A new national heritage organisation should be established to help protect and promote Welsh castles, monuments and other historical sites, according to a National Assembly for Wales Committee.
In its report on the historical environment in Wales, the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee concludes that currently, opportunities to promote Welsh history aren’t being capitalised on as there isn’t a co-ordinated approach drawing together public sector organisations, third sector institutions such the National Trust and private sector companies.
The committee recommends that the Welsh Government examines the possibility of establishing an umbrella organisation, similar to bodies already established in England and Scotland.
The committee also raised concerns about the Welsh Government’s proposal to merge the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) and Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service.
During evidence-gathering sessions, witnesses questioned whether the distinct roles of the two organisations could be reconciled and whether the skills and expertise of the RCAHMW would be lost. There were also concerns about the timing of the proposal, which some felt was being rushed into proceeding without a full consultation.
The Committee has recommended that the Welsh Government give full consideration to these concerns before proceeding with any merger.
“Last week the country marked St David’s Day – a celebration of Wales’s history and culture,” said Ann Jones AM, Chair of the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee.
“Occasions such as this remind us of the wonderfully rich heritage Wales has and that that heritage can be seen and explored in the hundreds of castles, monuments and other historical sites across the country.
“To help in both the promotion and protection of such sites the Committee felt that the case for an umbrella body to represent Wales’s historical environment was persuasive.
“Such a body would bring together and represent the various organisations, and play a significant role in strengthening small, not-for-profit organisations that are passionate about protecting our historical sites but lack the resources and support of a national body.
“To that end we have recommended that the Welsh Government examines the possibility of establishing an organisation with a role similar to those already in place in England and Scotland.”
The committee makes 14 recommendations in its report including:
- The Welsh Government should explore the possibility of establishing a representative umbrella body, such as English Heritage, to represent non-Government organisations in the third and private sectors;
- Before proceeding with any merger involving the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, the Welsh Government should give full consideration to the concerns raised by expert witnesses during the course of our inquiry; and,
- The Welsh Government should put in place mechanisms to ensure better collaboration in promoting the historic environment.
Good Idea if in the process CADWR are disbanded altogether.
Spend more money to pick up the pieces of a failed CADRW and still keep this Qango going would be unacceptable
Speaking as an Historian, an MA in History and a lifetime`s activity in local history, I think this is a crazy idea, doesnt the Assembly Committee know that CADW already performs the role of English Heritage in Wales, acting as an umbrella body to represent Wales’s historical environment. The Royal Commission and CADW perform complementary roles, and a merger would lose the individual expertise that is unique to each body. What ahs been missing in WAles is a more active role by the National Trust, but recent moves to run Duffryn and Tredegar House are on the way to remedy that historic deficiency. Who would staff this new body, Assembly Placemen in suits no doubt with little or no knowledge of the history and heritage of Wales, how many Assembly Members have any in depth knowledge of Wales, very few is my guess.
John Owen is right on all counts.
Cadw and the Royal Commission have quite different jobs. We need both.
Moi?
In this instance, how do you define Heritage?, Caerphilly Castle for example was built to crush the Welsh and as such could nor be considered part of their heritage. On the other hand it was built by the Norman french, so the English migrants to Caerphilly couldnt consider it as theirs, since all the castles in England were built by the Norman French to keep them down.
Heritage comes from the same word stem as inheritance, therefore it refers to artefacts, landscape, language and so on, that have been handed down by our forebears. It is perfectly correct that what we call ‘our’ castle was built to oppress the Welsh that lived in this area in the 13th century. Perhaps then it is part of the heritage of the current population of Normandy?
In purist terms this is correct but presents problems; the current population of Normandy is very different from the mainly Norse descent soldiers that beat the English King Harold and usurped his kingdom. They include French, Africans, Chinese, people from Eastern Europe, in other words they are not of pure Norman descent any more than a Welsh person is of pure descent from the 13th century inhabitants of Wales.
As a more robust definition of heritage I would say that if you are born in this area, and your parents also hailed from here, you have every right to describe the castle as part of your heritage. It is something that the previous generations have passed down for you to use and safeguard for those who come after you. The fact that it was built by foreign forces is not the primary consideration, it is as much your heritage as Stonehenge, which was built neither by the English nor the Welsh but graces our islands and should be cared for.
What is important is that people are aware of the history of where they live so that they know who built the castle, John Owen and I corresponded about the finer points of heritage until mutual exhaustion won the day, but he is probably correct that the proposed body would comprise, “Assembly Placemen in suits no doubt with little or no knowledge of the history and heritage of Wales.” This is something we need to avoid at all costs if we are not to present to the world a ‘biscuit tin’ view of Wales to the wider world, rather than the real story, so far as we know it, of a complex and ever changing society that has preserved an identity, despite all attempts to destroy it, for millennia.