Stones of Strata Florida

by The Curious Scribbler

For five months this blog has lain neglected, I last posted in January and now the longest day of the year is a whisker away.   Spring has passed unremarked, though not unappreciated, and when I watched the family of goosanders on the River Ystwyth  the other day they were no longer fluffy chicks, but handsome brown-headed fishing machines, indistinguishable from their mother, rummaging around underwater where the outgoing river flows fast over the stones at Tanyybwlch.

Many distractions have contributed to my silence online, one of which has been my collaboration with my husband on the production of a slim book Volume 6 in the Strata Florida book series.  Yesterday it emerged emerged into our hands!

For the uninitiated, it must be conceded that Strata Florida abbey is not the most impressive of Britain’s ruined abbeys.  When the Buck brothers traveled around Wales in the mid 17th century dedicating their engravings of houses, abbeys and castles to their gentry owners, a bit more of it was still standing and a gentlemans’ residence had been built on the site.

A detail of the Abbey ruins as shown in the Buck Print of 1741

Today only the west doorway still stands tall, largely thanks to restoration by the 19th century owner William Edward Powell of Nanteos.  The tall fragment of the north transept visible in the picture fell during archaeological excavations in 1887, and much of the rubble excavated has remained in heaps and in sheds around the site.  There are some choice pieces of sculptural stone in museums, at Arad Timescape in Rhayader, and at the National Museum of Wales.

Geological examination throws new light on Strata Florida, and this it the topic of our book.  Many great stone medieval buildings were built out of materials quite local to their site, or at least they stood close to navigable rivers on which heavy materials could be transported.  Strata Florida has none of these advantages.  The locally available stone, Silurian greywacke, is suitable only for rubble-stone building, too hard to be accurately carved and inclined to fracture into layers.  And Strata Florida is sixteen miles inland, uphill, and served by no navigable rivers.  The gift of land by Lord Rhys of Deheubarth  to the Cistercians  in 1184 perhaps underestimated these disadvantages!  Unlike Welsh vernacular buildings which were mainly of timber at the time, Cistercian abbeys had to be built to a plan, and freestone, reasonably soft and even-textured stone which could be accurately carved, was essential for the elaborate doorways, windows, vaulted ceilings, statuary and ornamentation.  Specialist masons travelled the country working on prestige buildings such as this.

It turns out that several different types of freestone were used for building the abbey, and folk history still recalls that all this material came by sea and was laboriously carried inland from the coast at Aberarth.  After the strenuous route up hill and across country the final obstacle was Tregaron bog where carts and beasts of burden could become mired.  The exciting discovery is where the stone was brought from.  Geology reveals that the carved freestone at Strata Florida came from Somerset, Gloucestershire, Anglesey, Pembrokeshire, Merioneth and probably Glamorganshire.  Both sandstone and limestone are represented and fine details of texture, chemical composition, fossils and colouration enable the stones to be identified. It is apparent that stonemasons of ancient times knew a good deal about the properties of individual stone types.   Some limestones decay faster in weather – and these sorts were used for internal decoration – others such as the medieval favourite, Dundry limestone from near Bristol, has remarkably resistance to weathering. The distinctive purple sandstone from the St David’s peninsula seems to have been used with other stone to create a polychromatic effect.

Three different kinds of freestone used at Strata Florida Abbey

With our book in hand the enthusiast can wander the site, finding the different stone types in the standing remains, in piles of dressed stone, and reused and incorporated into other buildings including Mynachlog Fawr and the parish church.   Along with the other five volumes in the series it can be bought at Strata Florida or through the Strata Florida Trust website.

Covid instruction fatigue

by the Curious Scribbler

I went into Argos today to collect a purchase made online.  The store was perfectly empty of customers, and a young woman at the door directed me to a young man at  the right hand end of the counter.  Separating him from me was a broad no man’s land of diagonally placed yellow tape on the floor,  a no go zone reaching six feet from the counter.  Standing obediently outside this forbidden zone I began to state my business.  But this was not good enough.  I was instructed to move to the left  and stand with my feet upon the two footprints in a red box before my order number could be processed!  I then progressed to a second red box marked with two footprints  order to receive my order. Am I alone in suffering from instruction fatigue?

At Westonbury Water Gardens, near Presteigne last week, I and my companions obediently followed the one way system around the garden.  It was disappointing that the eccentric water-powered cuckoo clock has been disabled for the pandemic.   But we were  really nonplussed by the instructions at the approach to the toilets.  On a table outside we found instructions to use hand sanitizer and don the provided blue nitrile gloves before entering, then to discard the gloves in the bin provided on leaving.  Once inside, one was faced with a dilemma:  wash the gloves, or remove the gloves and wash the hands?  And there being no hot air hand driers to blow virus particles around the room, how to refit the gloves upon wet hands? In the end I came away with washed hands and the gloves  –  which may come in handy some time.

At Lower Brockhampton Park, we had to pay online for timed entry to the National Trust  grounds and arrive in our half hour slot, or not at all.  While this laudably limited the number of people in the outdoor setting, and understandably denied access to the house, we also found that many of the paths leading to attractive features had been roped off, and found ourselves instead on a muddy track leading nowhere interesting. Could we not have been trusted to socially distance ourselves out of doors?

In Llanidloes Church I had hoped to view the 13th Century arcade rescued from from Cwmhir Abbey after the Dissolution  and was encouraged by the sight of an open church door.  Sadly we found just the porch was open, adorned with origami doves  and a plethora of notices!

The church seems to be taking an especially discouraging approach to re-opening, in spite of Welsh government permission to do so.  Other than when services are scheduled it is rare indeed for a random church visitor to find another person already present in an average parish church.  Surely one admonitory notice and a bottle of hand sanitiser would suffice here?

These small but baffling restrictions are disruptive.  I am minded to only to frequent places where there is absolutely no one to tell me how to behave.  In this respect a weekend outing to Clywedog Reservoir ticked all the boxes!  First we parked at the Bryntail Lead Mine car park below the 100 foot dam.   Respectfully passing a few  other tourists, we walked across the footbridge, and passed through a metal gate to visit the ruined mine buildings.

Bryntail lead and barytes mine works

The only admonishment came from that wonderful cast iron Cadw warning which displays people falling over around a variety of obstacles, overhead or underfoot.  (Should the central picture be re-interpreted as a warning to avoid a person with a headache and a  sneeze?)

The Cadw warning sign is an artwork in its own right

Climbing a path from the mine ruins we rose through dunnock-infested bracken and gorse to above dam level and were rewarded with the sight of cormorants wheeling on straight wings high overhead.  They look extraordinarily prehistoric circling on high, instead of flapping industriously over the sea as one usually sees them.

Clywedog reservoir

Later we drove along the western side of the reservoir, and picnicked on the grass.  At the head of the reservoir we stopped to view the Clywedog ospreys’ breeding tree and the two fledged youngsters perching grumpily in nearby conifers.  No adult brought them fish.  Later, we read that a Clywedog osprey had chosen to take that day off  to visit their colleagues on the Dyfi Estuary.

The return to Aberystwyth via the mountain road  to Machynlleth was uplifting, with another pause to gaze down the spectacular river-cut gorge at Dylife to the U shaped valley beyond.  The Cambrian mountains were sculpted by the last ice age.  They may be lower than Snowdonia, but they offer space and tranquillity and a reassuring absence of rules.  I think we passed three cars on the way.

The Dylife Gorge

 

The Palaeontologists of Llandrindod Wells

by The Curious Scribbler

The most remarkable people conceal themselves in the Welsh hills.  Today’s exhibit are Cambridge-educated palaeontologists Joe Botting and Lucy Muir whose home is in Llandrindod Wells.  As independent researchers they work all over the world, currently  in China, the Czech Republic and Morocco and are among the foremost experts on Cambrian fossil communities  – animals which lived at least 500 million years ago.

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It was the Ordovician rocks of central Wales which brought them to Llandrindod Wells, and their research is putting their home town on the map.  To the untrained eye the local stone look pretty unexciting, grey and shaley, and there is absolutely no chance of spotting a dinosaur bone or a nice big ammonite for the mantelpiece.  Most amateurs would be proud enough to find a fossil trilobite, a segmented arthropod of a kind which became extinct 300 million years ago. This creature had a rigid carapace which formed a mould in the sediment and was thus more readily preserved as a fossil.

A trilobite from Llandrinod Wells    (Ogyginus corndensis)

But very close inspection in the right places has revealed an unguessed-at variety of tiny fossils whose soft bodies are preserved as little more that smears between the layers of flaking grey rock.

A tiny starfish just 2mm across.

A palaeoscolecid worm with  microscopically armoured skin that is exquisitely beautiful under high magnification.

An as yet unnamed creature which has tentacles

Joe and Lucy’s discoveries present a picture of an ocean teaming with life 450 million years ago.  Hours and hours of collecting, inspecting shards of rock for any tell tale sign of a fossil must be followed by days of microscopic study, to identify and photograph these tiny traces.  Important publications will follow.  It is for this reason that they have launched a crowdfunding page  to buy a high quality binocular microscope and digital camera set-up to be installed at their home in Llandrindod Wells.

Life is precarious for independent researchers: Joe busks in the summer and Lucy does part time editing to support their modest life needs.  They welcome amateur enthusiasts and have already been pivotal in launching at least one Penglais pupil on his geological career.  In Llandrindod, they run a local amateur fossil group, provide public talks and workshops, visit local primary schools, and run field trips. They are involved in the community orchard, the repair shop, and the Transition Towns Group.  As they say “We even offer our personal space, time and equipment to anyone who has need of it, simply to encourage a love of the natural sciences.”

At the Sign of the Trilobite

The high quality photo microscope would be installed at their premises and will be of equal benefit to other scientists, especially in fields such as  botany, insects, or archaeology, who will be able to use it  free by appointment.  Donations in the first week of the appeal have exceeded £5000 but there is more to go for a first rate piece of kit.  Go to their web page and read all about it!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-microscope-for-amateur-science-in-wales