Howard in Llanelli, where I spent many happy hours as a child. Abergwili is a marvellous museum, reflecting the county’s rich and remarkably varied history, and it’s in a historic building; William Laud, no less, lived there, as a did a later bishop, Lord George Murray, who invented the Admiralty shutter telegraph system used in the Napoleonic wars. (I wrote an article about him in the county’s outstanding local history journal, The Carmarthenshire Antiquary.) But chronic under-investment over many years, combined with under-staffing, led to serious issues with the fabric of the building, and questions over the future of the collection. Parc Howard, which was gifted to the people of Llanelli by my old ‘friends’ the Stepney family, contains the town’s museum, but for as long as I can remember, it’s been under-publicised (not even signposted from the main road) and consequently under-visited.

The conjunction of all these concerns led a like-minded group of individuals to come together to see if something could be done. These are people who have had many years’ experience of working or volunteering in various heritage sectors, plus the odd stray blogger-cum-mild-mannered-historian, and they organised a series of meetings open to all interested parties. Many representatives of local groups throughout Carmarthenshire came along, demonstrating a real depth of interest and concern, and to cut a long story short, out of this emerged the Carmarthenshire Heritage Group, a properly constituted ‘umbrella’ group which has been engaging with the council and trying to raise awareness. Toward the latter end, this group now has a Facebook page, which has ‘inherited’ the old one called ‘Save Carmarthenshire Archives’, which I ran, and I’d strongly urge anyone who’s interested or concerned to ‘like’ us there! (A new Twitter account will also come on stream soon.)

Parc Howard mansion and grounds, Llanelli

The good news is that there’s been some positive movement. At Abergwili, for example, substantial funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund will see major work on the grounds to transform them as part of the exciting ‘Tywi Gateway’ project, and remedial work will also be carried out on the building. The council has also appointed a museums development manager, and seems at the moment to be bucking the nationwide trend of closures and rundowns. The future of Parc Howard, though, remains uncertain, following botched attempts to involve commercial organisations in developing it as a wedding venue, real concern about future access to the museum collection, and questions about how sensitive any developments at this much-loved site will be. Meanwhile, too, there remains uncertainty about other heritage sites in the county, not all the direct responsibility of the council, such as the former Gelli Aur mansion and country park in the Tywi valley.

As for the archives, while all might be well in the medium to long term, the short term situation remains unsatisfactory. Although I haven’t worked on the records that have become available after cleaning, I know someone who has; and according to this contact, accessing Carmarthenshire’s records can involve a fraught saga of contact details that don’t work, a lengthy journey to Glamorgan Record Office (which is well outside the centre of Cardiff, and thus very difficult to reach by public transport), and dealing with staff who, naturally, aren’t familiar with the Carmarthenshire materials. Admittedly, things might improve somewhat when more of the records are available in Swansea…but somehow, I can’t see myself completing the Stepney book any time soon (also in part, of course, because people keep signing me up to write fiction, and with the best will in the world, that pays rather better!)

To end, though, on a really upbeat note – I was astonished and delighted to learn that Llanelli library, where I basically self-taught myself my initial historical research skills, is in the top three of the entire country for loans made … At a time when libraries are being closed left right and centre, partly by local authorities using the specious grounds that ‘nobody uses them any more’ in order to cut costs, it’s pleasing to see that Llanelli is bucking the trend. Maybe one day, too, I’ll go in there and see some annoying bespectacled twelve year old demanding to see the latest edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships…and at that moment, I’ll know that my work here is done.

 

(NB all views expressed in this post are entirely personal, and do not necessarily represent those of the Carmarthenshire Heritage Group.)

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Welsh history Tagged With: Carmarthenshire Archives, carmarthenshire heritage group, Carmarthenshire Museums

Carmarthenshire Archives (and Museums): a Brave New World?

22/02/2016 by J D Davies

It’s been a while since I posted about the situation with Carmarthenshire Archives, which took up so much space on this blog in the second half of last year, so I thought it was time I provided you with an update. My last post on the subject contained the unexpected but very welcome news that the Council’s executive board had decided to invest in a new facility within the county. Following this, things seems to be moving forward quite rapidly. Here’s the text from a newsletter that’s been sent out by the heritage monitoring group nominated at the end of last year at a well attended meeting of representatives from many of the local history and heritage groups; the next of these meetings takes place this week.

“ARCHIVES – HOME IN CARMARTHEN” – the future for Carmarthenshire Archives looks cautiously promising thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Carmarthenshire Archives and other dedicated historians.  Discussions between concerned parties and CCC have taken place on three occasions in recent months with a shared vision of a successful, modern and sustainable future for the archives prioritising a Carmarthen/Carmarthenshire service. £2M now confirmed in the capital programme (£125k 2016/17 and £1,750K 2017/18) and CCC are currently working with a Consultant to “scope a number of properties in Carmarthen against a set of criteria – economic, practical and access”. A recommendation is anticipated in 6-8 weeks.  CCC has agreed to consult with the Friends on a regular basis to consider developments and to keep in touch with members’ views – including the vision for an archive service remaining within Carmarthenshire rather than a regionalisation model which could result in the loss of the archives from the county, negative consequences for depositors and researchers within West Wales. It has been agreed to improve the archives services on CCC website and the Friends are inputting into this process.

Regardless of what happens over the new building, the thing that particularly pleases me about this is the way in which the council is now actively consulting with the Friends of the Archives – something that was one of my principal objectives when I started to campaign about the issue last year. The timescale is also positive, although there are still plenty of unanswered questions, such as the exact location, size and staffing of the new site. But one of the most important points of all, that the facility should be within Carmarthenshire, now seems to be set in stone. As for the other most important point – that the damaged archives themselves should be cleaned and made available to the public as soon as possible – progress has certainly been made, and one can only assume that the remaining materials will gradually become available again in the coming months.

However, the group has also been trying to raise awareness, and to secure the future, of Carmarthenshire’s museum service, which has suffered from severe underinvestment over many years. Unfortunately, whereas the archives situation is unique to the county, that with the museums is part of a much bigger national issue; virtually every day seems to bring a new report of a fine and much-loved regional museum being threatened with closure, or actually closing. I very nearly blogged last week about the threat to the Lloyd George Museum in Gwynedd, but fortunately that decision has been deferred. However, I intend to produce a substantial blog about the museums crisis some time in the next few weeks, either myself or with a ‘guest blogger’ who’s very experienced and knowledgeable in the sector. In the meantime, here’s what the newsletter says about the specific situation in Carmarthenshire.

MUSEUMS CHANGE LIVES – but throughout the UK they are closing or are under threat because of cuts in council budgets by the government. The Welsh Assembly’s “Expert Review of Local Museum Provision in Wales 2015” and Welsh Heritage Bill – propose ways forward. At our county museum in Abergwili, County Councillor Gravell reports that “plans are moving forward at a pace with the Tywi Gateway scheme” – initiated by the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust to develop the Bishop’s Park with plans being submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund this summer. Meanwhile, in limbo, in the midst sits the Bishop’s Palace, a Listed building, home to the wonderful treasures given by us, the public, over more than a century. At Llanelli Museum Cllr. Gravell reports that “the Leader and our officers are meeting with user groups there to positively discuss the future viability of the Mansion house”. Plus “exciting plans are also afoot for the Museum of Speed, linked to the wider regeneration masterplan for Pendine”. Even before the recent cuts, our museum service was suffering from twenty years of neglect – BUT there remains huge potential for local regeneration, job creation, social inclusion, tourism, pride – and fun!

In a nutshell, then, watch this space for further updates on all of these important heritage stories (particularly as I guarantee that for the next four months, this blog will be a referendum-free zone…)

 

Filed Under: Heritage preservation, Uncategorized, Welsh history Tagged With: Abergwili, Carmarthenshire Archives, Carmarthenshire County Council, Carmarthenshire Museums, Parc Howard

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