Community Archaeology

Llangynidr Local History Society

The Society grew out of courses run by Robin Cain for the WEA in the 1970s and 80s. Three people attended the first meeting of the ‘Llangynidr Local History Group’ on 13 October 1983 at Sycamore House.  Since then the group has grown into one of the most dynamic historical societies in Wales attracting annual funding in the thousands in order to carry out professional standard historic and archaeological investigations in and around the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Since 2008, Dr Jemma Bezant has become involved with the group’s annual fieldwork programme, excavating the enclosure ditch of an Iron Age hillfort, survey of a late medieval farming landscape using the Uk’s earliest estate maps and the excavation of a traditional Welsh longhouse. Engagement with community through shows, blogs, Web2 and a series of talks has seen the successful merger of academic and public and the project has been entirely driven by the group’s desire to investigate their history- from the ground up.

Younger members of the group have gone on to study Archaeology at Cambridge and York and group funding officer, Jan Bailey has gone on to the successful completion of her MA in Social Archaeology at Trinity Saint David and join the Council for British Archaeology for Wales/Cymru alongside Jemma Bezant and long-time Society member, Mike Scott-Archer.

Bezant, J. 2011 Ty Llwyd Longhouse SO 15163 19115, Llangynidr, Brecon. Archaeology in Wales 50, 59-64.

Bezant, J. & Bailey, J. 2010 Survey of a Late Medieval Landscape, Dyffryn Crawnon, Llangynidr (SO 1153 1761). Archaeology in Wales 49, 66-72.

Ware, S. Bailey, J. & Bezant, J. 2008 Llangynidr Local History Society: Lan Fawr Excavations 2008. Archaeology in Wales 48.