THE latest community news from Bro Ffestiniog.

Archaeology society

THE latest talk at the Cymdeithas Archaeoleg Bro Ffestiniog Archaeology Society was by Deri Jones on laser scanning in archaeology.

As director of Deri Jones and Associates Ltd based near Machynlleth, his company is well in demand for engineering projects and ship/boat building throughout the UK.

They were involved in providing laser scans and CAD drawings and forms for the extension recently to Kings Cross station in London where the manufacture of the main, curved girders were made according to DJ&A millimetre perfect scans.

In ship and boat building they are fully involved at the design stage and provide highly accurate manufacturing drawings and 3D software for the builders.

They have also been involved in providing various heritage projects with complete solutions for the recording of complex architectural projects and heritage sites.

Clients include English Heritage, BAE Systems, MOD, DSTL, Marine Scotland, and Scottish National Heritage.

Following a brief explanation of how the scanning process works, he covered two types of archaeological scanning that he had done.

One example was the scan of an Andalucian farmhouse which was carried out as part of the EU project ‘About Houses’.

The second example was of underground scanning.

The next meeting of the society will be this Thursday at The Ganolfan, Blaenau Ffestiniog at 7pm for 7.30pm.

The speaker will be Eira Jones, who will talk about Plas Pren on the Denbigh moors.

The proceedings will be in Welsh with simultaneous translation available.

Cymdeithas Bro report

THE talk was ‘Discovering Old Welsh Houses - an update’, by Margaret Dunn.

Margaret explained that she is part of a volunteer group which records information about houses that date before the 18th century.

If your house appears to be very old, an expert will take a core sample from a beam, to date the wood.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the house is as old as the beam: the wood may have been stored, or used in a previous house.

The earliest known piece of wood in use in north and mid Wales, dates back to 1402, and is in Rhayader.

Wood was often cut down in winter, according to the evidence from the samples, which are matched to known samples.

Local volunteer groups also help date houses by searching records.

Margaret illustrated her talk with examples of various houses, including Cruck hall-houses, from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The next meeting will be a talk on medieval wall paintings, by Richard Suggett.

Anyone interested is welcome to join on 8 November, in the daycare room at the Ganolfan, Wynne Road, at 7.30pm.

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