Hanes
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The group can trace its own history back to 2000 when Cymdeithas Hanes Beddgelert undertook an archaeological excavation of a ruined 16th century house in the Nantgwynant valley, Caernarfonshire, where locals said that its old timbers had been re-used in a nearby farm building. Having heard of something called dendrochronology that enabled timbers to be dated, the group found funding in 2004 to have these timbers and others from neighbouring farms dated and found felling dates for the timbers of 1508 and 1550’s.
A new group was then formed – the Snowdonia Dendrochronology Project - to work in partnership with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales [RCAHMW]. Between 2004-2007 the group visited over 60 houses around Beddgelert. Further grant funding enabled more house timbers to be dated and there was a realisation that this was a whole new area for researching old houses in the Snowdonia area. Architectural recording was undertaken and volunteers offered to research the histories of these houses.
Interest grew in this aspect of local history and the Welsh built heritage and in 2009 the Snowdonia Dendrochronology group became the North West Wales Dendrochronology Project – becoming a registered charity. In 2012, so that the geographical area for research could be extended to cover the whole of North Wales, the project became the Dating Old Welsh Houses Group. In 2016 the name for the group changed again to Discovering Old Welsh Houses Group to encompass the architectural recording and house history aspects of its work.
Over the years, the tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) assessing and sampling work has been put out to tender jointly with the RCAHMW with the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory winning the contracts. The collaboration with the Royal Commission resulted in the joint publication in 2014 of the critically well received illustrated book, “Discovering the Historic Houses of Snowdonia”. Over the years the group has attracted over a quarter of a million pounds for researching and dating timbers from old houses.
In 2018 Discovering Old Welsh Houses was one of thirteen organisations across Wales to enter the "Best Heritage Research, Interpretation or Recording" category of the Heritage Angels Award Wales and was short-listed as one of three organisations to go forward to the finals and received a "highly commended" certificate.
