Site 2: Llancaiach Fawr Manor
Llancaiach Fawr is a Stuart-era domestic property (originally built in the medieval period), dressed as in 1645. The interpretation strategy immerses visitors in the ‘normal’, everyday life of the Manor’s servants – played by in-role costumed interpreters - as they go about their duties. It encourages visitors to explore, through questioning, conversation and artefacts, what life was like for the servants and the (absent) family, during the Civil War. Visitors are school groups (20,000 children annually), other large visitor groups, and independent visitors.
The team chose Llancaiach in order to include one instance where the site itself becomes an integral, and central, part of the visitor experience: once you enter the Manor, you are ‘in’ 1645, and must ‘buy in’ to the idea that you are, for a short while, part of a different era, where the people with whom you interact may not appear to understand your 21st century assumptions and vocabulary and will expect you to behave differently.
As a result of data collection, we have the following for analysis:-
- Footage
- Recordings - pre and post
- Interviews
- Observation forms
- Some site notes for interpreters
- Drawings
- Written work
All images © Llancaiach Fawr Manor
