Hello and welcome…
Hello and welcome to the June edition of the Llanelly House Companion. The past month has been a very busy one for the Llanelly House Team as there have been many archaeological findings (some of which you can read about below) and construction work has been running full steam ahead at the House.
As always we encourage you to share this newsletter with family and friends and if you have any new subscribers that you think would like to read about updates to the House then please send their email address to jonathan.williams@chrt.org.uk.
The watch
Over the coming months we will be following the archaeologist who is performing a Watching Brief. The Watching Brief involves the archaeologist (Richard Scott Jones) overviewing construction work in important historical areas of the House. If anything of interest is uncovered then the archaeologist will step in and take a closer look to analyse the findings.
Hundreds of bottles have been found recently through the Watching Brief in the cellar of Llanelly House, including beer bottles and piles of small bottles. All of these appear to be late 19th century in date and associated with Margraves during 1870-1900. We are hoping to retain a few of these 19th century bottles so that they can be used as historical references to Margraves Wine Merchants in the future.
Digging up the past
Many archaeological findings have been discovered over the past month since work on the house has begun. One very significant find recovered from the demolition rubble in Sir Thomas Stepney’s Study was a clay tobacco pipe bowl. It can be easily identified by its type and form; dated 1650-80. On its base is a pipe maker’s mark, a ‘gloved hand’, this identifies the pipe as being made by the Gauntlet family, who were famous Wiltshire pipe-makers based in Amesbury.
Exposed floors at the House have uncovered cobbled flooring in Sir Thomas Stepney’s study. These are very significant finds in terms of archaeology and the history of the House. The lowered floor in the Study is possibly a bolt-hole, part of the original House build that could have been used during the English Civil War (1642-51). The evidence of the tobacco pipe bowl suggests that the covering over of the cobbled floor would have taken place between the years 1650-1680, decades early than the assumed 1714 re-construction of the Stepney House.
Storyhoarding
As many of you may have noticed, the scaffolding and hoarding is now taking shape around Llanelly House. The scaffolding will be completed by the middle of July with the scaffolding roof. There is now a unique opportunity to capture a time lapse video of the scaffolding being erected to later be displayed online along with the video of the hoardings being set up.
In the near future graphics will be applied to the hoardings as a storyboard will begin to appear around the perimeter of the House. The storyhoarding will be based on the theme of the Past – explaining the House’s rich history, the present – following the restoration and the Future, which will illustrate the House’s new form and function as a cutting edge visitor attraction.
Scarlet’s memorabilia
Project Director, Craig Hatto has provisionally agreed with former Scarlets stars, Terry Davies and Roy Bergiers a loan of the match ball from the famous 9-3 Scarlets win over New Zealand in 1972. Margaret Richards has also provisionally loaned Llanelly House the match ball that was signed by the All Blacks. This ball was originally up for auction but through negotiations via Terry Davies, Margaret has kindly loaned the ball to Llanelly House indefinitely as part of Llanelli’s rich sporting heritage.
Meet the team – Café / restaurant consultant
Simon Wright has worked in the food industry for the last 20 years as a restaurateur, restaurant consultant, food critic, food writer and broadcaster. As a restaurateur he was a partner in the award winning Four Seasons Restaurant in Nantgaredig and currently in Y Polyn, described by Jay Rayner in The Observer as “a model of how a small country restaurant should be”.
As a consultant Simon has worked with some of Britain’s top chefs, most notably Gordon Ramsay in his role as Restaurant Consultant on all 24 episodes of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Simon is a former editor of the AA Restaurant Guide and has written two books, “Tough Cookies” and “The Wright Taste”.
Simon is working on creating a cutting edge catering concept for Llanelly House that will benefit the community. All will be revealed over the coming weeks as we impart what the House’s future form and function will be.
The future of Llanelly House
There will be a series of presentations by the Llanelly House Community Engagement team over the coming months, on all aspects of the House’s past, present and future. The presentations will be themed around the concept of “People, Place, Identity” looking at how the House influenced Llanelli and forged a strong local identity, which extended both nationally and globally with some surprising facts and revelations that make up the fabric of the townsfolk today.
Ghostly goings on
The time lapse camera has given us an opportunity to view the House during the small hours of the morning when traditionally ghostly apparitions like to come out of hiding. When viewing the time lapse video, look closely at the third window from the right when the night time comes along. An unexplained light seems to show up in the corner of the window, is Mira walking around at night?
Latest Imagery
You will be able to follow the work being done at the house on our flickr page, www.flickr.com/llanellyhouse as it will be constantly updated with archaeological finds and changes to the House. This month we have been inundated with photographs from our volunteer photographer, Arthur Mallet and Richard Scott Jones, the archaeologist. Richard has been able to pick up some unique shots of the cellar where bottles were uncovered and some panoramic views of the ground floor rooms.
