From Amsterdam we caught the Eurostar to London and thence to Cardiff. Such a beautiful scenic journey!
I was fascinated by the presence of Cardiff Castle at the end of town, an integral part of it if you like. You just casually walk along a main street and there’s the castle!
We immediately had to visit! It’s an interesting castle in that it’s had many roles and many different occupiers. It began as a Roman fort, and then the Normans built the stone walls and keep. In the 19th century it was transformed into a Victorian residence, with amazing craftsmanship and design. The great hall below is an example of the modernisation. It was probably quite austere and cold, but the addition of the vaulted ceiling (and what a ceiling!) and the decoration has lifted it into another league. It was spoilt a bit by the tables, but they are easily overlooked.
ceilings such as this captivated me, I was agog at the craftsmanship and design.
Although I do wonder about how the general populace was faring at the time and whether they starved whilst all this excess was being carried out.
Another iteration that the castle went through was as an air raid bunker. I took no photos that I could find, but basically there are some long tunnels that had small ante-rooms which were turned into first aid posts or kitchens. There were trestles against the walls for people to sit or sleep on and also some wire bunk beds. Up to 2,000 people sheltered within the walls of the castle and as we walked along the tunnel there were sirens and sounds of bombing. I didn’t enjoy that aspect at all.
It’s quite interesting seeing the juxtaposition of the town and castle. It’s strange looking through a castle window and seeing the town in the background.
Or standing on top of a turret and having a 360° view of modern society.
From a distance the castle looks magnificent and stretches in a circle around a central park.
There are a lot of winding, narrow steps in castles which originally would not have had handrails. I struggled with these a bit – vertigo and steep steps are not totally compatible! However, with encouragement from my husband (I suspect I accused him of bullying more than once!) I made it to the top of several towers. At times I was happier about this than at others
But I did enjoy looking at the ornate edifices.
We are always a bit blown away by the ancient wood used. The floor in one of the rooms had planks of various sizes, but we were fascinated by the width, as evidenced by husband’s foot, and the natural shape of the wood that was accommodated. They didn’t make all their floorboards straight!
This is a view of the main part of the “house”. We wondered what the round structure was in the foreground, and thought it might have been a means of making shot for guns. However, a bit of quick research showed that Cardiff Castle didn’t have such a thing, so the mystery remains!
Our holiday seems to be a permanent quest to find good coffee and pastries, and this is Pettigrew, which is in a lovely arcade and which provided us with both.
We wandered over to Cardiff University which is based in the Grade I-listed Glamorgan Building, an Edwardian former county hall and quite beautiful.
We had to go inside, of course, and found ourselves reflecting on the difficulties of retrofitting a contemporary learning environment into an old building, built for a different purpose. Case in point is the room below which would have been something like council chambers, now turned into a lecture theatre.
We caught the bus to Cardiff Bay and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of exploring. It seems like an historical area, but there was this massive waterfall in the main square.
On walking to the water, several things become immediately apparent. This was a working port and I was surprised to learn that it’s set on a lake. The Glamorganshire Canal linked Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, providing a means to bring valley coal down to the coast. The docks grew and became known as Tiger Bay, and was settled by a multi-ethnic community, whose influence can still be seen.
In the late 19th century, Cardiff was the largest town in Wales and the world’s foremost coal exporting port. I must say I was surprised that this body of water was a lake as it seems like an ocean inlet, but there you go.
If you look at the photo above, you’ll see a red building. I assumed it was a city hall, given its design and prominence. We were pleased to find we could go inside and were most surprised to discover that it was the administrative headquarters for the Bute Dock Company and Cardiff Railway Company. It is known as the Pierhead Building, and is built in a French Gothic-Renaissance style featuring red terracotta brickwork, hexagonal chimneys, a clocktower which mimicked Big Beg and gargoyles everywhere. It is currently used as part of the Welsh Paliament and includes a museum and even spaces.
As I walked around I imagined what it would be like to work in such a building with beautiful views and features such as this magnificent fireplace. I assume this was lit in winter and would have warmed quite a large area.
There were a few pieces of old equipment dotted about. This binnacle caught my eye. It was actually used in the British Antarctica Expedition. Cardiff Bay was the departure port for Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910–1913 Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole. The binnacle is the non-magnetic protective housing (this one is wood and brass) and it holds the ship’s magnetic compass near the helm. It protects the compass from the elements and keeps it level. The compass can be viewed by looking into the hole at the front of the binnacle.
The water was flat calm and the views across were beautiful. The white church is the Norwegian Church and is the oldest surviving church founded by the seaman’s mission, in Britain. Roald Dahl was a member of this church, having Norwegian parents and growing up in Cardiff.
Of course Shirley Bassey was also born and grew up in Tiger Bay.
I love a whimsical weather vane and this one caught my eye.
Our next stop was Caerphilly Castle, which is the biggest castle in Wales and second only in size to Windsor Castle. It has massive walls, towers, and gatehouses and was surrounded by water. It covers a total of 30 acres.
Massive walls, towers and gatehouses were combined with sprawling water defences to cover a total of 30 acres.
There was a lot to see in this castle.
More stairs to climb and high spots to freak me out.
Castles always have so many towers, all accessed by twisty steps!
There was an area showing the traction trebuchets. These didn’t use a counterweight (remember learning about them in high school history?) but used the strength of men pulling on ropes. These devices were apparently capable of rapid fire, and were invented in China.
One of the striking things about Caerphilly Castle is this tower, which leans at an angle of 10°, which is more than twice the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
It is believed that the lean is caused by ground subsidence and structural damage during the 17th century English Civil War, when gunpowder was used to damage the castle.
This figure is the 4th Marquess of Bute, who funded major restorations of the castle. It looks as though he’s physically propping up the tower.
I have had Tenby on my bucket list for a while and got on a train for a visit but we were thwarted by Storm Austen, or at least the threat of it. We were told that the train terminated prior to Tenby as they were concerned about the effect of the storm, which wasn’t even close to Wales at that point. They had buses to take people to Tenby but we were concerned about getting back, so decided to just get the train back to Cardiff. We had a chat to a couple on the train and they told us about St Fagan’s National Museum of History. Now this had not appeared in any of my searches of Cardiff so I was intrigued, especially when I read that it is Wales’s most popular heritage attraction, featuring a free open-air museum and a 16th-century Elizabethan manor house in western Cardiff.
We caught the bus to St Fagan’s and began walking around. There are a lot of buildings as evidenced by this map. Unfortunately the manor house was under renovation so we didn’t visit it.
I took a lot of photos, but it was raining so they don’t look too wonderful. However, here are a few. I do love a good drystone wall. Pigs were kept in that conical shaped stone building. I was quite surprised that pigs were kept in round buildings but apparently they dig into corners and escape!
Since 1948 over forty original buildings from different historical periods have been carefully taken apart and re-erected in the 100-acre parkland, among them houses, a farm, a school, a chapel and a splendid Workmen’s Institute. Below is a communal bread oven.
Many of the buildings had fires lit and it was lovely to warm ourselves in front of them.
An example of the interior with a fire lit. Every building had a staff member looking after it, and where appropriate, they kept the fires going.
I was quite taken with this rotunda, until I worked out that it was where cock fighting took place. I wonder if that’s why there’s a cockerel on the weather vane?
The general store transported me straight back to my childhood. My mother used to shop in a store exactly like this
and she would buy broken biscuits from a bin exactly like this to make what we called a “broken biscuit cake”. I still make a version of this. The broken biscuits are in the bottom right bin.
I’m showing the post office here with the post box on the wall.
These shops actually sold goods to the tourists. I was excited when I saw the ironmongers, but sadly they sold confectionary – modern versions of things like sugar mice!
We used to get a sugar mouse in our Christmas stockings every year. Imagine how good they were for our teeth!
There are barns of course, but some of the older houses had barns as an integral part of the house as the animals helped keep the house warm.
For some reason I didn’t get a photo of the outside of this cottage, but I thought it was interesting to see the sign boards. They show where in Wales the building came from and gives some of the history.
This was a photo of the inside
The gardens were well maintained, and the vegetable gardens are productive.
I have a bit of a thing for Welsh dressers and this one was gorgeous, with the Staffordshire dogs and blue and white china.
This was a tailor’s shop. We couldn’t go in, which is a shame.
St Fagans has farm animals at a working historic farm called Llwyn-yr-Eos also on the grounds. They have cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. Keeping native breeds of sheep is important as they are a vital part of Wales’ farming heritage and they have some breeds that are at risk of disappearing.
Did I mention that this whole museum is free to visit and it’s so worth it. There are donation boxes so a contribution can be made.
I have missed so many buildings and so much information, but it can be found, should you be interested, at https://museum.wales/collections/historic-buildings/