Welsh Journals

THE CLWYD-POWYS ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST: AN INTRODUCTION* CHRIS MUSSON, B.Arch. This note is the first of an occasional series that will report on the work of Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust in northern Powys. The Trust's excavation reports will for the most part be substantial technical publications in the national period-journals, Archaeologia Cambrensis, or the recently-revived monograph-series of the Cambrian Archaeological Association. But it is right that readers of Montgomeryshire Collections should receive up-to-date news of projects undertaken by the Trust, or of new conclusions drawn from the extensive post-excavation studies which are an essential part of modern field projects. In addition, there will be matters of immediate interest to the locality which can be reported in full in Montgomeryshire Collections notes on individual finds, descriptions of previously unrecorded sites, or recent results from aerial reconnaissance. The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust was formed in 1975 on the instigation of the Ancient Monuments Branch of the Department of the Environment, now part of the Conservation and Land Division of the Welsh Office. Like the other three Trusts which came into existence at about the same time (for Gwynedd, Dyfed and Glamorgan-Gwent) it is an independent non- governmental body, devoted (in the words of its Deed as a charity) to 'the education of the public in archaeology'. Principally, it carries out this role through rescue excavations, 'watching-briefs' and surveys on sites under threat of damage or destruction by ploughing, quarrying, road- construction, house building and the like. But it also takes an active part, with local authority planning departments and archaeologists within the Welsh Office, in the protection of archaeological sites from unnecessary or unappreciated damage. It is to this work that we turn first. Ever since its inception, the Trust put a substantial effort into compiling complete and constantly up-dated lists and maps of archaeological sites and finds throughout the counties of Clwyd and Powys. In part, of course, the purpose has been to give the Trust's staff the academic perspective to appreciate the special character of their area's past; in part, the effort has been an out-going one, aimed at informing planners, developers and conservationists of the existence and *The Trust has its headquarters at 7a Church Street, Welshpool, Powys. SY21 7 DL. Telephone: Welshpool (093S)-3670. The office is open from 8.30 to 5.30, every weekday. The Trust is a registered charity. responsible to a Board of Trustees and to a representative Committee which meets three or four times a year. An Annual General Meeting and 'open day' is held in a different part of the Trust area each October or November. The Trust's Chairman since its inception has been Mr. H. Noel Jarman, C.B.E., M.A., F.S.A. Its professional staff are Chris Musson (Director Secretary), William Britnell (Deputy Director) and Kenneth Brassil (Field Officer); another Field Officer will be appointed shortly to replace Graeme Guilbert, one of the Trust's original staff, now Director of Excavations for the Trent Valley Archaeological Research Committee. The Trust draws its funds from the ancient monuments and historic buildings section of the Welsh Office and from the unemployment relief schemes of the Manpower Services Commission; smaller financial grants, and much help in kind, come from the County and District Councils in the Trust area. The Trust cooperates closely with the Dyfed. Gwynedd and Glamorgan-Gwent Trusts, and with the archaeological staff of the Welsh Office, in the allocation of rescue archaeology funds to those projects which hold the greatest promise for recovering information of'national' importance. whether from investigations on sites or site-types not previously studied, or from projects aimed at capitalizing on past gains, for instance in towns under continuing threat of development such as Carmarthen. Caerleon and the like. It is an essential part of the Welsh rescue archaeology structure that the whole of the country is covered by one or other of the archaeological Trusts. No part of the Principality, therefore, should go neglected for want of archaeological commitment to it.