The Glamorgan archive

There is something integrally interesting  about maps, not only do they depict an area but also the perception. The past and present perception of the world, how the world was and how we saw it. The location of a farm, a road or a town are displayed and when considered with todays google earth images we can see the changes and developments of time. But they also show us much more, they display how the people of that day saw their world. What they held to be important and key, the names of estates, or land owners, of parish boundaries and possible what is most interesting, the empty open spaces, the wide open fields  are familiar to us today as towns and cities. They offer a fascinating insight into how our communities and the world once was.

 Today I went along on a visit to the fantastic Glamorgan archive, located near Ninian Park train station in Cardiff. The visit was organised by artist Helen Clifford’s as part of her WARP library residence. The archive is a brilliant structure and institution, holding and preserving a vast amount of documents of the life of the Glamorgan area. Including some pretty amazing maps.  

 (Cardiff, 1860, Glamorgan archive, apologies for the quality of the image, my camera phone isn’t grand) 

 Above is a map of mid industrial Cardiff, from 1860, what’s amazing is how small it is. The city centre is quite similar but on the left of the map is Cardiff central (general) train station and notice the lack of buildings around it, across the river, Riverside doesn’t exist, nor does Adamsdown and Roath is about 50% of the area we know it today. Most amazingly is Temperance Town, located opposite the train station, where Cardiff bus station and the Millennium stadium now stands. Temperance town was created as an area for the “working class” to live and quickly became Cardiff’s biggest slum. Its name comes from the town’s architect, Colonel Edward Wood, a tea- totaler, who forbade the sale of alcohol in the town. Somewhat ironic really today considering the home of Welsh rugby is now partly located upon its grounds, and where the Millennium stadium may be many things on a match day, temperant is certainly not one of them. It's provides a brilliant insight into how the city was and how the city grew. The city that once was.  

 If we go back even further to 1610, to the John Speed map of Cardiff we see an even more dramatic change, in 200 years the city had doubled, and in 200 more years the city is as we know it today, an even more dramatic change. 

The next question is how the world will look in another 200 years time is an obvious one. How the map’s of the future will depict our beloved Cardiff? There is really no way to tell of course but to return to the archive, the question they are dealing with them selves, is how do you archive the future? How do we archive the web?  Our Facebook profiles, this blog, the Made in Roath website, digital images, emails, selfies even. How do we archive something that is digital? The archive is a fascinating, brilliant institute and I do encourage everyone to go and check it out. Its from the past we can walk into the future and this archive presides over this past. 

To end with one more map, below is the route of the Red Route March which will be taking place on Saturday (2nd May) from the Red House in Merthyr to Made in Spring in Roath the next day. We’ll be following the Taff trail, a route that once the great Glamorganshire canal once followed, taking a great amount of coal and iron down from the valleys to the port of Cardiff. It's a path many industrial age workers strolled upon and one we’ll be taking, there’s an old saying “as I walked, history walked with me” which is suitably apt for this road.

  

We’ll be starting from the Redhouse in Merthyr at 10am, do join us, there is plenty of actives happening at the Redhouse and along the way, all the information can be found on the MiR website, as well as the line up for Made in Spring which is happening the next day. Thanks for reading, have a great week. 

Made in Roath 2015

 Hello I’m Dai and I’m one of the new MiR bloggers for this year. I’m really excited and feel quite privileged to be writing for MiR, especially after having so many fantastic writers blog in past years. There’s a lot of thrilling up coming things, such as the second Merthyr to Roath Red Route March, which starts at the Red house in Merthyr on the 2nd, then the next day the fantastic Made In Spring. Not to mention all the other exciting events and activities MiR get up to throughout the year to write about. But before all that starts, I do have a critical and important choice to make. This is a decision that cannot be taken lightly, in fact this decision could very well define and influence my time as an MiR typer. It is the critical, crucial, nay essential decision of what should my new office work mug be?  

You may very well be laughing and scoffing at my agonising over this decision, but the choice of office mug is not something to be taken lightly. It’s a vital choice that involves key issues such as style, text, colour, patterns, material. All these elements must be considered before the choice of new office mug can be made, even more so in a visual arts organisation when the aesthetic nature of the mug will be studied.

After all the office mug is an important life choice. It speaks a great deal about a person, giving an impression of them long after they have left the room. It could leave a cold mocking stare from the draining board as it sits there looking into the room, or it could bring a bright, cheerful shine to a place as it squats on the sink board side, gazing charmingly into the MiR imagination kitchen.

It is a conversation starter too with new co-workers, an object to avoid those awkward tricky moments of silence and panic. Those points where upon meeting a new person when your mind decides to go completely blank and supply you with a total lack of anything remotely interesting or witty to say. You could be reading Oscar Wild moments before, write his charming remarks upon your arm “I am too old to know everything” “a person can never be too well educated or too well dressed” and then you meet that new person and your mind, when moments earlier held and retained the wisdom and knowledge of smart thoughts suddenly, without warning goes blank and gives you nothing but “ummmmmmmm you sit on chairs”. What good is this I ask you? You sit on chairs? Everybody knows that. It’s what chairs are for. No one has ever gone into a room and met a person for the first time and gone “Hi, did you know you sit on chairs?” and that person has reacted with “OH MY GOSH REALLY, I HAD NO IDEA, THATS THE PURPOSE OF CHAIRS, DEAR ME. WE THOUGHT THEY WERE FOR STORING COATS AND HATS, THEY SHOULD TEACH THIS IN SCHOOL, HURRY, WE MUST WARN THE TOWNS PEOPLE” because generally people already know this, It’s rare to make a good first impression with this style of conversation (generally).

The office mug stops this embarrassing moment of brain freeze. It can be used as a conversation starter with a “thats an interesting/nice mug” or a “what’s on your cup,” or the old favourite “which is your mug?” The possibilities of conversation are endless and then from these simple starts who knows where it can take you. Marriages and births have all began over the chit chatter of an office mug (not always in that order).

So it is important, crucial even that you choose the right mug to start these conversations with. A boring, drab mug will only lead to a dull conversation, on the other hand can a colourful, bright, vibrant designed mug can lead to a thrilling chatter and a new formed life long friendship. Its all about finding the right mug which elegantly suits your manner and personality.  

And if you get it wrong then oooooh dear me, woe be to you my friend. Cause what can you do, change the mug? Yeah you could but that would start the gossip, your boss might start to wonder if you are the right person for the job. A person who changes his mind about his mug. Maybe he changes his mind about other things too, maybe he is indecisive, maybe he can’t make decision at all, maybe he cant do his job. Why have we given this person a job he can’t perform at all. He changed his mind about his mug he’s terrible, he’s going to doom the company, the city, the country even. Western civilisation is doomed, the Earth is doomed, all is doomed. Time to move to a nuclear fall out shelter and live on left over 1962 baked beans tins. Fire him quick. If you change your mug then it’s a surer sign than drinking hemlock…..

Or you could accidentally break your mug, but then that could be even worse, a person who breaks their mug. People will ask if you are the kind of person to be trusted with any object? Can you carry this? Maybe not, after all you did break your mug so maybe you’ll break this too. Maybe your new office nick name will be “breaker” or even worse maybe you’ll be known as “Mac breaky, mac break break, the breaky’est mug breaker in the West” You won’t even be  trusted to carry a pen.

You could lose it, but again you’ll be known as the person who lost their mug and like the breaking will you be trusted again? You lost your mug after all, can you handle anything without loosing it? Can you borrow my pen? I’m now not sure, you might lose it…..

It’s a fate worse than death in the office world. Choosing your office mug is probably a harder choice then who do you want to marry, after all you can get divorced but as we have seen its hard to get rid of your wrongly chosen office mug. Your office mug is a mug for your career. It is not a choice to be taken lightly………

So before I begin, I must first start an extensive search of the cup and mug proprietors of Roath, to hunt down that perfect mug for Made in Roath. I'll keep you informed of how this hunt goes ....