Cyffredinol

Hello humans! Uri Guide Dog here. I haven't written my dog blog for some time but that does not mean I haven't been visiting my favourite museums. In fact I have been to several special exhibitions at National Museum Cardiff.

One of them was full of live snakes in glass cages as well as skeletons and pieces of art from the museum's collection. Mum got a chance to take part in a special audio described handling session with the live snakes – yikes – but I took the opportunity to take one of the lovely members of staff for a little walk around the block and a bit of fresh air. Apparently the snakes wrapped themselves around mum’s arms and I don't think that was very sensible, but I’m glad I wasn’t there to see it!

We also attended the David Nash exhibition which was very interesting, particularly seeing the humans using some very doggy techniques when investigating the large chunks of wood scattered all around the large rooms. The group had special permission from the artist to touch some of the sculptures but they also stooped and sniffed as the wood all had different smells. I was a bit confused why there appeared to be full-size trees in the middle of the museum! Mum kept me well away in case I mistook them for indoor dog facilities.

We have visited St Fagans a couple of times too, including a tour of the farm and the animals. We saw some sheep being sheared which didn't look very comfortable to be honest, and I was a bit wary when mum tried to pet a cow.

I am looking forward to the next Audio Description tour on 12 December when we get to officially meet Dippy the dinosaur!

For more information on Audio Description tours at National Museum Cardiff, call (029) 2057 3240.

The shrine of St David in St David’s Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, was an extremely important pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages. Two pilgrimages there were worth one to Rome, and thousands of people would have visited before the shrine was destroyed at the Reformation.

Inspired by the ‘Beneath our Feet’ project run by Narberth Museum and Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, which is looking at the theme of pilgrimage in Pembrokeshire, Saving Treasures; Telling Stories decided to find out more. What did those long-ago travellers leave behind them?

Pilgrim Objects

Two kinds of objects were commonly associated with pilgrims in the Middle Ages: ampullae, and badges.

Ampullae were little lead scallop-shaped flasks containing holy water that were pinned to clothing or hung around the neck in the belief that they offered spiritual protection. You might expect to find large numbers of them in Pembrokeshire, with its important holy shrine.

It seemed a fair bet that local metal detectorists had found plenty over the years.

But, a search on the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) database, where over a million detectorist finds are recorded, revealed some surprises.

In fact only SIX examples from Pembrokeshire have been recorded with PAS – a surprisingly small amount! Surely there should be many more?

To compare, we looked at the records for Kent, home of medieval England’s most important pilgrim destination – the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Even here, only 50 pilgrim ampullae have been recorded with PAS, not such a huge number considering the many thousands of people who travelled there.

Contrast this with Lincolnshire, where 232 ampullae have been recorded, the biggest number of any county in Wales and England. Lincoln Cathedral boasted two important shrines (both to saints called Hugh), but this does not explain such a big difference in numbers.

What’s going on?

Confused, we turned to pilgrim badges. These were usually made of lead or pewter and depicted saints, letters and religious scenes and symbols. They were bought at shrines as souvenirs and pinned to clothing.

Surely lots of these cheap objects would have been lost by the visitors to St David’s?

But a search on the PAS database turned up NO examples from Pembrokeshire at all!

Even in St Thomas Becket’s Kent, no more than 11 badges have been recorded with PAS. Greater London has by far the highest number, at 119.

Then we saw that five pilgrim badges had been reported from Swansea, which seemed unusual as there was no important medieval shrine in the town. One of them was a badge of none other than Thomas Becket himself. How had that got there?

It turned out that each one of these badges had been discovered, not in the city itself, but under the sands of Swansea Bay.

Intrigued, we chose a random sample of the London badges and discovered that they had all been found in the River Thames.

We checked the find spots of the ampullae, and sure enough, two had been found on Tenby beach and two others in the coastal village of Manorbier. There was a definite watery theme!

Giving thanks?

In an age when travel was difficult and dangerous, ships were the fastest method of transport, though not necessarily safe.

So it makes sense that pilgrims going on long journeys would travel at least part of the way by water, and would be relieved and thankful when they reached the shore safe and sound. The evidence of all these badges and ampullae dug from the sands and fished from the Thames suggests that returning pilgrims threw them into the water, perhaps as a way of giving thanks for a safe return.

Dewch i ailddarganfod trysor Rhufeinig ddaeth i’r fei yng Nghaerllion ym 1926!

Defnyddiwch yr Ap i archwilio'r Amffitheatr a'r Barics yng Nghaerllion. Dilynwch gliwiau a chwrdd â chymeriadau hanesyddol i helpu chi i ddarganfod trysorau'r Amgueddfa - lle cawsant eu darganfod un wreiddiol. Os dewch o hyd iddynt i gyd byddwch yn agor rhith-Amgueddfa Lleng Rufeinig Cymru. Mae'r Ap hwn yn brosiect partneriaeth rhwng Amgueddfa Cymru a Cadw. Mae'n cysylltu trysorau amgueddfeydd â'r lleoedd lle cawsant eu darganfod yn y safleoedd hanesyddol a gynhelir gan Cadw yng Nghaerleon.

Sut i chwarae:

• Defnyddiwch eich dyfais a'r map trysor i ganfod y chwe chliw cudd yn yr amffitheatr a'r barics.
• Rhaid i chi gerdded i bob un o'r chwe chliw llun yn y grid.
• Pan fyddwch chi'n agosáu at y man iawn bydd ceiniog yn ymddangos ar eich dyfais. 
• Pwyswch y geiniog i weld y cliw a chasglu pob ateb i ganfod yr allwedd sy'n agor yr Amgueddfa Lleng Rufeinig Rithwir.

Cwestiynau Cyffredin

• Mae'r ap yn gweithio orau ar Android 4.3 a'r iOS 9.1 neu yn hwyrach. Ni fydd yr ap yn gweithio ar rai ffonau android syml.
• Mae'r ap yn defnyddio data yn ystod y profiad
• Os ydych yn cael trafferth lawrlwytho'r ap, sicrhewch fod gennych gysylltiad gwe da a digon o le ar eich ffôn.

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Hi all, I’m Pip Diment from the Exhibitions team, and I'm one of a group of staff volunteering to care for the six live snakes we are housing as part of the 'Snakes’ exhibition at National Museum Cardiff.

Our exhibition is now open and runs to 15 September 2019. I was part of the team who cared for the snakes for the second two weeks of the exhibition run. We were trained by Guy Tansley from Bugsnstuff and he showed a group of us volunteers how to check on the snakes safely and provide basic care.

We are not required to feed the snakes – we have Dr Rhys Jones generously helping us with that. Our tasks are to change the water daily, remove any poo, ureic acid crystals (wee!) and calcium plugs, also to remove any shed skin and to check the snakes are not too cold or hot and that they are ok. These checks are all done daily by a team of two or three volunteers.

On my first day volunteering I worked with Melissa Hinkin (from Artes Mundi, who is a snake enthusiast) and Vic le Poidevin (from our Events team). There was great excitement the first morning as Prestwick, the Jungle Carpet Python had shed her skin and had an enormous poo!  She’s a fairly large snake so it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was huge! Like a large dogs! The skin itself came off in two parts and is now being used as part of the handling collections (not too much handling as it is fragile!). Underneath all that shed skin Prestwick has now emerged even more beautiful with her skin a stunning irridescent effect. And this was still only day one.

On day two I worked with Christian Baars (from Conservation) and Robin Maggs (from Photography). Once again, much excitement as Keith, the Royal Python, shed his skin overnight. Much smaller poo – smaller snake, so made sense! He also looked much more beautiful after shedding his skin.

Days three and four were not as eventful – only water changing and general checks required. Everyone seems very healthy and happy, and we are following their care instructions meticulously to ensure they stay that way. 

I admit I have an unhealthy interest in snake poo – and for the end of my first week we’ve had another poo! This time, again, from Keith. I am not the only one now excited by snake poos – see Robin and Christian admiring Keith’s offering (look closely it has substrate on it which makes it looks like it has eyes!)

I’m so glad I agreed to volunteer. I’ve held snakes before, but never spent so much time with them. I love that they all have great names and their own characters:

Thanks for reading. You can read some of our other snake blogs here, here and here.

The exhibition runs till 15 September 2019, entry charges do apply, and all your contributions go towards bringing you even bigger and better exhibitions in the future.

Please note that there is no live handling of the snakes within the exhibition. In August we’ll be having snake handling sessions for the public – see here for details of booking.

Also, make sure you come and visit us this saturday (10 August) for our Venom Open Day!

I went with a friend to a CC Skills open day for the Cardiff sector. I didn’t know anything about it and I wasn’t interested in it because the venues didn’t interest me. I spoke to Jo Esposti about other venues and she mentioned that the Newport sector would include Big Pit as a host venue and I was instantly interested. I have always had a very big interest in Big Pit from a young age because of my grandfather telling me stories and taking me to Big Pit as a child.

Once I thought there would be a chance that I would get to work there I took the opportunity. Even though not completely feeling 100%, I couldn’t leave the opportunity there so I applied. I got through and had an interview and I didn’t shut up about Big Pit through my whole interview because I was so nervous about doing it.

When I heard I got the job I was beyond excited and couldn’t wait to start. Within a week of working at Big Pit I had a lot more confidence and could easily talk more to the public and other members of staff.

Since I started my placement 6 months ago I have worked in all areas of Big Pit. When I first started I worked a lot in the Pit Head Baths and the King Coal: Mining Galleries Exhibition where I was interacting with visitors and meeting and greeting. I learnt a lot of facts about the pit that visitors often asked and wanted to know.

Then I started assisting with the educational workshop  ‘Servants of the Empire’  which is a lesson for key stage 2/3 pupils to have them learn about what it would have been like to work underground in the 1800’s, they have to find out about the girl that worked as a drammer girl underground. I was supervising the students in the second part of the activity where they have to draw a dram and feel coal, while the facilitator would be with half of the class showing them the clothes they would have worn, food they would have taken underground and the weight of the drams. I was helping them get the positions right for pulling the dram whilst making sure the children did not hurt themselves and help them answer the questions on their worksheets.

I have also worked in the office with Kathryn the Marketing and Communications Officer learning how Big Pit promotes itself and offers events and activities to the public to encourage visitors to come through the door. I have also worked in the reception, meeting and greeting people as they come into the museum, booking people in and telling visitors about the site and anything they want to know about the facilities.

I found working in all these different areas of the museum gave me a really goood idea of how the museum works and what goes on behind the scenes to make the museum run as it does and how the different departments work to keep the museum efficient and open to the public as expected.

Since working at Big Pit I have grown in confidence and, as a person from suffering anxiety and depression for 3 years, coming into an environment where everyone onsite is friendly and encouraging has helped me become a better version of myself.

I have really enjoyed my time working at Big Pit and I am very grateful to everyone who works there for their time and everything they have done for me. I am also very grateful to Paul Green, Deputy Mine Manager, who has been my mentor and who has been great and very supportive since I started.  I am glad that this was the first placement I had as it has given me the confidence to go to my other placements and feel at ease there.