Venue

The foundations of a small medieval church on Bredenstone Hill, traditionally the site of King John's submission to the Papal Legate in 1213.

Prior’s Hall Barn is one of the finest surviving medieval barns in the east of England. Its wood is tree-ring dated to the mid-15th century. It boasts a breathtaking aisled interior and crown post roof, the product of some 400 oaks.

In an age when timber was plentiful, and a great barn epitomised the prosperity of a landowner, the building provided scope for the craft of the carpenter on a scale otherwise found only in medieval great halls and church roofs.

The vast and immensely impressive ruins of a palatial medieval manor house arranged round a pair of courtyards, with a huge undercrofted Great Hall and a defensible High Tower 22 metres (72 feet) tall.

This monument to late medieval ‘conspicuous consumption’ was built in the 1440s for the wealthy Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Treasurer of England. Later the home of Bess of Hardwick’s husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots here in 1569, 1584 and 1585.

The West Glamorgan Archive Service is a joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough.

We collect documents, maps, photographs, film and sound recordings relating to all aspects of the history of West Glamorgan.

Our mission is the preservation and development of our archive collections, to safeguard our documentary heritage and to enable research in order to further our collective knowledge. We are committed to providing information and the opportunity to engage with archives to everybody.