Collecting Our Past
Below is the text of a speech given by Professor Ralph Griffiths, Chairman of the Royal Commission, at the opening of a new exhibition of archival material from the National Monuments Record of Wales marking the centenary of the Royal Commission.
Boneddigion a boneddigesau: ladies and gentlemen
Royal Commissions are few and far between. Their purpose is to assess the state of our civilization - and so they belong to the public and yet are at arm’s length from governments. Almost all of them are temporary, but the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales – like its sister Commission of Scotland and that of England which is now part of English Heritage – is permanent. Last Sunday it had lasted 100 years. It survived two world ward, umpteen economic crises, not to speak of politicians’ passion to be radical, reforming, and to change things. The Royal Commission’s longevity is testimony to its enduring value to society and especially to our fascination with history, our roots and therefore with our changing surroundings, and testimony also to the rapidly developing and exciting ways in which the Royal Commission can identify these.
Its creation in 1908 was part of the vision of civilized government – in Wales a University has already been established (it just about made it to its centenary before it was dismantled), a National Library, and a National Museum followed in 1907 and the Royal Commission was fourth. King Edward VII took time off from the London Olympics to sign the warrant on 10 August: it was a Monday; knowing a little about King Edward, I doubt that it was in the morning. The Scottish Commission had been established earlier in the year, the English followed a few months later. 1908 was the high noon of industrialized Britain, and it did not occur that the sites of a modern industrialized society needed recording: so the new Commission’s remit included sites, monuments and artifacts dating only from before 1700. Nowadays, in a post -industrial world, the Royal Commission’s remit extends to yesterday.
Today’s exhibition charts the work of recording the historic environment, the humane landscape, in town, countryside, and on the coast, resulting in the Commission’s incomparable National Monuments Record of Wales. But it goes beyond recording: it interprets what the record tells us about a host of subjects and themes, and it publishes both the record and the interpretations- in books since its earliest days, in exhibitions and online through its website, Coflein, which includes a growing number of digitized images. On Centenary day, last Sunday, the Royal Commission appropriately celebrated in Maesteg, at Bethania chapel, a 1000-seater, sadly disused: the Royal Commission’s major recording and assessment of Welsh chapels and their builders are nearing completion and Bethania is celebrating its centenary this year.
Today’s launch emphasizes the importance of the National Monuments Record as a whole: for communities conscious of their identity, for towns concerned about the quality of their townscape, for a nation that values its historic buildings, for the visitor captivated by historic sites, and especially for individuals aware of their surroundings or curious about their forebears and where and how they lived. All are served by the Royal Commission’s archive. Other archives have similar purposes: the trick - the obligation – is that these institutions should interact closely with one another for the public benefit. For this reason, the Historic Wales Portal was launched by the Royal Commission 18 months ago to which Cadw and the National Museum Wales are contributing archives, with others to follow to forms links in an archival chain.
It is therefore appropriate to launch this exhibition in the National Library of Wales; the Commissioners and are grateful to Arwel Jones and his colleagues as our hosts, to David Browne and especially Gareth Edwards for mounting the exhibition, and to Peter Wakelin for offering a taste of what the Royal Commission’s archive can reveal of Wales’s historic environment. We are also grateful to you for coming to help us celebrate the Commission’s centenary.
I have not been given a ribbon to cut or a bottle of champagne to crack, but it is a great pleasure and a privilege for me to invite you to visit the centenary exhibition – and I urge you to maintain a link with the Royal Commission: it is there to serve.