St Fagans, part II

These two photos are the interior of the Medieval church at St Fagans.  I have taken better ones on other visits, but this time the place was full of school children, so we didn't linger!

This lovely old 15th C farmhouse (with the beasts having been kept in the lower portion) relied on the light from a couple of small windows only.  You can see how gloomy days must have been in mid-winter - almost indistinguishable from nights!

A couple of interiors from elsewhere (I forgot to take a photo of the outside of the house or the info on it.)  I love the Welsh quilt below.

Above, the kitchen at the Elizabethan manor house of St Fagans.  You weren't meant to take photos but I couldn't see that one of the kitchen was going to hurt anything . . .

Finally, another sign of spring with these leaves of the Lords and Ladies bursting through the leaves.

All for now as absolutely shattered after driving to Gloucester and back yesterday.  Cathedral photos tomorrow.

Day out in Cardiff

Yesterday middle daughter needed rescuing from the garage at Bridgend where her car was in for repair for the day.  So Tam and I scooped her up and we went to St Fagan's for the morning.  Tell the truth, Gabby would rather have been somewhere warm and without old buildings to look at, but she survived to tell the tale!

I love these straw bee skeps tucked away in the specially-built alcove.  I suspect they are not welcoming to bees in the summer, which would be just as well with so many visitors.

Inside the house, and below, a photo of a lovely old comb back Windsor chair for my husband's delight.

The parlour, I believe this is.

Last time we were there (2018?) they were still working on this.  It is magnificent inside.

This is the smaller building on the left, with plank and muntin walls, and deemed the kitchen.

A long view of the interior of the main building.

Two long trestle tables were laid out with the accoutrements for feasting, as below:

I liked the way the tablecloth was printed with explanatory notes . . .

Not sure how that filled that water holder - I should imagine the front of his face dropped down and was then clipped back in place.

This jug would take some lifting when full. 

Some splendid and very colourful stitchery here.

This was the Bodyguard's end of the table. 

Finally the painted window embrasure (of course, the wall surround is actually flat!)

Back to St Fagan's - the Church this time

There is a link to the information on St Teilo's Church   Here

More photos from St Fagans

Inside the red house still.  A view through to a back bedroom.

We coveted this beautiful comb back Welsh chair.  It is stunning.  We have a similar one, only heftier, which someone "modernized" by cutting the top (comb back) off.  Keith is going to restore it this autumn/winter. . .

A lovely drystone constructed pigsty, very reminiscent of the tinner's Beehive Huts on Dartmoor.

Above and below: Inside the mill.  I have always felt an affinity with water-powered flour mills and this one was no exception.  Probably because I have millers and a journeyman baker in my Devon ancestry.  A lovely building.  Below: quern stones which were used in great antiquity until quite modern times to grind corn into flour.   I should imagine the resultant grit included in the flour did a wonderful job of polishing teeth flat too!

Above and below: further construction happening and these beautiful early Medieval buildings are being reconstructed from the groundprint of buildings uncovered on Anglesey.

More photos now:

The fireplace in the cottage by the Gorse Mill.  I could settle right in here!  Below:  it looks like Little Black Riding Hood lives here!  Very Scottish Widows . . .

The row of old miners' cottages, where each cottage encapsulates a different period.  The photos below are relevant to the first and earliest house (late 1700s I think):

As you can see, purely practical - no "boughten" stuff!

A lovely old Welsh dresser with Pewter plates and a few practical jugs and mugs.

Up the wooden stairs to Bedfordshire.  If you tripped on your nightie here, you'd come down faster than you went up - these are STEEP!

Drool - another primitive combe back chair.  A stunner.

Now: I have a date with a paintbrush, some Annie Sloane antique white paint and two needy pieces of furniture  . . .