On Thursday 15 October 2009, a new website with information about medieval monasteries and nunneries founded in Wales between the coming of the Normans and the Dissolution of 1530s was launched at the University of Wales Lampeter.
The Monastic Wales website went public this week; it is a work in progress and already contains detailed information about individual monastic sites. It is user-friendly and partly interactive, comprising searchable information on more than 50 medieval monastic sites across Wales. For each site, the monastic order, dedications, affiliations, ownership, public access, maps, main events, and important people are detailed, along with a bibliography, images, and links to other websites of relevance. The website is designed to be of use to both academic researchers and the members of the public interested in visiting these important historic sites.
The website has been developed as part of the Monastic Wales Project, a collaboration between Professor Janet Burton of the Research Institute of Archaeology, History & Anthropology at the University of Wales Lampeter and Dr Karen Stöber of the Department of History & Welsh History at Aberystwyth University.
The launch was attended by academics from across the UK and took place in the Roderic Bowen Library where select items from the University’s unique collection of medieval manuscripts, including a bible dating from 1279, and items relevant to both medieval Wales were displayed.
Dr Medwin Hughes, Vice Chancellor of the University of Wales Lampeter, said during the launch that “The Monastic Wales Project is an example of the University’s best scholarship and the potential of this research is immense.”
The Monastic Wales Project has been funded by the Research Infrastructure Fund at the University of Wales Lampeter and the Marc Fitch Fund. The website was designed by Martin Crampin of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, the database developed by Nigel Callaghan of Technoleg Taliesin Cyf. and research undertaken by Dr Julie Kerr, University of St Andrews.
It is hoped that in the near future the website will also be available in a Welsh language version. The site is designed to allow continual updates as further material becomes available, and users are encouraged to contribute relevant information and to use it as a record of work in progress. Scholars will be invited to contribute essays, articles and short surveys on various aspects of Wales’s monastic history. An educational version for use by schools is also being considered.
The launch was accompanied by an introduction to the Strata Florida Project website, a detailed exploration of the history, archaeology, and artistic development of this iconic medieval site.
The Monastic Wales website can be accessed at www.monasticwales.org and the Strata Florida website at www.strataflorida.org.
Photograph: Dr Karen Stöber and Prof Janey Burton, Dorectors of the Monastic Wales Project.
