Sunday 24 January 2010

P.S January 2010

Forgot to mention, last week I had a visit from Graham and Pauline to say that Deeptrek will be returning to Llyn Cerrig Bach in March, bringing with them more sophisticated diving equipment.
I shall be looking forward to meeting them again at the lake and spending time observing once more.

Managed to buy an Interim Report 1945 edition on Llyn Cerrig Bach, signed by Sir Cyril Fox for £9 on e-bay!

January 2010

This week the press jumped on the fact that someone had said that Anglesey wanted all the Llyn Cerrig Bach artefacts back permanently in Oriel Ynys Môn from the National Museum in Cardiff. Their reasoning for this was because an expansive gallery, with the required safety and humidity conditions, had been built there for the Kyffin Williams Art collection.

I was approached by both press and the Welsh radio, as to whether I agreed with this statement. I explained that having worked closely for years with Oriel Mon principal and the staff of the Archaeology department at the National Museum, I am aware of how the items needed to be on display at our National Museum as people even from around the world.

However, I am fully in support in having part of the collection sent here on display, as they have done so over a number of years. Alun Gruffydd and myself negotiated for a large display to come up for the millennium. It is now up to the present principal to organise a display to fit in with her planned programme. I have suggested for a number of years that it would be a good idea in having displays perhaps on a rotation basis.

The most important endeavour for me at the moment, is to get the remaining funding required to produce the handling collection of the main items of the artefacts. They would be so beneficial for Ynys Môn school children. I have already been promised personally 50% of the necessary £7,600 and have an application under consideration by Medrwn Môn for the other half. I await their decision daily! When I finally have the money, then Pat West, the present Oriel Principal and I will work together to make sure that everything is produced to the highest standard. There will be an information pack produced to accompany the replicas.

Saturday 2 January 2010

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i chi i gyd
Happy New year to you all.

During the months before Christmas, I've been striving hard to raise funding in order to produce replicas of the most significant items in the Llyn Cerrig Bach collrction. Having again been to another school and out in the community giving talks on the finds, I have become really passionate about providing replicas that both children and adults can handle for examination.
Having already had positive replies to my request for donations, I found myself in a position to apply for the remainder of the funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
This involved getting quotes that matched in content from three different sculptors, six letters of support and an explanation from myself why I thought it was a viable project. There were also numerous pages to fill in on the application form.

Having thought that they would be taking into consideration all the various work and research I'd been involved with, especially with the schools, I was then told that they would count for nothing and that I would have to start a project plan of the work I intended doing in the forseeable future. This meant filling in various planning columns etc. I realised this was going to be a long term plan over at least one year if not more.

Thankfully, I have found that I can apply for another funding locally, who do take all my previous projects into consideration.

This meant filling in a different application form, not as long as the Heritage one and all the other paperwork I'd collected applied to this one the same. I managed to get it all finished on Dec.16th. just before the closing date and had it delivered by hand just incase with the Christmas post.

You can appreciate therefore why I've had no time to do any blogging recently, especially with writing all my Christmas cards as well!

My New Year resolution is to try and blog more often therefore.