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.
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