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RECENT FIELDWORK IN CEREDIGION A chance meeting with my friend, Mr. Christopher Houlder, on the staff of the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments, led to my part in what has proved to be a most interesting project, and I hope a valuable one for the future. Mr. Houlder told me of the need for someone to inspect and record the present condition of known sites and monuments, in particular to assess their degree of vulner- ability. I undertook to try and see what I could do, imagining that there would only be a few monuments to inspect. I was very wrong. There are about two thousand five hundred monuments recorded in Ceredigion alone. Clearly, with this number in mind, some sort of team effort was necessary if any impression was to be made. Fortunately, I soon found volunteers among former colleagues in the Ministry of Agriculture who, like myself, have retired and are anxious to find useful work that would take them out into the countryside. Later we were joined by farmers, teachers, college staff, and others interested. By now there are some twenty volunteer field workers to help me. So far, some two hundred sites have been inspected. I find that I can best fit into the team by acting as organiser and I collect the preliminary information necessary before a site visit is made. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Peter Smith, Secretary to the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments and his staff at Aberystwyth, also to Mr. Don Benson, Director of the Dyfed Archaeological Trust and his staff at Carmarthen. Without their help the work would be impossible. We decided to work on the basis of the 6" O.S. quarter sheet (rather than on a par- ish basis). I obtain from the Dyfed Trust, a photo copy of the relevant sheet with all known sites marked on it. The Trust also sends me a list of the monuments on the sheet with the name of the site, where there is one, and classification. I consult the records in the Royal Commission's office and library (and when necessary the National Library and County Library) to prepare a summary of the known information about the site. The summary sheet for each site has room on it for the volunteer field reporter to add his comments. The forms, along with a copy of the map, are sent to the field reporters for them to do their inspections. Eventually, the forms are completed and returned for safe keeping in the archives of the Commission and the knowledge so gained incorporated in their records. Some monuments have disappeared, others are in danger of doing so, but I am glad to say that most in Ceredigion are relatively safe. A most interesting aspect of the work has been the number of hitherto unrecorded monuments that have come to light, for example, sites of medieval mills, Tudor houses and medieval bridges. These have been carefully recorded, particularly the grid references so that they can be easily located in future. Mr. David Downey, one of first volunteers, has been particularly successful in recording and often finding new sites. For instance, he has recorded the location of Pont y Brodyr which was used by the monks of Strata Florida Abbey, when carrying fish from Aberarth to the Abbey. A mill on the north side of the Aeron river, which is referred to in the Trawscoed papers, has also been located and, because of its interest, it is hoped to excavate it during the summer of 1981. The survey has shown how sadly lacking is our concern for ancient monuments as compared with the care given to the artifacts in our museums. Mills fall into ruin and are forgotten and so are houses roads disappear, and bronze age barrows are ploughed out. On the other hand, we have found notable examples where owners have done their best to restore monuments in their possession with proper regard for