City Witness: Place and Perspective in Medieval Swansea

This project brings together multiple perspectives on medieval Swansea, connecting those recovered from medieval witnesses (both textual and material) with new insights into the historic town for local communities and visitors to Swansea today. Our research will make new primary resources accessible for researchers and wider audiences, drawing on these materials to explore the topography of Swansea in the Middle Ages and the multiple cultural communities and identities which navigated the medieval town.

The unique potential of Swansea as a case study is based on the manuscript source available in the Vatican Library (Vat. Lat. 4015), which brings together eye-witness accounts of the hanging of 'William Cragh' in ?1289, representing diverse cultural, social, gendered and ethnic perspectives within the city. Focusing on questions of perception and perspective within the urban landscape, and drawing on comparative analysis and interpretation, the project will also extend our understanding of place and identity in the Middle Ages more widely.

The research will involve teams in the English Department, Swansea University (SU), the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast (QUB), and the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London (DDH). The project is also founded on partnerships with the City and County of Swansea (CCS) and the Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust (GGAT), which underpin both our research and our commitment to wider engagement. The High Street area of Swansea is currently targeted for regeneration and CCS aspires to create a specific identity for this part of the city as the 'Castle Quarter', promoting it as a focal point for tourism. This research will help re-situate the Castle within the medieval town, and re-invigorate medieval Swansea as a heritage asset and visitor destination.

The digital map of medieval Swansea will be created at QUB in a GIS, using methods of retrogressive plan analysis and data gathered from archaeological and historical sources. The primary outcome will be the interactive digital map of Swansea c.1100-1400 (as well as a smaller conjectural plan of the two medieval castles), containing cartographic and morphological data.

The map will be linked with an online edition and translation of the accounts of the hanging of 'William Cragh' by William de Breos, lord of Gower, in ?1289 (MS Vat. Lat. 4015). Whilst this medieval text has been examined previously by historians (notably Robert Bartlett in his micro-history 'The Hanged Man', 2004), its remarkable potential to extend our understanding of the medieval town has not been exploited. The eyewitnesses describe a range of locations (castle, dungeon, marketplace, gallows, burgess's house) and reflect a range of different social and cultural perspectives (Anglo-Norman and Welsh; lay and religious; male and female; lord, burgess and outlaw). Each narrative represents the urban space in different ways, offering diverse vantage-points (literal as well as metaphorical) on the medieval city.

The project website will be developed by DDH and will enable users to engage simultaneously with both text and map, to use Google Maps to layer the medieval town over the modern city, and to download multi-media elements for PCs and mobile devices. New 3D visualisation technologies will simulate the perspectives which are represented in the witness statements.

This research extends the model established in the team's successful AHRC-funded 'Mapping Medieval Chester' project. It enables medieval Swansea to be examined in a comparative perspective, and the innovative digital techniques developed for that project to be enhanced.

This project will engage with diverse audiences, through online resources and interpretation materials produced with the non-HEI partners. The pavement marker series will use our research to create a visible, permanent presence for medieval Swansea in today's city.

From its inception, a creative impact strategy has been fundamental to this proposed project, and its research / public engagement goals are tightly enmeshed. The project will make a clear impact beyond academia in four key areas.
1. Local government policy
Even at the development stage, this project is already helping to inform and shape the approach of CCS to the medieval heritage of Swansea. The High Street / Castle area of Swansea is currently targeted for major regeneration and redevelopment (largely EU-funded), with the Council keen to develop a distinct 'Castle Quarter' (corresponding with the medieval town) as a new focal point for tourism. Clarke (PI) has been invited to consult on these plans, and the project team is working closely with officers at CCS including the Regeneration Co-ordinator, Property Development Manager (with responsibility for the Castle site), and Strategic and Economic Development Manager The project research will help to supply detailed information about the medieval antecedence of this area of the city, and will produce briefing and interpretation materials key to promoting a new identity for the area.
2. Heritage and tourism
The project is expected to generate both cultural and economic benefits through its contribution to heritage and tourism in Swansea and South Wales. The project website will include multi-media resources aimed at the wider public, enabling local people and visitors to Swansea to gain new insights into the medieval town and download guides onto mobile devices. The centrepiece of our heritage impact strategy is a series of pavement markers which will display locations and features within medieval Swansea, helping to re-situate the Castle within its original context and bringing the presence of the medieval town back into the modern city. These markers will also correspond with the online multi-media resources and a leaflet to be available from the city's Tourist Information Centre (TIC).
As the next stage in the conservation and re-development of the Castle, CCS plans to re-locate the city's TIC to this site, creating a new Visitor Centre, public realm space and cafe. Swansea Castle and 'medieval Swansea' would thus form the new gateway to tourism (and particularly heritage tourism or the 'castles' tour) in the Gower and South-West Wales more widely. It is hoped that, in the future, the digital materials produced by this project will be accessible at the new TIC, along with wider interpretation resources informed by our research.
3. Matched funding, tie-ins and the 'multiplier effect'
The current regeneration of the High Street area of Swansea is funded by a major EU Convergence grant; the conservation and development of the Castle site has received substantial funding from Cadw. Now is a timely opportunity for high-quality academic research to make a significant contribution to the re-invigoration of Swansea's city centre, its heritage and its tourism industry. The Council's allocation of £6600 cash funding to match the AHRC contribution to the pavement marker series indicates their commitment and underlines the central role our research will play in the re-visioning of Swansea city centre. Both of our main non-HEI partners (GGAT and CCS) have also pledged significant in-kind resources (staff time, facilities) to support our project.
4. Accessible research
The primary sources and contextual materials produced by our research will be available online. The inclusion of a Modern English translation for the text and the use of an intuitive interface for the digital map will ensure wide engagement with these materials. The project Blog will communicate with a diverse range of audiences and the site will also include multimedia materials (e.g. audio clips, images, an audio slide-show). The online resources and pavement markers will be launched with a public event in Swansea, including a screening of the audio slide-show on the existing giant screen in Castle Square.