1. Inventory 1964-2014: Crowdsourcing the National Monuments
Record
Jamie Davies
Cymdeithas Archaeoleg a Hanes Llŷn / Llŷn Archaeology and History
Society

2. • 2014
• 50th
Anniversary of the RCAHMW’s Inventory- Caervonshire Vol III: West An inventory of
the Ancient Monuments in the County
‘providing an updated snapshot of sites recorded in 1964 and of the surviving heritage of
the Llŷn Peninsula’.
• Second year of Cymdeithas Archaeoleg a Hanes Llŷn - Digital and community
engagement and innovation
The Llŷn Peninsula has become the digital frontier for the development and engagement
with heritage.
• Link to the CBA’s Festival of British Archaeology
• RCAHMW under threat- keen to promote their good work
• Crowdsourcing the buzzword in heritage
• RCAHMW looking at user generated content for the NMR- Coflein
• Link to HER- Benefit Gwynedd Archaeological Trust through the use of the Historic
Environment Record in planning guidance. – Importance for Heritage Management and
Protection

3. New Model Proposal
New Model Society – Founded CBA Festival of Archaeology 2013
•Bilingualism- Welsh Language Society
•Combine Archaeology and History
•Bottom up- questionnaires, research agenda (Understand what people want)
•Flexible structure- not traditional rigid structure
•Collate previous research (Understand what has been done)
•Transparency- archaeological research = Newsletter
•Encourage individual research and dissemination- lectures, heritage guide, published
on website
•Virtual Society- Digital Volunteers
•Digital- Facebook Community, Twitter- #ArchLlŷn, Facebook Photos, share
information, news
•Partnerships- Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, Felin Uchaf, Bangor University, AONB
Llŷn, Llŷn Landscape Partnership, Llŷn Maritime Museum, National Trust, Ancient
Arts , Peoples Collection Wales and RCAHMW.
•WCVA 2014 - Mapping community heritage organisations in Wales. WCVA report on archaeological, civic
and conservation societies
•http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/about/partnershipsandprojects/research/wcva-report/?lang=en

4. Inventory• Website based on the
publication (which has
been available free of
charge on GooglePlay
since 2012), containing
original digitized site
records, plans and note.
• OCR to obtain text- which
needed to be manually
formatted into each
Wordpress page (by site) 9
websites with 1000+ page
entries
• Errors in the text

5. Website
• Website had to be accessible for the Digital
Volunteers and low cost (ArchLlyn ethos)
• Built by Simon Jones (Cymdeithas Penygraig)
• Wordpress site- actually 9 wordpress sites
(grouped by parishes)
• http://www.crwydro.co.uk/

6. • Aberdaron – Bardsey – Bodferin
• Bryncroes – Botwnnog – Mellteyrn
• Abererch – Deneio – Llannor
• Boduan – Ceidio – Llandudwen
• Edern – Nefyn – Pistyll – Carnguwch
• Llanbedrog – Penrhos
• Llangian – Llanengan – Llandygwnning
• Rhiw – Llanfaelrhys
• Llangwnnadl-Llaniestyn- Penllech-Tudweiliog

7. • Only sites recorded in 1964 publication
Heritage is a changing concept, with today's sites, tomorrow's heritage. Therefore back in 1964, sites such as
Second World War defences at Porth Neigwl, Penrhos and RAF Nefyn , which we now consider important
archaeological sites were not. Furthermore sites new discovered through archaeological surveys and
excavation since 1964 are not included. Given the limited scope of this project, we are only focussed on
those recorded in the 1964 publication, for the current record of sites, go to Coflein.
• Inventory in English, however it was decided not to
translate the publication as it was a product of it’s
time (authenticity
• The website and guidelines were bilingual and
comments were welcomed (we did have some)
-One of the first complaints

8. Digital Volunteers
• 13 Digital Volunteers- each given a parish to
moderate
• Excluding Simon and Jamie

12. • How to contribute?
• - Visit a site registered in the inventory - take photos etc. Please follow the Visiting Best Practice.
• -Upload through Inventory 1964-2014 website, by site by parish page
• - At the bottom of the site page, there is an upload section (Name, Email address, comment and browse-for
photographs).
• What to take a photo of?
• A photograph of the complete site, features of interest, areas at risk or that have been conserved or restored.
• What to comment on?
• Ideally we are seeking a current site description, condition and use , other info (memories, associations etc).
• Criteria for inclusion
• Image Quality
• Image Relevance
• Copyright - The image must have been taken by the uploader. Scanned postcards and other historic scans
will not be included.
• - Moderation - After publishing your content they will be sent to moderation by the Digital Volunteers before
appearing live on the site for others to view.
• Photographic standards- Tiff (.tif) files rather than JPEG (.jpg) and Image file title should reflect site name.
This is important for archiving as this is known as metadata.
• Guidance from: GAT, RCAHMW, Heritage Together

15. New Data
• During the course of 6 months, there were
242 uploads to the site (pictures, links and
comments) by 24 contributors.
• Created an important resource of new
knowledge and information which will inform
future heritage management and preserve
these sites for the future.

16. Success: 16th
Century Saethon
• Condition:
slightly
altered but
generally
good.
• This no
longer
applies!
• 2014
• Upload from
2003
• Agreed
response
procedure

17. Success: Personal Connections-Neuadd Bodgale

18. Success: New Research: Meillionydd

19. Success: Social Media advertising
• Cymdeithas Archaeoleg a Hanes Llŷn’s ethos is
all digital
• The campaign was advertised through social
media (Facebook and Twitter), enewsletters,
on heritage websites (Bajr) and a couple of
error filled local newspaper reports
• Are you coming to the Llŷn Peninsula on holiday in 2014?
• Do you live here?
• If so, get your camera out and visit our heritage sites!

20. Issue: Spam
• The
problem of
spam in
digital
projects
(over 4600
spam
comments)

21. Issue: Digital Volunteers
• 3 poorly attended Digital Workshops (3/10
volunteers turned up)
• Actual participation by volunteers very low

22. Now: Data Processing
RCAHMW obtain access to Wordpress database and CSV file
Sort and clean data for integration with NMR and HER
Problems: PRN Numbers do not correspond, inclusion of links,
inclusion of anonymous data