Discovering Old Welsh Houses.
It all started with the Beddgelert History Society excavating a ruined sixteenth-century house in Nantgwynant in 2000. We hoped to date some timbers belonging to this ruined house that had been reused in a nearby cowshed. We first heard about dendrochronology in 2004 and obtained a grant of £400 from the Snowdonia National Park Community for Prof. Nigel Nayling from Lampeter to assess timbers in this cowshed and three nearby sixteenth-century houses; in 2005 two of these houses dated and we became hooked on dating more.
We have since visited over 1,000 houses across North Wales and assessed around 138 for tree-ring dating, in partnership with the Oxford Dendrochonology Laboratory. We have completed 160 house histories, all written by volunteers, and have commissioned 74 professional building reports. This would not have been possible without the financial support of many grant-aiding bodies to whom we are very grateful. We have raised £252,000 in grants along with additional match-funding through subscriptions & special events. All our Annual reports & Financial statements can be seen online at the Charity Commission website (Reg No 1131782).
We thank the staff of the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historic Monuments of Wales, and especially Richard Suggett, for their support and advice. This collaboration resulted in the joint publication in 2014 of the critically well received illustrated book,
Discovering the Historic Houses of Snowdonia.
Patrons: Sir Simon Jenkins FSA, FRSL. Dr Eurwyn Wiliam MA, PhD, FSA
