Location:
Swansea
Funding amount:
EAFRD (WG RC_RDP Wales) contribution
£15300.00

Project description:

To provide a permanent education facility as an access point for the delivery of cultural and landscape heritage. This includes an interactive experience for schools and the community. It will also be an attraction for tourists. Around the building will be a wild garden growing ancient local herbs, this will encourage biodiversity whilst being simultaneously educative. The garden will be used and integrated into an education package that ties in with national curriculum themes, but has huge potential beyond this. The focus will be the Iron age- a critical turning point for welsh heritage. The roundhouse is a sustainable building for instructional use explaining the usages of plants and the environment for peoples throughout history and today. 

The roundhouse will need to be fitted with benches and to allow access during wet weather; walkways. 

To tie in with the importance of trees to iron-age culture we propose to establish a tree grove within the roundhouse site. (Trees supplied by Coden Fach)

SpecificBuilding the roundhouse based on the principals and outputs of a education package that we already deliver on the Celts within a Gower context. The roundhouse will replicate an excavated roundhouse from a settlement on the west bank of Hardings Down. The roundhouse will provide a visual and interactive experience that schools stated they require therefore they no longer need to travel outside the local area to experience an Iron Age roundhouse. The roundhouse will be the only example of extensive Iron Age life on Gower. 

Measurable - The project will be both meaningful and motivational and will encourage local volunteers to assist with the day to day running and promotion of our facility that will be unique to the community. This helps to forge a resilient community and will help to underpin a hub for other local ventures. It will also help local communities to learn about their cultural heritage, important to identity and the creation of a cohesive society. We will record usage of the roundhouse and use feedback questionnaires in accordance with LEADER strategy. The project will create a quantifiable legacy. 

Attainable We have an agreement with the heritage centre for three years (in the first instance). Our action plan involves a long-term strategy to build on the project and expand the education package. The aim is to replicate a micro settlement representative of a way of life in that era directly relevant to Gower. 

Realistic - We will be providing a interactive resource that ties in with specific requirements within the National Curriculum and crosses curriculum  Cymraeg. We will target schools from disadvantaged areas giving the opportunity to visit Gower and also to return with their families recreationally. The project will provide a clear representation of Gower’s archaeological past, raising the profile of a period with increasingly important academic significance. 

Time – based - this a three year project in the first instance with a view to extending the project, basing long term aims on its measurable outcomes.

Gower Unearthed and our volunteers. Visitors to the Heritage Centre i.e. tourists and local families/ community groups, school, colleges and universities. Local groups and societies i.e. W.I. scouts. The Gower Heritage Centre and local businesses.

What was the result of your project?

We have created a permanent education facility for the rural community. The following are a list of recent meetings and activities at the roundhouse:

  1. Meeting with Jenny Cole, collaborating with the Temple Wellness Centre (re Fire Festivals) -April 2019
  2. Met with Little Village Bakery re growing and harvesting heritage grain for bread making – May 2019
  3. Consultation with John Letts and St Fagan’s regarding going forwards with various workshops November 2019
  4. Meeting Cllr Rob Stewart, Leader of Swansea Council and local councillors to set up a men’s shed March 2020
  5. School groups from July 2019 ongoing 
  6. Heritage Workshops:
    • Dark Stories and potions – October 19th 2019
    • Wassail goblet January 11th 2020
    • Fire festival 2 February 2020
  7. Gower Walking Festival June 2019/2020
  8. Walk for Gower society 
  9. WI walks March 2019 
  10. Info boards from Gower society currently being designed
  11. Walks booked for walking festival 
  12. Arts council bid to offer subsidised /free workshops – ongoing 
  13. New collaborations with Swansea University and Swansea Art and Digital Media developing accredited courses.
  14. Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust meeting to discuss a Young Archaeologists Club at the roundhouse with test pits to teach excavation skills. 
  15. Engaged silversmith and blacksmith to deliver workshops onsite in June 2020.
  16. Upcoming event, Imbolc 
  • Two jobs have been safeguarded by all the activities above.
  • Number of jobs safeguarded through supported projects 0.8
  • Number of community hubs 1 
  • Number of participants supported 18

What were the challenges?

Project Management should have been fully costed in and underestimated time taken -Much of our time was donated for free but could not be used as match funding. We learnt to place value on our own time, check with other people/ businesses. Don’t underestimate the time that the planning process takes - as cost increases during this time-in future add contingency for this in the budget. Cash flow was very difficult for a very small business -this was very stressful and caused delays and problems with contractors-We would recommend some element of quick turn around of cash or payment for match funding. 

we have secured a national lottery grant to subsidise and deliver our education package to schools and colleges. We are also in consultation with local councillors and the LEADER to develop a 'Men’s Shed' under the guidance of the Heritage Lottery who are showing initial support for further development of the site.

Further project information:

Email project contact
Project website:
http://www.swansea.gov.uk/rdp