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News
Our old newsletters (in .pdf format) can be found here.
NEW! BUILDING CONTROL PLANS – A FANTASTIC RESOURCE FOR RESEARCHING HOUSE HISTORY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ABERYSTWYTH
We are delighted to announce the arrival of Phase One of the Aberystwyth Building plans catalogue on our website. The work is not yet complete but we thought that enough of the collection has been catalogued to warrant making it available to researchers. We would like to thank our valiant army of volunteers and trainees past and present, Matthew, Jake, Gary, Hannah, Zbigniew, and Liz, for their sterling work on the project.
Aberystwyth underwent a period of expansion and rebuilding in the late 19th – early 20th century. Even though planning laws were less stringent then than now, one still had to submit an application, accompanied by a plan (usually drawn by an architect) to the planning authority - Aberystwyth Borough's Building Control Department – for approval. Many of these plans have survived and a list is now available. They range from plans for entirely new houses – such as the Edwardian red brick terraces around Stanley Road – to extensions, new bathrooms and even a 'conversion of stable into a motor garage'!
When a plan was submitted, it was entered in a ledger under the name of the street (or sometimes area) where the proposed building was to be located. We kept this arrangement; it allows for expansion (were further plans to be discovered) without compromising the structure of the catalogue. The catalogue entries show the new reference number which incorporates (after ABM/BC) the first letter of the street's name as it is now, and also the letter/number combination it bore in the ledger. If the street letters do not match, it is usually because the street's name has changed, sometimes more than once.
The number of the house is not always given but we hope to match the plans to the present-day house numbers and names one day.
Follow this link to see the catalogue.
Museum Collection
We are delighted to announce that Samantha, our new volunteer, is working on the Museum Collection!
The Museum Collection is a varied assortment of small collections which came to Ceredigion Archives from the county Museum. Most of them were originally donated to the Museum in the days of Dyfed (Dyfed was the county created during the local government reorganization in 1974 from the old counties of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire; it split back into its component parts in 1996).
Ceredigion Museum was more strongly associated with the old county of Cardiganshire and many people preferred to donate items there rather than to Dyfed Archives, the headquarters of which were located in Carmarthen.
After the reinstatement of Cardiganshire (renamed Ceredigion) in 1996 and the creation of the County Record Office in Aberystwyth, the documents were transferred here from the Museum.
Samantha is sorting and packaging the documents and preparing a list which, we hope, will soon be available through our on-line catalogue.
New Search Engine
We are delighted to announce our new website search facility. You might have noticed that the old one was a bit quirky – or maybe you got no search results at all? The new engine should be a big improvement.
The main changes are:
1) It should now be returning results in some sort of priority - full phrases should come out first, with partial phrases lower down the list. Matches in the titles tend to be a higher priority than in the body text. Try 'Llanddewi Brefi'
2) It can cope with characters such as / (frequently used in our catalogue/reference numbers) e.g. a search for ADX/123 now works (though only in the Catalogue part and not the Recent Additions part of the results; we hope this will be fixed soon)
3) It's a bit odd with 3-letter words - it actually picks up words starting with the term e.g. 'cat' will find 'cataract'.
4) Default option is only to search for entries that match all the words entered - option to match any is available.
5) The filter for 'search specific set of collections' has been removed for now but will return in due course.
6) Words in search terms with 1 or 2 characters are ignored completely.
7) The accession register searches now highlight matches.
Please do send us your comments and suggestions!
New Opening Hours for Ceredigion Archives
From Monday, 30 November 2009
Monday 10am – 6pm
Tuesday 10am – 5pm
Wednesday 10am – 5pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
You may notice that we have decided to close an hour earlier on Mondays but to compensate for this we are opening for an extra half an hour on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The reason for this is the very small number of people using the service between 6pm and 7pm on a Monday. If however you are only in Aberystwyth for a short period of time and need extra time for research, it is always possible that we may be able to stay open later – please contact us to discuss.
We Shall Not Be Moved!
… but we shall be closed to the public during the week of the 14th of September 2009 (14-18 September inclusive).
In September the County Council will be relocating most of its Aberystwyth-based offices to the new building in Boulevard St. Brieuc [Park Avenue]. Ceredigion Archives will be assisting with the move so we can only offer a limited service from 31 August to 11 September. We will be operating our usual opening hours but any documents must be ordered in advance. The following week we will be closed – see above.
Ceredigion Archives is not itself moving to the new building. We will be staying put in Swyddfa'r Sir for the foreseeable future (although we have exciting plans for a new building in due course – watch this space!)
We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause – normal service resumes on 21 September.
Emrys Prosser Collection is online!
The full catalogue, prepared by project archivist Jennie Hill, is now on-line. This important collection contains Mr. Prosser's personal papers, his local history research and a number of slides. He acquired some papers of W. Ronald Williams, solicitor, Argoed Hall, Tregaron; these are mostly title deeds of local properties. The collection also contains business records of John Williams, Rhydyronnen, Tregaron and a quantity of material relating to Capel Bwlchgwynt (Wesleyan Methodist), Tregaron.
You can find it in the Other Major Collections section of our on-line catalogue.
Voice of the Beehive
Bees are in the news - and now in our catalogue! We have been listing documents which relate to bees and beekeeping. They are a part of the Gwilym Evans/Welsh Plant Breeding Station collection. The introduction and link to the catalogue can be found here.
Dinas Secondary School, Aberystwyth
The Hywel Watkins/Dinas School collection is now on-line. You can find it in the Other Major Collections section of our catalogue.
New documents in the Archives
We have recently acquired some interesting documents from the Lampeter area which we are listing as the David Lloyd Solicitors (DLL) collection.
The collection appears to consist of professional papers of the solicitors firm David Lloyd and Son, Lampeter. Members of the family include David Lloyd, J. Ernest Lloyd and William Reginald Lloyd. In addition to running a law practice the Lloyds served as solicitors to Lampeter Borough and as Town Clerks.
D. Lloyd was Clerk to the Guardians of the Lampeter Union and also Town Clerk.
J. Ernest Lloyd served as Mayor of Lampeter and also Town Clerk.
The documents reflect these functions and include borough records of street improvements and building works, elections etc.; churchwardens' reports; tithe collection records; records relating to the Manchester and Milford Railway, and the proposed New Quay Light Railway, and various other papers. Some of the records relate to Carmarthenshire.
Work has begun on listing the collection which will be available when the short catalogue entry appears online in a week or two under 'recent acquisitions'.
A Victory for Healthy Eating!
Ania and Helen spent Saturday 7th March at Penparcau's 'Home Front Event', run by Ymlaen Ceredigion and Communities First. The Memorial Hall in Penparcau, near Aberystwyth was the venue for a day-long event which sought to explore and celebrate the more positive aspects of World War II in this area, including the cuisine of the time, and the enthusiastic 'Dig for Victory' campaigns, to stimulate ideas about healthy eating and local garden-swap schemes.
Ceredigion Archives provided an exhibition showing recipes - including popular breakfast-time favourites like fried cheese sandwiches (hmm – I thought this was supposed to be about healthy and frugal eating habits!!), fried herrings and 'wheatmealies', a simple breakfast cereal made by toasting tiny squares of bread then serving with milk and sugar.
We also exhibited leaflets from the war years explaining how to grow and preserve fruit and vegetables. For the really ambitious there were notes on keeping pigs, rabbits, goats and bees.
Examples of more palatable recipes were handed out for people to try at home. We both got into the mood of the day – Helen appeared in a curious costume which she claimed was authentic, and enjoyed a fantastic Woolton Pie for lunch (thanks to Penparcau Senior Citizens for the excellent catering!), whilst Ania displayed her 'knitting for victory' and discussed continental knitting techniques with more traditional knitters of the area.
We would like to thank the organizers for the opportunity to participate, and the many people who discussed their war-time recollections with us, which we thoroughly enjoyed!
Welcome Home Florrie!
We welcome the return of a special collection to Ceredigion Archives. The Florrie Hamer Collection (Accession 1102, ref. no. ADX/415) has been in the Conservation Unit of the University of Dundee undergoing repair work.
The Collection consists of scrapbook folders compiled by the late Miss Hamer who was a lady's companion, and mixed with many of the gentry families of North Ceredigion in the middle years of the twentieth century.
Florrie's caption: Ellen Hughes and Florrie Hamer, 'Picnic on the lawn', Pendinas in the background. 1933.
Back of photo: Miss F. Hamer & Miss Nellie Hughes at Tanybwlch 1933 in the employ of Lord Ystwyth
In her later years she compiled scrapbooks which included letters from the Pryse family of Gogerddan, to whom she was particularly close, her own local history notes based on her memories, photographs, ephemera and local newspaper cuttings.
We were delighted to receive funding from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust which allowed us to have part of the collection professionally restored. The scrapbooks, sticky tape, and felt tip pens which Florrie often used present particular challenges for long term preservation.
The conservation work is of an excellent quality, and we hope that this, and careful handling by researchers, will help preserve this fascinating collection far into the future.
Hafod Estate collection catalogue now on-line!
This major collection is now included in our catalogue. Introduction and link are here. An on-line exhibition of documents from this and from the Friends of Hafod collection is coming soon.
Ceredigion Archives - preserving the past for the future