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News
Our old newsletters (in .pdf format) can be found here.
Opening hours in January and February 2012
Ceredigion Archives is preparing to move to new premises (see below) in 2012. This involves a great deal of back-room work and we have reluctantly concluded that we can only offer a limited service to the public whilst we complete this process.
We will therefore be opening on a Monday and a Thursday only.
Monday opening hours will remain as 10am – 6pm
Thursday opening hours will be extended by one hour from 10am -5pm
If you are coming from another continent and can only come to us on a Tuesday , Wednesday or Friday, just write and let us know!
We hope to move in late February. Please keep an eye on the website for updates!
Ceredigion Archives Re-locates!
Early in 2012 Ceredigion Archives will be moving to the old Aberystwyth Town Hall (which may have a new fancy name by then!) which has been converted for use as the new County Archives building, Aberystwyth Library, and Aberystwyth Day Centre.
The new search-room will be on the first floor of the building, accessible by stairs and lift, and situated only a few metres from the local history section of the library. The strong rooms are situated to the rear of the building on the ground floor and the first floor, and they have been specially fitted out to be compliant to BS5454, the British Standard for the preservation of archival material. The strong-rooms have mobile shelving throughout, and a gas fire-suppression system.
As I write the search-room is still under development, but we hope to have three public access computers in addition to the old microform machines. We will still have a big table for searchers, and map cabinets for easy access to the most popular maps. We have rescued some oak bookcases from the original Town Hall building and hope to use those for our reference collection. We will still have lovely staff to help you with your requests (everyone except Anne Martin will be transferring to the new archives; Anne has recently retired) and we look forward to welcoming you to the new Ceredigion Archives in the Spring of 2012. Watch this space for further details.
Ardwyn School collection now on-line
We are very happy to announce that the Ardwyn School Collection catalogue is on-line at last. The detailed and exhaustive catalogue was prepared about a year ago by Peter Lewis (then a newly-qualified archivist) but it has taken a while to prepare it for web-mounting.
Ardwyn school (Aberystwyth County School) provided secondary education in the Aberystwyth area from 1896-1973, when re-organisation created the two current secondary schools Penweddig (Welsh medium) and Penglais (English medium). The collection was deposited by Dr. Huw Spencer Lloyd whose book The History of Aberystwyth County School (Aberystwyth 1996) provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject. For further research we commend readers to this collection.
You can view the listing 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.
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!
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'.
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