The story of Wales in 100 objects

Here we feature 25 of the 100 items chosen to tell the story of Wales through objects from its history

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Jenny White

09:15, 22 SEP 2018
Updated09:48, 22 SEP 2018

Some of the items from Wales in 100 objects (Image: Gomer Press)

A legendary cup, a trove of Celtic treasures, a scold’s bridle, a Laura Ashley dress and SuperTed are among 100 diverse objects collected together for a fascinating new book, Wales in 100 Objects and its Welsh counterpart Cymru Mewn 100 Gwrthrych.

Written by Andrew Green, the former librarian of the National Library of Wales, the book follows years of research and travel by Andrew to libraries, museums and archives all over Wales in a mission to find 100 objects which represent key aspects of the history of our nation.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the power of objects in a historical context,” says Andrew. “Objects – even ones that look insignificant – can be used to tell a remarkable story.”

Andrew does indeed tell fascinating stories of Wales, from the Neanderthals (Pontnewydd Cave handaxe) to the present era (the cover of Catatonia’s first record), in the book published by Gomer.

Andrew took a lot of advice when narrowing down his choices, but he admits that the objects in the book are very much his own personal choices.

“I am happy to defend my choices but, of course, everybody will have their own ideas about what should be included in a book about 100 objects in Wales. I hope the book will encourage readers to think about and discuss the objects they consider best represent Wales and its history.”

Each object in Wales in 100 Objects and Cymru Mewn 100 Gwrthrych has been strikingly illustrated by photographer Rolant Dafis from Aberystwyth, who has worked for a number of well-known fine art galleries and auction houses over the last 20 years.

The resulting publication is a stunning volume that opens a door into Wales’ history and culture. Here is our pick of 10 of the most interesting objects showcased in the book...

Llyn Cerrig Bach Hoard
In 1943 William Owen Roberts was helping to prepare a new runway at RAF Valley. While lifting peat from the southern edge of Llyn Cerrig Bach, he came across an iron chain.

At first he failed to realise its significance and even used it to haul a lorry from the mud.

Further excavations in the waterlogged peat brought to light a rich hoard of more than 160 prehistoric iron, bronze and other objects. They had been placed in the lake, probably over a period of at least 100 years, as gifts for the water gods. Some of the objects had been deliberately broken.

The most striking object is a moon-shaped bronze plaque, possibly fixed to a shield or chariot. Its decoration features a triskele, or symmetrical triple spiral. The triskele is a characteristically British variant of the La Tène style, named after a site in Switzerland but common across the Celtic world.
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Two Caerwent Gods
The first statuette, a head about 23cm high and made from local quartz sandstone, was found near a small building outside the back of a large fourth-century house. It was set on the remains of an altar approached by three shallow steps.

Its simplified, mask-like forms – bulging eyes, geometric mouth, nose and recessed earholes – place the head within a common Celtic artistic tradition. The sculptor carved the back and base flat, so that it could fit into a niche or on a pedestal against a wall. There is no sign that the head belonged to a body.

The continental Celts thought the human head was the seat of the soul. Some have thought that the Caerwent sculpture is a severed head translated into stone. But more likely it was an image of a local god, still venerated centuries after the coming of Roman rule.

For 300 years Caerwent stood almost alone in Wales as a major urban centre, inhabited by people from many nationalities and religions.
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Corbel from Haverfordwest Priory
After the defeat of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, John Pecham, Archbishop of Canterbury, made a tour of Wales to assert his authority over the Welsh church.

On his visit to Haverfordwest Priory in 1284 he criticised the prior, like a modern auditor, for minor financial irregularities and urged him to spend more time mixing with the canons and less time entertaining guests.

The priory was small, but not poor. Donations from benefactors funded the addition of a tower on the church and fitting the rectangular chapter house with a new ribbed vault, decorated plaster walls and green and buff floor tiles.

In the middle of the room stood a plinth supporting the limestone effigy of a man in chain mail. Since the style is 13th century, he may be the priory’s founder or a member of his family. Another well-preserved fragment recovered from excavation is a carved corbel supporting the vault. It is an unusual sculpture, showing seven male faces of varying degrees of unattractiveness. Each shares an eye with his neighbour. The heads may be images of the Seven Deadly Sins, a common theme in church wall paintings of the time.
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Jesse Carving – Abergavenny
In Norman times St Mary’s Church in Abergavenny belonged to a Benedictine priory. It was a large and rich foundation, patronised by the powerful Hastings, de Braose and Herbert families. Their sumptuous effigies and tombs can still be seen in the church.

Towards the end of the 15th century a benefactor commissioned a woodcarver to create a sculpture for the church. Only the lowest part of the work survives.

The art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon described it as “the only great wooden figure to survive the wreckage of the British cultural revolution” during the Reformation.

The sculpture was an unusually large and ornate example of a Jesse tree, a visual way of explaining how Christ was descended, through his mother Mary, from King David and his father Jesse as the prophet Isaiah foretold “and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots”.

The Abergavenny Jesse was carved using a single section of oak, from a tree already perhaps 400 years old. The underside is flat and may have rested on a plinth, while original nails indicate that the sculpture was fixed at the back to a wall or framework.
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The Nanteos Cup
In August 1878 members of the Cambrian Archaeological Association held their summer meeting in Lampeter. In a temporary exhibition there they were shown a plain and fragmentary, but unusual object.

According to the association’s president, it was “a wooden bowl, preserved for many years past at Nanteos and most kindly placed at our disposal by the present owner of that mansion and estate.

It is supposed to have been a possession of the abbey of Strata Florida in the days of my youth and probably long since, it was supposed to possess healing powers which could only be called miraculous”.

These powers, he added, stemmed from the belief that the bowl had formed part of the True Cross.

The wooden bowl, made from wych elm and originally around 12cm in diameter, came to be known as the Nanteos Cup. The report to the Cambrians is the first surviving account of it. But some earlier handwritten receipts exist recording the loan of the vessel.

In the early 20th century the cup gained a new myth – that it was the true Holy Grail. It was lent to the National Library of Wales in 2016.
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Effigy of Sir Rhys ap Thomas
When Henry Tudor challenged for the throne of England, Welsh poets were roused to prophesy. Some foretold a new age for Wales. Henry, born in Pembroke and grandson of a Welshman, would restore the rights and fortunes of their ancient nation.

In fact Henry’s loyalty to Wales and its people was limited. But there were exceptions, the most conspicuous being Sir Rhys ap Thomas.

Sir Rhys’ parents came from modest estates in Carmarthenshire. At first he aligned himself uneasily with Richard III. But when Henry Tudor landed in 1485 at Mill Bay in Pembrokeshire, Sir Rhys calculated that he had more to gain from siding with the rebel than with Richard. Already a seasoned soldier, he gathered an army, joined Henry and helped defeat Richard at the Battle of Bosworth.

On Sir Rhys’ death in 1525 a sumptuous stone monument was erected to his memory in Greyfriars friary in Carmarthen (it was later moved to St Peter’s Church).

Alongside Rhys lies another figure. She has been identified as one of Rhys’ two wives, but the effigy is much smaller in scale than his – it was probably carved on another occasion and may not represent either wife.
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Two Suffragette Dolls
Democracy was late in coming to Britain. Despite Reform Acts in 1832, 1867 and 1884 and the efforts of the Chartists and their successors, well over half the population was still ineligible to vote in elections at the end of the 19th century. That included all women and more than 40% of men.

Pressure to enfranchise women grew in the second half of the 19th century. John Stuart Mill and others argued the cause and bills were presented to Parliament regularly after 1870. But resistance was strong. Women were dismissed as too weak or irrational or otherwise unqualified to deserve the vote.

Women began to organise themselves, locally and nationally, to demand change.

Welsh women were at the forefront of these movements. The country’s first women’s suffrage organisation, set up in Llandudno in January 1907, was followed rapidly by more than 30 others.

By 1912 the Cardiff and District Women’s Suffrage Society was the largest local group outside London.

Its co-founder was Millicent Mackenzie, professor of education at Cardiff and later the only woman candidate in Wales in the 1918 general election.
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Badges from the Miners' Strike
The defeat of the miners in the 1984-1985 coal dispute led to the virtual end of an industry that had dominated parts of Wales for a century and put an end to the powerful influence of organised industrial labour.

Margaret Thatcher’s government was determined to abolish coal subsidies, to subject the industry to global market forces and to destroy the power of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). On becoming prime minister in 1979, Thatcher said privately, “the last Conservative government was destroyed by the miners’ strike. We’ll have another one and we’ll win”.

When the government announced the closure of 20 pits, Scargill called for a strike in March 1984. There was no majority in favour – the 20,000 miners in Wales were mainly against – but the strike went ahead.

After some initial reluctance, the south Wales miners proved the most solid in their support. The conflict was prolonged, bitter and sometimes violent. It ended in a comprehensive defeat for the miners, as the government used all its economic, legal and coercive power to prevail.
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Scold's Bridle
In 1795, following an act of Parliament passed in 1792, the Montgomery and Pool Poor Law Union opened a workhouse in Forden. It was a large brick building, designed by Joseph Bromfield. It cost £12,000 and was intended to house up to 1,000 poor people from parishes in Montgomeryshire and Shropshire.

Forden’s ‘House of Industry’ prevented its inmates from starving. It gave them some extremely basic education and medical care. But it was a place of harsh labour, poor sanitation and severe discipline, all designed to deter others from seeking its support.

In May 1795 the directors resolved that “a Bridle for Scolds and a straight waistcoat be procured for punishing offending poor in the house”.

First recorded as ‘the branks’ in 16th century Scotland, the scold’s bridle was outdated by the end of the 18th century. It was an iron cage, fitted over the head, with a projecting plate that pressed down on the tongue to prevent speech. The bridle was thought to be a suitable penalty for disobedient or recalcitrant women.

Parliament passed a new law in 1834 which abolished ‘out-relief’ and made the workhouse even less attractive.

Forden Workhouse, exempt from the new legislation, continued unreformed until 1870, “a splendid receptacle of misery”, to quote Rev Emilius Nicholson in his Cambrian Traveller’s Guide (1840). The workhouse system was detested by residents, ratepayers, religious leaders and humanitarians.
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Welsh hat - Ceredigion Museum
An enduring symbol of Welsh women and girls in popular representation is the Welsh hat. Around 180 original examples survive in museums. Little, though, can be said with certainty about the hat’s history and uses.

There are two versions, both with tall crowns and stiff brims. One has a tapering crown, the other type, used in north-west Wales, is shorter and more cylindrical. The earliest ones were made of felt, but most surviving examples were made of silk plush, known as ‘beaver’, on a stiff buckram base.

Most of these were made by two English companies, Christys and Carver and Co, specifically for the Welsh market. They were expensive and were probably worn by better-off rural women, on special occasions.

The origin of the hat is unknown. Tall felt hats were worn by 17th century Puritans, but they fell into disuse. Early travellers in Wales noted that women often wore men’s hats. The Welsh hat emerged in the early 1830s. Princess Victoria, passing through Bangor in August 1832, “appeared, in compliment to the fair maids of Cambria, in the head-dress of the country, the Welsh hat”.

It is possible that her example was influential.
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Paviland Cave flints
Some 30,000 years ago the cliffs of south Gower overlooked not the Bristol Channel, but a wide plain, teeming with hyenas, wolves, bison, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer and brown bears.

These animals left traces of their bones in the cave. In 1823, something else was discovered alongside them. William Buckland of Oxford University found a human skeleton.

The most recent isotope analysis suggests that the Red Lady lived around 32,000 years ago, in the early Upper Palaeolithic Age – the oldest modern human found in Wales, and one of the oldest in Britain. It is now known he as a man.

These flints were also found in the caves in 1909.
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The arms of Owain Glyndŵr
Glyndwr's revolt has become legendary in the story of modern Wales.

In 1923 workmen uncovered in the Harlech Castle a roundel, 40mm in diameter, made of copper alloy.

Holes in flanges around its edge attached the mount to a belt or harness. Inside the circular frame is a shield of arms, in green and black enamel with gold overlay – the arms of Owain Glyndŵr.

Harlech was the home of his headquarters from 1405 to 1409 before it was recaptured and his revolt faded.
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Misericords
Davids Cathedral has twenty-one of these wooden figures carved under the ledge of the choir stalls, one of the largest series in Britain.

While the sacred images were targeted for destruction by the Protestant iconoclasts of the reformation and the Civil War, the secular sculptures of the dancers escaped.

Animals are a common theme in the misericords of St Davids. They may have been taken from bestiaries, manuscripts or printed books of real and imaginary beasts, and often derive from folk tales.
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Estate map of Barry
After Oliver St John succeeded his father as 4th Baron St John of Bletso in 1618, he employed a surveyor called Evans Mouse to make a detailed map and terrier or inventory of his estates, including those in the Vale of Glamorgan centred on Fonmon Castle.

Little is known about Evans Mouse. He was presumably a Welshman and was certainly a highly professional surveyor. His maps, produced in 1622, are among the earliest and best manorial maps to survive in Wales.

Drawn in ink and watercolour on thick parchment to a scale of about 50cm to a mile, they are accurate and meticulously detailed. No better map of the area was produced before the Ordnance Survey began its mapping over 200 years later.
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John Ogilby’s road maps
In 1675 a Scot, John Ogilby, published a guide for travellers that showed how to negotiate the roads of England and Wales between distant points.

His unconventional atlas, entitled Britannia, included a series of one hundred strip maps, each following selected roads between two points and noting the immediately adjacent terrain and places through which they passed.

Plate 67 of the atlas is the second of two plates showing the route from St Davids to Holywell – an unlikely route, perhaps. Beginning in Tal-y-bont, Ceredigion, it heads north to Machynlleth, follows the river Dovey to Mallwyd, crosses the mountains to Bala, and passes through Ruthin to Holywell.

Colours were added by hand after printing. Ogilby marks rivers (blue), lakes (green), bridges, gates and junctions. Hills (brown) have their up and down slopes indicated separately.

Ogilby shows orientation though yellow compasses, which differ from strip to strip, and includes distances, very accurately for the period.
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The Nannau Ox
To commemorate the coming of age of the heir of the 12,000-acre Nannau estate in Merioneth in 1824, a white ox was slaughtered.

The ox’s horns and hooves were later incorporated into an elaborate candelabrum.

Six special toasting cups were also ordered, made from the wood of Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyll, The Hollow Oak of the Demon, an ancient tree at Nannau.

The Welsh inscription around the silver rim of one of them reads, in translation: ‘While the sun shines on Cadair Idris may there be a welcome in Nannau, and Robert Fychan to arrange it’
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John Frost's pistols
These were the pistols used during the Newport Rising when 3,000 Chartist workers streamed down the Sirhowy and Ebbw Valleys to converge on Newport.

One group, led by innkeeper Zephaniah Williams, started in Nant-y-glo, John Frost’s group came from Blackwood, and William Jones, a watch-maker, led a third from Pontypool.
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John Roberts’s triple harp
Roma helped keep the triple harp alive in Wales even as it was losing ground to the conventional single-strung pedal harp.

John Roberts, achieved fame as a triple harp player. Born in Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch [27] in 1816, he was a fluent Romany speaker.

He served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers for nine years before marrying a Romany, Eleanor Wood Jones, and settling in Newtown to become a professional performer.
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Three preaching giants
Preaching was a public skill highly admired in Wales. It was one of the main means by which the nonconformist message was spread among the people.

The three acknowledged ‘giants’ of preaching were John Elias, Christmas Evans and William Williams of Wern.

All three spent much of their time on the road, attracting large, open air crowds and inflaming them by the force of their rhetoric and character.

They laid the foundations for the nonconformist ascendancy in the second half of the nineteenth century
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Mari Llwyd
In 1852 a Baptist minister living in Blaina, William Roberts, published a book entitled Crefydd yr Oesoedd Tywyll (‘The Religion of the Dark Ages’).

Its subtitle was ‘rituals, games and superstitions of the old world’, and the author’s aim was to draw his readers’ attention to survivals of pagan and Catholic customs in Wales.

High on his list of pernicious superstitions was the Mari Lwyd, a wassailing tradition largely confined to south Wales (‘Mari Lwyd’ meant ‘Grey Mare’ or possibly ‘Blessed Mary’).

According to Roberts’s account, the Mari Lwyd’s journey began before Christmas, when young men went in search of the skull of a horse.

To it they fixed a wooden jawbone, using a spring so that the mouth could be opened and snapped shut by the horse’s operator.

Then they attached multicolour ribbons, feathers and horsehair as a mane, and a wooden ‘backbone’ with a canvas sheet to hide the horseman below.
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Keir Hardie election poster
In the 1900 general election a Scottish trade union leader, ‘the greatest agitator of his day’, was elected to represent Merthyr Tydfil, to the surprise of almost everyone, including himself.

James Keir Hardie was the first Labour MP to be elected to parliament.

By 1903, according to Keir Hardie in a speech in Pontypridd, ‘Wales had become the cockpit in which great questions affecting labour were being fought out’.

He was re-elected as one of the two MPs for Merthyr in both the elections of 1910.
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Early Carmarthenshire motor car
In 1904 only 8,465 cars were registered in Britain. One early purchaser was Isaac Hayley, the owner of Glanbrân mansion near Llandovery.

Around 1904, when car registration was introduced, he bought a motor with the registration plate ‘UM7’. It was a Mercedes, or possibly a copy.

A keen amateur photographer, he probably took the picture himself, recruiting local people to pose for it.

A fashionably dressed lady sits in the back, while three country people wrapped in flannels occupy the other seats. ‘UM7’ was driven, slowly and uncomfortably on its solid tyres, around the county’s roads
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Felinfoel beer can
In January 1935 two United States companies found a way of making a can that could withstand high pressure and avoid contaminating the beer’s flavour.

Felinfoel, working with tinplate from the St David’s works and the Metal Box Company, soon followed. Its first cans appeared on 3 December 1935.

A local newspaper headline announced, ‘Canned beer arrives: epoch-making process at Felinfoel Brewery. New hope for tinplate industry’.

At first, sales of Felinfoel cans were modest. During the Second World War production increased, as cardboard boxes, each containing a dozen cans, were sent, post-free, to British troops abroad, especially in the Middle and Far East.

Today canned beer is still brewed in Felinfoel, in the original building, by the same family firm.
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Laura Ashley dress
For centuries wool was a staple of the Montgomeryshire economy. The main product of the mills of Newtown, Llanidloes and other towns was cheap flannel, a soft cloth woven from carded wool.

When Laura Ashley brought her small textile business to Machynlleth in 1961 she may have been in search of cheaper labour rather than a revival of the county’s textile industry, but her move did lead to a small renaissance.

The house in Machynlleth soon proved too small, and in 1966 the Ashleys bought new accommodation in Carno, a small village 18 miles to the east.

Here they soon took over the disused railway station building and turned it into a factory making cotton tea towels, smocks, dresses, blouses and other items.

They employed over a hundred people. According to one worker, ‘they breathed life back into the village’, which had long suffered from a lack of jobs.
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Catatonia's first record
In the 1990s, Welsh medium musicians set their sights on wider audiences.

One of the first bands to cross the divide was Catatonia, led by Cerys Matthews and Mark Roberts, who had played guitar with the Welsh-language band Y Cyrff.

The band’s first gig was in Clwb Ifor Bach. In May 1993 Crai, an offshoot of Sain, released their first CD record, an EP with five songs. It was followed by a second album International Velvet in 1997.

Cerys Matthews’s voice, quietly winsome one moment, gravelly and raucous the next, combined with the band’s powerful guitar sound and oblique lyrics to catch the world's attention.
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