Had a fascinating and relaxing day today- Paul and Jenny took us to the Welsh National Museum at St Fagan's just outside Cardiff. We had planned to visit this museum last time we were here but it rained and as it is an "outdoors" museum we could not go. Paul has just bought a new little Mercedes so we had a very comfortable ride along the very complex road system from Llangyndir (not far from Abergavenny - as in the song) to Cardiff.
The museum is an amazing set-up. Back in the 40's they had the idea of collecting genuine examples of the way Welsh people have lived, worked and relaxed throughout history and putting at all in one display - as it turned out the Earl of whatever donated his estate at St Fagans to the state in 1948 so they had the ideal location. Since then they have identified buildings from all over Wales which represent typical homes of various periods both urban and rural, carefully dismantled them, numbered every piece and then re-constructed them on the estate. All are fully furnished with either their original furniture or genuine furniture from the era.
Just a fascinating day. Each house or building (such as a tannery,Woollen Mill, churches, blacksmiths, pottery, bakery etc) has a warden who can give the whole history of the building, who owned it, when and where it was originally built, how it was built and so on. There are about 60 buildings on site with another half dozen being constructed. A set of terrace houses which were built in the 1700's and occupied until the 1980's were each furnished in the different styles of each period across that time with the addition of water supply, kitchens, bathrooms etc over that time - fascinating. Elizabeth is not swapping beds with any of them!!
Pictures on facebook!
One of the best parts of the day was lunch - they served the most beautiful crispy roasted potatoes with Welsh butter and salad - never tasted potato like that!!! I also achieved one of the aims of the trip - to replace my Welsh woollen cap that the moths had eaten. They had some genuine Welsh wool ones in the shop there so got one so now my head can stay warm in winter again!
Trivia: All museums in Wales are free to enter - this one is funded by the National Lottery.
Cap report: I now have one more to look after! Losses - nil.
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