Blaenafon

Alongside my training to be a tourist guide, I also volunteer with Cadw – the arm of Welsh Government that looks after historic monuments. One of the benefits of this is that we have regular training days where we are shown around the various Cadw owned sites in South Wales. Cadw manages 130 historic properties across Wales, of which 27 are staffed and charge an entrance fee. Volunteers supplement the paid staff showing people around these paid sites and often have very detailed site specific knowledge which can be useful to a professional tourist guide. I live 5 minutes walk from Caerphilly Castle and applied, along with 50 others, to become a volunteer in October 2023, although it took another 4 months to complete all the paperwork before I could start.. The majority of the applicants live in Caerphilly and I agreed to go to Castell Coch instead (of which, more next time) as this is a 5 minute drive as opposed to a 5 minute walk from my home.

On 11th July, we had our first formal training day following induction at Blaenafon Ironworks and Big Pit mining Museum. We had visited big Pit as part of my Green Badge trailing, but I had never been to the neighbouring Ironworks that make up the second half of this World Heritage site. All volunteers are Cadw members so we skipped the queue to pay and waited for Mike, our guide for the day, to finish talking to a group of paying customers before wee started. Mike is a retired metallurgist with British Steel and so was able to inform us of the processes that took place as well as the history of the ironworks. We were on a timetable so he restricted his talk to 45 minutes plus questions, but could easily have doubled that had we not had an appointment at the neighbouring mine. There is a cast iron plan of the old site in front of the old storage sheds that was used to illustrate the talk.

Mike talking with the aid of his big model.

From here we were led through the foundry into the cast house for the old blast furnace number 2 (of 6) where Mike explained how the iron ore was smelted to form ingots of cast iron. There was a small puddling plant for making wrought iron, which is less brittle and so easier to work with, but this was not a speciality of Blaenafon, which mainly sold raw “pigs” of cast iron. the puddling process was further developed at nearby Cyfarthfa to such an extent that this became known as the Welsh Method, until wrought iron was in turn replaced by steel.

We then had 45 minutes to explore the site and eat lunch before arriving at Big Pit. This was not nearly enough time to climb to the top of the Balance Tower, where trams were loaded with the cooled pigs for transporting to the nearby Monmouthshire canal on the other side of the hill; visit the lime kilns (lime was used to “purify” the molten iron); then see the iron workers cottages and wolf down a pile of sandwiches, quiche and cake before a 10 minute walk to big pit aided digestion.

Cadw volunteers at the Blaenafon site with Balance Tower and Lime Kilns left.

Big Pit is one of the “must do” tours for visitors to South Wales, including as it does a trip underground into a former working coal mine. This was my third visit. The surprise was that we were led by Emma, a cockney woman from Walthamstow. Traditionally, tours underground have been led by former miners. however, these are a dying breed. Our guide’s grandfather and great grandfather had both worked Big Pit and she was training to join the Mines Rescue, allowing another generation to lead. Having heard the stories of the old miners, at first I thought her presentation was a bit OTT, but by the end of the tour, I was sold on her more theatrical presentation. Restrictions on government spending mean that museums in Wales are coming under increasing financial pressure. Big Pit is an invaluable resource that would be lost forever, if not maintained by its staff, which would be a tragic loss, not only to Wales, but also to the world as opportunities to understand life during the Industrial Revolution disappear.

The other group having a safety talk before entering the cage to descend into Big Pit.

Caerphilly Castle – behind the scenes at the restoration.

Originally built as a bastion against the Welsh by Gilbert de Clare between 1268 & 1271, Caerphilly castle was restored by Hugh Despenser in the 14th century to welcome Edward II; the roof of the Great Hall was replaced by the 3rd Marquess of Bute for the visit of the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1871; then his son, the 4th Marquess undertook extensive restoration of the castle between 1931 and his death in 1947, interrupted only by the Second World War. Since the castle was taken over by Cadw in 1984, its Great Hall has been a popular venue for weddings, concerts, plays and formal dinners. Unfortunately the roof now leaks and a new restoration to repair the roof and return the hall to it’s regal splendour under Despenser was planned. This was originally intended to cost £5 million when announced in 2021, but the budget has already doubles to £10 million and the time frame to completion keeps moving back. This is partly due to technical difficulties restoring the 150 year old roof and partly due to new archaeological discoveries within the hall that have to be documented and taken account of before proceeding.

Archaeologist in the hole revealing new evidence on the original building.

I had already piggy backed on a private tour of the work being done on 17th April and took the opportunity for an update with other Cadw volunteers on 24th July. To he roof is now almost complete, the hole in the floor filled in, and focus will now move on to replacing the flagstone floor (every stone has been individually numbered to return to its original setting) once the underfloor heating is complete. Then there will be restoration work on the Earl’s private chambers next door to the Hall, including the possibility of a pop-up bar for functions. Our group also visited the site of a planned wildflower garden intended as a haven of tranquillity.

Pumice stone underlay on while flagstone floor of the Great Hall will rest.

Both these training sessions served to underline the minutiae and the detail that tourist guides need when leading tours. This is straightforward for a single site, but requires research and preparation for every new tour led. We should not propagate fake news, but there is a limit to how often we can say “I don’t know, Ill look that up”, without losing our audience. These blogs offer some rehearsal while I wait to set up my business, but the real test will be leading live tours.