St Fagans National History Museum

St Fagans National History Museum
Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru
St Fagans Castle
Location within Wales Cardiff
Established	1948
Location	St. Fagans, Cardiff, Wales
Visitor figures	610,155 (2010) Ranked 35th in the UK
Website	www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/

St Fagans National History Museum (Welsh: Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru), commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture and architecture of the Welsh people. The museum is part of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.

It comprises over thirty re-erected buildings from various locations in Wales, and is set in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, an Elizabethan manor house. In 2011 Which? magazine named the museum the United Kingdom's favourite visitor attraction.

History

The museum was started in 1946 following the donation of the castle and lands by the Earl of Plymouth. It opened its doors to the public in 1948, under the name of the Welsh Folk Museum. The museum's name in Welsh (also meaning "Welsh Folk Museum") has remained unchanged since that date, whereas the English title has been modified once to Museum of Welsh Life, and again to its current nomenclature.

The brainchild of Iorwerth Peate, the museum was modelled on Skansen, the outdoor museum of vernacular Swedish architecture in Stockholm. Most structures re-erected in Skansen were built of wood and are thus easily taken apart and reassembled, but a comparable museum in Wales was naturally going to be more ambitious as much of the vernacular architecture of Wales is made of masonry.

Buildings and exhibits

The museum's gallery and administration block, built by the Percy Thomas Partnership, 1968–74

The museum includes over forty buildings which represent the architecture of Wales, including a nonconformist chapel (in this case, Unitarian), a village schoolhouse, a Toll road tollbooth (below), a cockpit (below), a pigsty (below) and a tannery (below).

The museum holds displays of traditional crafts with a working blacksmith's forge, a pottery, a weaver, miller and clog maker. It also includes two working water mills: one flour mill and one wool mill. Part of the site includes a small working farm which concentrates on preserving local Welsh native breeds of livestock. Produce from the museum's bakery and flour mill is available for sale.

The medieval parish church of Saint Teilo (below) formerly at Llandeilo Tal-y-bont in west Glamorgan (restored to its pre-Reformation state), is the Museum's latest building, opened in October 2007 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Though the museum was intended to preserve aspects of Welsh rural life, it now includes several buildings that depict the industrial working life that succeeded it, itself almost extinct in Wales. There is a row of workmen's cottages, depicting furnishing from 1800–1985, from Rhyd-y-car near Merthyr Tydfil (below), as well as the pristine Oakdale Workmen's Institute (below). A post-war prefabricated bungalow (below) has even been erected on the grounds.

Since 1996 the Museum has hosted the Everyman Summer Theatre Festival when it re-located from Dyffryn Gardens. This festival, which includes a Shakespeare play, a Musical and a Children's Show has become part of Welsh theatrical calendar since its founding at Dyffryn in 1983.

Scenes from the Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" were filmed at St Fagans.

List of buildings

Image	Name	Date	Re-erected	Original site	County (historic)	County (modern)
	Celtic Village	—	1992	St Fagans	—	Cardiff
	Hendre'r Ywydd Uchaf farmhouse	1508	1962	Llangynhafal, near Llandyrnog	Denbighshire	Denbighshire
	St Teilo's church	c. 1100–c. 1520 (present form: c. 1520)	2007	Llandeilo Tal-y-bont, near Pontarddulais	Glamorgan	Swansea
	Cilewent farmhouse	begun 1470 (present form: 1734)	1959	Cwmdauddwr	Montgomeryshire	Powys
	Y Garreg Fawr farmhouse	1544	1984	Waunfawr	Caernarfonshire	Gwynedd
	Stryd Lydan barn	c, 1550	1951	Penley	Flintshire	Wrexham
	St Fagans Castle	1580	—	St Fagans	Glamorgan	Cardiff
	Hendre Wen barn	c. 1600	1982	Llanrwst	Denbighshire	Conwy
	Hawk and Buckle Inn cockpit	17th century	1970	Denbigh	Denbighshire	Denbighshire
	Kennixton farmhouse	1610	1955	Llangennith	Glamorgan	Swansea
	Abernodwydd farmhouse	1678	1955	Llangadfan	Montgomeryshire	Powys
	Smithy	18th century	1972	Llawryglyn	Montgomeryshire	Powys
	Tannery	late 18th century	1968	Rhayader	Montgomeryshire	Powys
	Esgair Moel woollen mill	1760	1952	Llanwrtyd	Brecknockshire	Powys
	Llainfadyn cottage	1762	1962	Rhostryfan	Caernarfonshire	Gwynedd
	Nant Wallter cottage	c. 1770	1993	Taliaris, near Llandeilo	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire
	Southgate tollhouse	1772	1968	Penparcau, Aberystwyth	Cardiganshire	Ceredigion
	Pen Rhiw Unitarian chapel	1777	1956	Dre-fach Felindre	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire
	Cae Adda byre	18th–19th century	2003	Waunfawr	Caernarfonshire	Gwynedd
	Pigsty	c. 1800	1977	Hendre Ifan Prosser	Glamorgan	Rhondda Cynon Taf
	Rhyd-y-Car ironworkers' cottages	c. 1800	1986	Rhyd-y-Car, Merthyr Tydfil	Glamorgan	Merthyr Tydfil
	Llwyn-yr-Eos farmhouse	begun 1820	—	St Fagans	Glamorgan	Cardiff
	Gorse mill	after 1842	1983	Dôl-wen	Denbighshire	Denbighshire
	Melin Bompren corn mill	begun 1852	1977	Cross Inn		Ceredigion
	Hayshed	1870	1977	Maentwrog		Gwynedd
	Summerhouse	c. 1880	1988	Bute Park, Cardiff	Glamorgan	Cardiff
	Gwalia Stores	1880	1991	Ogmore Vale	Glamorgan	Bridgend
	School	in use 1880–1916	1984	Maestir, near Lampeter	Cardiganshire	Ceredigion
	Sawmill	1892	1994	Tŷ'n Rhos, near Llanddewi Brefi		Ceredigion
	Tailor's shop	1896 (extended 1920s)	1992	Cross Inn		Ceredigion
	Ewenny Pottery	c. 1900	1988	Ewenny	Glamorgan	Vale of Glamorgan
	Derwen bakehouse	1900	1987	Thespian Street, Aberystwyth	Cardiganshire	Ceredigion
	Oakdale Workmen's Institute	1916	1995	Oakdale	Monmouthshire	Caerphilly
	Saddler's workshop	1926	1986	St Clears	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire
	Post office	1936	1992	Blaenwaun, near Whitland	Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire
	War memorial	1936	1996	Caetwmpyn Park, Newbridge	Caerphilly	Monmouthshire
	Prefab bungalow	1948	1998	Gabalfa, Cardiff	Glamorgan	Cardiff

External links

• Castles-of-wales.com, St Fagans Castle
• Official website
• BBC Wales site including panoramic views of buildings in the museum
• Everyman Theatre
• Geograph.co.uk, photos of St Fagans Museum
• St Fagans National History Museum at Gathering the Jewels
• Celebration of St Dwynwen's day in Wales