The Museum of Welsh Life
St Fagan's, Co. Cardiff
Within 40 hectares of grounds of St Fagans Castle, the museum houses a collection of over 40 buildings outlining how the Welsh have lived and worked over the past 500 years.
This ambitious project has seen old buildings from all over Wales saved from demolition and moved brick by brick to be rebuilt here at the Museum to give a unique insight into how people have lived throughout the centuries.
It’s a hamlet of homes that really brings history to life. Tracing back as far as the Iron Age the Celtic Village is based on excavated remains found in Flintshire and Gwynedd with rounded wattle walls and straw roofs. Another highlight, the 17th Century Kennixton Farmhouse was moved from the Gower Peninsula , its distinctive red walls were so coloured to guard from evil spirits. The Oakdale Workman’s Institute illustrates the community focus of such buildings in the industrialised valleys in the South of Wales at the turn of the 19th Century. The row of Iron Worker’s Terraces show how the workers of Merthyr Tydfil lived from the time Merthyr was the main iron manufacturing town at the start of the 19th Century to the 1980s, each house outlining different eras.
The museum also has several craftspeople demonstrating traditional skills and holds many folk festivals of music and dance throughout the year giving visitors a real insight into the culture and heritage of Wales and quite surprisingly entrance to the museum is entirely free.
