I was born in Cardigan and brought up a few miles away. The town has always been a part of my “cynefin”, or habitat, and although it lies 11 miles north of my hometown, I still count it in my “fillitir sgwar” or square mile.
My use of a couple of Welsh phrases and words here is an indication of the cultural and historical importance of Cardigan and its castle. It was here, in 1176, that the famously liberal and cultured prince, Lord Rhys, held the inaugural Eisteddfod, a festival of Welsh singing, poetry, dance and art.
These festivals – Eisteddfodau – form a central pillar of the expression of the Welsh language to this day. Cardigan was the first stone castle to be built by a prince of Wales and, over the centuries, has been attacked and rebuilt several times.
This has led to the current fortifications only being a few hundred years old and, surprisingly, there is a Georgian country house in the castle’s central courtyard.
My childhood memories are of the castle being an imposing, dark, inaccessible and decaying fortification, which was central to the one-way traffic system of the town – a 12th century council roundabout if you will.
Barbara Wood, the last owner of the castle, lived in the crumbling, damp kitchen of the Georgian house from the 1940s until 1984, when she moved into a caravan in the grounds.
Wood went into a care home in 1999 and the castle was bought by Ceredigion County Council in 2003. In 2011, the Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust (which now owns and runs the site on behalf of the community) secured a total of £12m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the European Regional Development Fund and the Welsh government to restore the castle and develop it for tourist and local use.
Visitors enter the restored castle through the gift shop, which is well stocked with locally produced materials, although the wooden shields emblazoned with the cross of St George seem a little out of place at a site with such history of Welsh opposition to Norman marcher lords and King Edward I of England (1272–1307), as well as the English civil war (1642–1651). The war resulted in the destruction of the castle, rendering it useless as a defensive structure.
On exiting the shop, visitors emerge into the central courtyard, which is a revelation. A huge amount of work has been carried out to conserve, restore and stabilise the stone fabric of the castle. Gone are the crumbling crenulations of my childhood.
Gone is the dense overgrowth of generations of neglect. In their place are crisp stonework and a simple central lawn with newly planted borders.
Local importance
At the revamped castle, one gets a sense of openness and renewal. This is a space I’d like to return to again and again. Fortunately, the castle offers a season ticket so locals can visit multiple times and build a relationship with this tremendous new local resource.
My mother was with me on this visit. She spent her younger days in Cardigan but now, as
an 85-year-old dependent on a wheelchair for mobility, she doesn’t get to return often.
Before exploring further my stomach got the better of me so we adjourned to the cafe. This is a starkly modern construction of slate, glass and polished steel, which opens onto the central courtyard but also has views over Cardigan’s bustling high street.
One gets a feeling of floating above the town. Its modernity sits well with the restored stonework of the castle – after all, the walls have been rebuilt several times over the centuries.
The choice of food is a bit limited, but I put that down to the catering being a new venture and hope it will, like many other aspects of the trust’s work, develop with time. The service is good and it feels like the staff are proud to be working in such an iconic place.
The paths around the central courtyard are well suited to wheelchair use, if a little steep in one or two places, and my mother enjoyed the short journey around the battlements, which look out on to the second world war pillbox guard-post facing the bridge on the River Teifi.
We then visited the Georgian house. Again, the staff were welcoming, but sadly the building was not. The opening ceremony had taken place only a few weeks before but already the lift was broken and the top floor closed due to “health and safety reasons”.
Newly restored buildings do have teething problems but I was not impressed with a broken lift that meant we were able to see less than a third of the house. Still, we explored the ground floor.
Classic design flaws
In the kitchen there is an excellent bilingual video presentation, with a voiceover by the Welsh actor Matthew Rhys (no relation to Lord Rhys).
Using 3D animation, still photography, music and narration, the video gave a clear description of the castle’s history. But the experience was spoiled by a combination of the room’s echoey acoustics and visitors' voices in the corridor outside.
This made it impossible for my mother, who wears a hearing aid, to grasp what was being said. Indeed, I found it hard too.
We visited a couple of other rooms, which told the story of the history of Cardigan and the Eisteddfodau in the town through panels and object displays.
The feel of these rooms was good – airy and uncluttered with interesting objects and
clear information.
Unfortunately, a couple of interactives had already stopped working. Also, there was an interactive map mounted horizontally, which made it inaccessible to young children or wheelchair users. And some of the label text was tiny and mounted far from the objects, as well as being down at skirting board level.
In a nutshell, there were some classic errors made in the design of the venue and a lack of durability in the interactives.
On a more positive note, as a Welsh speaker, I was pleased to see that the Welsh and English text always had the same point size and emphasis. The Welsh came first and the English second.
This is not a nationalist point – it is good that a tourist attraction in Wales sees that the language is critically of service to locals and gives tourists a signal that they are visiting somewhere different.
Built into, and growing out of, the walls of the castle on the town side are a number of buildings that, as part of the restoration, have been reserved for room hire and accommodation.
Although £12m has been spent on reclaiming this iconic castle from the clutches of nature, there is no secured revenue funding and the project needs to generate income to survive.
So once again, as in the 12th century, Cardigan Castle will become a centre for cultural events for visitors. Lord Rhys would have been pleased, despite the teething problems with displays and technology.
Essex Havard is an adult learning and cultural consultant based in Cardiff
Cost £12m
Main funders Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust, £6.2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £4.3m from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government. Nearly £800,000 from Communities Asset Transfer and support from the Welsh government, Cadw, Big Lottery Fund, the UK Association of Preservation Trusts, the Architectural Heritage Fund, Ceredigion County Council, Cardigan Town Council and the Prince’s Regeneration Trust
Main contractor Andrew Scott Architect Purcell UK
My use of a couple of Welsh phrases and words here is an indication of the cultural and historical importance of Cardigan and its castle. It was here, in 1176, that the famously liberal and cultured prince, Lord Rhys, held the inaugural Eisteddfod, a festival of Welsh singing, poetry, dance and art.
These festivals – Eisteddfodau – form a central pillar of the expression of the Welsh language to this day. Cardigan was the first stone castle to be built by a prince of Wales and, over the centuries, has been attacked and rebuilt several times.
This has led to the current fortifications only being a few hundred years old and, surprisingly, there is a Georgian country house in the castle’s central courtyard.
My childhood memories are of the castle being an imposing, dark, inaccessible and decaying fortification, which was central to the one-way traffic system of the town – a 12th century council roundabout if you will.
Barbara Wood, the last owner of the castle, lived in the crumbling, damp kitchen of the Georgian house from the 1940s until 1984, when she moved into a caravan in the grounds.
Wood went into a care home in 1999 and the castle was bought by Ceredigion County Council in 2003. In 2011, the Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust (which now owns and runs the site on behalf of the community) secured a total of £12m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the European Regional Development Fund and the Welsh government to restore the castle and develop it for tourist and local use.
Visitors enter the restored castle through the gift shop, which is well stocked with locally produced materials, although the wooden shields emblazoned with the cross of St George seem a little out of place at a site with such history of Welsh opposition to Norman marcher lords and King Edward I of England (1272–1307), as well as the English civil war (1642–1651). The war resulted in the destruction of the castle, rendering it useless as a defensive structure.
On exiting the shop, visitors emerge into the central courtyard, which is a revelation. A huge amount of work has been carried out to conserve, restore and stabilise the stone fabric of the castle. Gone are the crumbling crenulations of my childhood.
Gone is the dense overgrowth of generations of neglect. In their place are crisp stonework and a simple central lawn with newly planted borders.
Local importance
At the revamped castle, one gets a sense of openness and renewal. This is a space I’d like to return to again and again. Fortunately, the castle offers a season ticket so locals can visit multiple times and build a relationship with this tremendous new local resource.
My mother was with me on this visit. She spent her younger days in Cardigan but now, as
an 85-year-old dependent on a wheelchair for mobility, she doesn’t get to return often.
Before exploring further my stomach got the better of me so we adjourned to the cafe. This is a starkly modern construction of slate, glass and polished steel, which opens onto the central courtyard but also has views over Cardigan’s bustling high street.
One gets a feeling of floating above the town. Its modernity sits well with the restored stonework of the castle – after all, the walls have been rebuilt several times over the centuries.
The choice of food is a bit limited, but I put that down to the catering being a new venture and hope it will, like many other aspects of the trust’s work, develop with time. The service is good and it feels like the staff are proud to be working in such an iconic place.
The paths around the central courtyard are well suited to wheelchair use, if a little steep in one or two places, and my mother enjoyed the short journey around the battlements, which look out on to the second world war pillbox guard-post facing the bridge on the River Teifi.
We then visited the Georgian house. Again, the staff were welcoming, but sadly the building was not. The opening ceremony had taken place only a few weeks before but already the lift was broken and the top floor closed due to “health and safety reasons”.
Newly restored buildings do have teething problems but I was not impressed with a broken lift that meant we were able to see less than a third of the house. Still, we explored the ground floor.
Classic design flaws
In the kitchen there is an excellent bilingual video presentation, with a voiceover by the Welsh actor Matthew Rhys (no relation to Lord Rhys).
Using 3D animation, still photography, music and narration, the video gave a clear description of the castle’s history. But the experience was spoiled by a combination of the room’s echoey acoustics and visitors' voices in the corridor outside.
This made it impossible for my mother, who wears a hearing aid, to grasp what was being said. Indeed, I found it hard too.
We visited a couple of other rooms, which told the story of the history of Cardigan and the Eisteddfodau in the town through panels and object displays.
The feel of these rooms was good – airy and uncluttered with interesting objects and
clear information.
Unfortunately, a couple of interactives had already stopped working. Also, there was an interactive map mounted horizontally, which made it inaccessible to young children or wheelchair users. And some of the label text was tiny and mounted far from the objects, as well as being down at skirting board level.
In a nutshell, there were some classic errors made in the design of the venue and a lack of durability in the interactives.
On a more positive note, as a Welsh speaker, I was pleased to see that the Welsh and English text always had the same point size and emphasis. The Welsh came first and the English second.
This is not a nationalist point – it is good that a tourist attraction in Wales sees that the language is critically of service to locals and gives tourists a signal that they are visiting somewhere different.
Built into, and growing out of, the walls of the castle on the town side are a number of buildings that, as part of the restoration, have been reserved for room hire and accommodation.
Although £12m has been spent on reclaiming this iconic castle from the clutches of nature, there is no secured revenue funding and the project needs to generate income to survive.
So once again, as in the 12th century, Cardigan Castle will become a centre for cultural events for visitors. Lord Rhys would have been pleased, despite the teething problems with displays and technology.
Essex Havard is an adult learning and cultural consultant based in Cardiff
Project data
Cost £12m
Main funders Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust, £6.2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £4.3m from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government. Nearly £800,000 from Communities Asset Transfer and support from the Welsh government, Cadw, Big Lottery Fund, the UK Association of Preservation Trusts, the Architectural Heritage Fund, Ceredigion County Council, Cardigan Town Council and the Prince’s Regeneration Trust
Main contractor Andrew Scott Architect Purcell UK
